What’s the point of protesting yesterday’s news? By the time your march comes together, everyone is already focused on the next outrage.
How Can Protesters Keep Up With Trump’s Atrocities?
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I’m already protesting whatever he does next. 😀
I get Ted’s point, but isn’t reacting to atrocities or whatever inherent in the notion «protest» ? Perhaps rather than protesting, people in the US should break out their pitchforks and surround the White House, Trump Tower, and wherever Stephen Kevin Bannon happens to reside ? On the other hand, before doing so, perhaps they should consider if they really want Michael Richard Pence as US president….
Henri
Naw, Pence goes out with Trump.
We need Ryan in the Oval Office.
Any acolyte of Ms Rosenbaum is OK with me…. 😉
Henri
Protest isn’t effectively done by running behind the candidate like the guy with the push broom who follows the horses in a parade. You protest by identifying what you want and then pursuing it. Example: I want to ride in the front of the bus. Example: I want the right to vote. Example: I want gay marriage.
How do you pursue it? Usually, economically. This is called “protesting smarter, not harder.” But you also follow up with letter campaigns to the people in charge. (The economic protest gets to a lot of those people, but you also have to get to the nominal powers–the elected officials. A smart one will realize that he needs to get onboard so that he can pretend he’s on your side–look at how HRC flip-flopped, er, evolved, on gay rights. And she should know about marital sanctity if anyone does.)
When do you march? You march SPECIFICALLY and ONLY so that either the other side will be seen using excessive (and violent) force or to get favorable publicity for your group. The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a perfect example of the former. I know how the “official” story goes–the protesters didn’t know there were troopers on the other side until the protesters had reached the midpoint of the bridge–but there’s no way you’ll convince me that the organizers of the march didn’t realize that 1., you can’t see the east side of the bridge from the west side and that 2., Whitey wasn’t going to just let a bunch of black protesters walk into the state capitol. And what did the police do? They beat the hell out of the protesters. And the TV cameras were there, filming the whole damned thing.
Keep in mind, the latter–getting publicity–is a double-edged thing. The Klan recently took to sponsoring highway cleanups. And the whole thing blew up in their faces. So you really need someone with a flair for HOW to get GOOD ATTENTION for your group. Here’s a hint though, trying to turn a protest march into carnivale? No. That only convinces the people who already are on your side; and they aren’t the ones you need.
And that is how you protest effectively.
It’s easy to despair when reading news from the United States, but at times one reads a notice that restores one’s faith in/hope for the basic decency of people in that country….
Henri
It’s hard enough keeping up with the continuing atrocities handed off by Obama to Trump without having to contemplate his own atrocious plans for the world every day.
The death of a Seal in the Yemen was carefully orchestrated by Obama to happen on Trump’s watch. And Trump fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Obama mostly used drones, so few deaths (or even injuries) of US military. He knew Osama had no weapons of any kind, so the Seal assassination was a safe and dramatic move. The Obama version is that, thanks to Obama’s micro-management of the attack, the Seals found Osama in a multi-million dollar fortress manned by many heavily armed jihadists, but thanks to Obama’s brilliant leadership, the Seals did not suffer a single injury (that’s part of the version written by Obama’s press secretary, a journalist who had the highest marks in his creative writing classes; he also wrote that Osama was found by ‘enhanced interrogation’ and that the Seals found plans for an attack that, had it gotten out, could not have been stopped and would have made 9/11 look like a minor traffic jam, but they intercepted it and so now, thanks to Obama, that attack can never happen).
The Seal attack on the Yemen village was (according to Obama) necessary to capture phones, tablets, and computers, and was scheduled (after the election) to occur on the first new moon after Obama left office. And Trump lost one American soldier. And it’s all Trump’s fault. Were it not for term limits, that soldier would still be alive, and the Seals would have all the phones, tablets, and computers. Right.
Every newspaper I read says that the plan was brilliant, but Trump botched it as badly as it could possibly have been botched since he is a totally incompetent Commander in Chief.
Just more evidence that Obama is a brilliant politician!
I think seals should always be referred to with the appropriate French term….
Henri
On the other hand, sometimes Mr Trump tells it like it is, as the following excerpt from an interview carried out by Fox News’ William James O’Reilly, as reported in the Guardian (no comments allowed, of course) makes clear :
«“He’s a killer, though,” O’Reilly said. “Putin’s a killer.”
“There are a lot of killers,” Trump answered. “We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”»
Can one imagine Mr Obama acknowledging this fact ?…
Henri
> Can one imagine Mr Obama acknowledging this fact ?…
Nope. Absolutely not in a million years.
Can one imagine Mr. Obama bragging about this fact?…
«Can one imagine Mr. Obama bragging about this fact?…» When I read this in the Guardian, CrazyH, I didn’t get the impression that Mr Trump was «bragging», but admittedly, with him it’s hard to know. I then used the link provided to see that portion of the interview with Mr O’Reilly and even there did not get the impression that it was a «brag», but rather an acknowledgement of the a fact that many people in the United States refuse to see….
If you want to take a look yourself at the video clip, I’d been interested in hearing your impression (and that of any other reader here who feels moved to comment)….
Henri
Henri,
The problem though is that by admitting that this was a truth, the media would have to then answer the following: “Why do you guys suck up to killers like you do? You’re supposed to be the media. Why aren’t you calling out the murders these politicians commit by penstroke and legislation?”
I have known a lot of journalists. They’re almost all the same: they want to sound like they really, really care. And they really, really don’t.
Have you read The Quiet American by Graham Greene? The protagonist is a reporter covering the war in French Indochina (and Greene was a reporter who covered the war in Indochina). Greene says in the preface that, while the book is a novel, it tells more of the truth than he was ever allowed to tell as a reporter.
His story could not be wired to the UK unless it was censored by the French. Upon arrival, it was censored by the UK before being sent to his newspaper, where it was heavily edited so it was in line with the newspaper’s editorial policy.
But Greene needed the money, so he wrote what could get printed and paid for.
I will take it out of the library (before the maniacs burn them all to the ground).
I, too, Alex, have known and worked with journalists ; I fear I must confess that I share your opinion of them….
With regard to sucking up to killers, the thing to keep in mind is that those on «our» side are never killers, they are merely protecting «our» values and «our» security. These considerations, of course, do not apply to those on the other side, they are «killers» pure and simple….
Henri
«His story could not be wired to the UK unless it was censored by the French. Upon arrival, it was censored by the UK before being sent to his newspaper, where it was heavily edited so it was in line with the newspaper’s editorial policy.» Cf the plight of editorial cartoonists like Ted today, as discussed in Chris Hedges’ interview with Dwayne Booth, aka Mr Fish….
Henri
With regard to Mr Trump’s Damascene moment when being interviewed by William James O’Reilly, I found FAIR‘s commentary on the outraged – or was it outrageous ? – NYT editorial worth passing along…. 😉
Henri