A most unusual thing happened yesterday [Aug. 31] at the protest in front of
the White House against President Obama’s planned bombing of Syria.
A group of mostly young, white, male Republicans gathered on the edge of the demonstration holding hand-written signs. But there was something peculiar about this band of right-wingers: they weren’t behaving like the counter-protesters who regularly showed up at the antiwar demonstrations against the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
These Republicans weren’t holding signs that read, “Hitler = Stalin = Assad,” or “Commies Love Dictators.” They weren’t yelling “get a job” or “love it or leave it” at the other demonstrators. Instead, their signs read, “Obama the Warmonger” and “Anti-War Republican” and “Conservatives against War with Syria.”
Was this a parody? Was it a politically calculated action to undermine Obama simply because he’s a Democrat?
I put on my reporter’s hat and inquired about their motives. I wanted to find out why Republicans would be opposing war. Why had they gone off script, which clearly calls for them to spew venom at antiwar demonstrators?
Matthew Hurtt, the gentleman holding the “Anti-War Republican” sign, agreed to speak with me. “I’m generally opposed to military action that doesn’t directly protect our borders,” he said. “Obama ran as the antiwar, peace prize president and he’s been totally the opposite – with a secret drone war in Yemen and droning innocent people in Pakistan. I’m opposed to that.”
Obama’s planned bombing of Syria, Hurtt said, “continues the tradition of both Democrats and Republicans acting with recklessness on foreign policy issues.”
Hurtt, a direct mail copy writer for conservative causes and contributor to Reason magazine and The Daily Caller, explained that he and his fellow conservatives may not have the same mission as other groups gathered at the demonstration, but that there are certain issues, such as stopping wars, on which they can come together.
Lacy MacAuley, a veteran antiwar and global justice activist in Washington, D.C., also noticed the diverse groups at the demonstration.
“This is representative of just how unpopular U.S. military intervention is,”
she told me. “Different groups have come together from all directions today
to protest U.S. military intervention because it’s wildly unpopular.”
Continue reading “Participants Ditch Stereotypes at White House Protest”