A better way to spend Oct. 5

I will, with neither reservation nor regret, agree that there may be better things to do on October 5; a great number of things, perhaps, but only under the caveat that this group’s very existence—and its plans for various actions, of which this is in all likelihood but the first of many—is nothing more than the logical outcome of a Democratic Party that has gone from stumbling, to backpeddling, and on to a position of “political flaccidity.”

This, without any doubt whatsoever on my personal part, is the result of those within the many positions of authority—the Emmanuels, the Pelosis, and the Reids of the Democratic Party’s many variant subgroups—investing far too much “talk,” and far too little “walk.”

There have been, over the course of the past three decades now, far too few who were willing to go out on the political limb for the purpose of protecting that one great item upon which the lives of each and every “true” American hinges—the Constitution. Many, on the other hand, have sought to sow the seeds of compromise; negotiation; appeasement—and as a result, the harvest of that planting has now come to fruition in the administration of George W. Bush.

And the results?

The reputation of that one nation which should be the solar hallmark of Democracy itself lies in tattered ruins. Its economy, regardless of the feel-good spin from the nation’s capitol, manages to sputter along no better than a rusty old Buick, its engine firing only on six of its eight cylinders. Its population, living in a nation that controls the vast majority of global wealth, finds fully one-eighth of itself living in sub-poverty conditions, many millions of its members with neither adequate housing nor affordable healthcare, and untold numbers of children who have too little to eat. Its youth finds itself shifted half-way around the planet to wage an unconscionable war, they find access to further education prohibitively expensive, and they experience a socioeconomic system that, without any shred of doubt whatsoever, has become fiduciarily obscene. Its mothers and fathers find themselves investing increased amounts of time in the workplace, while experiencing greatly reduced amounts of time with their children—and those children find themselves, to an ever-increasing degree, placed in the care of “strangers.” And its elderly go into their sunset years with an ever-growing realization that what little cushion they had for retirement is no longer appreciable sufficient to meet even the base needs of mere existence.

So—as I noted at the offset, I will agree that there may be better things to do than “stay home” on the day-in-question; however, I can only note that, to many within the United States of America, their representation in this current government has failed them—miserably. They will stand—and walk—because they feel that the other options, long talked about, have not produced measurable results.

And although I cannot speak for others, as each holds the right to choose one course or the other in this, I myself would hold myself to be of a sorely-cheapened esteem, were I not to walk with these people on October 5th. If for nothing else, such an event will hold within its parameters a great wealth of stories, reasonings, and justifications that, based upon the common practices of todays media, will go untold—and thus marginalized to the point of forgetfulness—it the event is not witnessed on a first-hand basis….

Actually, aren’t these people the A.N.S.W.E.R. morons? In that case, “communist moron” is the correct term. Trotskyite idiots is even more accurate.

As a recent graduate from a small New England liberal arts college, boy am I glad to read a sensible critique of that idiotic rhetoric. Nice post.

Kids should always go to school, not matter what (“take your daughters to work day” should happen during summer vacation). Anything else sends the wrong message to the kids and hurts them educationally. Other than that, however, I’m not yet convinced that this is entirely a bad idea.

The upside of mass demonstrations are that they inspire the people who are demonstrating and give voice to their complaints, and send the signal that it is okay and indeed popular to be in the opposition. The downside is that lawlessness frightens typical apathetic citizens and risks polarizing them against the demonstrators. However, mass protests and strikes created the labor movement and the civil rights movement and made it impossible to continue the Vietnam War. Those protests took the public from mass apathy about those topics to (unfortunately) extensive disapproval of the protestors, but also to widespread recognition that something had to be done to ameliorate the grievances. People here gripe that the media ignores complaints about Bush and the Republicans, and that the average citizen remains unaware of the problems with Bush and the Republicans, but seeing a huge and peaceful demonstration against Republican policies sends a potent message, attracts attention in a way that is hard to ignore, and shows everyone that a lot of people aren’t happy with Republican policies. Who knows, it might even be enough to get through Bush’s bubble, the way demonstrations had an effect on LBJ.

I agree that massive civic protests can send the wrong messages and can backfire, and that many of protests in recent years have looked pretty moronic. They certainly send an overly simplistic and non-nuanced message, but sometimes nothing else will do. At the risk of violating Goodwin’s law, if you were a German citizen in the 1930’s Germany, at what point if ever would you have stood up and said, “This is wrong”?

Lastly, although I don’t think Bush will be impeached and although I am ambivalent about whether pursuing impeachment would be a good idea, I think replacing Bush with Cheney would be a decided improvement if it happened, because it would get Cheney’s operations out into the open where they wouldn’t be as effective, and because Cheney’s deep and irrevocable unpopularity would stick to his policies and to everyone else in the vicinity.

The “World Won’t Wait” bullshit isn’t even worth taking much time to acknowledge. These people are fringe-left dimwits who openly sympathize with regimes that are objectively much worse than the Bush administration (North Korea, Saddam’s Iraq). They’re anti-Semitic sheep whose true goal, I would guess, is little more than pissing off their parents.

To use their own frame, they’re “objectively pro-right wing”… because they come across as so out of touch and just plain stupid that they tar all anti-right wing folk by association.

Want to stop Bush? Read, think, discuss, get involved in Democratic campaigns (yeah, yeah, they’ve got their problems too–but they’re also the best organized entity in a position to check the sociopaths in power), make sure you, your family and friends get to the polls in November. It’s called citizenship. And it’s generally worked pretty well in this country.

Political activism needs to move beyond the 1960’s model of pseudo-anarchism and the weird theater of the street protest where groups of protesters chant things that begin with “hey-hey, ho-ho.” It’s just not effective anymore in achieving a credible refraim of dissent. I agree with CB that a much more effective and undeniable form of protest would be turning out every American that disagrees with this administration to the polls in November.

Wow!

Recurring cycles. Objectively, protests are a measure of discontent. Subjectively they are vehicles of affirmation.

They have simultaneously magnetizing and alienating effects. Generally, depending on the style of protest, the former outweighs the latter –cf. Cindy @ Crawford. Furthermore, the media do not ignore them, whatever their spin.

Personally, I have a natural sympathy for protests. I think they are very human, in the sort of way Steve expresses. I think they energize, even for those who don’t directly participate. I believe they are part and parcel of the political process and it is both naive and futile to rail against them. Kanute, remember, didn’t look good when he made the same mistake.

It is, without any doubt, highly unlikely—given the objectivity of mathematics—that the events on October 5th will drive Herr Bush from his palace. The House only needs a simple majority to vote Articles against him—but the Senate needs a two-thirds vote to affirm those Articles via conviction. Given that the current Dem-position in the Senate is 45, it would require a quantum shift of 22 seats to guarantee a successful impeachment. Bluntly put—“it ain’t gonna happen, folks!”

But then again—-

If only for a moment or three, try to contemplate the metaphorical effect that mass demonstrations might have upon this administration. Sending a loud message to the rest of the world that the People do not approve of their “dear leader,” these organized rejections within the US hold the potential to lead other nations to “rethink” their participation in Herr Bush’s strategy. It is, if I apply “football” terminology, an “end run” around the administration. It is, if examined carefully enough, the logical first step in “The Marginalization of George W. Bush.”

He could be left in his palace to rot, if that’s what he wanted. The People would no longer follow him. More and more, politicians might find it within themselves to refute the authority of the man. Foreign governments would refuse to treat with his diplomatic representatives. Other members of the UN would ignore his “chief flying monkey.” His “coalition of the willing” would evaporate—and recoagulate around another, more inclusive head-of-state.

When a chief executive is marginalized beyond a certain benchmark—when that executive and his personal staff become so meaningless; so powerless; able to garner neither support nor respect from the greater corporate community—the board will remove that executive and his staff from their positions of power. If Bush is that executive, and his Administration the staff, and the Congress the board, and the Nation the corporation—then the marginalizing of Herr Bush beyond a given point could lead even a good number of Republican Senators to vote in favor of “new management”—if for nothing else than to “save the company.”

Could the President successfully apply martial law to put these mass demonstrations down? Perhaps, in the very beginning—if he had sufficient numbers of troops with which to apply martial law. But most of the armed forces are deployed overseas, and a large piece of what remains is currently “spinning up” for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides, what might the viewpoint of the electorate be, seeing their “leader” put down massed exercises of the First Amendment itself only 33 days prior to the midterms through use of the military? Visions of Kent State, Jackson State, any number of events during the Civil Rights era, including the race-riots in the mid/latter 1960s, Tiananmen Square—perhaps even the Boston Massacre itself come to mind.

Boston…Lexington…Concord. “The George of Now” has failed to learn from the History of “the George of Then”—and those who fail to remember their History are, it is said, doomed to repeat it…and a massed demonstration, when brought into a hundred million living rooms via the lens of a camera, is by far more powerful than a massed volley of musket-fire ever could hope to be….

I’d be perfectly happy to join in a protester parade/gathering (whatever). On October 5th or any other date. But.

1) I don’t work; my not going to work is not going to “register” anywhere. And if I did work — perhaps because I had to, not because I liked to — I’d be worried about being canned.
2) If my child were still in school, I’d not take him out; this administration is already making serious commitment to education on the part of parents difficult; taking a child out of school is like cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face.
3) Not going to shop? I don’t shop every day anyway; it costs too much to be driving around for a single errand. I pile up (link) errands and venture fort once or twice a week at the most. Again, it wouldn’t be noticed.

So, to me, this whole idea is sweet, but harebrained and useless. Perhaps in a big city… But, in rural Virginia???

… first and foremost Cheney simply CANNOT function ‘under the lights’ … what better way to get rid of that fucker also and start that bunch of thieves back stabbing one another .. think about it .. by thieves I mean ALL repubs and ALL xtian assholes that thump their bible shit all over … you all laugh at the Taliban et al in the Middle East, we have the very same religious assholes here thqey are called xtians … so puuuleeeze let’s highlight the repub cabale for what it is .. they will implode like that robertson cocksucker …

Nice try……..you are all right wing nuts…..I will take the day off in protest………TO PROTEST! …..I will also register people to vote and drive them when the time comes…..NOW is the time to protest this bush regime……………BUSH must go!!!!!