why haven't americans been protesting?

[Chris McKinley]

No other "developed nation" has as developed or modern a healthcare system as we do because they're all 2nd world collectivist nations. Beyond that, we'll just leave the conspiracy freaks way the hell over there on the left where they've always been. They're doing a great job, and Republicans are far too boring to come up with the juicy ones anyway.

[Michael]

We are protesting in huge numbers but it's not being reported in the mainstream media, and Bush, with the help of Officer Jack Boot, has relegated many of the protests to "free speech zones".

[Ian]

No other "developed nation" has as developed or modern a healthcare system as we do because they're all 2nd world collectivist nations.

Yeah, but...

Infant mortality is worse in the US than in Cuba, Canada, the UK, France, and almost ALL European countries.

Same can be said for life expectancy.

How come?

[Chris McKinley]

Because the U.S. is where we invented the truckload of dead babies jokes.

[qiphlow]

what's gross? a truckload of dead babies.
what's grosser than that? there's a live one at the bottom.
what's grosser than that? he's eating his way to the top of the pile.
what's grosser than that? he makes it!

[I-mon]

thanks for the responses guys.

i know there's a strong feeling these days that protesting won't do any good - where did that feeling come from i wonder? i think i misworded my question since what i was thinking about was what i guess is more correctly called "demonstrating". i know like mike says there are loads of folks "protesting" especially on the internet, but it seems like most people don't bother demonstrating, marching on the streets or gathering outside parliament or in whatever public places, because they feel that it's not effective.

seriously, how do we get convinced that huge public demonstrations don't do any good? i would say that nothing scares a government more than large numbers of people gathering together to express their dissatisfaction. the government may not immediately change their policies, but they can't ignore it in the way that they can ignore "the blogosphere" or untrustworthy poll and survey results.

but the greatest benefit of public demonstrations, in my experience, is for the people out there on the streets to actually be out there together, instead of just talking about things at work or with their friends and families or at home by the TV or computer, to actually see and feel all these other real people. just showing each other that we exist and we're not happy with the way things are going, no need to shout and scream and fight with the police (although there will always be those who do), just BE THERE in the flesh, as a group, showing that the government does not represent our wishes. it's good for the public spirit, which is exactly what seems to be getting crushed these days.

when your government starts randomly bombing and invading other countries, kidnapping and torturing suspects, holding people - including children - without trial in violation of international law...all using your tax dollars, it's good to get out there on the streets and show each other and the people around the world, that they are not representing you.

anyway let's see how things go today, for starters.

[Steve James]

Today is about the biggest national demonstration that we'll ever see.
No matter which candidate wins, it is a demonstration of the people's belief in the system. Usually, we're lucky to get 40% turnout. The more people vote: the more people care.

[Formosa Neijia]

on the streets?

at the very beginning of the iraq war i remember mass protests around the world, we had some huge ones in australia - of course the government sent troops anyway - and there was tv footage of huge numbers of people in london, new york and other cities in the US, and various other parts of the world. that was what, 6 years ago?

what's happened since then? why haven't there been enormous demonstrations of millions of americans calling for the removal of Bush and Cheney from office?

have you guys in america heard about or been invited to protests and not bothered to go? why not? has it just become too cheesy? too much of a cliche?

You somehow missed the whole Cindy Sheehan debacle and all the protests that she and others participated in. They protested the Iraq War for years. Besides that, the number of people that feel that strongly about the war that they would protest constantly is fairly small.

As the protests continued, statements from people like Sheehan got more and more non-sensical, causing even most of the far-left to disown her.

And why ask this question now with the election today? Americans historically vote instead of protest. We don't have coalition government that is more responsive to protests. We have routinely scheduled elections. They'll be removed today no matter what.

Dave C.

[I-mon]

I did miss the Cindy Sheehan thing, although the name is familiar. Especially in the last 4 years I've spent a lot of time away from television and news in general.

It's good to hear about a big turnout to vote this year. I guess it was this whole financial crisis bailout thing combined with war and army brigades being trained to combat "civil unrest" all happening at the same time, made me wonder about apathy and demonstrating and so on.

I also wonder if many people will refuse to pay taxes, in response to the wall street bailout. it sucks that people's hard work should be taxed to pay for the madness of rich bankers and maniacs in the pentagon.