The Mighty Middle’s Michael Reynolds looks at this weekend’s anti-war demonstrations. Read the whole post because it does get across the fact that sometimes actions, words and the politidal style on the left and right spark a kind of backlash.
It raises a key question: are demonstrations to show force in numbers, consolidate activist support, or to also win some people over with arguments that will be televised or broadcast and therefore (in sound bite form) reach others?
When is a demonstration successful? When it attracts numbers or a diverse mix of participants, gets coverage or if a key message or concept gets out (think of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, which yours truly saw while sitting in his grandma’s apartment, sipping a Pepsi…a speech etched into my memory so deeply I can still see myself sitting in the living room watching the black and white TV).
One of the biggest tests the Democratic party now faces is a tug-of-war between those who believe there is a basic center in American politics and the party must embrace it and use all of its political skills to win it over versus those who think the party has not been tough enough in its stands and campaigns and has to its detriment sold out principles that would get apathetic voters to the polls. The bulk of the people demonstrating were of the second category.
Were the demonstrations successful? If so, why? If not (as some say), why not? There are already some useful suggestions from demonstration suppporters about how to improve future events.
Reynolds looks at the demonstrations and various blog commentary and reaches a no-hold-barred conclusion:
But the far Left is not really about changing things. Their purpose is to strut and sneer and condescend and play out their own little psycho-dramas on a public stage. So to that extent the bloviators on the rally stage had a terrific day.
There is a key difference between the far Left and the far Right: the far Right wants actual real-world change, the far Left just wants therapy. If the Democratic party is ever going to have real power and accomplish real good it will have to listen to its moderate wing. The Left wing is a waste of time.
Yes: it comes down to this: what is the goal of X demonstration? Is it to create a strong, working sense of community among those who already embrace a point of view with all of the accompanying assumptions? Or is it to build upon and expand that side’s numbers? Is it to restate existing positions, vent anger or persuade? Or all three? And, if so, how did the weekend events fare?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.