[extropy-chat] (POLITICS) Utility of Protest was :Exhibitionism (no, not THAT kind)

[Mike Lorrey]

--- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote: 
> > 
> > --- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
> > > I have a question to put to those extropes that
> > were
> > > alive during the Civil Rights movements of the
> > 60's.
> > > What happened to the power of protest? Why were
> > the
> > > civil rights rallies and protests so successful in
> > > this country while much bigger record setting
> > protests
> > > on both coasts against the War in Iraq completely
> > > ineffectual. 
> > 
> > Because there isn't as much money being funnelled in
> > from the
> > non-existent eastern bloc countries, and Saddams
> > credit ran out. The
> > Iraqi insurgency is accurately being shown to the
> > american people as a
> > disaffected minority of former baathists in cahoots
> > with islamist
> > fanatics. Being as the agenda of both groups is
> > obviously not liberal,
> > only the hardcore stalinist nutters, other
> > pathologically oppositionist
> > mentalities and the easily duped think that the
> > Iraqi people are
> > against us.
> 
> Mike, this does not answer my question. Unless your
> answer is that the U.S. Government only listens to
> protests that are funded by communist countries. And
> THAT would seem oxymoronic.

Money is votes, Stuart. Money pays for nationwide anti war protests on
every college campus on every weekend, which is what happened back
then. It pays for the legal defense of students who bomb campus ROTC
buildings and labs doing DoD research.

The media are the only side of the anti-america contingent that is
keeping up its end, they are portraying a one-woman protest as a
nationwide movement without admitting that nationwide movement is the
same radical left wing that was behind the anti-vietnam protests (or
they are, they just arent' admitting exactly who those people are and
what they represent in actuality).

Now, don't go and say that the media is not anti-america. The war in
iraq is not the only issue they are anti-america about. Whether it is a
global warming treaty that will emasculate american economics, our
strategic defense needs against ballistic missiles, or opposition to
American insistence on reform at the UN, as well as the general
anti-white, anti-male, anti-business, anti-straight, anti-technology,
anti-self-defense, and anti-religious stance of the major media
establishment, the main stream media and its cohorts in the radical
left on US college campuses are most distinctly against everything the
US defends and supports.

The problem this time around is that the thugs paying the bills are no
longer as wealthy, and the older baby boomers are not so interested in
doing the work for free anymore.

Finally, the lack of a military draft is the last nail in the coffin of
the anti-war movement. Despite the chicken littling of the leftists and
some fellow libertarians who are trying to invent an issue out of whole
cloth, there is no draft, there will be no draft, not unless some other
country attacks with at least as much success as 9/11. The college
students of today are in no danger of being shanghai'ed off to Iraq
against their will, and thus feel no personal risk. When they see kids
their age dying in Iraq, or friends coming home with injuries and
disabilities, they say, "that happens to other kids, because they
volunteered and I didn't." The American college kid thus has no
personal motivation to get up early on a hung over Sunday to go out and
protest against the war out of fear of being sent themselves. Not
unless they are idiots who let themselves get duped by the political
manipulators who need an anti-war movement for political gain and claim
there will be a draft. 

This much was obvious when every sponsor of the draft bills before
congress during the election was a radical left democrat. Just the sort
of person you'd think would be most against a draft if they actually
represented the interests of their constituents. It was political
theater to manipulate hearts and minds of their constituents to get off
their duffs, pure and simple.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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