August 25, 2004
HIDE AND THEY MIGHT LIKE US BETTER:
Get Mad. Act Out. Re-Elect George Bush.: Protesters risk playing into GOP hands (Rick Perlstein, August 24th, 2004, Village Voice)
One of the most exhilarating moments in Lewis Koch's life came in the summer of 1968. He was a producer for NBC News, based in Chicago, specializing in the anti-war movement—of which he was a sympathizer. Now, at the Democratic National Convention, he was an actor in what he thought was one of its glorious episodes. Cops were beating kids without provocation, and with the footage he was putting on the air, Middle America might finally realize that justice rested more with those protesting the war than those so violently defending it."I remember my self-satisfaction," Koch recalls, "and saying to myself, 'Oh, did you do a terrific job!' "
Then came the most traumatic moment in Lewis Koch's life.
"The phones would ring off the hook. People were furious. . . . Nothing I had intended had gone through. Actually what they saw were clear pictures of these young kids rioting. Chaos in their city." Next thing he knew, Richard Nixon had swept to presidential victory on the wings of a commercial proclaiming—above those selfsame pictures—that "the first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence."
Now Lew Koch senses déjà vu all over again in the loose talk among protesters of staging similar scenes at next week's Republican convention—talk that by putting the ugliness of the Bush regime on display, protesters thereby might end it. Koch's frustration is overwhelming. "What the protesters are saying is the same thing as the Weathermen: 'Bring the war home.' And you know what happens? You lose the war! They have guns. And they'll have the judges that Bush will appoint to the Supreme Court in the next four years."
It recalls the old philosopher's conundrum: When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If resistance against Bush actually plays into Bush's hands, is it really resistance?
The parallels between Chicago 1968 and New York 2004 are striking.
It is resistance, it's just unpopular. That's the Left's problem and it has been for decades now--they have to hide their message from the citizenry. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2004 12:39 PM
Mr. Judd;
Koch is making the mistake that these people actually care about the consequences of their actions for anyone except themselves. It's all about the psychodrama, not the politics. It's resistance to reality, not the Bush administration.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at August 25, 2004 2:19 PMIf leftism is a twisted kind of religion, the barricade is its altar. We've long ago been told that abortion is its sacrament.
Posted by: M. Murcek at August 25, 2004 3:53 PMAOG,
Lee Harris makes exactly this point in his classic article on Fantasy Ideology. See the section titled 'A personal recollection'.
Posted by: TimF at August 25, 2004 4:32 PMIt is resistance, it's just unpopular.
Yes, you're so right -- the RNC demonstrators aren't like those valiant Freepers in their Hillary Clinton masks who stand in the rain outside bookstores in groups of five or six but actually represent the cruelly repressed aspirations of millions.
Posted by: Steve M. at August 25, 2004 4:57 PMFantasy Ideology?
More like Fantasy Role-Playing. Specifically, Star Wars: The Role-playing Game, West End D6 or present-day D20 edition.
They've got to be Luke Skywalker, leading the Good Guys of the Rebel Alliance (TM) against The Evil Empire (TM) of Emperor Bush and Darth Ashcroft.
Yet they'd denounce my own D&D as "fantasy escapism from reality". At least we D&Ders are honest about our FANTASY Role-Playing.
Posted by: Ken at August 25, 2004 5:37 PMSteve M. :
Republicans don't "do" protests. We have lives.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at August 25, 2004 11:15 PMBy the way, Mr. Perlstein's contention is 100% bona-fide truth: A disorderly protest will unquestionably be an absolute calamity for the Democrats. It won't even have to get particularly violent -- just some standard-issue "sit downs" and leftist heckling of Republicans at their meetings (anarchist groups are reportedly planning to disrupt key events) ought to turn people off.
I saw a huge gang of these goonies at an antiwar protest in D.C. last year wearing garish costumes and F**k Bush placards while passing out socialist literature. These people are doped-up, mindless, Shining Path-like fanatics, and I don't think they'll be able to control themselves. Their mad-dog loathing of the president will simply eat them alive.
Bottom line: Watching the professional head-busters of the NYPD deliver some sweet, sweet whoopass to the riffraff will be just the thing to get swing voters to desperately pull away at the "R" handle in November. Perlstein is right to warn leftists against this sort of thing. Which is why I'm delighted they aren't listening to him.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at August 25, 2004 11:44 PMAh, that's part of the genius of having the convention in NYC.
Posted by: David Cohen at August 26, 2004 7:42 AMHey, Matt, do these clowns look like Democrats to you? How about these guys? Think Reverend Fred has a "Re-Defeat Bush" sticker on his car?
Posted by: Steve M. at August 26, 2004 8:15 AMSteve:
Please. A coupla' fruitcake right-wingers show up and that's it? Allow me to amend my above: the vast, vast majority of Republicans don't "do" protests. We have lives. That hardly proves the causes of the Right are unpopular, as assistant managing Newsweek editor Evan Thomas implicitly admitted last month:
"Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, want Kerry to win. And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards . . . as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there's going to be this glow about them that is going to be worth, collectively, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points."
If the media wasn't so consistently and predictably biased, liberal ideas wouldn't have the proverbial snowball's chance in America. Which goes to show just how popular conservative ideas really are, despite (or is it because of?) our lack of oddball mass demonstrations.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at August 26, 2004 12:28 PMOJ:
Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps Fox will force the others to show it. Fox has done a good job putting pressure on the usual suspects to report stories they usually wouldn't touch.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at August 26, 2004 1:15 PMOJ:
Actually, now that I think about it, Fox might force the other networks to show it. They have done good work in compelling the other networks to report stories they normally wouldn't touch.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at August 26, 2004 1:16 PMMatt:
The Swift Boat deal is a case study--only Fox talked about it until Kerry brought it up himself. An indictment of both the media and him.
Posted by: oj at August 26, 2004 1:19 PM