NPR, Belatedly, Acquires a Clue

15Apr/110

NPR, Belatedly, Acquires a Clue

As part of their policy of occasionally acquiring one after having their federal funding threatened. Memories, like the corners of my mind:

But it's just not the same. Now and then, small pockets of protesters still band together. On March 19, for instance, about 100 demonstrators — anti-war protesters marking the eighth anniversary of U.S. military involvement in Iraq — were arrested outside the White House.

"It's a far cry from the Bush years, when hundreds of thousands or millions marched against the war," David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute, writes on the Britannica website. He asks the same question: Whatever happened to the anti-war movement?

In the post, he points out that American protests against wars seemed to stop the moment Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. "Maybe anti-war organizers assumed that they had elected the man who would stop the war," he observes.

But the wars have continued. More than two-thirds of Americans have opposed military intervention in Libya, Boaz reports, and nearly two-thirds of Americans — a number that is up dramatically since early 2010 — believe the war in Afghanistan hasn't been worth fighting. "Where are their leaders?" Boaz wants to know. "Where are the senators pushing for withdrawal? Where are the organizations?"

He concludes that the anti-war activity in the United States — and around the world — a few years ago "was driven as much by antipathy to George W. Bush as by actual opposition to war and intervention."

To buttress his assertions, Boaz cites a recently published study of anti-war protesters. The research was conducted by Michael Heaney of the University of Michigan and Fabio Rojas of Indiana University. It concludes that the anti-war movement in America evaporated because Democrats — inspired to protest by their anti-Republican feelings — stopped protesting once the Democratic Party achieved success in Congress in 2006 and then in the White House in 2008.

"As president, Obama has maintained the occupation of Iraq and escalated the war in Afghanistan," Heaney, an assistant professor of organizational studies and political science, said in a news release. "The anti-war movement should have been furious at Obama's 'betrayal' and reinvigorated its protest activity."

Instead, Heaney continued, "attendance at anti-war rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement have dissipated. The election of Obama appeared to be a demobilizing force on the anti-war movement, even in the face of his pro-war decisions."

But it's the outrage I will remember . . . whenever I remember . . . the way . . . we . . . were.

Bryan Preston offers a few more clues:

In the candid remarks, Mr. Obama complains of Republican attempts to attach measures to the budget bill which would have effectively killed parts of his hard-won health care reform program.

“I said, ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we’re stupid?’” recalled the president of his closed-door negotiations on the bill to fund the federal government until September. …

Speaking into a microphone which he may not have realized was still relaying his remarks to the White House press room — where Knoller had been listening to earlier remarks that were open to the press — Mr. Obama bemoaned GOP leaders’ attempts to attach a measure to the budget bill which would have cut funding for Planned Parenthood.

I doubt the GOP thinks the president is stupid, but evidently the president does think America is stupid. Remember, we had to pass ObamaCare before we could even find out what’s in it. During the budget debate, this president and his party put controversial funding — for Planned Parenthood — ahead of funding the troops fighting our wars, including the war Obama evidently lied his way into without consulting Congress. This infantile, devious and rank partisan president then has the gall to say Republicans are politicizing the budget?

After these remarks, and after that disgracefully partisan speech on Wednesday, it’s time to shut this president down. Get the troops funded, and then shut this president down and make him put his name on the line defending every cent of the political spending he has packed into the stimulus, ObamaCare (a Democrat dream for decades, though universal health care has never been a priority with the voters), Planned Parenthood — all of it. Don’t shrink from the debate. Make him defend it all.

A clue. Obama's mystery suture may very well have been designed for inserting one, but evidently, it's never been used.