There was an article in "The American Prospect" about how the protest movement is hurting liberals. This blog debunks that assertion and shines lights on the real reasons why it is being made. This is a good argument to counter all those people who think good politcs is quitely and respectfully stating policy. It reminds me of the times when I have tried to take part in political action only to be told by some organizational type to modify my actions to what they considered appropriate levels. [no hand made signs, be nice to reporters, etc]

Here is a quote from the blog:

I don't know who this group of hippie protester strawmen are in Kevin
Mattson's cautionary tale in this months Prospect, but I've not had the pleasure. I don't think there exists a vast number of nostalgic baby boomers and utopian youngsters out there who are planning to launch another Summer of Love, unless he's specifically talking about the anti-Iraq war protests, which of course, he is, but won't admit it. That's because those war protesters weren't trying to hop on
a nostalgic magic carpet ride back to the days of Hanoi Jane, they were
participating in a worldwide protest about a very specific unjust war being
launched by an illegitimate president --- a war which the "fighting liberals"
like he and Peter Beinert foolishly endorsed.

Here is another:

My instinctive reaction to this entire line of paranoid ramblings about the
wild and crazy lefites making a big scene and ruining everything is that if this
guy thinks that a bloodless, wonkish liberalism is ever going to compete with
the right wing true believers he's got another thing coming. American liberalism
grew out of a passionate progressivism and a worldwide union movement, both of
which featured plenty of "protest politics" in their day. And if he thinks that
the modern GOP's political might hasn't drawn much of its power from pulpits and
talk radio demagoguery, then he hasn't been paying attention. Nobody does
political theatre better than the right wing.

And another:

I don't know where this vast horde of reborn hippies worshipping at the feet of
Jerry Rubin are but I do not see them. What I do see is modern political
activism that is demanding change in modern ways. It seems to me that it isn't
"the left" that is nostalgic for the past, it's these centrists who for reasons
I cannot fathom have decided that their grandfather's political methods are the
ticket to political dominance in the 21st century.

Read the whole thing here