Help prove that the public supports peace by donating money to the campaigns of members of Congress who voted against the war and now face tough re-election campaigns. And let the pols know exactly why you're supporting them. Chief among these, according to MoveOn.org, are Paul Wellstone, who faces a brutal Senate race in Minnesota, and Rick Larsen, Rush Holt and Jay Inslee, all running for re-election in hotly contested House districts.
Regardless of who's in office, though, it's critical to build up the grassroots. A national movement will give decent legislators the backbone to stand up to the hawks and will serve notice to less enlightened members of Congress that there will be political costs to their support for war. And the notion of peace is gaining traction. As the Washington Post reported yesterday--a week after The Nation's Liza Featherstone wrote about a nascent peace movement--people are seeing a "rising tide of student activism, of protesting by people who have never protested before and of an engagement on the issue that was absent prior to US involvement in Vietnam."
There are big marches being planned in Washington, DC, and San Francisco for October 26, as well as smaller events happening almost continously nationwide. The country is clearly not united behind Bush's policy of regime change in Iraq. The larger the protests, the more difficult this will be to ignore.
Peter Rothberg
Help prove that the public supports peace by donating money to the campaigns of members of Congress who voted against the war and now face tough re-election campaigns. And let the pols know exactly why you’re supporting them. Chief among these, according to MoveOn.org, are Paul Wellstone, who faces a brutal Senate race in Minnesota, and Rick Larsen, Rush Holt and Jay Inslee, all running for re-election in hotly contested House districts.
Regardless of who’s in office, though, it’s critical to build up the grassroots. A national movement will give decent legislators the backbone to stand up to the hawks and will serve notice to less enlightened members of Congress that there will be political costs to their support for war. And the notion of peace is gaining traction. As the Washington Post reported yesterday–a week after The Nation‘s Liza Featherstone wrote about a nascent peace movement–people are seeing a “rising tide of student activism, of protesting by people who have never protested before and of an engagement on the issue that was absent prior to US involvement in Vietnam.”
There are big marches being planned in Washington, DC, and San Francisco for October 26, as well as smaller events happening almost continously nationwide. The country is clearly not united behind Bush’s policy of regime change in Iraq. The larger the protests, the more difficult this will be to ignore.
Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.