Both numbers are wrong-- support for ending the war had a majority in 1968, which is why Humphrey ended up calling for ending it by election day and Nixon claimed a "secret plan" to end the war, catering to that sentiment. The antiwar left pumps up mainstream support for the war as an excuse for their failure to intelligently negotiate the politics to end the war.
Similarly, the numbers now show overwhelming opposition to a US war against Iraq without UN sanction, which is looking very unlikely. There's is plenty of opposition to tap there, yet the antiwar movement has spent a lot of time being marginalized under the direction of WWP-types. And to repeat, these rallies are far smaller than the labor, gay and pro-choice rallies that have happened in DC in the last twenty years. Lazare's declaration of them as a new wave of radicalism is ridiculous.
Folks like Lazare can denounce the Coopers and Gitlins, but the latter rightly recognize how much the WWP-style alienates folks who would naturally gravitate to antiwar activities. I am continually struck by how many of my less political friends and family, almost to a person agains the war with Iraq, express the idea that they just wouldn't go to an antiwar rally because of bad experiences they've had in past years of feeling so alienated at them. I remember during fall 2001 when my housemate of the time, a moderate guy ambiguous on the war, commented to me how a WWP protest in Times Square turned him off so much.
What bugs me so much is that I've spent a decade in the "organized left" yet there are so many times when I have felt almost embarassed to ask anyone other than other lefties to come to an event, for fear they will be so alientated by the rhetoric and posturing they are likely to experience.
Now, since I think rallies are overrated, I could just suggest they call their legislators or talk to their neighbors, and probably do more good, but it would be nice to have a broad left led by folks you could take home to meet your friends without embarassment.
-- Nathan Newman