Professor Juan Cole, whose blog I read constantly comes out swinging against street demonstrations in opposition to what’s going on in Gaza.
I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t matter if tens of thousands of people demonstrate in Paris. Oh,it might put a little pressure on Sarkozy to remonstrate a little harder with the Israeli government, but in the larger scheme of things it isn’t very significant.
Europe has ceded dealing with the Israelis to the United States.
The people of the United States have ceded dealing with the Israelis to the US Congress.
All of the above is true, but the fault lies in the last statement, the people have given up their power to control politicians by allowing themselves to be easily manipulated and not throwing the scoundrels out of office if they are not in lock step with the wishes of their constituents. For example, the mood of the people in 2008 was against the deployment of US forces in lands that have posed little or no threat to US vital interests, or even US allies, yet the likes of Nancy Pelosi, and John Conyers, just to name a few, were reelected inspite of this public backlash. Why?
Later in his piece Cole describes how the Israeli lobby is able to effectively influence members of Congress, and I submit so can We the people. Professor Cole does offer up an excellent suggestion of how that can be done, and I’ll leave it up to the reader to read what is written in Cole’s own words. My contention to Professor Cole’s piece is this: people the world over need to see there is an active opposition in America to government tyranny, even if the opposition is not effective in changing policy. It’s the one way we are able to show the international community that our government may be rotten in its foreign policy but America is still a good place to live and its people are still imbued with the spirit of freedom and liberty. In the absence of such images people can easily justify their rhetoric of hate and fear towards Americans and their form of government. Believe me, the distinction between America’s government and its people is known, recognized and appreciated the world over.
I remember how the placards and card board signs influenced America during the era of civil rights and Vietnam. They were not solely responsible for positive change, but they certainly played a part in that change. When we can synchronize the protest on the streets with the protest at the ballot box, we will return America to a truly representative form of government envisioned by the “Founding Fathers”. Until that time, I really like seeing and hearing the voices of dissent and hope they will flourish. When they stop being raised is when everyone should be afraid!
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