Main content | Sidebar | Links

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Antiwar tactics.

Tapped puts in an amen to Justin Raimondo's important essay, "This Isn't About You." (I mentioned Raimondo's essay on Monday.) Tapped also commends Timothy Burke's post about what the antiwar movement should be trying to do about the war:

None of us can stop it. Give that up right now: you cannot stop the war. Don't even try. Don't even fantasize that you can.

You can only prepare to exact a political price from the people who led us so poorly to this point, and to do that, you need to make the war a bigger issue than the antiwar.

The answer to the war now is not theatrical street protests. The most important movement to join is the one that will insure the election of a better administration in 2004.

Prudence, patience and planning are what's needed now. That's what has worked for the Republican grassroots: ever since Barry Goldwater's defeat, they’ve been organizing steadily, laying down deep connections with actually existing communities, thinking about what kinds of rhetoric carries water in the public sphere, and disciplining or ignoring errant nutcases and fringe elements. If you want to exact a price for this war, led in the way that it has been, you’re going to have to be similarly focused.

My advice to religious liberals who are tempted by extremist language in these disturbing times: Dissent from the center. Don't shut up: Just figure out how to make your point in ways your neighbors will actually hear and take seriously.

Copyright © 2003 by Philocrites | Posted 20 March 2003 at 5:39 PM

Previous: Student march.
Next: Resource round-up.

Advertising

0 comments:



Comments for this entry are currently closed.