Protesting is actually a great expression of free speech, but we have mutated the act into something that appeals to the news cameras, not to the ones dedicated enough to the cause to show up to the protest.

(similar problems to the televised presidential debates)

"We're better than that."

Yeah, stick to bombing abortion clinics.

MSM also likes to cherry-pick the stupidest and/or craziest-looking protestors to splash on the evening news. Definitely not something I want to get involved in.

Public protests are effective only against government, really, since government by definition compels people into performance. On the other hand, the best way to protest against a private company is to not do business with it, instead of drawing attention to it via futile gestures. Isn't the NYT #3 in circulation in the metro area, anyway, behind the Daily News and Post?

This isn't MSM, this is people on our own side calling it embarrassing.

Tobes, we have our nutjobs, you have yours. Just that in addition to your violent (eco-terrorists, etc) nuts, you also have loud, obnoxious retards that take to the streets and make you all look like freaks. I just don't want the same thing to happen to my side. Obviously, you don't care how protestors make you look---I do.

Toby needs to check out the Hotair video of the libtard protesters from Chicago.

As much as I respect your opinion, Karol, I could not disagree with you more.

The content of this rally notwithstanding-and I don't think anyone who is genuinely conservative would feel ashamed by the addresses delivered by Beth Galinsky, Aryeh Spero, Debra Burlingame, among others-demonstrations of support for a robust defense of this country, and the people who defend it against existential threats-such as Islamist terrorism-are not only laudable, but necessary.

I can rattle off several protest movements that effectively derailed pernicious encroachments by government, or noxious insults to America's heritage, e.g. the Take Back The Memorial campaign, anti-tax movements from Tennessee to Washington State, the campaign to retain the California Civil Rights Initiative in the face of assaults by the judiciary, ad infinitum.

Even in terms of broad, somewhat amorphous issues-for example, how to successfully prosecute the War on Terror-where one, or multiple, rallies have a negligible impact-and this is a point that I do not dispute-they are still important, insofar as they allow people to voice an opinion that would otherwise be ignored by the dominant media organs.

I don't think your assumption that protest/dissent is somehow a prerogative of doctrinaire socialists and professional agitators-even in this country-is correct.

I can't think of anything more consonant with traditional American values than expressing your 1st Amendment rights in a constructive, peaceful manner.

As for the presidential debates I tend to agree, although for a slightly different reason.

I don't think it's so much an issue of candidates appealing to crass motivations-such as increased media exposure-although I'm sure the desire for pungent sound bites is definitely factored into their electoral equations.

However, I think the primary problem nowadays is the dumbing down of intellectual-especially political-discourse, which, unfortunately, the candidates themselves are partially culpable for.

I agree with Postman in this respect.

Compare the level of debate at a Lincoln-Douglas debate for a seat in the U.S. Senate a century and a half ago, or even the Nixon-JFK presidential debates, to a more recent debate between, say, George H.W. Bush, H. Ross Perot and Bill Clinton and you would be flabbergasted by the dramatic decline in terms of quality and substance.

-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)

I can't think of anything more consonant with traditional American values than expressing your 1st Amendment rights in a constructive, peaceful manner.

I agree, just rarely find protests constructive. In fact, I like protests best when they're just fun, like Commies for Kerry, instead of trying to make a serious point in a 6 syllable chant.

Billionaires for Bush!

In one of many blog posts that never saw the light of day, back during the protests in Belarus, I said something like, "The Belorussians have much to teach Americans about real, honest-to-g-d protesting."

Billionaires for Bush is idiotic.

Both in conception and execution

I agree with Karol, CFK was great.

In fact, I was hanging out with Comrade Oleg, from The People's Cube, at this protest.

He was documenting the vast proletariat uprising-all six of them-on behalf of the Old Gray Wench.

Before being greeted with the friendly epithet "asshole" by one of the lovely people on the other side.

Good stuff.

;0)

Protesting is dumb? Then what are you suppose to do when your President is a power mad war criminal? Yes I said war criminal, look up the Geneva Convention, and while you may not see George Walker Texas Rangers Face. You will see a definition of a war criminal, and Bush qualifies.

Protesting is what got us out of the last stupid war we fought. Yes lets take away that freedom too. How many freedoms will we have left then? The number has dropped so fast I have lost count.

-Hart Hansen