RNC in NYC
In it’s 150 year history, the Republican Party has never held a national convention in New York. There’s a reason for this snub, as perennial political blue state New York has often been one of the favorite targets of the National Republican Party. Republicans frequently pointed to New York as their anti-American symbol, stressing to their constituency that New York represented all that was wrong with America.
The anti-New York rhetoric toned down somewhat after republicans filled the top offices in state politics. Yet always a party in need of a villain to sell their policies, the Republican National Party shifted their aim at longtime target Ted Kennedy’s home of Massachusetts as the new hell on earth, and continued to kick Hollywood liberals whenever it was convenient for them to do so.
Despite the change of villain, New York was still not a place the republicans wanted to hold a national convention. In so many ways, New York remained a poster child for all that the republican party is against. New York is open-minded. New York has diversity. New York has immigrants.
So why after one hundred and fifty years has New York suddenly become the ideal site for the Republican National Convention? There is only one obvious answer to this question, September 11. And to make the event all the more surreal, the Republican Party decided to push their convention date into the month of September. Never in the field of politics will one party with so much wealth gather to a city more diverse to exploit the deaths of so many.