Clamor and chaos best weapons of war protesters
With the presidential election drawing near, it would seem natural for liberals and conservatives to want to present themselves and their respective ideals attractively to the public.
Yet, when I look around me, it seems that liberals have forgotten to represent their own platform and have instead taken up bashing or protesting as their way to market themselves in the 2004 election campaign.
Why would I say this? Why not? As a St. Thomas student, I have seen some of St. Paul, and it doesn’t take much traveling to run into liberals protesting the War. Evidently, some people think that by defacing public property they will gain respect and convey an important message…
What message? I’m not exactly sure, but the stop signs in St. Paul seem to suddenly be a new way of presenting anti-Bush propaganda. If you have not come across these stop signs that have “Bush” nicely added in spray paint, don’t worry … there are several!
Besides defacing public property to get across their “message,” these people are wonderful protesters. In fact, they have established schools that instruct their fellow-liberals on how to be the best activists they can be. According to a June 15 article in USA Today, veteran liberal activists across the country sponsored summer schools for Anti-Bush demonstrators before the Republican National Convention began on Aug. 30, 2004. That’s right: Liberals need lessons on how to protest.
John Sellers, head of an activist-training group in California, leads classes for anyone interested in becoming a militant against the Republican Party. Sellers told USA Today in June 2004 that, “When you’re protesting in New York City, you’re definitely in the big leagues.”
You would think that after being trained on how to protest these people would know how to do it without destroying their own image. Well, that is not the case, as one can see from the protesters at the 2004 RNC and the 2004 GOP Youth Convention.
Liberal protesters, like those in the group known as United for Peace and Justice, apparently determined that the best way to convey their principles and hatred of conservatism would be to disrupt New York City by laying down and awaiting arrest in a “die-in” in the middle of Broadway, on Aug. 31, 2004. Earlier, this same group organized a massive anti-Bush march on 7th Avenue in front of Madison Square Garden, site of the RNC.
March participants carried simulated caskets that represented U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. The grand finale of the United for Peace and Justice March was a giant dragon burning in the street started by alleged anarchists.
How ironic that an organization with a name that radiates honorable principles should resort to such obnoxious methods of evangelization. Who would think that congesting traffic and burning fantasy creatures are the most direct means of establishing peace and justice? I guess that’s one of the secrets you’ll only learn at an activist training school.
Protesting the RNC wasn’t enough for the anti-war crowd. After all, if you’ve spent several weeks of your summer in protest training camp, why not get your money’s worth out of the deal?
On Sept. 1, 2004, a group of protesters from ACT UP, the same group that staged a naked protest stand on 8th Street in New York City to welcome the RNC, interrupted the GOP’s Youth Convention. Protesters stood up on chairs in Madison Square Garden and tore off their shirts, displaying anti-Bush signs, bumper stickers and other propaganda. They started a wild ruckus that included chants of “Bush Lies,” and “Stop AIDS,” banner-waving, and whistle-blowing. Arizona convention delegate, Paris Dennard, 22, told Newsday.com that, “I’m very upset because the Democrats have gone to this length to prove their point. (Sen. John) Kerry needs to get these people on his side if that is their message.”
Why do liberal protesters insist so vigorously on interrupting events like the GOP Youth Convention? Is it that they find protesting in the nude, burning dragons, carrying caskets, halting traffic, destroying public property, and other such actions to be the most direct and rational ways of presenting their opinions?
When I think about it, I cannot help but wonder why one would be so violently opposed to allowing the another side speak and organize peacefully. It seems that when you are part of a political group it is because you believe in its ideals. So, if the anti-Bush protesters and other liberals are confident that the ideas espoused by their political leaders are true, then, why would they try to stop others from sharing their own opinions? If their party platform makes sense—if it is rooted in the facts and offers the soundest method of ruling—why would disruption, destruction and violence win people over to their way of thinking? Wouldn’t people seek them out without these “enticements” if they really promoted truth and reason?
It is evident from their actions that they are afraid to have the public hear conservative viewpoints. Apparently, they doubt the persuasive power of their own ideals and subsequently feel the need to lower themselves to appealing to people’s emotions rather than their reason.
Just the other day, I was in St. Thomas’ O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library and happened to notice the bold cover of a certain magazine. The front of The Nation displayed huge white letters on a red background spelling out: “VOTE FOR BUSH OR DIE,” followed by “Republicans politicize terror.”
I don’t think it takes much to see the hypocrisy of this statement. The Magazine claims that the way in which Republicans campaign is through terror, while The Nation’s own message is obviously meant to arouse fear!
Once again, liberals feel the need to smother conservatives by playing on emotions and exhibiting their organizations as institutions of terror. Unable to cope with freedom of speech or the equal representation of opposing views, they will resort to almost any means of misrepresenting the Republican Party or any other conservative message.
There is not much time left before the election, but my advice to those who are liberal protesters would be to stop bashing the right and start representing the left. Tell us what your message is. What is your platform? Give us the facts, and give them to us straight, not warped and disguised in vandalized stop signs or human traffic jams.
If you really want to promote peace and justice tell us how you are going to do it. Give us a plan of action that doesn’t involve the possibility of getting burnt in the street by a homemade dragon. If you have the truth, and if Bush is full of lies, then put your facts out there. “Bush lies” and “No more blood for oil” are not messages, they are rants that offer neither guidance nor direction for an improved world. Authentic platforms are based on facts and principles, not merely bashing an opposing side.
Perhaps the first task of the new schools training liberal activists should be to define their own messages and plans for the world. For, what have they accomplished if they succeed in taking down the current administration, yet do not have a clear course of superior action once they come into power? Ultimately, clamor and demolition are not ends in themselves, and if these protesters cannot explain how their destructive and vile behavior is creating a better world, then we should ignore them.
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