The "American street" speaks: Will the Democratic Party listen?

[RedEarth]

The "American street" speaks: Will the Democratic Party listen?
As more and more Americans turn against Bush's Iraq war, Democratic politicians remain silent. Their play-it-safe strategy isn't just cowardly, it also won't work.

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By Juan Cole



Sept. 29, 2005 | The antiwar mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan, protested with hundreds of others outside the White House on Monday. She and the others approached the gate of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue three times, and each time police warned them that they were trespassing. On the third approach, Ms. Sheehan was arrested and carried from the scene, as were the others. She left behind, in the fence, a picture of her dead son Casey, who died fighting the Mahdi Army in Sadr City in spring of 2004. Ever since, Ms. Sheehan has been asking the U.S. government to explain what exactly he died for.

On Saturday, well over 100,000 demonstrators, including Ms. Sheehan and the "Gold Star" families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, had rallied in Washington against the ongoing Iraq war. Such numbers are difficult to verify, but this minimum was admitted by the Washington police, and supporters of the event claimed at least twice that. This large and impressive demonstration was accompanied by other protests, in London, San Francisco and other cities, though on a smaller scale. Critics of the event derided it as a carnival, but what popular movement in history has not been Rabelaisian? Crowds and their performers clown and mug, ridicule the sacred and celebrate the deity all at once. Carnivals of protest create their own bubble of consciousness, in which the unspeakable can finally be shouted, the powerful parodied, and the status quo turned upside down.

Brian Bender of the Boston Globe described the scene: "Many wore T-shirts calling for President Bush's impeachment, including 'regime change begins at home,' while others held photos of fallen American soldiers and shouted 'Bush lied, people died.' Demonstrators held signs reading 'College not Combat,' as relatives of soldiers who died in Iraq held one another and wept for their loved ones."

Since Sept. 11, large demonstrations have been rare. A huge antiwar crowd turned out in January 2003 in San Francisco. In spring of 2003, just before the Iraq war, some 100,000 protested in Washington against it. The protest in New York during the Republican National Convention in 2004 was even larger. So Saturday's rally was among the largest in the past four years. But it was hardly covered by the corporate mass media, which favored instead running endless loops of the same tape of hurricane damage in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/09/29/protests/print.html

[FloridaPat]

1. Americans have been speaking out for 5 years. There were tons of

anit-invasion demonstrations before the vote on invading Iraq. Very few Democrats seems to be listening to anything Americans have to say.

[zalinda]

2. Maybe because they didn't know about it

It's the same problem we have with the dems. The media. We don't know when they speak, and they don't know when we speak.

zalinda

[Demeter]

4. Oh, They Knew About It

and they are scared shitless--why, I'm not quite sure. What is it about the basic American Democratic voter that scares the basic American Democratic office holder/office seeker?

Why is the Good Doctor not getting the word out? Why is Hillary acting so pod-like? Why is Clinton scmoozing with Poppy?

Hope we get some reasonably plausible answers, or some definitely overdue changes next week. It's already too late for the Supreme Court process.

[txaslftist]

3. nominated.