The protests against the Republican National Convention appear to represent the largest dissents against the re-nomination of a sitting president in the nation's history.

Hundreds of thousands of people packed the streets of Manhattan on Sunday to express their opposition to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The main gripe was with the war in Iraq, but there were plenty of complaints as well regarding the Bush-Cheney administration's warped priorities on the home front.

What was remarkable about the crowds that stretched for block after block through the streets of the nation's largest city was the diversity of the crowd. The protesters were young and old, male and female, black and white, gay and straight, urban and, yes, rural. While it is a good bet that most of those who marched were from the New York area, a sizable contingent came from across the country.

Included among the mass of marchers were hundreds of Wisconsinites, many from Madison and Milwaukee, but others from small towns and rural regions of the state. In the heart of New York City, there were even a few Wisconsin marchers who reminded their big city compatriots that the Bush years have been as bad for farmers as they have been for workers in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

The message of the march was a powerful one. And it was best summed up by filmmaker Michael Moore, when he told the crowd, "We are the majority."

"A majority of this country opposes this war (in Iraq)," the man who made the popular documentary "Fahrenheit 9-11" explained. "A majority of the country never voted for this administration."

Moore is, of course, correct. Bush lost the popular vote in 2000, trailing behind Democrat Al Gore. And the combined vote for Gore and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader did, indeed, form a majority.The disparity between the popular will and the eventual conclusion of the 2000 election continues to frustrate a great many Americans. But an even greater number of Americans are frustrated by the fact that Bush, who assumed the presidency without a mandate, has used his term to implement radical shifts in economic and social policies at home and to launch a new doctrine of pre-emptive war that has soured U.S. relations with the world.

Inside Madison Square Garden this week, speakers at the Republican National Convention will hail the leadership qualities of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Those speakers will be isolated from the ongoing protests in the streets of New York. And, to the extent that they do comment of the expressions of dissent, it will surely be to suggest that the crowds in the street are somehow less representative than the overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly conservative delegates to the convention. But that is just wishful thinking on the part of the Republican spin doctors.

The truth is that the marchers are representative of America. They come from Manhattan and Madison, from Brooklyn and Beloit, from Staten Island and Stevens Point.

And, with their dissents, they are expressing a patriotism far more profound than the flag waving and the president praising that will be seen and heard at the convention. The scripted speeches and cheering cannot cover up the fact that a once-great party that has become little more than the publicity machine of a failed administration for which the party claims a nonexistent mandate.

Copyright 2004 The Capital Times

###