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too many voices

I went out for a bit and when I came back the protest had formed into the planned march to the White House.

If today is any indication of the future of the anti-everything movement, I take back everything I said about 2004 being a repeat of 1968.

These people have no passion, no drive. Their chants are lame and their "march" looks like a stroll through DisneyWorld. At least 10% of the marchers are chatting away on their cell phones. About 80% look bored out of their minds.

Below is a photo of what a protest against the Vietnam war looked like. It makes today's gathering look like a Girl Scout meeting.


[click for bigger image: Photo from the University of Texas collection]


Of course, the people in this photo were protesting one thing and one thing only - the American presence in Vietnam. There weren't forty different movements going on at one rally. They had one voice that spoke together and that's what today's protesters are lacking. As long as they are not a cohesive group, there is nothing to fear from them. Too many voices spoil the demonstration.

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Comments

I'm surprised that the protests on the left coast aren't getting much attention... it's all DC. I live in Oregon and I don't even know if there's anything happening in Portland.

CSPAN's coverage was fun, though. They definitely weren't very creative with their chants. Just before CSPAN dropped their coverage, the chant was the usual "Hey hey, ho ho... Bush and Cheney have got to go". I think they need to brainstorm a bit before they try this again.

...and some are just looking for chicks.

Those chicks? Not likely.

Actually, there is one voice: WE HATE BUSH!

Too bad that's a piss-poor political philosophy. But hey, I guess the kids have to do something on the weekends. Otherwise they'd be clogging up the Starbucks -- and we can't have that, now, can we?

Of course, the people in this photo were protesting one thing and one thing only - the American presence in Vietnam.

Actually, I think they weren't so much protesting the American presence in Vietnam as the prospect that they might be drafted and become part of that presence.

But I'm cynical that way. Having been a snot-nosed pre-teen when all that was happening will do that to some of us.

I was in DC today - drove across the National Mall @ 14th street at noon and again at around 430 PM. Also parked at 12th & F and walked to the MCI center about 6 blocks away. I saw way more police than I saw protesters. Every corner had about 12 police officers standing around and looking very bored. What few protesters I saw were either college kids (becasue, you know, they have all the answers at 19) or leftover hippies from the 60's. Not a real forceful group at all. Maybe I just missed the action, but I was parked only 4 blocks from the WH - I should have seen something.

Yeah, Chris, I was downtown, too, and I didn't see much of anything. I think there were more people on the Mall for the annual kite festival than there was for this protest.

ANSWER always lies about how many people attend these rallies, but I have a good measure of attendance. On July 4th there's usually 400K to 500K people downtown. If you know what THAT looks like then you can gauge the size of any crowd.

It makes me proud to think that the most patriotic day of the year still draws tens of thousands more than any of these protests could possibly attract.

There just aren't that many angry old hippies around anymore

PJ aways says about the old hippies that the hair that is long in back is always gone on top and the female hippies underarm hair is streaked with grey.

In my humble opinion, it will be more like 72. If you get a profile of Dean and one of McGovern and put them side by side, they even look alike. I'm now waiting for Hunter S. Thompson to do a 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 04' book as well.

Great coverage by Anna on the anti-war rally. ZZZZ Nothing like the Glenn Beck rally we had in Kleveland, Ohio this year and it was about 20 degrees and snowing! (I think we're way too close to Kanada, and we gave birth to Kucinich -- I was his paperboy!)

http://www.glennbeck.com/news/02272003.shtml

Had those kids in 1968 had cell phones, that picture might have looked much different.