Janos v. Kos

Earlier this evening, Kos, founder of DailyKos, one of my favorite sites for several reasons, launched into this misguided screed: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/16/720821/-Why-yesterdays-protests-were-stupid
It slams the tea-baggers, which we all know was a tough journalistic assignment, but also totally disses Code Pink and street protesting generally in the process. Why Kos felt compelled to rip apart another aspect of the same broader movement he's part of is beyond me, but my response is below, and cross-posted at DailyKos here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/16/721107/-Tirades-against-Code-Pink-wrong-and-unhelpful
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Why Tirades Against Code Pink Are Wrong and Unhelpful

While I back Kos about 95% of the time, his bizarre screed against Code Pink makes no sense. Kos should not belittle activists who work towards the same causes he does, but if he is going to slam two organizations whose anti-Bush opposition predated DailyKos, I’d like to at least rebut with what street protesting has meant to me, and the specific experiences I’ve had with these organizations.

I’ll start by agreeing with Kos on a couple key points. Street protests often accomplish little individually. They are sometimes poorly run, and the messaging can be very muddled. ANSWER peddles simplistic and trite anti-imperialism lines that no one takes seriously. This much I’ll concede.

In mid-September of 2001, when like most New Yorkers, I was shell-shocked from 9/11, I trudged up to Dartmouth to begin my sophomore year of college. The country was rumbling towards war in Afghanistan. Something in my heart told me that it wasn’t right to bomb a destitute country “back to the stone age” over the actions of terrorists hiding out in caves. With some effort I tracked down a group of students going down to Washington to protest the war. Twenty of us in two vans drove through the night to attend the ANSWER-led protest rally, joining between 10,000 and 15,000. We were a proud part of the 9% that did not support a reckless invasion and a lengthy occupation.
I can speak to the sentiments offered by Cas2 in response to Kos, part of the benefit of the trip was a “feel-good/solidarity” notion. But it was more than that.

When we returned to campus, the core from that trip formed the Dartmouth Progressives. Over the next three years (and beyond, though I graduated), this group published our campus liberal newspaper, hosted speakers, and led efforts in local and national activism. To this day, I can count several close friends from that van ride. Stepping back more generally, protests are a chance for people to see, not just hear, but to see before their own eyes, that there are thousands of people who think like them, who are passionate about the same causes as them (at least!). That was truly eye opening for me at that first rally, and lord knows how many of my friends had similar experiences during the protests leading up to the war in Iraq, which featured thousands of “normal” people marching in the streets.

They felt GOOD at those rallies! And why not? There is an empowering feeling to walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, chanting “whose streets? Our streets!” Sometimes, sorry, almost all the time, America has to be woken out of its slumber. Why did it take Camp Casey to wake people up to the war, Katrina to expose the Bush administration, the AIG bonuses to get people asking questions about bailout money? A good protest is like a strong cup of coffee in the morning.

Would I ever suggest that marching up and down a pre-selected march route will change a policy by itself? Of course not. Neither will blogging. Would I prefer that a different group than ANSWER run these big protests? Probably. And I will show up when well-organized, on message, politically pragmatic people start regularly organizing major demonstrations. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Now on to Code Pink. Kos laid out four principles for protests to live by, based on his vast experience/observations.
1. Be novel or unexpected
2. Have a sympathetic, singular, and media-friendly message
3. Provide great visuals
4. Tap into a hot-button and timely issue

1. How often do you see old women leading a protest movement? Or even women, which is part of their point.
2. Say what you want about Code Pink, but they have a simple message (end the war) delivered by sympathetic (ok, sometimes sympathic) women. Code Pink also delves into other tangents now and then, but war is their bread and butter. No more wars. Simplistic, but right more often than not looking at the past fifty years.
3. Um, they are DRENCHED IN PINK.
4. Even though this answer applies more to ANSWER, any issue that can get thousands of people in the streets is a hot-button and timely issue. And the war in Iraq is a timely issue. People are still there dying. The escalation in Afghanistan is timely- it was just ordered. I actually admire Code Pink, both for taking off Inauguration Day from protesting, and for continuing the protests the next day. It will be untimely for Code Pink to protest war when we don’ have any more war.

In the interest of full disclosure, anyone who clicks on my profile will see that I helped put together weekly events in Union Square, NYC, from February-April called “Make Out Not War”, which were affiliated with CodePink. Though Make Out Not War never garnered many spontaneous make out sessions like we envisioned, we handed out hundreds of Make Out Not War stickers, posed for many photographers, from amateurs to local media, and we spoke to primarily young passerbys about the war. We had regulars who joined us, and of that group, few had any serious activist history. And as far I know, we followed the Four Kos Principles. It wasn’t the best protest ever organized, but if it reminded even a few people that we are still fighting a senseless war, campaign promise or not, then it was worth it.

In closing, I’ll say this- it takes all kinds to make a progressive movement. We all know this. That’s why we donate money to our favorite progressive candidates. That’s why we knock on doors. That’s why we stop work to read a diary post by a blogger we’ve never met or heard of. I’ve been reading DailyKos since 2003, and touting it since I first laid eyes on it. But some people just want to march in the streets. I, for one, think every part of the movement helps it move forward, and at different times have contributed to as many parts as I can. So thank you, Kos, for helping keep this excellent site running, and let’s please not pretend we can get anything done without being in the streets, where all the people are.