No Bush, No Chicago '68

[otohara]

by Todd Gitlin and John Passacantando



The war on the other side of the world was launched with high expectations but is now widely seen as a fiasco. Young Americans are being sacrificed in hostilities whose justification once sounded high-minded but has since decayed into a farrago of political dogmas, lies and distortions. Americans are sometimes negligent, sometimes brutal toward the people the U.S. government is supposed to be liberating, and the latter want the former to leave. Support for the war erodes at home, and the President is despised worldwide.

The furies of the war echo in the furies of the anti-war movement. Despite efforts to sustain a playful mood, rage grows in activists' hearts. Rage has become a sort of identity looking for outlets, as the Iraq stance of the Democratic nominee for President frustrates anti-war forces. For months, demonstrators have been making plans to manifest their displeasure during the Republican convention in New York City in late August.

Peaceful demonstrators are squaring off with stiff-necked authorities over the city's refusal to grant permission for the rally they want. Meanwhile, other demonstrators welcome a chance to provoke mayhem. Their numbers may be tiny, but the press is primed to amplify the sour notes, acting on its ingrained principle, "If it bleeds, it leads." Authoritarian forces are ready to chortle at the resulting spectacle and swing public opinion behind them.

For all the differences between the Vietnam of 1968 and the Iraq of 2004, between Lyndon Johnson and George W. Bush, aren't the similarities a trifle unnerving?



http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/