Wolcott Takedown

James Wolcott, like many of the mainstream "liberal" bloggers has done a takedown of yesterday's rally. I like James Wolcott and read him regularly.

Like many others who have commented on the rally, he's reaching his conclusions based on what he saw on C-Span. And to the degree that this is all he saw, his observations deserve merit.

But he's also missing the point. Not all rallies are created equally. And not everything is a TV event.

He points out some credible criticisms of the speakers, the shrill far left issues that got televised, and the lack of focus. All true. But did he leave his armchair and actually, like, go take a look at what was happening, or maybe talk to some people who attended? Or did he perform the very thing he's most critical of...lazy armchair journalism? For example, did he see the SEA of people moving like a river away from the speakers podium and toward marching as the message lost coherence?

One of the reasons liberals are getting their asses kicked is because of plain old laziness. The anti-war left is getting passionate and willing to work. The rally yesterday (especially the demographics) showed that this movement is ready to move from the fringe to a greater, broader, constituency that is willing to work.....including implementing change at the local and state level. This is the type of energy that Howard Dean brought to the game. Yet, anytime anyone shows some guts and energy, the takedown begins.

BTW, this rally was no secret. How many James Wolcott's (just to name one) volunteered to come help organize, lending their considerable expertise to the anti-Bush cause, provide rally focus, and helping stay on message? Or, perhaps like Wolf Blitzer, these folks would rather sit at their fighting keyboards and perform another tactic little seen on the right, eat their own.

It would be nice to see some focus on the positive, i.e. the peace movement went from d...e...a...d, to Cindy Sheehan sitting in a ditch alone a very few months ago, to several hundred thousand people gathering in DC to protest with her. No. The liberal elite (yeah, I used that term) has held back with their latte's and chosen to be snarky rather than pitching in. And if I hear one more gripe about protest being outmoded as a method of expression, I'm gonna set up a protest in front of their house and see how they like that. Rovians know the value of mass turnouts which is why they've stage counter protests as well as the Reich'sMarch from the Pentagon.

I don't want to hear anymore gripping about the centrist DLC, the "inside the beltway liberals" who are "out of touch" from these guys who have had little but snarkiness to contribute to countering the Bush nonsense. It's with cohesion, focusing on what we've done RIGHT, and pitching in to improve it that distinguishes the smooth well-oiled political machine called the GOP from the fractious, snarky, creaking carriage called the Democrats.