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Ok, do you really think that these people are protesting because they want more rights?? No! Of course not! They are protesting because they are STARVING. These are poor people that see their incomes shrinking ever more, and buy less food and so have a lot of civil unrest. Starvation leads to mass riots like these, not purely political reasons. That's MSM BS right there. The reason why Americans don't protest like this is because we have our bellies full. Fed people DON'T riot. Only hardcore leftists riot for political reasons
That was what I was thinking when I first read this thread. Things haven't gotten bad enough in America for people to protest en masse. I'm not talking about showing up at a rally with your lawn chair and cooler; I'm talking about thousands upon thousands of boots in the streets protests.
We're not yet hungry enough. Plus, I think we Americans tend to believe if something goes wrong that it's our fault, and not the fault of the political wizards behind the curtains who pump the money and pull the strings.
My two bits;
I think the media and the government have, over time, labeled "protesting" as an action of the undereducated, racist or a simpleton. Protesting seems to hold the same value as rioters and is therefore frowned upon by the population. Look at the media and government reaction to the tea party, they are labeled racist.
Government’s worst enemy is the protester, it would be in the best interest of government to vilify them quickly in order to limit their size and make them seem to be a few rogue wild cards.
Protesting was the start of the American Revolution, an action that the British Parliament feared and send armed soldiers out to quiet, well we know what happened next.
I don't think those that are involved in the Tea Party events could be considered the 'undereducated'--I more frequently hear on the media that they are exercising constitutional rights.
shrug--I notice well-educated people on social networking sites that support the Tea Party.
I think the tea party movement is a step in the direction of protests, but movements are distinct from protests. Political movements are about gaining support, and about getting their supporters to do certain things (ie, vote a certain way, write letters, march in the streets). Political movements work within the system, protests on the scale of the ones we've seen in Egypt, Iran, Tunisia are about changing the system. I think that the protests in Germany and France really aren't protests in that sense, they are movements, but they feel like protests because they are reactions to government policies. They are movements that are on the edge, because implicit in the movement is the threat that if the government doesn't change its policies, the government will have to be changed. But still, they are about changes within the system, at least initially.
Protests tend to be populated by younger sections of the demographic. When we look at the pictures of protesters in the Middle East and Northern Africa, the people in the street are quite young. When we look at the demographics of countries where protest has effected a government change, the demographics tend to bear out that younger people tend to be more eager for wholesale changes of government, rather than changes in government. That's one of the reasons that France and Germany take the protests/movements there so seriously. The people in those protests are for the most part the younger people, and they are willing to engage in violence as well. Very distinct from the tea party movement in the United States, whose demographics don't reflect so much youth dissatisfaction.
I think the system of government does give people a voice, and an opportunity to effect change, so that people tend to feel that it is responsive to them. But there is a gaining sense of frustration, in large part because the two major parties have legally gained a stranglehold on the process of government, and that channels the voices of the citizens. Those channels have been wide and deep enough that they've satisfied people in the past, but we are seeing a change now, where people feel those channels are too restrictive, and too much alike. People who were politically on the fringe have an avenue to audiences they didn't have before, and that allows them to gain support and traction in the political forum. New channels are being developed, and the legal controls of the two major parties to essentially direct and contain the political conversation are being challenged. But problematically (in my opinion) is that how we are challenging that control is not necessarily the wisest methods.
We have an incredibly flexible system in the United States, which makes real protest less likely. We have a huge country, with a lot of large cities, which makes organizing protests more challenging in the sense of getting people together in one place, and getting media coverage of those events. And people in the United States often have difficulty staying focused, staying on one message. The protest in Egypt was to get Mubarak out. It was the singular message that dominated everything else. As I've pointed out before, the tea party in Des Moines had a different message, a different feel, than the tea party in Houston, which was different from the tea party in San Diego. Too many people with too many different ideas, a diffuse leadership, makes for a vague protest. Vague protests aren't going to effect change. The activism in the 1960's, to end the Vietnam War, that's specific and focused. When we see specific, focused activism in the United States, with an organized leadership, we might see some real protests. But that's unlikely. The recession we are still struggling to get out of was an opportunity for that kind of activism, but the government's willingness to extend unemployment benefits and to fund retraining programs, was not just to help the unemployed, but also to also people to maintain their lifestyles to some degree, so that they were unwilling to protest to change the government.
As I watch the Middle East erupt into protests in half its nations, people willing to sacrifice their lives in order to demand better government, more democratic governments, and at the very least, reforms, I wonder what happened to the American protester?
The French government and even the German government half fear their populations as they will take to the streets in protest over paid vacation days, let alone things like health care, war, or democratic reforms. Not so much here in the United States anymore, where protesting is becoming more about attending a rally once every four years to protest whatever party was elected to President, whomever that may be and by gawd Willie Nelson or Dennis Miller better be the headliner.
Is it because we have some near perfect form of government and system here as to why we don't really protest? Is it because the media and press keep the American people docile, distracted, and wanting for bread and circuses? Is it because the American citizen no longer believes that it can achieve anything by petitioning the government with its grievances?
Or are we just lazy and rather sit in a comfy chair online and complain to others who are complaining about others?
We have two of the longest wars in our nations history still grinding on, we have massive debt and deficits, and a system of government that more and more seems to favor the interests of large corporate conglomerates and special interests than it does the people. We have seen the encroachment of individual and national civil liberty and draconian laws intent on spying on its very citizenry, and with this and all the other issues facing our nation, American's cannot seem to be bothered by taking to the streets.
What will it take before the American people are willing to protest not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans?
What they have in Egypt- economic chaos. People will tolerate a tyrant when they have full bellies.
Due to the "good work" of the democratic congress and Obama, economic chaos will be coming to a neighborhood near you by 2030. Let's see if the republican congress can reverse the liberal insanity and restore fiscal discipline. They are our last hope- if they neglect thier duties, as the previous congress and the current president has done, we are out of luck.
1. Hope for default and fear hyper-inflation and currency devaluation.
2. Repeal the "economic miracles" of the Clinton admin- NAFTA and China most favored nation trade status
I think mass demonstrations/protests are for sheep. They're basically just screaming for their masters to throw them a bone. Nothing more dehumanizing than making yourself part of a whining crowd.
Yep...
Watching those news videos of people riding in on camels and seeing all of the injured citizens really makes me think that our country should be acting more like them.
Last edited by World Citizen; 02-17-2011 at 08:44 AM..
I think its because we are too fat and lazy to go outside and protest
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