feminist marxism in motion

So John Stewart has announced his ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’, as a counter-rally to Glenn Beck’s recent ‘Rally to Restore Honor’.

I find John Stewart’s call for this rally to be reactionary and misleading (though clever). Why? First, because it seeks to discredit all forms of protest as meaningless wastes of time that ‘real’ people don’t have time for. And second because it attempts to discredit the Code Pink and anti-Bush, anti-War protests, by lumping them in with the tea party demonstrations. Are the millions of people around the world who marched against Bush, the Iraq war and everything else, also absurd and insane? No they are not.

If the antiwar protesters and the tea party have anything in common, its that they both appeal to existing sections of the population. As long as Glenn Beck and John Stewart (whos guest for that episode is Bill Clinton) are the only visible forces addressing the real frustrations and anger with government existing amongst the people, they are able to (indirectly) funnel people into polarized camps of republican and democrat which are really just two sides of the same coin, and are not actually in opposition to each other at all. In reality they feed each other. 

Support for Glenn Beck’s racist populism is at least partly fueled by a legitimate anger and frustration amongst white ‘middle-class’ and working class Americans who have a rationally deep and profound distrust for government. While its true that large sections of the tea party movement may be made up of petty bourgeoise, that their rhetoric is racist and scary, and that it is being heavily funded by the ruling class, I think it is a mistake to ridicule the anger that the populism DOES appeal to. People have contradictions, such as racist ideas about why there are no jobs, or why their quality of living has deteriorated so quickly. But its in everyone’s best interest that these people not be further baited and appealed to in their negative capacity. Its in everyone’s best interest to appeal to the things that the whole country has in common: anger that we are spending millions bailing out banks and waging war.

There is a growing population, beyond upper middle class Americans, that is white and working class and struggling and who are very very angry at both Democrats and Republicans. Let’s not ridicule those people. Especially at a time when many of their sons and daughters are coming home maimed and f’ed up, and there is actually a basis to build a real antiwar movement. Thanks.