As somebody who believes Impeachment will be the logical end to investigation of the Cheney Administration, and realizing the importance of the issue (thanks Kagro X), I went to the much hyped Impeachment protests today.
Living in San Francisco, I was expecting to see many others. I mean, just a month ago, a City-wide initiative calling for Impeachment passed in a landslide -- winning by almost 20% points.
But what I saw can only be described as a major setback for the effort.
In soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi's district, the event was a joke. I can't think of anything the organizers could have done to turn such a serious issue into such an object of ridicule.
First of all, there was nobody there. Really. Nobody. Despite the fact that the other event in San Francisco which had been scheduled for the beach ended up being folded into the event downtown. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on how the organizers managed to average turning out less than 2 people each:
The turnout was a far cry from the street-filling protests held in opposition to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The listeners at U.N. Plaza barely outnumbered the two dozen or so organizers, who were wearing orange jumpsuits, windbreakers and T-shirts.
Not only did the event fail from an organizational perspective, but the message was even worse. Sitting there watching the faces of people walking by, nobody wanted anything to do with the protest. I know that what Atrios calls, "Dirty Fucking Hippie" syndrome played an unfortunate roll in the lead up to the war, but this was far, far worse. Marching for the war, I was proud to be there. But today, I felt ashamed for justice looking at the weirdos who were treating one of the most important issues facing our country as an excuse to for a costume party to whine about Israel.
The effort began the day with the support of 60% of San Francisco voters. But at the end of the day I don't see how they didn't turn off at least 95% of the people who had the unfortunate experience of witnessing this.
What a waste.