Uneasy Rhetoric

I’m a pretty liberal guy. Line up all my political issues and interests and you’ll find my boat listing to the left. But when the President is in town, you won’t find me on a freeway overpass waving a hand-painted sign about Iraq or anything else. I won’t be the guy on the evening news stammering through a litany of reasons why the current Administration is not doing a good job. I might wave at you as I drive past, or give you the peace sign, but really, that’s as close as I’ll get.

My reason is pretty straight forward: these protests are not very effective. They make the protesters feel good. They do little to raise awareness. In fact, they may be counter-productive because there’s always a chance you’ll have some idiot waving a Soviet flag or doing something equally repugnant.

Every time the President rolls into town (any town), all of the various left-leaning groups mobilize their members to come out for a little protestin’. Furthermore, a lot of individuals, drawn up in the passion of the moment, will turn out for these mini-protests.

From the Bee:

Not everyone is so enthusiastic. The president is likely to be greeted by protesters near the entrance to the Fuel Cell Partnership building. Various groups were using the Internet to organize demonstrators. Liberal radio host Christine Craft said she was encouraging her listeners to turn out to make their views known on a variety of issues, from the Iraq war to the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Does anyone else see the problem here? It’s all in these four little words: a variety of issues.

I have no problem with mass protests about immigration or about the Iraq war. I have lots of problems with protests about immigration AND the Iraq war. Turn out lots of people on one issue and you get volume. Turn out lots of people on lots of issues and you get noise.

And the media, liberal, conservative, or otherwise, will have no problem finding the most ineloquent, confused, person to speak. “Why are you protesting the president’s visit?” “Well, uh, I don’t think he’s doing a good job, uh, U.S. out of Iraq and my uterus and into New Orleans!”

You see the problem now, right? There’s no message there. Or rather, there are too many. Unless you manage a protest of monumental proportions, you’re not really even showing mass public dissatisfaction with our leaders. Presidents have had their visits protested since time immemorial.

At some point, I’d like to see all of the liberal groups get together and agree that they’ll organize a Presidential visit protest around a single issue. Hammer the media with the same message over and over. All day long. Do it for as many days ahead of time as possible and keep the momentum going after he leaves.

But it will never happen.