Is America able to muster a 60's style war protest, or.....

[jhrobbins]

have we lost that sense of possibility? Everyone keeps likening this war to VietNam and yet no one has been able to rally the forces to express what, apparently, the majority of Americans are feeling about Iraq. Do contemporary young people have it in them or are they just interested in the antics of Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, et al.

[unpossibles]

1. I think one of the larger barriers to this would be the media

most people are not aware of what is really going on here, much less over there.

[zeemike]

8. I agree with you

The media is under tight control now and cannot disseminate information like it did in the 60s when at the Democratic convention the cry was "The whole world is watching"
Todays media marginalizes and ignores any real protest.

[KurtNYC]

26. They ignored 500,000 people on 8/29/2004

More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Convention_protest_activity

[WiseButAngrySara]

30. Thank God for the Internet(S) and DU! ....n/t

[Howardx]

2. the 60's had the draft

todays kids can just say "oh iraq sucks i guess i wont enlist" and be on their way.

[Warpy]

7. That's the way the volunteer military is supposed to work

Some madman gets into office and starts a war of corporate convenience, and enlistments drop.

Would you really want to give this madman a draft on the CHANCE that it would motivate more college kids? Remember, it didn't work well in the 60s.

[Howardx]

17. not advocating a draft

just pointing out that todays youth dont have any players in the game so to speak.

[elocs]

12. There is no way around the fact that there is not draft.

Young people may be against the war, but since they have no fear of being drafted it diminishes the motivation to protest. Also, during the Vietnam war, protests made use of civil disobedience which made it hard for the media to ignore. Those protests were large and passionate.

[SharonRB]

3. Get everyone you know to show up in DC on the 27th

There's a big protest that day. Lots of DUers will be there.

[Warpy]

4. There have already been such protests

especially in the weeks leading up to the invasion. The local peace and justice people hold protests here at least once a month, but they are never covered in local media, let alone national media.

Protests against this war have been larger and have involved all generations, unlike the Vietnam era protests that were mostly college kids in college towns.

The media refuse to cover them. That is the real difference between then and now.

[Sapphire Blue]

5. Forces are being rallied: Nationwide protest Thursday, Jan.11

Americans Say NO! | Thursday, Jan 11: A Surge in Peace, not Troops: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3074144

[kickysnana]

6. 10,000 MNsotans marched in Nov 2002 against the Iraq war

New around here? Lots of other actions too but the MSM does not cover them unless there is violence so they are invisible and impotent.

[Imagevision]

9. We could never protest like the 60's, Rove & the msm have changed all that!

Today's people have changed and become too wise and connected and informed which is why we would pose too serious a threat to the likes of things like, The Bush administration. MSM dictates what the public should and should not know...
(they call it irrelevant news)

[shance]

10. We have many times, however the Media Industrial Complex kept them off the waves.

When the ones creating the wars own the airwaves, there is a black out of the truth.

[Double T]

11. Reinstate the DRAFT and see what happens..............

'WE' will be marching on washington, d.c. en masse.

[Nay]

22. We DID march on DC en masse. At least half a mil ppl there, and

when we got home, the media acted like there were a couple of hundred malcontents holding signs. It was supremely frustrating, which I'm sure was the point of the non-coverage--"if we ignore them, they'll go away."

And then there were the protests held all over the world BEFORE the war started. WTF is happening?

Add to this the fact that the Dems who represent us have been gutless for 6 years, and you got a real problem. Hell, even with the sweep in Congress, some Dems are still acting like they owe Pubs something, when all we owe them is a jail cell.

[Double T]

29. 2006 and NOW 2007 are a different times with bush at a 26%..........

approval rating for HIS handling of the Iraq war. Add a DRAFT to this low approval rating and 'junior' wouldn't know what to do with the massive protests by the SUBSTANTIAL majority. I agree with YOU that the Democratic leadership has let 'US' down in the past, BUT I am hopeful that the NEW leadership will change the course of our party and the country. Let's give THEM a chance. I have a lot of faith in Nancey Pelosi, she is a REAL LEADER.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Um, we have.

The pre-and-post-invasion protests in DC were among the biggest in history. 2/15/03 involved the whole planet.

But you didn't see it on TV, so it must not have happened.

People aren't apathetic. They are simply sealed off from one another, and denied an accurate view of the times.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. When ever I see a comment like the OPers...

I get all confused -- was I imagining the dozen or so major anti-war marches/rallies/events I've gone to over the past 3+ years???? Who the heck were those 10s of thousands of people I was walking down Market Street with -- were they all just following me??? :scared:

The fact that there are people in our country who have no idea of the numbers that showed up in our counrty and around the world to say no to the invasion is a disgrace.

Shame on our media.

[Robbien]

14. There were only 10,000 at the Anti-War rally in Chicago at the Democratic Convention.

The protest marches we have today are much much bigger.

The difference is media attention. In the '60s and '70s protest marches were televised and written about. Today the media purposely ignores the whole situation.

Heck, our media barely even mentioned the fact that Mexico had two million people protesting in Mexico's capital city shutting it down for three weeks.

Protesting just doesn't get reported. If it is not reported, it is ignored.

[Captain Hilts]

15. You must have missed the last Choice march with over 700K. Yes, we can.

Let's give it a try on the 27th!

[Selatius]

16. HELL FUCKING YEAH

People have marched. There have been anti-war protests.

The only damn difference today from 40 years ago is that the corporate news media is less prone to report things people do. Instead, we get Michael Jackson, Terri Schiavo, or some other sensationalistic story designed to get ratings up (thus profits for shareholders) at the expense of helping to inform the citizenry about how fucked up the country has become.

Sorry, but reporting about the degradation of the environment, the failure of health care, the failure of public education isn't a ratings getter like whose is having sex with whom in Hollywood or some other crap story like that. This is why Nancy Grace is on TV.

[Wiley50]

19. Here's My Idea For Protests That Will Be Seen And Get Results

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3075491

[blues90]

20. I feel it's both issues

Mainly because of the media not giving facts by choice and included in this we do now how 300 plus channels to surf rather than just the 5 or 6 networks we had in the 60's . Options in distraction .

Then there was the draft , good or bad it was a threat to each at 18 who was fit for duty , it was certainly on my mind back then .

Beside , I don;t have children and don;t really have much contact or opportunity to discuse the Iraq situation with the youth however I do see many completely involved it high tech games and other modern distrations , thing we did not have in the 60's .

Vietnam went on alot longer before the protests began but everyone knew about the draft and this was the beginning of the involvement for the most part .

[cassiepriam]

21. Too busy watching football and eating pizza.

[MrSlayer]

23. No. Not a chance without a draft.

People with no stake in it have no reason to care. Give your average American a choice between caring about something that doesn't directly effect them and apathy and apathy will win every time.

[MzNov]

24. It's not as easy now, we don't have the draft, we are using different means

like the internet to get our power (whatever that is), Bush is much crazier than Nixon, and we have absolutely lost the media. So if the conditions were the same as Vietnam era, you betcha we'd be in the streets. We, the old anti-war demonstrators, still have it in us, and you're right, I'm not sure if today's 18-yr. old's would be there unless they were threatened with being drafted.

So our power has changed, but not our spirits to be sure!

[provis99]

25. I haven't seen any evidence that mass protests change politicians minds anyways

Does anyone really think having huge protests has changed the course of the Iraq War one iota? I was only a kid in the 60s, but my dad tells me all the protests did was turn middle aged people against the young, and not change the escalation of the war a bit. The war only wound down when the Pentagon informed Johnson and Nixon that the war was militarily unwinnable; protests didn't amount to squat.

[Lilith Velkor]

27. If you had bothered paying fucking attention, you would have noticed

But you didn't, and still mistake ignorance for reality. 'Tis a shame.

[The Traveler]

28. We have more to protest than just the war

The country is behind sold out ... literally. Important infrastructure (public transport) is now up for sale ... it is just part of the pattern. We are being sold out, like a company being busted apart to liquidate its assets. The war is just an effort to use another public resource (the military) to further the objectives of corporate interests. After all, one cannot divest what one does not own ... but if our government can seize resources of other nations, it can then divert control of those resources to corporations.

The war is just part of the pattern. If we don't stop this shit, we might as well resign ourselves to being 21st century serfs.

[4dsc]

31. Where's the music industry??

I believe a big part of the war protest of the 1960's has the support of the music industry. Song's of protest were everywhere on the radio and thus furthered the cause of peace.

We are missing that aspect of resistance this go around. Very few musicians are willing to stick their necks out to say what most people are thinking..

[Felix Mala]

32. Been wondering when Americans will take to the streets

So far, they haven't tapped a significant minority or portion of middle-class for this war... Smart move on their part, except their feeding their most loyal base to this disaster.

[LanternWaste]

33. And I don't think cynicism can act as a catalyst for progressive change

I honestly don't think so. The anti-war and civil rights movements of the sixties were both grounded in idealism-- a cross generational idealism that took hold of the young and the old. Idealism seems to have been *the* one common denominator in post-industrial progessive social movements.

That idealism has been replaced by a very trendy cynicism worn much like a bumper sticker. And I don't think cynicism can act as a catalyst for progressive change. While cynicism might motivate people to distrust each other even more and help further insulate us from the rest of the world, it certainly won't bring people together.

As long as we hold cynicism by design as a thing to be admired, I think progressive change will only happen by accident, not by design.

[The2ndWheel]

34. Only with some corporate sponsors

Have to plan, and organized the whole thing, sign some permits, it's a whole hassle. Get some money, pay some protest organizing experts, and it'll be nice, smooth, and efficient. Plus they'll just be ignored, as that is the smartest thing any politician or leader can do. Let the rabble vent for a bit, then they'll have to go back to work. Because as we know, work has made us free.