Intolerance of opposing opinions... But this is just a replay of the revolt against Quaker governance during the French & Indian War... The Quaker did not want to allow self-defense... The Scotish-Irish disagreed... And the Quakers removed themselves and booted out of office because of it...
The moral of the story, Pacifism never was a governing Philosophy during war or times of conflict... http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/20090112_Why_the_anti-war_movement_is_lost.html >>> Over the life of the recent anti-war movement, the attempted revival of the >>> '60s was destined for failure from the beginning. Too many other issues were dragged into the effort. What middle-of-the- road Americans would attend a demonstration against the war if they knew they'd be standing in a mob of Che Guevara T-shirts listening to chants of "Free Mumia!"? I support people protesting what they think are injustices, but all issues aren't linked. It's not a good tactic to force people to stand under an umbrella of issues, all of which that they may not support. By alienating the silent majority, the current anti-war movement has dealt itself a bad hand that essentially diminished its credibility. In a democracy, strength is in numbers. This anti-establishment and absolutist view of the political process is likely to be the real cause of their implosion. As someone who's been fighting for years for an end to the war in Iraq, I find this tragic because we need the voices of millions to put pressure on our elected officials to end the conflict and fix the many problems facing our country. But those voices have to be credible to be taken seriously, and circus acts never are. What pains me the most about the self-destruction of the anti-war movement is the fact that the people behind it genuinely want an end to the war. They're not phony front groups or partisan hacks using the war as an advantage to promote their political party, in my mind a worse sin than dragging in all those irrelevant issues. But the truth is that the "real" anti-war movement has become far too radical to be effective. They've pushed themselves into a corner where there's no possibility of meeting an opposing side halfway. If they ever hope to regroup into a force capable of generating a strong political will, they'll need to accept that it's 2009, not 1969 - and be more tolerant of other opinions. * --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
