Looking back at how digital organizing altered the shape and stances of America's antiwar activism. Plus, details on a new effort to clamp down on the scammers and spammers of online fundraising.
Great piece. Personally I believe "anti war" organizing was dead the minute our military became professional and the draft was eliminated. During Vietnam and the lottery system almost every family could be impacted by the war. This ensured that rich and poor and black and white families could unite once it was clear Vietnam was folly (yes rich could get out of it.. See Bush and Clinton)
The political class realized their mistake (joined by the military industrial complex) and they abolished the draft and therefore became immune to the pain war brings to a nation.. Just outsource it to men and women that volunteered to serve rather than who were conscripted.
All true, but in the 1980s we had vibrant movements against intervention in Latin America and that was post-draft. And we stalemated Reagan's desire to roll back the Soviet Union using nuclear sabre-rattling. So we've had antiwar movements with some power even after the so-called volunteer army (it's a poverty draft). I think our responsibility to avoid stupid, costly and immoral wars is even greater when we don't have compulsory service.
Great piece. Personally I believe "anti war" organizing was dead the minute our military became professional and the draft was eliminated. During Vietnam and the lottery system almost every family could be impacted by the war. This ensured that rich and poor and black and white families could unite once it was clear Vietnam was folly (yes rich could get out of it.. See Bush and Clinton)
The political class realized their mistake (joined by the military industrial complex) and they abolished the draft and therefore became immune to the pain war brings to a nation.. Just outsource it to men and women that volunteered to serve rather than who were conscripted.
Once that was done... Endless war was easy.
All true, but in the 1980s we had vibrant movements against intervention in Latin America and that was post-draft. And we stalemated Reagan's desire to roll back the Soviet Union using nuclear sabre-rattling. So we've had antiwar movements with some power even after the so-called volunteer army (it's a poverty draft). I think our responsibility to avoid stupid, costly and immoral wars is even greater when we don't have compulsory service.
88% or 90% supported the Afghan invasion iirc, at the very beginning. It's when I realized I was in a fringe minority.
Yes, something close to that number. I'm a little older than you, and having come of age politically during the Reagan years, I already knew that.