1115.org

Don’t take political advice from high school students.

In the spring of 2003, as war with Iraq became inevitable and war protests grew in size and fervor, the media looked for any excuse to marginalize and minimize both the participants and the message. Despite hundreds of thousands of protesters in many major American cities and a worldwide total well into the millions, news reports chose to focus on isolated instances of violence largely confined to the fringe anarchists loosely connected to the anti-war cause. Though I thoroughly opposed the Bush administration’s manipulative rush to war and the tactics of fear and division they used, at the time I had read enough writings by (supposed) experts who made the point that war with Iraq was inevitable and it would be better if it happened before Saddam could develop and use nuclear weapons. Needless to say, I was deeply conflicted. By the time the White House shocked and awed us all with their incompetence and lies, it had long since become clear that the protesters were right even if official vindication would prove elusive.

Of all the lessons to be learned from the ease with which millions of people can simply be ignored before and after they prove their point, the hardest to swallow (no homo?) is the waning power of the protest in modern America, a country that has on countless occasions displayed that committed groups of citizens can accomplish almost anything by taking to the streets. At first glance, the power wielded by blogs could be seen as a shift from marching on Washington to a more efficient 21st century method, one free of the constraints inherent to physical protest. Blog evangelists point to victories over Trent Lott after his bout of Strom Thurmond deification and Dan Rather after his journalistic shortcut, as proof that like-minded people can affect change through organization and communication. And while this is true to a certain extent, it applies mainly to pressuring individuals with little or no support apparatus who are guilty of sins easily described in a single sentence. Blogs have been no more effective at swinging public opinion than marches when it comes to the policies of this administration, owing to a massive White House communication shop and screw-ups so complex that few can keep them straight.

The one thing blogs have over real world expressions of opposition is some semblance of message discipline. The average anti-war post will be just that: an expression of disagreement with current policy and possibly a call to action of some kind. Sure, such sentiment can be found on non-political blogs, but rarely will you find it mixed with Grandma Millie’s recipe for oatmeal cookies. The same however, can not be said for the round of protests last weekend. In fact, as reports began surfacing about some of the rhetoric on display, I was reminded of the “Donna Martin Graduates” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. (If you were looking for Vietnam comparisons, what can I say, you took a wrong turn. I wasn’t even alive then.) As my fellow 90210 fans will remember, Donna got faded on champagne at the prom, was busted by Mrs. Teasley, and faced the possibility of not being allowed to graduate with her class. Her fellow seniors, uncomfortable with the feeling that it could have been any of them, organized a final exam walkout that took them to the school board meeting where Donna’s fate was to be decided. The opportunistic junior class made their support conditional upon folding their issue into the protest. Their issue…dress codes! So new signs were drawn and the march proceeded to city hall where the mob shouted their dual message loud enough to scare the adults into making an exception for young Miss Martin. The point, if you spent the last few sentences contemplating the utility of my decision to invoke a 12 year old television episode to bolster my argument, is that there may be no sin in banding together with other causes, but message discipline is more important, especially when the message is the cause.

The kids of Beverly Hills can be forgiven their political naiveté; after all, they weren’t exactly benefitting from a staff composed of members of the TV writers hall of fame. On the other hand, real life protesters and the organizers who lead them should know better by now. Yet they are making the same mistakes when there are consequences beyond the academic career of a fictional character.

From the D. C. rally:

If you organize a gathering to protest the war in Iraq, political beliefs expressed on the stage should be about the war in Iraq and not, say, the evils of the fast food industry or the tyranny of copyright law.

From the L.A. rally:

Yet there I was at the rally as Socialists shouted “Free Palestine!” into my ear over and over. I thought I was attending a protest against the Iraq War. Instead I was badgered with everything from pamphlets on how the CIA engineered 9/11 to how capitalism is the great evil of mankind.

Other accounts have vegan lifestyles and free trade positions side-by-side on the stages with the anti-war message. If forced to guess, I’d say that the practice of piggybacking causes started long ago, but only intensified via Lollapalooza and Burning Man where no one cared who tattooed “meat is murder” on their ass or had the longest dreads because it was all part of the show. Having been through the 90s, (which in terms of personal freedom did make the 60s look like the 50s, as Dennis Hopper once said) many of the protesters equate any large public gathering with a party where anything goes. I’m not suggesting that such people aren’t free to pontificate on any subject they’d like, but the minute that individual expression trumped the larger goal is when the power of protest was deflated.

The margin of error for those on the left is already approaching zero. With the media now openly admitting that they afford the Bush administration easier coverage, (and by extension are more skeptical of dissent) it’s less wise than ever to give the impression that the opposition is a bunch of selfish, disorganized clowns. Or spoiled high school students who think that the rules don’t apply…