toomuchtime_
Gold Member
- Dec 29, 2008
- 20,180
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Do people believe protests work?
I don't think they worked when they protested during Bush's tenure.
Whether you liked Bush's policies or not, the Bush WH exercised real leadership within the Republican Party, but the Obama WH does not have that kind of clout among Democrats in Congress, so the demonstrations are aimed at telling members of Congress that their constituents - demonstrations are occurring in state capitols and other cities as well as in Washington - are watching how they vote on Obama's/Dem's big spending bills. The town hall meetings did not change how the Dem leadership behaved, but it did sway a lot of moderate members of Congress, and these demonstrations, if they can be continued, may have the same effect.
Do you believe that the anti-war protests of the 60s and 70s effected the war effort, i.e. it caused America to withdraw?
To the extent the protests were believed to show strong the anti war movement was, they influenced political positions of members of Congress and influenced some elections and these political decisions ultimately influenced policy decisions that led to the cease fire and then to Congress cutting off military aid to the South and preventing the US from providing air support to South Vietnamese troops.
If members of Congress believe these protests, along with the town hall meetings and other smaller protests that have been going on around the country for weeks, show that there is a significant popular movement afoot that strongly opposes Obama's big spending policies, enough members of Congress may decide to force Obama and the Dem leaders to do the right thing and start this process over again with a commission to study all the ways in which we might reform our health care system and how much each will cost before turning the issue over to the political process again.