As I watched the Republican National Convention, I couldn¹t help but admire the grand hypocrisy of the entire event. Throughout the parade of moderate speakers, we heard each and every person parrot that George Bush is a ³strong and decisive leader.² They told us to thank God that Bush was president on Sept. 11, 2001 and told us that John Kerry did not have the backbone to stay the course. In the meantime, one renegade delegate passed out band-aids with a purple heart on them. In seeming contrast to every other message of the night, we were told that the Republican Convention, unlike the Democratic one, would be forward looking. These were massive distortions of the truth.

Last night, Republicans delivered an elaborate smoke screen to divert attention from the real issues. September 11, 2001 happened in New York City‹not a Republican city, an American city. If the protests outside the Convention tell us anything, it is that New Yorkers are Democrats; they voted against Rudolph Giuliani when he ran for Senate, and definitively so; they are against the war. Why, then, should we allow a Republican president to assert the necessity of bloodshed on their behalf?

Beyond the issue of the war in Iraq, the mere date of Sept. 11, 2001 should indicate that the focus on this event is not a part of some plan for the future, some scheme to fix the gross social and economic problems facing our country, but rather a harkening back to an event where a country rallied together, the main points of that rallying not being a president, but a flag and a set of ideals, a set of ideals challenged now by the very President who claims to fight for them. The blood of the victims of September 11 does not belong to George Bush.

While the president may claim to fight for the American dream, his actions indicate quite another course. Americans have traditionally held that through hard work and determination, the opportunities of America would allow a person to advance, own a home and create a family. Under Bush¹s tenure, we have lost approximately two million jobs, making it increasingly hard for Americans to work.

George Bush now threatens to tear apart the very bedrock of America, the right to form a family. The proposed Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage not only threatens the traditional concept of states¹ rights, it also threatens to put government into our private lives. Throughout our history, Americans have pushed government out of our bedrooms and out of our sexual lives. Here, Bush threatens to turn back the course of Lawrence v. Texas and Griswald v. Connecticut by placing government regulations back in our bedrooms. A Constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage will undermine the right of many Americans to pursue the American dream.

While parroting Bush as a strong and decisive leader, Republicans continue to insist that John Kerry¹s attention to nuance and his willingness to admit America has made mistakes make him weak, without the backbone to stand up to terrorists. Last month, former President Bill Clinton exposed this strategy for what it was: ³[Our] opponents will tell you to be afraid of John Kerry and John Edwards, because they won¹t stand up to the terrorists‹don¹t you believe it. Strength and wisdom are not conflicting values‹they go hand in hand.²

The Republicans, rather than running on their own plan to fix American problems, instead insist that Democrats have plans that are complicated and thus cannot be strong and decisive. A look at history tells us that Democrats too can be strong and decisive leaders: in the second World War, in Kosovo and in Operation Desert Fox. One might argue that one of the biggest mistakes of Vietnam was Lyndon Johnson¹s continued insistence that the United States would stay the course.

To say that the Democrats¹ plans to fix America¹s problems are complicated is one thing‹America has complicated problems‹but to say they are not strong or decisive is a lie. Being strong also means realizing when you are wrong, not just sticking to a decision. These are the tactics of the high school bully intimidating the nerd: ³If I can¹t outsmart you, I¹ll spread a whole bunch of lies, and if anyone disputes them, I¹ll beat them up.²

Indeed, the Republicans have been pounding on John Kerry. The band-aids with the purple hearts passed out at the Convention are only the latest in a saga of attacks on Kerry¹s character diverting us from the real issues faced by America, issues discussed last month in Boston. Kerry earned three purple hearts while serving in Vietnam, each one validated by Navy records. There was no accusation then that he violated any regulation. Republicans now, faced with apparently incontrovertible evidence that John Kerry was a strong leader, simply gainsay the truth.

In the final scene of George Orwell¹s ³1984², the protagonist realizes he can die happy because he has accepted the government¹s view of the world. After a long and drawn out process of torture, he learns that when the government tells him something is red, even if it is blue, he must believe it is red. The Republican message this election is just such a ruse. The first night of the Republican Convention was a perfect example of Republicans¹ attempts to stay on message and present an image that belies the true nature of the party. This tactic resembles how their version of the truth constantly contradicts the facts.

The parade of moderates we saw on television last night contrast sharply with a party platform that would criminalize a woman¹s right to consult with her doctor and choose a medical procedure on a fetus within her body, pull away the ladder of opportunity from those Americans working hard to make it into the middle class and further the racial divide that continues to plague this country. The claims of victory in Iraq and a recovery in the economy flat out contradict the evidence. We deserve better.