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Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
Are raucous protesters at the Republican Convention playing right into Karl Rove's hands? Readers write about the planned protests, Kerry's military record and more.
Aug 12, 2004 | [Read "New York Lockdown," by Michelle Goldberg.]
Though I am an angry anti-Bush citizen, I'm scared that people like Jamie Moran seem to have forgotten that there still is going to be an election in November. Do they think this show of seething hatred and violence is going to help? Do they think it's going to make people vote Bush out of office?
It's not. For whatever reason, people see the Republicans as tough on crime, and a major riot and crime wave in New York City will only fuel people's fears. The protesters won't just scare the Republican power structure, they'll instill fear into ordinary citizens -- you know, the voters?
Do they want to see four more years of this bullshit? Then they should go ahead and riot, loot and destroy property as Moran hopes they will. And then wait for W. to win. They may well go down in history as the rioters that put the worst president in a century back into the White House.
-- Daniel Petrie
Michelle Goldberg's article on the police lockdown during the RNC got my blood flowing and nostrils flaring. I'm rooting for the protesters to raise as much hell as possible (short of hurting anyone or causing too much damage) and show this president once again how upset his citizens are.
My only complaint about the article is that Goldberg focuses on the massive security force that will be assembled. That's a big story, sure, but the bigger story is this -- Bush just doesn't care. He didn't even pretend to care about the worldwide protests before the 2003 war in Iraq, so what makes the protesters think he'll be swayed one inch by criticism now? When your own citizens come out in huge numbers to send you a message and you shrug it off, that tells you all you need to know about the way this guy views democracy.
I know activism is important and maybe what might happen in New York is one more step on the road to an American regime change. If the protesters can live with being completely ignored by the silver-spooned imbecile they're targeting, then I say, have at it.
-- Ryan Ellis
In what way would petulant protests "stand up to" the Bush administration? Why not spend this enormous wealth of anti-Bush energy on trying to reach apathetic voters or sway the tide in up-for-grabs states? The Bush administration doesn't care how you feel. Republicans don't care how you feel.
While we're on the subject, Republicans should be allowed to be Republicans without being made miserable. Let them do their thing in NYC, and then vote against them. That's the only kind of victory that matters.
-- Haley Kish
As a native New Yorker born with a plastic spoon in his mouth, I'm getting tired of every person with a cause coming to my hometown to protest instead of doing it in their own hometowns. Don't the protesters know that all the corporate stuffed shirts are off on vacation for the month of August? I would appreciate it if the protesters would go to Martha's Vineyard and express their political views to the people who can actually make changes, not schmoes like me who are just trying to get to get to and from work each day.
The antiwar protests last year were fine on the weekends, but went nowhere on the weekdays, because the average working person does not care about the rights of others, they care about making their rent and food money. I doubt anyone with adult responsibilities will jump in and start protesting arm in arm with a bunch of college kids and homeless folks.
After having close friends killed on 9/11 by crazy people from another country wanting to make a statement against the U.S., getting stuck in subways by crazy Republicans who want to make their statement about our country, and on top of this, having crazy protesters from other states come to New York to make their own statement about our country, I am sick and tired of my hometown being a canvas for fanatics of all stripes. Please, please leave us alone!
-- John Feerick
I hope those who protest at the Republican Convention are out of jail in time to vote come November. While I wish them well and appreciate what they are expressing, this is a perfect opportunity for the Bush administration to not only rid itself of a large number of "undesirables" but to create an image of leftist extremism that can only help him come November.
-- Claire Ross
We shouldn't be the least bit surprised if the protests at the RNC are violent. What else do you expect when every nonviolent protester is either herded into a barbed-wire "free speech zone," arrested on a technicality, or too intimidated to even show up in the first place?
The police are arranging it so that the only people left on the streets will be those who want violence. I don't know whether the police are doing it out of incompetence or Machiavellian calculation, but either way it's frightening.
-- Alex Small
