Why the Insults Against the Right's Protests are Hypocritical

This weekend we saw a protest in Washington D.C. The protests gathered little to no coverage as a group of Americans, angry and upset at their government and leadership marched upon the Capitol Mall to voice their opposition. In the end, they were marginalized, insulted, and told they were nothing more than a group of rouge crazies! They insulted the President, comparing him to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and countless other horrible dictators! They insulted him and called him on what they saw were foolish policies that would destroy America.

The problem, though, is that this is exactly what happened in 2003... and 2004... and especially 2005. In 2005, I attended a Impeach Bush rally in Washington DC. Save the crowd being anti-Bush and being much, much larger, we were treated just like the people who protested on September 12th. In 2003 and 2004 at the anti-war protests, the crowd was much smaller, but it was growing.

One thing I keep hearing is that the protesters against Obama are doing it on racial lines, or at the very least, that there is some deep-seated racism in it. Admittedly, I wouldn't be shocked if that is the sentiment of 10% or less of the people protesting, but it is far from it for the majority! Some people are there simply because they don't like his policies, some are anti-Obama because of Fox News.

But the simplest explanation makes the most sense: That the people who are anti-Obama are politically driven. After 8 years of bush and the Republicans in control, when they were able to live in a country more their way, the fact that you have someone coming in who represents most of what they're afraid of (Democrats, economic and health care reform, ending the Iraq War), especially when he is basically trying to undo everything Bush did in only 9 months... well, can you at least understand their fear? Their anger?

Here's footage of their protests on 9/12:



And here's the anti-Bush Protests from 2005:



I'm not asking you to agree with them, but I am saying that we need to realize that it isn't as black-and-white as "well, they hate black people" or "they hate Democrats". We need to listen their side and understand them better.

Image Courtesy of the Seattle Times.