It's A Town Full Of LosersAnd I'm Pulling Out Of Here To Win.

Okay, so I haven't posted anything for a while. I blame the holidays, and a little "poster's block". But in the last few days I've seen various people suggesting that doing nothing would be the way to protest the inauguration of the recently reelected President (yes, that was a gratuitous strike-out). You can buy nothing (notonedamndime.org), or say nothing (bushblackout.com), or stay home from work and really do nothing (black-thursday.com) So, I am forced to post, if only to make it clear that "doing nothing" is not, imho, the way to go.

I don't think that actions such as these are appropriate or even helpful – they seem to be the acts of people wallowing in their loss, and not of people working for a reversal of fortune. First of all, the focus of opposition can't just be George W. Bush, the person, but should be the Administration, its leading figures, and its policies. Unfortunately, the President's more vocal supporters have been able to characterize any opposition as being "hatred" of him – as if Americans had somehow lost the right to disagree with their government's policies and to work to change them. And second, this jumble of activities (are the anarchists really getting organized?) will detract from the fact that there actually is a cogent, eloquent, and informed base of opposition to the expected initiatives of "The Man With A Mandate". Other than a mild (and temporary) catharsis, most of these protests won't do much to change anything. People who did not want to see a second Bush inauguration, may be amused, or may be embarrassed; either way, it won't do anything to encourage their further involvement. More to the point, people who think that opposition to the President's proposals is nothing more than "hatred", will find more than enough to confirm their assumptions – and then they will summarily dismiss anything that they do hear from the aforementioned cogent, eloquent and informed opposition.

So, instead of wasting a perfectly good inauguration day, I hope more people use it as the first day of the discussion leading up to the next national election.