Stage Four

I am back in Austin, Texas; and am back to work and school. My second day being back in town I read an article in “The New York Sun” titled, “End of a Movement”, by: Eli Lake. The opening statement in this article is, “The People. United. Can in fact be defeated.” When I first saw this opening sentence, or I should say fragment, I thought about James Madison, and his discussion about factions.
This article is about a faction called, “Code Pink” which is an association of senior citizen women who dress up and shout slogans at Congressional war hearings. Lake tells me that this peace group of women some who has a direct influence on the decisions made by congress. The author also says that a youtube ad was made featuring women in pink jockey outfits riding Democratic leaders of Congress like they were horses. In this ad, the narrator tells the spectator, "With your help we can dominate Congress with peacemakers and finally end this illegal, immoral and unconstitutional occupation." At first, I was very interested thinking that there is possible corruption in our government. Is it possible that factions are not being maintained? Is it possible that factions are actually controlling our nation? I read further into this article to find that this Code Pink organization has not even managed to get any of the big three Democrats running for president to embrace their goal of an immediate withdrawal. When I say immediate withdrawal, I mean the movement that Code Pink is trying to push right now hence why this article was published. Code Pink is trying to end the war by 2008. Another movement arisen also called, “Iraq Summer”, which was an initiative aimed at getting 50 Republicans to break with the president on the war. This goal apparently almost seemed plausible when a chairman of the Senate was threatening to vote with Democrats on withdrawal dates.
My criticism is not with the author of this article since it was mainly just an informing article about a movement attempt by a faction. My criticism is with the politicians that could actually be allowing interests groups influence their decisions on very important issues. I realize that they are influence by someone, or something at all times whether it be the nation as a whole, media, party identification; but, a specific group is frightening. I think I fall into the stereo typed American political ignorance group, however, being apart of this course is causing me to take initiative in political issues. In the short amount of time getting myself into the loop of things, I can come to the conclusion that this Code Pink group, and the influence it has on Congress, and possibly the Senate too, is not good for the United States.
Here is a link to this article if this interests you....http://www.nysun.com/article/65135