There were actually two events yesterday in Washington DC. One was the coming together of many thousands of Americans to voice their opposition to the war in Iraq. By all accounts, this event was inspiring and successful despite the lack of coverage from the television news media.
The other was a made for TV stage production designed to exploit the opposition to the war to promote the radical, anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-communists (or socialist) agenda of International ANSWER, their mother ship, the International Action Center, and the Workers World Party.
And for this latter event, we should all thank mother nature for Hurricane Rita. For had this been a slow news day, and the press really wanted to stick it to us, that stage production (call it Karl Rove's dream come true) could have been beamed out to millions of households instead of just the CSPAN audience.
According to people who attended, the overwhelming majority were there for the singular cause of opposing the Iraq war. They came from all walks of life, and undoubtedly different political backgrounds: liberals, progressives, moderates and even some conservatives. By all reports, the crowd was far more mainstream then one normally would expect at a protest rally.
But what did Americans watching the ANSWER stage see from their living rooms? Well, after studying the footage from my Tivo recording, I would liken it to militant, Marxist-Leninist rally.
They would have seen Peta Lindsay , one of the ANSWER coordinators who helped emcee the event, proclaim that our "movement" has come together to stand "with the people of the world against the aggression of the US government."
They would have gotten the impression that our "movement" has come together to "stand with the people of Iraq as they fight back against the brutal US occupation."
They would have gotten the impression our movement has "come together to stand with the people of Palestine as they fight for their homeland."
They would have gotten the impression that all of us who oppose the Iraq war are on the sides of the Iraqi insurgents and the suicide bombers.
Of course, the CSPAN cameras could not reveal that their "movement" did not include even 1% of the people attending the march. And this is where the "victim" part comes in.
I can find zero indication that all those people who came from all parts of the country, who crowded into buses, who loaded their families into cars, who slept on floors and sofas and in cheap hotels just to exercise their constitutional right of assembly, did so to lend support to the agenda represented on that stage.
Not even close.
I have read Meteor Blades' diary, Quit Your Bellyachin' About Antiwar Demonstrations, and frankly, I don't think he understands just what went beaming out to potentially every every cable and satellite TV subscriber in the country.
I watched it three times, taking notes for this diary, and I can tell you, what went beaming out was the apparent confirmation of the image of the left that the right has been trying to sell the American public for years. In a strictly political context, what went beaming out was a complete, political disaster.
And the worst part for me, is that it was a deliberate disaster. This event was billed as an anti-Iraq war protest. And though astute observers, a couple of which tried to warn us, knew the agenda of ANSWER and the political risk of hitching our horses to their wagon, my research and Googling tells me that hardly anyone was aware of it.
And my research also indicates that this was ANSWER's plan. They host a big rally under one pretext, the opposition to the Iraq war, then exploit that opposition to piggyback their real agenda on top of it.
How many people would have shown up for a rally to denounce the "occupation" of Palestine by Israel? Or to free the Cuban 5? Or to protest the expulsion of Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti? Or to promote the the communist sympathising, pro-North Korea, pro-Castro agenda of the Worker's World Party?
I would venture to guess no more than a hundred people. But if you believed your TV, tens of thousands of people showed up to support all of these things. This is the cleverness of ANSWER's method.
Brian Becker ANSWER Coalition National Coordinater, in an attempt to play down the controversial aspects of the show, tried to explain why everyone was there:
"Why? Not because everybody in the movement has to have the same slogans on their banners. But we have to march, shoulder and shoulder against the real enemy. And he's in the White House."
But I assure you, what was beaming off of that stage was much, much more than the difference in slogans. It was another world altogether. A world that has no chance but to completely alienate the American people from the left.
I'm sorry Meteor Blades, I love ya man, but this was us getting the shaft in a politically devastating way.
A pivotal moment in the Vietnam war was when average Americans, mothers, grandmothers and people of all political persuasions joined in march on Washington. This was essential to the effort. No longer could Nixon and others characterise the anti-war movement as just a bunch of pro-communists, radical, hippy leftists. The anti-war movement had gone mainstream.
And this is what needs to happen now. Indeed, what has begun to happen now. But the mainstreaming of opposition to this war was dealt a severe blow yesterday, only negated by the diversion of a hurricane.
What should have been presented on that stage was a testament to American patriotism. A demonstration of mainstream Americans, who love their country and its people, challenging their leadership on the singular issue of this war.
If I had produced it, I would have had a giant American flag draping the backdrop. I would have assembled a cast of mothers and grandmothers as featured speakers and hosts. I would have tried to bring in as many soldiers and military personnel as possible, especially those who have advocated immediate withdrawal. It would have framed the opposition to this war as an all-American, red, white and blue patriot fest. Just short of serving apple pie to the huddled masses.
But with repeated viewings, I only caught one American flag. And it was turned upside down. There were a bunch of other flags, one in particular, which I have yet to identify. Far more important than the actual words spoken however, was the overall image of a cast of people who see America as the enemy. People who, if their political beliefs were known, most Americans would not want to be in the same room with.
Understand, this is not about my political beliefs. I'm probably as radical as some of these people in my own way. No, this is about political expediency. This is about winning over the majority of the American population to the wrongness of this war. This is about mainstreaming the opposition.
By blatant neglect, we allowed ANSWER et al. to put a radical, extremely controversial, and politically disastrous face on the otherwise increasingly mainstream opposition to this war.
And while we can be thankful that hardly anyone was paying attention, rest assured, our political enemies were. And they will no doubt use it to portray all of us as America hating, commie loving, terrorists sympathising malfeasants. Of course, that would be nothing new, and I normally advocate ignoring them and sticking to attacking them instead of defending against their attacks.
But now they have footage. And for that we need an accountability moment. They say a stupid friend is worse than a smart enemy. I couldn't agree more. And it should be clear to anyone with even the slightest political sensibilities that we have some really stupid friends. And I am not talking about ANSWER.
I am talking about those who thought it was a good idea to join in and help promote this event. Those who either did not bother to find out who they were getting into bed with, or those who knew and didn't care, should seriously rethink their judgement.
Out of all the comments I've read here, the most absurd is that, for better or worse, we need ANSWER because they are the only ones who can pull off a protest of this magnitude. What utter rubbish. Kossaks could not only do it, but do it right. In fact, ANSWER appears to have even tried to co-opt the Daily Kos logo for their flyer:
I don't know. What do you think?
I'm sorry, but these people are scum. For example, after about the third anti-Israel speaker left the stage, and the audience began to walk off, probably in disgust, one of the emcees came out and said, "We have a very important announcement about the march itself. We have a very important announcement about the march itself..."
Then they sent Gloria LaRiva from the National Committee to Free the Cuban 5 claiming that it's "not possible to move right now so yo are actually better off in staying here a little while longer cause it's totally jammed."
This, according to a friend who was there, was an abject lie. They were so desperate to keep an audience for their parade of radical speakers that they lied to the audience to keep them from joining the march.
Make no mistake, ANSWER is not our friend. And we must never again allow our real movement to be associated with them. In fact, we should do our best to make sure that no one ever shows up to one of their events again.
When I first saw the show, my first thought was that this was a CIA op to discredit the effort. That is, by the way, what they did in the Vietnam days. Infiltrate, sabotage, discredit.
I can find no evidence of that. But, regardless, we should treat them as if they were a CIA front because, effectively, they might as well be.