(note: Cross-posted at Campusprogress.org)
Let me start with a caveat: politics makes strange bedfellows. I say this because many commentators have raised a valid point about the tents and tables at the rally in DC: many of the groups that were tabling and leafleting were, shall we say, "out there." I was personally accosted by a guy convinced that 9/11 was a CIA plot involving planted explosives and cruise missles (he had hundreds of copies of a freaking DVD to that point: my question is if it was a cruise missile that hit the Pentagon, what the hell happened to the airliner?) I dealt with anarchist-wannabees (permanent fixtures at these rallies), Lyndon LaRouche supporters (permanent fixtures at these rallies), and Revolutionary Communists (who somehow manage to find the CPUSA even more harmful to their cause than the Republicans and Democrats, go figure). There are nuts that come out of the woodwork for these rallies, and for what it's worth, the extreme majority of participants just ignored the lunatics.
That said, on this site and around the blogosphere there is a disturbing tendency to define the antiwar movement in terms of this fringe element. The assumption is that, since these groups affiliate with International ANSWER and UFPJ, they typify the protesters. People on this very site wrote off the benefits of the march because they feared the association of the antiwar platform with these groups.
But what were the benefits they so calmly wrote off?
Well, for starters, the march served to reinvigorate the antiwar sentiment among marchers: those who came to DC did so because they had rededicated themselves to opposing the war. These guys will go home and write letters, convince friends and family, and push the notion that opposing the war is a majority position in America. Folks who were willing to shell out for bus tickets, plane tickets and gasoline in order to crash for the night on a church floor are not going to go away quietly and, as we've already agreed, these aren't the nuts we've come to fear will define the Left. These are retirees, students, professionals and average Americans, and they have recommitted themselves to the cause in a way and on a scale that wouldn't have happened without the march.
Second, and I think most importantly, think of the network that was created specifically for the march. I was a local transportation coordinator at the start of the summer--I'm the president of the newly-incorporated Florida for Peace today, based on the strength of the local support for the march. In Sarasota alone more than 100 activists and students contacted me unsolicited to see what they could do to help or to participate. We've now got an extensive mailing list and a committed core of activists in Central Florida. Now multiply that by the 200+ cities that did the same thing we did, and you've got a national movement with local coordination, all based on this weekend's protests. Here, we now have the ability to accept and solicit contributions for antiwar activities in Katherine Harris's backyard--something unthinkable a month ago.
Third, the media picked up on this, and not just the national media, either (though the WaPo did a hell of a job covering the event). We've had two favorable articles in the local paper, and reporters are now contacting us and treating us as a legitimate organization on par with more established religious and civic groups. http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/12728671.htm http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/12742338.htm Neither of the reports tied us to International ANSWER or any leftist group: we are presented as average local citizens who feel betrayed by their government and who want to protect the lives of American soldiers being used as pawns in a political war (which is exactly what we are down here: nobody in our group really gave a crap about ANSWER's demands beyond ending the war, and while the speakers at the rally were mostly incapable of keeping on message, I stuck around for Sweet Honey in the Rock and not Brian Becker).
Fourth, I got to meet, speak with and hug Cindy Sheehan. Whatever your opinion of her, I consider that to be one of those moments that I'll tell my kids about in twenty years, especially since I think it's pretty clear that she's getting into the history textbooks.
Finally, the contrast between Saturday's march to end the war and Sunday's rally to keep it up perfectly highlights the state of the debate: hundreds of thousands hit the streets to stop a war, and then hundreds sat around and called Cindy Sheehan a traitor and advocated arresting those who disagree. You saw the fringe Left within the mass on Saturday, but on Sunday the Mainstream Right came out and looked just as fringe as the guy on stilts dressed like Uncle Sam on acid did.
Marches don't stop wars, but they strengthen causes and networks. The positives of this weekend's march will extend years, while the negatives will be forgotten within weeks.