Battlepanda is embarrassed by us on the radical fringe who - GASP - actually realize that Democratic politicians share responsibility for the war in Iraq. And it's not that we disagree on outcomes, but rather on tactics:
However, when it comes down to tactics, I have to say I cannot stand the radical left. I've been to one anti-war protest only, in Boston. At the time it left me with a reasonable warm-fuzzy feeling even as I realized that it accomplished nothing. But there were elements of the protest that made me cringe. The homemade "no blood for oil" and generic George W. = Dumb type signs, the floats, the "hey hey, ho ho" chants. Now I look upon the protest with some measure of embarrassment. The whole protest culture which Sheehan is perhaps the premier participant in leaves me utterly cold. I understand how somebody who grew up during times when protests proved to be more momentous would disagree violently, but in this day and age, they are the sideshow.
But it's not like her alternative - going along to get along - is doing much good. The newly installed Democrat majority, it turns out, isn't so far from Bush on Iraq. A lot of the anti-war momentum for Democrats was an exercise in classic straw man politics, according to AntiWar.com's Justin Raimondo:
...the President is not proposing an "open-ended commitment" - at least, explicitly. He still maintains that we can begin to withdraw as soon as the Iraqi military is up to par. If you sweep away the rhetorical flourishes, and the political posturing, the Democratic position of "phased redeployment" isn't much different than the course we're already on. And why is it only the President's responsibility to come up with a new "plan" for Iraq? Didn't more than a few Democrats vote for this war? Okay, so the Democrats are against an "open-ended commitment" - what do they propose, instead? "Phased redeployment" is phrase-making pure and simple, but what does it mean, concretly?
This gives a new twist to the frequent Republican screeches of not "having a plan". We've just been assuming that the Democrats don't have a plan at all, ignoring the possibility that maybe their plan just isn't original.
While I think there's a lot of things about the Left that are going to have to change if we're to get anywhere, I don't see how Battlepanda can make any sort of rational argument that "going along to get along" does any better than protest tactics in terms of actual policy outcomes. If she wants to sell blind faith in a sanitized, well-behaved political party, that's her prerogative - but let's call it what it is.
Her embarrassment is palpable, but what should we expect? Schools, the media, government, and other institutions have constantly preached that actions outside what the State has determined to be proper and orderly is in and of itself counterproductive and dangerous (usually the latter because of the State's responses). We've usually acquiesced to this perception, even though our rights have most often been secured and enlarged by outright disobedience - without waiting for establishment permission.
Decades of propaganda promoting the need to maintain strict order in society has convinced us that without rules (even if they're set by an elite) chaos would reign. Besides, mainstream politicians say the right things and are much easier on the eyes than somebody like Sheehan. It's not comfortable or, dare I say it, easily marketable to witness the raw emotion and stark reality that Sheehan and other protesters evoke. We've been socialized to avoid such displays of outrage; the messiness scares us, especially when our politics are quiet and personal. It's undoubtedly disturbing to associate ourselves with people so depressingly marginalized and vulnerable.
Sticking with mainstream politics is almost more desperate in my book, though, and by certain definitions more insane. Alternatives may not have the best track record, but they also haven't been tried on the scale that electoral politics has. If we really want change, maybe Sheehan's tactics aren't optimal, but at least she's trying to be the change she wants to see in the world. It's more than I can say for us bloggers.
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