Anti-War Protest: Where Is Everyone?
By Rick Moran Posted in Liberals | Spotlight Blogs — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I was too young for the May Day protest against the Viet Nam War held in Washington, D.C. in 1971. My friends and I talked about going for weeks prior to the event, seeing ourselves as something as a cross between Che Guevara and Abbie Hoffman. We even talked seriously about ditching school, running away for a few days (our parents were dead set against any of us going), and joining the massive demonstration.
Alas, it was a pipe dream. We were just stupid kids, scared to death about being drafted and believing the anti-war propaganda about the military, the government, and the United States. We opposed the war for very personal reasons; we didn't want to die in what we were being told was a war of conquest being fought by evil capitalists against the heroic Vietnamese agricultural reformers.
Those not alive at the time cannot fathom the depth of feeling engendered by the anti-war movement. It was magical, powerful, uplifting, and joyous. We thought we were changing the world. We thought we were ushering in a new era of democracy.
Read on . . .
What we didn't know was that the gimlet eyed radicals who were really in charge of the anti-war movement could have cared less about us, about the United States, or about the war for that matter. They wanted to use the anti-war movement to sweep the old guard from power and install like minded socialists in government.
The May Day protest in Washington, D.C. sought to shut down the government. Some 50,000 hard core demonstrators would block the streets and intersections while putting up human barricades in front of federal offices. How exactly this would stop the war was kind of fuzzy. No matter. Nixon was ready with the army and National Guard and in the largest mass arrest in US history, clogged the jails of Washington with 10,000 kids.
Where are the clogged jails today? As I watch the demonstration on the mall today (much smaller than those in the past) I am thinking of the massive gulf between the self absorbed hodge podge of anti-globalist, pro-feminist, anti-capitalist, pro-abortion anti-war fruitcakes cheering on speakers lobbying for Palestinians, Katrina aid, and other causes not related to the war and the committed, determined bunch of kids who put their hides on the line, filling up the jails of dozens of cities, risking the billy clubs and tear gas of the police to stop what they saw as an unjust war.
The netnuts are fond of calling those of us who support the mission in Iraq chickenhawks. What do you call someone who sits on their ass in front of a keyboard, railing against the President, claiming that the United States is falling into a dictatorship, and writing about how awful this war is and yet refuses to practice the kinds of civil disobedience that their fathers and mothers used to actually bring the Viet Nam war to an end?
I call them what they are; rank cowards. There should be a million people on the mall today. Instead, there might be 50,000. Today's antiwar left talks big but cowers in the corner. I have often written about how unserious the left is about what they believe. The reason is on the mall today. If they really thought that the United States was on the verge of becoming a dictatorship are you seriously trying to tell me that any patriotic American wouldn't do everything in their power to prevent it rather than mouth idiotic platitudes and self serving bromides?
I know what I would do if I actually believed the United States was in danger of slipping into some kind of authoritarian, anti-Constitutional nightmare. And it wouldn't be sitting at this keyboard trying to come up with cleverest way to skewer my political opponent. And I know I wouldn't be alone either. The fact is, the left is not blessed with any special insights into what evil George is trying to do to the Constitution. They are a small, pitiful minority of paranoid, self aggrandizing mountebanks who are courageous when it comes to calling people names but abject cowards when it comes to actually standing up for their beliefs and putting iron behind their words of change.
Where are all the people chaining themselves to the gates of military bases? Where are the thousands of people blocking military convoys? A couple of kids throw rocks at a military recruiting office but where are all the protestors? For God's sake, there are more people who protest in front of abortion clinics every day than protest in front of military recruiting offices.
The fact is, the anti-war movement is a mile long and an inch deep. If there really was a massive movement to stop the war in Iraq, it would manifest itself in people carrying out some of the actions I've outlined above. But there is no anti-war groundswell. The American people are tired of the war, tired of the incompetence and failure and wish to see an end to the partisan wrangling over it. But war weariness does not translate into the kind of action that would stop the war dead in its tracks and bring the troops home.
To the anti-war crowd I say get off your asses and stand up for your convictions. If you seriously believe American democracy is in danger, don't just sit like a bump on a log and pontificate about it; get up on you hind legs and fight. As it stands now, you're all just a bunch of intellectual exhibitionists with as much commitment to ending the war and saving democracy as my pet cat Aramas.
And at least Aramas has the redeeming characteristic of being pleasant to be around.
the students at Kent State who threw stones at Guardsmen and physically injured them and then could not fathom why they eventually opened fire.
Who knew? Certainly not anyone who has ever read about the event in contemporary literature.
As An aside: My roommate and I created a firestorm when we tried to sell "authentic" Kent State T-shirts, complete with bullet holes. Our univeristy president did not see the humor at the time!
as they marched towards the Guardsmen, were chanting "kill' kill,Kill". Not much left to do after three days of arson. Just imagine shooting at people like that.
The real crime and utter disgrace was the scapegoating of the Guardsmen afterwards.
We have made a lot of progress since then, look at Duke University.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
is the salient difference. All those slack-jawed boys in baggy pants aren't getting that "greetings and salutations, you are hereby ordered to report..." letter that we all got in the sixties. Many may have rationalized nobler causes, but the real motivation behind most protests was the draft. Note how much it turned down as the lottery system came in and the numbers went down. Before long, you only went to a demonstration for the dope and the women who thought you were a hero. At least that's what I'm told.
In Vino Veritas
certainly reduces the "fear" of college age students. However, in terms of answering the question - where is everyone?
It is winter time, which does tend to reduce the size of the protest. Marching in the cold is no fun.
Also, in Vietnam, the first protests are small in number, but grew over time. I suspect if things don't get better in Iraq very quickly, history will repeat itself.
With some polls showing upward of 70% of the population wanting to start withdrawing troops the issue is rapidly coming to a head.
I suspect there will be some bigger protest this summer. However, if Bush is unable to change the public perception of what is going on in Iraq by spring of 08, we could start seeing some very large protests indeed.
It is winter time, which does tend to reduce the size of the protest. Marching in the cold is no fun.
That's what the pot is for. Didn't you get your Protests-R-Us handbook?
I suspect if things don't get better in Iraq very quickly, history will repeat itself.
Y'all have been protesting this war since before it began. Don't you have the hang of it yet? And, you mean it's been going well up to this point? Gee, my Boston Globe-Democrat must be lying to me.
With some polls showing upward of 70% of the population wanting to start withdrawing troops the issue is rapidly coming to a head.
Wait, I thought that the whole "coming to a head" thing was what the last election was all about. Man am I confused.
I suspect there will be some bigger protest this summer.
Gee, what happens in summer? Oh, that's right, colleges full of the hopelessly entitled and stupid empty. Color me unsurprised.
...if Bush is unable to change the public perception of what is going on in Iraq by spring of 08, we could start seeing some very large protests indeed.
By the spring of '08? You mean you folks are going to let the Bush War Machine™ continue to kill our kids for another 14-months? That's awful sporting of you.
By spring of '08 we will have either turned Baghdad around - in which case Iraq will start, spectacularly, to look like a good idea again and public opinion will start to look muuuuuuuuuch better - or Maliki's government will have collapsed and we'll be long gone.
Count on it.
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So libs, how's that Congressional Resolution to end The War™ coming along?
Being just a few years younger than the Hippies, I witnessed all they did and said, and never was there a more self indulged, narcissistic bunch of deluded idiots.
"We are Stardust, We are Golden,"
In reality what they were was wasted.
Of course many of their children today are just as deluded, but at least they don't think that they are the vanguard of a new and better mankind.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
and a high % are reaganites.
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
The HinzSight Report
Race 4 2008
they have a whole army of new children marching across our southern border.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
most of the "children of the sixties" were really children of the fifties and after youthful dalliances got a spouse, a kid, and a job; a surefire way to turn a radical into a conservative. Some, however, wound up in academia and government where you could safely keep the same dumba** ideas you had smoking dope in a college dorm in 1968 and still make a living. Unfortunately, that is the group that seems to be running the Country right now.
In Vino Veritas
with a caveat. Spoiled americans are tired of defeatist war coverage about supposed incompetence and it manifsts itself the same as when they are tired of other TV shows. The numbers and lack of a draft drives the dawg that isn't barking. Many americans are confused due to ignorance as well. But in the back of their minds is 9/11 and the fact that the second shoe hasn't dropped. That fact argues against supposed incompetence. As does the fact that most americans live in luxury.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @
The Charlotte Observer
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
Worldcantwait.org, prominently emblazoned on a placard, seen in the lead photo on Drudge's website.
Q: But aren't there communists in World Can't Wait?
A: Yeah, there are. Supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party helped initiate it. They're in it because they think it's absolutely urgent to get rid of this regime, that it would both lift a huge burden from the world and would also give people a sense of their own potential power, and they think all that would open up avenues to get to the kind of society they want.
You are so right, Rick. For 98% of the anti-Bush crowd, political involvement means watching the Daily Show.
The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigades were the Red Guards of American communism. You simply can't have a subversive movement without them.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it"-Winston Churchill
If 98% of the Bush haters began and ended their political involvement by watching The Daily Show, then Republicans would still control Congress. Libs may despise what this country stands for, but it's foolish to underestimate their activism.
"I know what I would do if I actually believed the United States was in danger of slipping into some kind of authoritarian, anti-Constitutional nightmare. And it wouldn't be sitting at this keyboard trying to come up with cleverest way to skewer my political opponent. And I know I wouldn't be alone either."
I couldn't agree more!
I just wish the left could get that kind of reality SLAP they need so bad. I'd be so happy to lend my assistance in any way.
I also thought where are these supposed 250K more like 50K and oh the agenda's I was offered the Socialist party paper there of course was ANSWER and the awful pink of code pink and let me just say I will never wear pink again. I took my 18 year old who loved hanging out with Free Republic, I was interviewed by channel 4 and AP and the New York times wanted to interview me and I told them go to hell that I would rather talk to the devil then ever talk to them which is really the same thing. I got a lot of attention with my shirt "Why be liberal when you can be right" they would look at it lower their eyes and keep walking, I think they didn't speak because my son is 6"4 and a good 250 lbs. We had such a great time.
Peace through superior fire power:)
I really think it is that simple. And since it has been so long since there has been a draft if it was started again the protests would be worse than they were during Vietnam. But thats just my opinion.
D.C. Rally Demands Iraq War End, Better Celebrities
“The speaker roster reminds me of the old Hollywood Squares game show,” said one unnamed staffer of Vegan Lesbians for Racial and Nuclear Justice, whose dozens of members will cross the continent to join the rally today. “I mean Fonda, Sarandon, Glover and Jackson might as well be Charo, Joan Rivers, George Gobel and Paul Lynde. How am I going get my group excited about geopolitical and military strategy with these has beens leading the way?”
Since I was at college, I had a ringside seat for the "festivities". I drove down to the Mall to observe the gathering hordes - high on substances of various kinds, which amplified their anti-war romanticism. Their motto for the day itself (sorry for the crudity- but it was THEIR motto) "Shut the mother****** down! (young Kossite seedlings, you think?) They wanted to seize the bridges over the Potomac and create havoc for commuters. Frustrated in this effort, they seized a considerable part of the Georgetown campus and squatted in the dorms. The sanitary conditions deteriorated rapidly but there were great opportunities for free love in the corridors. Since there was no toilet paper, I walked to the library to use the facilities. The campus authorities finally had enough and they decided to have the demonstrators evicted. Funny thing about tear gas - it affects demonstrators and non-demonstrators alike.
Ah, memories. But not fond ones.
Best five years of my life. And none of my friends; liberal or conservative, Bush is a saint or Bush is Satan, are in favor of the war. Friends of mine who signed up for the army right out of high school and who served their tour aren't in favor of the war (Afghanistan, yes). No one my age seems to be in favor of the war. But yeah the big thing missing is the draft, if it were enacted then you'd see some good old timey protesting.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
The HinzSight Report - Race 4 2008
that I share your wish that they actually practice what they preach. Nor do I think that the Sixties were somehow nobler because people actually took action, itself largely consequence-free. They still inhabited a sheltered cocoon, and to me the reaction of the individuals who keyed the recruiters' cars and ended up publicized on Michelle Malkin's website have their analogs (if much, much less in degree) in the students at Kent State who threw stones at Guardsmen and physically injured them and then could not fathom why they eventually opened fire. Everywhere they turned the would-be revolutionaries of the Sixties were abetted, by deep-pocketed parents, by liberal faculty and administrators, by celebrities and even politicians. These days, communism is pretty much dead, even on college campuses. Oil-rich Middle Easterners, many of whom infused with an ideology that despises their would-be champions, are not nearly as sympathetic as Vietnamese "agrarian reformers" and when the majority parties in Congress and the Senate oppose the conduct of the war "the Establishment" is much smaller and more worthy of ridicule than protest.