The coming extinction of protests

Tens of thousands of conservative activists, assembled loonies, birthers, deathers, tenthers, conspiracy theorists, Confederates, libertarians, militia members, haters, and opportunistic Right-wing politicians gathered on the National Mall and around the country for Saturday’s “tea party” protests, and – aside from the freak-show quality of the whole thing – one fact stood out: they were so OLD.

Fox News interviewed a 73-year old and her husband, who traveled from Oklahoma I wanna say, and they seemed to be a pretty representative demographic sample of the crowd. Sure, not everyone in the crowd was Medicare-eligible, but I’d peg the median age at 66, 67 years old.

At first, that made sense to me in the current context: polls have consistently showed that the 65+ age group is the most likely to oppose the President, health care reform, or any other piece of the Obama agenda. Whether the opposition is racial, cultural, or simply political is open to interpretation, but clearly, that age group would be the most likely to turn out in protest.

But…

I went to a bunch of anti-war protests in the early part of the decade, and thinking back, that crowd leaned toward the 50+ age demo as well. The young people who did turn out for those were generally either campus neo-hippies or black-clad anarchists.

Do retirees just have more time and cash to travel to Washington for these? Or, is there just a protest generation that will continue to age? In twenty years, will marches be skewed to the elderly?

Back to those tea-party guys – I’m guessing very few of them turned out at the ‘63 March on Washington, Selma ‘65 or Grant Park ‘68 – but those images still had to impact their political awareness. The 65-year olds in that crowd would’ve been between 19 and 29 during the prime American protest years and it wouldn’t be surprising if they still define the Left in that context.

I was a generational exception to those early-decade anti-Iraq war protests. I was a college student at the time – not a neo-hippie, certainly not an anarchist – and I can see why most people like me were more disillusioned than inspired. Most of those protests were sponsored by International ANSWER, which is – I believe officially – a front-group for the Workers World Party. Many of the speakers were blatantly anti-American and a lot of the signs (the Bush = Hitler theme was common) were over-the-top and just wrong.

Cindy Sheehan, whom I had admired during her original Bush-ranch stand-off jumped the shark with a hunger strike the following year, and I have vague recollections of some D.C. march I attended in her honor. By then, most of the early-war mainstream demonstrators had moved on, leaving only the hardcore (which consisted of a few true-believers, an assortment of crazies, and people who just really like to protest). Again, average age of 50 or so. I was probably in part a true-believer, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also drawn to the festive atmosphere and the feeling of being part of my times (or, pretending I was part of another time, apparently).

The concept of protesting the war in Iraq was certainly justifiable, and if that’s what we had done, it would’ve been a very noble thing. But, while I went there to protest the war, I’m pretty sure the result was getting worked up about some previously unheard of political prisoners or institutionalized racism in this country. I probably got stuck marching behind some 9/11 Truthers or stood next to people as they called for an end to fascism in the United States (sigh).

Even looking at it objectively, the tea-party guys were FAR more vitriolic (and downright scary). Some of them seemed ready to storm the Capitol, and I caught a glimpse of one sign that read “We didn’t bring our guns… this time.” Huffington Post linked a video of a woman distraught that the Muslims were taking over her country, and one guy interviewed on Fox said he had fought for his country in Vietnam and was now prepared to fight a war to “take back” our country at home. Signs calling Obama or Pelosi un-American, fascist or communist were too common to even be noticeable as were the pre-printed “Bury ObamaCare with Kennedy” signs.

This clearly wasn’t a “the Left did Thing A and the Right did Thing B and both are equally nutty” occasion. No. The Left did some crazy stuff and the Right just did some far crazier stuff. But, even allowing for the difference in degree I can still see how these fringe-y groups on either side might turn off a new generation of demonstrators. If protests remain the collection of crazies that they’ve been the last ten years, then I’m content with letting them die out with the generation that flocks to them. In the larger context though, I certainly hope they don’t take to the grave with them concepts like civil disobedience, political participation, and grassroots activism.

Short-term, I’m skeptical. I think it’s unlikely that I would attend another protest until I’m certain I won’t be embarrassed to be counted alongside the other protesters. Guess that makes one fewer “under-30″ participant.