Another War Criminal Signs Books at Cody's

To be fair, it would be pretty damn hard to find a US President who isn't a war criminal. By my standards at least. Anyway, Clinton is a pretty smooth (slick? slimy?) politician and his cult of personality was definitely in full swing with the media testifying: Clinton-Mania Hits the Bay Area.

This visit came hot on the heels of Clinton's secretary of state Madeline Albright (also a war criminal). As with Albright, when Cody's brings these key American foreign policy makers for Bay Area liberals to fawn over, only a small number of people actually showed up to vocally protest.

You would think more protesters would show up, given how many people are opposed to the war in Iraq, and especially now that Michael Moore's screed is raging in the theatres ( if you are like me, you will like the movie but be disappointed that he selectively avoids criticism of democrats and is getting into bed with the wieners at MoveOn.org ). Especially given that Clinton has been DEFENDING Bush regarding foreign policy on Iraq (paving the way for Kerry to keep the occupation going, in my view). Ironic, aint it? Anyway, you would think more protesters would show up.

As for me, I did show up, I couldn't resist. At first, I busted out a boombox and began playing Phil Och's Love Me, I'm a Liberal (listen to a bit) to all the people waiting in line to get their books signed. I quickly realized that it was going over most of their heads. They were annoyed because obviously, if I wasn't there to wait in line with them like a chump, then I was no better than Bush. Or something. I got booed before they could even tell what I was playing :).

Anyway, all the bad vibes bummed me out, cuz its a really good song, and I thought, maybe Im giving these Clinton afficionados way too much credit. I mean, maybe they will need to read the book and learn that Bill Clinton was once a student listening to Phil Ochs and draft dodging and organizing anti-war (Vietnam) protests and whatever else. Incidentally, speaking of students, active ones at that, readers will be interested to note that I ran into Student Regent (for one more day) Matt Murray. Apparently he had to wait in line like all the other chumps while new ASUC president Misha Leybovich got to go in VIP style - he was dressed up awful nice and milling around with the other buff guys in suits (but they were working - secret service). Ouch for Matt!

So I put the boombox in the hands of a friend. I borrowed a friend's bullhorn and did a quick survey of the crowd and asked those in favor of the war to raise their hands. Noone in the damn crowd had the guts to raise their hands (there were actually a few war supporters maybe about 3 or 4 per 100, as I later learned). So I made a sign that said

Bill Clinton:

   “I have repeatedly defended President 

    Bush against the left on Iraq"			

SO, if you oppose the war in Iraq, let Bill 

know how you feel.  You’ve got about 7 seconds 

with him, long enough to tell him something like:

    “Oppose the war, Bill” 

    “Bush was wrong, Bill”

    “Lets bring the troops home”

Do it after he signs your book!   If the Bay 

Area doesn’t give him the message, who will?

I held this up and walked the line, getting into a bunch of really interesting discussions.

Some people became totally incoherent and basically attacked me outright. A lot of them debated whether Bill actually meant what he said (hee hee!), and whether there we had any reason to care about what a man like Clinton said publicly (funny, they were the ones standing in line for 3 hours with drool running down their faces and sweating under the weight of his 900 page book!). There was shitloads of cognitive dissonance and head shaking, even after I pointed out that all the Democrats voted for the war (and continue to do so), and that they, faithful Clinton fans, should really not be so surprised that Clinton would support the war, since, after all, he's a Democrat. More head shaking. Seems many of these people were in some serious denial. The point I made that seemed to convince the most people was when I asked folks if they seriously believe the troops will come home before the Democrats actually admit publicly that the war was a mistake.

Anyway, not everyone was negative, and a lot of people (maybe 50-80) nodded their heads and agreed to do it. One really nice guy even offered me his ticket and told me I should go in and talk to Clinton, which I politely declined. The most important thing, I think, was getting folks to address, to some degree, their own cognitive dissonance on the immorality of the war vs. their support for democrats (hopefully they can extend the analysis to other progressive issues).

The one big thing I learned is how incredibly affected folks are by mainstream propaganda, "leadership", and cults of personality. As an activist, I've decided that one needs to acknowledge and reaffirm the existence of these basic, non-subtle, totally anti-intellectual modes of behavior (herd mentality and aggressive idolatry) every once in a while just to maintain an idea of what you are working with (and against).
- posted by Mano Negra @ 5:01 PM |