8.02.2004

Too poor to protest? Kirsten Anderberg makes an interesting point about the upcoming protests at the Republican National Convention: all sorts of progressives will be there, except the ones who need to be there the most--the poor. But is she falling into that common liberal trap--confusing "privileged white kids from suburbs" with the real enemy of progressive change--corporations, hawks, and neocons? (The argument is intellectually lazy: she creates a caricature of RNC protesters as a monolithic bunch of shallow, anarchist-chic dimwits, forgetting that mobilization against the Bush agenda has joined together Jews and Christians, environmentalists and peaceniks, union members and nuns, Raging Grannies and anarchists. Further, she derides protesters for wasting money on this symbolic act of resistance when it could better be used for feeding and giving shelter to the poor--a good point--but then suggests that the rich should use their money to send homeless delegates to the protests.)

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