say no to war unless a democrat is president

It’s no secret that many members of my netroots generation—including such prominent activists as Kos—have come to doubt the efficacy of the rally/march model of political protest. Rallies so often seem to be social gatherings of people who already agree with each other. Generation Xers worry that they will send the general public running like Jehovah’s Witnesses are knocking on their doors. But this morning I learned that these old-school events so beloved by the baby-boomers among us are not complete anachronisms. They can still be effective methods to recruit new members to the Cause.

Witness this picture from this morning’s Rally To End The War In Iraq sponsored by Question War Amarillo. The young gentleman in the middle has never been to a Question War event but is obviously very dedicated to the cause. He clearly took time to prepare for the rally, going so far as to dress up in fatigues and a turban. He’s obviously much further out there on the left’s fringes than me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

At the same time he’s an extremely partisan Democrat. His sign says “Say no to war unless a Democrat is President”. Again, I’m not entirely sure I agree: LBJ, for example, thoroughly botched an unnecessary war, and I’m not too sure about all of Clinton’s military actions.

Those reservations aside, it was great to see a new and committed face show up to protest this war this morning. Keep watching; we’ll have some more pictures up later.

spacedark