Blasts From The Past, And Other Places Part 2

The Republican Party Convention Protests

The protesters and anti-Republican people I've seen walking around NY this week trend toward being vulgar.

There are F--- Bush T-Shirts all over. Great now I know you don't like the president, but this is not going to change anyone's mind. Instead it gives the shirt's owner the look of an impetuous child.

I also disagree with those who think the mass marches of the 1960s and early 1970s had much to do with ending the Vietnam War. The media ended that war by bringing home pictures of soldiers dying for no discernable reason. No conservative individual watched the anti-war protesters attempting to storm the Pentagon and decided to change their feelings on the war because of that action. I don't think anyone said, "ooo look at all those people saying the war is wrong. I must be incorrect for thinking it is a just way to halt the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia."

I will parce my previous statement a bit and say the civil rights protests did have an impact, but less because of their numbers then the reaction they illicited from the police down south.

Images of people being hosed down, attacked by dogs or beaten by police changed people's minds by garnering sympathy for the protesters.