THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ANTIWAR MOVEMENT

Chicago Tribune ^ | June 3, 2007 | Rex W. Huppke

[gpapa]

That shrill sound you're hearing isn't coming from the cicadas. It's the cackle of conservatives reveling in war protester Cindy Sheehan's abrupt decision to leave the anti-war movement and return home to California.

Typical liberal, they're saying. Cut and run.

[MNJohnnie]

Maybe because the “anti war” movement has more to do with the childish narcissistic tendencies of it proponent’s then any sort of commitment to “principals” They want everyone to say “Oh how noble and brave you all are for standing up to “BushHitler”. When the bulk of the American people instead say “Are you all NUTS?” they cannot handle it.

[goldstategop]

Funny but true. Liberals don't wriggle their butts and moon their enemies on an issue they deem a matter of life and death. They follow Jihad Cindy's example - Cut N Run. You wonder if they still care.

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[alloysteel]

They lost Cindy Sheehan, they lost their best spokesperson.

Like they had a lot to say before. “Anti-war” only works if there is an active draft in effect. Bemoaning the fact that some relative was “lost” in combat, ignores the reality that the relative VOLUNTEERED to step into harm’s way.

[L98Fiero]

Sounds like old Rex has a sincere tingle for Ms. Cindy or anyone who openly expresses hate for their country and it’s military, for that matter. Must be another aging hipster who misses the “good old days”.

[MichiganMan]

The disappearing movement is because its adherents were never anything more than political tools of the Democrats. Useful idiots, is the term, one with a proud history in these matters. Once the Dems achieve their political goals, they're discarded.

You were kleenex Cindy, activists. You were slimed and are no longer of any use. Off to the trash with you.

[LS]

If you look at other threads, our military, in Afghanistan dn Iraq, is just SLAUGHTERING these jihadists. In Afghanistan, there is a report of 3,800 dead over a period. That’s a LOT. I think these moonbats are just reading the Arabic on the wall.

[George W. Bush]

This was a very good article. And it tells us a lot about the Right as well as the antiwar Left.

Today's activists seem easily bored and distracted, content to simply blog away their angst and then move on to the next issue that flares up. One has to imagine Abbie Hoffman -- Vietnam War protester and proud member of the Chicago Seven -- writhing in his grave.

So what's keeping people from raising hell? Where is the fervor and esprit de corps of the American protester? Why were the rabble-rousers of the '60s and '70s so potent, while those of today are so, to put it politely, "non-potent"?

There are likely several reasons.

For one, there's no military draft. That means fewer opponents are frontline stakeholders in the war. Nothing incites passion quite like fear, and as long as we have a volunteer military, the butts on the line won't be those of the anti-war contingent.

Outlook is another factor. The youthful idealism of generations past has largely given way to a cynical view of politics and life in general. It's harder to get into a good college. It's harder to get a good job. Politicians seem increasingly disingenuous.

"People really feel like they lack efficacy today," said Rachel Einwohner, a Purdue University sociologist who studies protests and social movements. "Despite what lots of people around the world think, despite opposition, this administration just proceeds with a particular agenda. Maybe activists look at that and say, 'What could we possibly do?' They're forced to wonder how they can stop it."

In 1962, a group of college students meeting in Michigan created a manifesto called the Port Huron Statement, which laid out a path for a near-Utopian democracy. Those young men and women truly believed they could change the world, and their fervor carried on through the sweeping civil rights and Vietnam War protests of that generation.

Now when Suri, the Wisconsin professor, shows a copy of the Port Huron Statement to his students, they laugh out loud, mystified that anyone could ever have been so naive.

"It's not that they don't care; it's that they don't believe they can make a difference," he said. "Students have become very risk-averse. They care, but they're afraid that if they go out and get involved in something they might not get into law school or get the job they want."

Indeed, since camera phones and YouTube, would-be rebels engage in sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience at their own peril, knowing that images some might deem incriminating could easily come back to haunt them.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, better communication technology may actually be taking a bit of oomph out of political activism. People once had to come together in smoke-filled coffeehouses to plan demonstrations. Now they just stay home and hammer out mass e-mails, expanding their reach but eliminating the close personal bonds that were the glue of past protest movements.

"People can have these virtual online communities and have all these conversations online without ever coming together," Einwohner said. "That might explain why we have this massive disapproval of the war, but we don't see the visible public mass protest. Maybe all those folks who in another era might have been out on the streets, maybe they're home sharing their ideas and opinions with their best blogging buddies."

[gate2wire]

“Oh how noble and brave you all are for standing up to “BushHitler”. When the bulk of the American people instead say “Are you all NUTS?”

Yeah. At first, some had sympathy because of her son. Then, she started using the anti-america and Bush is the biggest terrorist foolishness. Then, she started swearing. She probably got frustrated as the money dried up and the sycophants stopped kising her ass. Being booed at Purdue must have been the final straw.
Good riddance, traitor.

[MichiganMan]

Yeah. At first, some had sympathy because of her son. Then, she started using the anti-america and Bush is the biggest terrorist foolishness. Then, she started swearing.

My favorite was the picture of her being arrested. Two burly officers picking her up and carring her off and all you could see on her was a big #&*!-eating grin, you could just about see her writhing in pleasure at it. Her report of the arrest had all the usual brown shirt brutality cliches, but then those pictures came out on Drudge.

[Let's Roll]

“That might explain why we have this massive disapproval of the war”

DO we have massive disapproval of the war? Are most people against fighting this war or against fighting it the WAY it has been fought until recently?

[SusaninOhio]

‘Cackling’? I am 60 years old and I don’t believe I have ever cackled in my life.

The writer seems to have a case of transference, it seems. Perhaps he has spend too much time on DU.

[miele man]

Sheehan’s cessation of her anti-US activities could also simply be due to being told to sit down and shut up by the dimocRAT bosses. They say, “Look Cindy, we are now in power and we will achieve what you want albeit a bit more slowly than you or we want; however, everytime you go out a agitate against Bush, you cost us votes from those folks in the middle. We have elections coming up shortly and your efforts could hamper or complete takeover of Washington, so go to the sideline for a while. We’ll take it from here. Capice?”

No doubt there was some stronger persuasion used but look at the result. Some fence sitters will now say, “Maybe I can vote for the dims, at least they are moving us toward getting out of Iraq”.

The more Mr. Bush advocates finishing the job in Iraq, the more the dims benefit, or so they reason.

The question I have is this: If those four men had succeeded in blowing up the JFK jet fuel tanks and killed countless thousands of folks and severely hampered our economy, who would benefit the most in the post incident reaction and response, the dims or the right?

[gate2wire]

I know the picture. Sure looked like she was mourning her son, didn’t it?

[ontap]

She was a useful idiot who the democrats disposed of as soon as she had served her usefulness. She spewed the liberal medias venom and that was the only reason she got air time. How many mothers who had lost sons and disagreed were ever heard? Scarcely any!

[George W. Bush]

please, these idiot protestors from the 60’s or 70’s made no difference....they like to take some sort of credit for ‘stopping the war’....they were wrong...they were the stooges for the commies...plain and simple, and their useful idiot comrades in the media, were also anti american ‘com symps’...

You underestimate them, I think.

Certainly, they softened public resistance. More than anything, they and the libmedia destroyed a sense of common national purpose and promoted defeatism.

The country and the protest movement has changed as the article opines. It is anemic by Sixties standards. Yet, it undoubtedly has influence among the Dims if you watch their campaigns.

[sageb1]

I would say her funding was cut off.

[SamAdams76]

Good points about the Internet and sites like YouTube.

Future presidential elections are going to be very interesting as you will be able to pull up all kinds of minutia about any given candidate that was never accessible before.

Like it or not, our lives are in the process of being fully documented. Should I ever run for public office, my opponent will have access to thousands of posts that I've made on Free Republic alone over the past few years. Now I'm a pretty easy-going guy on these forums but I'm sure I've said a few things here that would make a few headlines if I was ever engaged in a tight senatorial race.

So while the Internet has the potential to give a voice to the individual person out of proportion to what they would have received 20 years ago, it also has the power to destroy your reputation and render you unelectable with just one poorly-thought out posting!

Now with YouTube and sites like it, you will be able to pull up video of just about every public gathering from this point on (my son's high school graduation is just one example). Google is in some hot water for photographing people without their knowledge for Google Maps so now you can't even enter an adult bookstore without fearing that a photograph of you leaving the store will be posted to the Web (this actually happened with Google).

[new yorker 77]

Their nubers are shrinking because the U.S. military is killing of many of their members in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[oh8eleven]

please, these idiot protestors from the 60’s or 70’s made no difference.
Ah, but they did. N Vietnamese officials have said for years they didn't "surrender" because they knew the anti-war scumbags were on their side.
The great unwashed actually prolonged the war thus getting more killed on both sides.

[blackie]

Hipster and hippie are different:

hip·ster (hĭp'stər) n. Slang. One who is exceptionally aware of or interested in the latest trends and tastes, especially a devotee of modern jazz.

hip‚pie also hip,py (hĭp'ē) n., pl. -pies. A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.

>:-}

[ElkGroveDan]

That shrill sound you're hearing isn't coming from the cicadas. It's the cackle of conservatives

Shrill? I beg to differ there Rex. Shrill describes Cindy and her tiny band of malcontents "Shrill: betraying some strong emotion or attitude in an exaggerated amount, as antagonism or defensiveness."

[George W. Bush]

DO we have massive disapproval of the war?

First, yes. We have massive disapproval of almost any war except WW II which was unique. Americans just don't like war much. We're not Prussian.

Are most people against fighting this war or against fighting it the WAY it has been fought until recently?

Some of each. Some are opposed to the war or have switched from supporting to opposing ("I was lied to!"). But even the antiwar Dims will quickly switch to the "I was always for victory" bandwagon if Petraeus can pull it off for Bush. Everyone likes to win wars and claim credit for being pro-war and patriotic. Unless we lose and then they want to be positioned to point fingers of blame. Craven politicians.

While the surge has succeeded in its immediate goals, the real success is when Iraqi police and military can secure their own country against terrorists without our help. The longer they fail to do so, the more reason there is to doubt that our post-war solutions are going to work.

At some point, the temptation will become to install a pro-American dictator (like Saddam) and retreat to our desert bases until the smoke clears. We aren't at that point but it is likely that we'll see a policy like that in 2009 if we haven't succeeded by then.

[JasonC]

True. They also did not have even the "used" political effect their revisionist tales of it all pretend. They like to forget that anti-war activism splintered the Democratic party - it did not unite it - and wrecked it at the national level. Nixon won by a minority against split Dems in 68, and by a landslide when they put up a true peacenik in 72. They look back on Vietnam as some great activist victory, when it was Watergate that led to US defeat there, not the anti war movement. It is just amazing chutzpa when you think about it. They want credit for the US losing a war and millions of our allies being killed, not even for some great political success it brought them along the way (since it didn't work, politically).

[George W. Bush]

Like it or not, our lives are in the process of being fully documented. Should I ever run for public office, my opponent will have access to thousands of posts that I've made on Free Republic alone over the past few years. Now I'm a pretty easy-going guy on these forums but I'm sure I've said a few things here that would make a few headlines if I was ever engaged in a tight senatorial race.

Yeah, but it can be expunged. Try to find Tony Snow's past posts here at FR. Try using Google to find it. Poof. Those bad words and associations largely vanish into thin air, right down the memory hole.

Google is willing to censor its material under political influence. It happens routinely. Other search engines and many websites are the same. And there's a lot of stuff that disappears from FR too over the years. I'm fine with that but we shouldn't pretend otherwise.

[Suzy Quzy]

Hillary told George Soros to cut her funding....she was making Dems look bad and unpatriotic.....which they are.

[oh8eleven]

reaganatriot
Since Jun 3, 2007
Welcome to FR

these were stooges for the intl commie movement, those are the ones who prolonged the war, not the dupes on campii around the nation....
Not the "dupes on campii?" You obviously didn't live through this part of history. And today's "dupes" are the ones being used as useful idiots by the pink-commie organizations. Yesterday's "dupes" were selfishly against the draft.

[tioga]

Not to worry, they will resurrect the useful idiots to protest the war during the next election cycle.

[ontap]

It took a liberal media to make it work. No media attention or a negative take on it and the great peace movement would have fell apart The truth is there never was a massive protest, it was just portrayed as one.

[SandRat]

No Rex W. Huppke of the Chicago Tribune. We're not cackling like Cicadas of Cindy Sheehan's departure and the fact that the "Anti-War Movement" is shrinking, we're,....

[oh8eleven]

I agree re: liberal media, but totally disagree that there was no “massive protest.” Were you around then?

[mimaw]

I think at first Cindy very much mourned her son and was easily manipulated by the radical left. The anti-war group is phony to begin with as they had no problem with Clinton bombing the hell out of Serbia or Iraq so it’s hard to fuel a hate movement for 4yrs. especially since they have done their damage and pretty much destroyed this administration and it’s war effort. I give them and their allies in congress the credit for the death of most of our servicemen in Iraq. They have been a cheerleader for the terrorists and should take a deep bow. I wish on each and everyone of them a horrendous end.

[oh8eleven]

im forty-five, so i do recall that time very well
Ahhh, I see. You were born in 1962 and remember the 60s and early 70s very well. [Sigh] ...

[ontap]

I was in the USMC. The picture of large gatherings were almost always shown in the light of all the people being in the protest when in actuality a lot of the people were onlookers. Were there some legitimate large protests? Yes mostly at the very end when the idiot press propagandists had succeeded.

[L98Fiero]

“Hipster and hippie are different:”

Yep, poor choice of words on my part. :)

[NRA1995]

You were kleenex Cindy, activists. You were slimed and are no longer of any use. Off to the trash with you.

I was thinking more like toilet paper.

[blackie]

I knew what you meant. :)

[oh8eleven]

Were there some legitimate large protests? Yes mostly at the very end when the idiot press propagandists had succeeded.
First of all, Semper Fi and you should be able to determine who I am by my screen name and tagline.
Second - you're wrong and this is just one example of many large protests that took place LONG before the end of the war was near...

http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/Pentagon67.html
"On October 21, 1967, 70,000 demonstrators came to Washington, D.C. to "Confront the War Makers." This was the first of the biannual Anti-War demonstrations to fuse protest with the whimsicality of the counter culture and to take civil disobedience to new levels of confrontation. It would become the prototype for the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago -- except that the latter was marred by extensive police violence."