The DNC: The Lazy Anarchist

Last night at Invesco, during one of Barack Obama's most inspiring speeches, he talked about education. He said:

Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American -- if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

Frankly, this couldn't come too soon.

If you're a regular reader, you've already heard about the wild adventure I had with MOMocrats Julie Pippert, Donna Schwartz Mills, and Deb Gorman.  While Julie and I may have scared Donna and Deb when we ran into the crowd to interview protesters and take photos, I can assure you that the scariest thing I witnessed that night was the appalling lack of knowledge the protesters showed.

After the riot police donned their gas masks and had pepper sprayed part of the crowd, some of the protesters began yelling at the police that “only terrorists gas people!” and “We want justice.”  Julie, always the mom, couldn't help but mutter about the declining standards of our educational systems and began lecturing the young protesters: “You don't mean terrorists, you mean fascists.”  Followed by, “You don't want justice, you want freedom of speech and assembly.”  If you know Julie, you know that all of this was delivered in a firm, motherly, “you've disappointed me” tone.

It only got worse.

After talking to several bystanders and legal observers I found a few masked protesters willing to speak with me. One young man, who declined to share his name but was a native of Denver, informed me that they were protesting “capitalism.”  When questioned further, he really couldn't tell me much about why their protest was so broad.  Of course, he appeared to be wearing Diesel jeans.

Another young man, also from Denver, seemed similarly clueless.  He told me that he wouldn't be traveling to Minneapolis next week for the Republican National Convention. When I asked if he might be protesting the wrong party convention, told me, “Well, yeah, but the Democrats are here.”

In a probably futile effort to help him out for further interviews or questioning, I asked if the Democratic convention could be seen as a symbol of the U.S. tradition of conspicuous consumption and corporate profits, with its celebrity parties, t-shirt vendors lining the streets, and sponsorships by Google and AT&T?  He replied, “Um....sure.”

So there we have it folks, the future of our nation.  Brought to us by the United States educational system.

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I have to say: Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

When Stephanie isn't running into riots or forging the crowded stream on the convention floor, she can be found blogging about more mundane matters at Lawyer Mama.

Comments

[Amatore]

As far as McCain’s campaign goes, lobbyists are flying roughshod through the Republican ranks. McCain’s town meetings are a farce, run by some of the top lobbyists in the country. Let's take William V. Hilleary, for example. He's a lobbyist for Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He's also acting as the Tennessee co-chair. He's doing loads of fundraising for McCain, with alot of money coming from previous clients. You gotta wonder, how do the donations from these companies reflect Americans? It's the same thing in Florida with Brian Ballard. Recently he's been working for Honda, probably getting bills passed that are automotive friendly. Brian is a major part of McCain's fundraising efforts, he's McCain's National Finance Committee Co-Chair. Let's move onto Kirk Blalock. He's a lobbyist for Airbus, an aircraft company. This guy's services basically go out the highest bidder. Our American aircraft company, Boeing, lost a contract from the U.S. because of Brian's lobbying. We also have Slade Gorton, a lobbyist for a bunch of conglomerates. That makes him eligible to be McCain's Honorary Chairman. This guy's laundrylist of lobbying is so long they were going to dedicate a shopping mall in his name. McCain has his campaign plodding along with lobbyists at the forefront. They're on the trail with him, raising money for him and chairing his committees. Rather than drop the lobbyists, McCain is letting the lobbyists drop in on his campaign. His proposals aren't for the people, they're for laggard commercial interests!

[Amatore]

As far as McCain’s campaign goes, lobbyists are flying roughshod through the Republican ranks. McCain’s town meetings are a farce, run by some of the top lobbyists in the country. Let's take William V. Hilleary, for example. He's a lobbyist for Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. He's also acting as the Tennessee co-chair. He's doing loads of fundraising for McCain, with alot of money coming from previous clients. You gotta wonder, how do the donations from these companies reflect Americans? It's the same thing in Florida with Brian Ballard. Recently he's been working for Honda, probably getting bills passed that are automotive friendly. Brian is a major part of McCain's fundraising efforts, he's McCain's National Finance Committee Co-Chair. Let's move onto Kirk Blalock. He's a lobbyist for Airbus, an aircraft company. This guy's services basically go out the highest bidder. Our American aircraft company, Boeing, lost a contract from the U.S. because of Brian's lobbying. We also have Slade Gorton, a lobbyist for a bunch of conglomerates. That makes him eligible to be McCain's Honorary Chairman. This guy's laundrylist of lobbying is so long they were going to dedicate a shopping mall in his name. McCain has his campaign plodding along with lobbyists at the forefront. They're on the trail with him, raising money for him and chairing his committees. Rather than drop the lobbyists, McCain is letting the lobbyists drop in on his campaign. His proposals aren't for the people, they're for laggard commercial interests!

[Aimee Greeblemonkey]

This is what has been driving me CRAZY about the "capitalism" protests and aalot of the people who are do these kinds of things. I know I am going to sound like an old fogey as well, but this is why I have stayed away from "jam band" concerts... people in tie dyes talking about "living simply" getting into their limited edition SUVs and driving away. Same thing I have seen in Denver this week. A bunch of kids who want to get caught up in the drama but don't know what they hell they are talking about, or who they should REALLY be arguing with.

Sure, there have been some really effective and honest to goodness protests that have made sense (particularly the Veterans against the War), but none of THOSE ended in riots or arrests.

And if similar (at least in terms of people protesting capitalism, seeing as riots are never good) does not happen at the RNC, I am going to be further disappointed the youth of America.

[Donna]

Thanks for posting this, Steph and not letting it get lost among all the material we are all processing still after leaving Denver. It was worth the wait!

[cynematic]

I second Aimee Greeblemonkey: if those protesters can't get off mom's couch and get themselves to the RNC for a decent protest, then they aren't worthy of the fine tradition of dissenters in this country who made REAL change come about.