Friday, October 27, 2006

Where is the "Movement"?

I need to check this more, but as far as I recall, at no stage during the Vietnam war was less than 50% of the public in support of the war. [And this was at a period of a better educated, and more news-paper reading public.] Now opposition to the War is vast, and the extent of the catastrophe, both for Iraqis, and general world stability, is evident to a majority.

So where is the "movement."?

5 comments:

Steve Muhlberger said...

The "movement" is far more involved with electoral politics this time around. People opposed to the war are largely opposed to other policies of the Bush administration and many of them realize that getting out the vote against those policies is crucial.

In the late 60s many people against the war (but by no means all) were hostile to party politics. They for instance thought it made no difference whether you voted for Hubert Humphrey or Richard Nixon.

In 2000 a significant number of people thought it made no difference whether you voted for Gore or Bush.

I doubt that either friends or foes of George Bush would agree with that now.

As a friend of mine once said, "There's always somebody to vote against."

Steve Muhlberger said...

Today's movement, from dailykos.com


"Fri Oct 27, 2006 at 01:18:02 PM PDT

You guys blew it. This was supposed to be a $100K challenge.

Yet, it's 1 p.m., and you guys have already raised a crapload of money.

Last night, before the push, we were at 11,992 contributers and $1,189,708.18 total raised.

Right now, as of this post, we're at 13,099 contributors and $1,358,752."

That's 1,107 contributors and $169K raised in half a day. Damn... So that wasn't much of a "challenge", was it? Sheesh.

So okay, you want a challenge?

$1.5 million by the end of the day via our Actblue page.

Paul Halsall said...

Good points from the soon to be tropical North, Steve.

I agree that there is much for the argument that maturity in politics is the realisation that the difference between "good" and "bad" electorial choices is much less important than grasping the difference between "bad" and "worse."

The '60s Movement though had a tinge of generational change, cultural frisson, (and drugs and sex and rock 'n' roll) for which one has a certain amount of nostalgia.

At this point I am pretty sure that posters on RedState and Little Green Footballs are a helluva lot higher than the nerds on DailyKos.

Given that the CID once tried LSD as a potential weapon against the enemy, has any one considered that showering Iraq with ecstasy pills might end the whole problem in a group hug, an Oakenfold concert, and some flashing lights?

Steve Muhlberger said...

The soon to be tropical north is going to have a really big snowstorm tonight and tomorrow, and it's still October.

Oh, I forgot that we've already had one of those.

Paul Halsall said...

Hmmm, it's 80 deg Fahrenheit here. An walk on the Beach might be nice in the morning.

Except I have been to the beach 7 times in 7 years here.