Thursday, January 15, 2004

Man Bites Dog: Bush Hears Protesters

The Bush Administration has adopted a policy whereby they restrict protesters at Bush events to "free-speech zones" where Bush is very unlikely to see or hear anything of them. British officials refused to go along with all the restrictions on protest that Bush's team wanted to impose on protesters there.

Apparently the Secret Service slipped up on Thursday and let Bush actually hear some protesters! Bush Booed at Martin Luther King Gravesite [Good symbolism, that!] Reuters 01/15/04:

In a sign of the difficulty President Bush faces as he tries to win black support for his reelection, several hundred protesters loudly booed him on Thursday as he laid a wreath at the grave of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

"Bush go home" and "peace not war" the predominantly black crowd of protesters shouted from behind a barrier of buses, as Bush paid tribute to King on the 75th anniversary of his birth.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

a "predominantly black crowd of protestors" kept out of sight, though not out of earshot, "behind a barrier of BUSES" is also rather symbolic, wouldn't you say? after all, buses is where civil rights protest all began!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the symbolism of the protest turned out to be doubly effective because Bush tehn made his "recess appointment" of Charles Pickering to the federal bench, a man not the least after MLK's heart. It's gotten to be almost a ritual: whenever Bush makes a "compassionate conservative" gesture, expect the policy hammer to fall in the other direction very soon. - Bruce

Anonymous said...

What's even more remarkable about the protests in Atlanta is that the media reported them in the first place.

Anonymous said...

It is remarkable that the media reported the protest. But it also shows how a relatively small protest, if it calls attention to something in the right way, can have a bigger impact. Without the protest story, Bush's visit to MLK's grave would have gone largely unnoticed. But the fact that it was more noticed because of the protest makes the contradiction of his symbolic gesture to his substantive action in appointing Pickering all the more jarring. - Bruce