Whatever Happened to War Protestors?
Janeane Garofalo has recently caught the attention of the press for calling all Tea Partiers racist, which has overshadowed her remarks concerning spending. Garofalo poses the question, “Why weren’t the Tea Partiers protesting spending during the Bush Administration?”
Umm… because the deficits during the Bush Administration weren’t so massive until the bank bailouts (which Obama readily supported as well). The underlying implication is that Tea Partiers are really just GOP henchmen (and racists of course). The fact is, however, that deficits were declining until the bailouts which, as I recall, were largely opposed by Republicans in the House.
This is probably why they're upset… probably.
The argument made by Democrats that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq (both of which I’m opposed to personally) were too costly lacked credibility the minute Obama, on the eve of his election, voted to hand over $700 billion to the biggest, most crooked banks in the country. The bailouts trumped the cost of both occupations at the time.
Which leads me to the point of this post: where are all of the war protesters? If Garofalo sees a problem with the Tea Partiers, certainly there ought to be a problem with the complete lack of war protests with regard to the escalation of violence in Afghanistan. This suggests that the peace movement is just a partisan, Democrat, effectively fake movement as well.
This is what former Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney had to say about the issue:
However, while the so-called left is obsessed over supporting a very crappy Democratic health care plan, people in far away countries are being deprived of their health and very lives by the Obama Regime’s continuation of Bush’s ruinous foreign policy.
I was never dismayed when the so-called right attacked me and called me names for protesting Bush. However, something inside me gets a little sick when I hear people who claim to be peace activists supporting the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, a policy that is not like Bush’s in the fact that it’s much worse.
I have been called a “racist” from the so-called left. In these people’s opinion, I was totally justified in protesting Bush, but I am a racist for protesting the same policies under Obama. When I opposed Bush’s policies, I was called traitor, anti-American, anti-Semitic, and other names I cannot print. Name-calling is a great way to shut down critical thinking and discussion. And, not to mention, I think the murder of innocent life in the Iraq-Af-Pak regions is racist and morally corrupt.
A Democrat apologist on the website Newsbuster derided Cindy Sheehan, who gained notoriety for protesting the Iraq occupation during the Bush Administration, for protesting the Iraq occupation during the Obama Administration:
Yeah, enough already, Cindy. Thanks for helping us get Obama in the White House. Now shut up.
Still, it would seem that both sides are more partisan than either would like to admit.