Here, the suburban and exurban footsoldiers of the Republican Revolution will applaud speakers who abominate the culture of tolerance, artistic and intellectual freedom, sexual exploration and inescapable pragmatism that has not only made New York possible but made it great. The inescapable evidence of its greatness will surround and confront them at every turn: the economic vitality, the excitement, the incomparable variety of experiences, and the sense of community shared by 8 million people of wildly diverse backgrounds sharing the same chunk of Earth.

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The contemporary Republican Party has become the party of rural fundamentalism, internalizing a set of principles designed to cater to the fears and insecurities of a population being left behind by an increasingly dynamic and urbanized world. In a perverse act of ill-conceived political exhibitionism, Bush and his cohorts have chosen to celebrate this retrograde vision of American culture in the place where the triumphs of liberal cosmopolitanism are on full display. They deserve the reception they get.