Powell's extreme popularity in US polls might well assure that demonstrations taking place abroad when he makes his trips will have many people rallying behind him at home. If the Repubs and the newsmedia spin it right, it may even have the effect of notching up nationalistic fervor in the heartland. Just what we need.
As usual in the US, it has everything to do with how the media handles the protests. If current news reports vis-a-vis Powell's ascension give any hint, he looks to be in line to get the velvet-glove treatment, at least in the short term (probably longer).
All the more reason why, under this new administration, it will pay for non-US activists to do whatever possible to find effective ways to communicate their message through the various mass media - thinking always of that viewer staring back through the TV screen. And attacks on culpable individuals and more importantly their specific objectionable policies and actions will be most effective, as opposed to attacks on ambiguous phantoms like America-at-large, which would only serve to eliminate the possibility of undermining the US machine from within - and much of the momentum of the last year will be lost as a critical number of heretofore engaged US citizens retreat defensively to that cozy and well-scripted place they occupied when America was daily identified as the "Great Satan" in the not-too-distant past. Such things are always more likely to occur when the Republicans take center stage...
A Warning to LBO readers:
I heard the most curious song yesterday, a song like no other I have ever heard in my life. And music of every ilk (<<<Davies) is a big part of my world, so I'm normally very resilient to surprise. At the dentist's office they play the typical lite-FM soft-pop mush day-in and day-out, but the song I heard yesterday as I lay getting my teeth prodded was an astoundingly explicit call-to-arms disguised as a Christmas song, with a heart-felt male baritone voice tenderly evoking visions of America's glory and virtue, her noble place in the world and the unquestioned divinity from which it uniquely springs. Various Xtian-sacred motifs were further woven into the mix (remember, this is the ostensibly secular, corporate lite-FM station) and then the kicker - as to soaring strings and fanfares, a choir belted out, "HALLELUJAH. . . A-MER-ICA!" over and over and over. And that was only the first verse/chorus. I'm used to hearing the "crossover" Amy Grants, etc. when I go in for my fillings and the occasional root canal (is there some connection?), but this song clearly straddled more than one line, as the political merged with the sacred merged with the corporate and had me thinking of George, Colin, Delay, and all the rest as I stared out the window and the hygienist gently scraped away at my enamel.
Q: What lies in store? (A: Grab the reins and don't wait for it to take form...)
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/ dave /