APPARENTLY I'M A SCREAMING LIBERAL

I have been informed that reacting badly to two Republican yutzes who made our counterdemo seem like a 'pro-Iraq war yay Bush rah rah boomdee yay fest' will frighten away the poor gentle love-filled Republicans who otherwise would flock to our standard like happy little moths to a bright attractive light, and that we are becoming extremist lefties who scare people.

We are now repellent to dear little children, Republicans, small puppies, Republicans, girl scouts, Republicans, elderly women, and Republicans. We are like an overly perfumed pipe-tobacco, in other words.


Let me explain that a little.


On Saturday the twenty-seventh of October, about sixty or seventy people counter-demonstrated International Answer's alleged peace rally.

We, the San Francisco Branch of the vast intergalactic Zionist conspiracy, were there with signs and flyers making it clear that we objected to International Answer's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic agenda. We also made it clear that as a group we had no position on the Iraq war and were not demonstrating against the peace movement or the idea of peace, but were there only and entirely to protest against International Answer. One single and very simple issue.

This proved too complicated for the teevee reporters, who instead chose to feature sound-bytes from two simple very pro-war people who may have been Republicans.

The televised shots of the counter-demonstration showed tons of Israeli flags, but did not explain why there were any Israeli flags there. The talking neanderthals in front of that backdrop instead spoke lovingly of Bush and the Iraq war. Which effectively made it seem that all of us were there as pro-war slope brows.

I really do not like when our message is hijacked by Republicans. If the Democrats or the greens had tried it, I would be just as angry. But it was Republicans who did it. They were not there as supporters of Israel objecting to International Answer's anti-Semitism, they were not there in support of Israel - they were there purely to cheer for the war.


Because of that, I suggested to the group that we should in future avoid Republicans like the plague - the ones who show up to counter-demo tend to be mush-mouthed morons and no-neck inbreds. And I was being very charitable and full of sheer buckets of love when I said that.

But saying that apparently makes me a dangerous radical lefty - because I do not look with a kindly eye on Republicans going off message when they join us.
I have been informed that there are tons and tons of Republicans in the Bay Area who would join us and protest for Israel if only we didn't chase them away with our Marxist rhetoric and hate.


Sorry, no.


There aren't tons of timid pro-Israel Republican butterflies out there, sister.

This is the Bay Area. Eighty percent plus of the population votes for the Democrats. Being pro-Israel in the Bay Area is already considered ultra-rightwing by some people in any case. We have an uphill battle against popular perception. If those timid Republicans are frightened by our not taking a stand on the war, they are frightened of everything. They are frightened of bright lights, cheese that doesn't come in slices, and their own quivering shadows.
They probably check under their beds for democrats before they go to sleep at night.


Boo, gentle Republican butterflies, boo!


And we aren't radical lefties either. I already bend over backward to keep from scaring away rational potential supporters with my extremist pro-settlement sentiments. I have not once said that if the Arabs cannot stop firing rockets the response should be devastating and final. I have never even mentioned to querulous strangers that I consider the European left, with their wussy pandering to every anti-American and anti-Israeli cause in the world, the greatest possible danger to civilization. I have studiously avoided expressing points of view which could be misinterpreted as extremist far-right Zionist here in the rather liberal Bay Area.

Because I love lucid and sane supporters of Israel, I'm already doing my bit not to frighten the mainstream. So the very least the hypothetically pro-Israel Republicans who might stand with us can do is not piss all over that.


Do NOT hijack the message.


At this point, I'm perfectly willing to mace the next person who brings a pro-war or pro-Bush sign to a counterdemo which is ONLY supposed to be pro-Israel.

If that makes me a screaming liberal, so be it.