Are you a “career-minded” college student with no hope of finding a summer job? How would you like to make $400 a week, plus expenses, campaigning “for safe redeployment out of Iraq, targeting congressional and senate war votes in selected states/districts?” That’s the pitch that one anti-war group sent out in a solicitation to political science professors seeking their help in identifying “the best of the best”–or at least the best of the too stoned to have lined up a job yet. The letter goes on, “For those wishing to further a career in politics, the timing and training involved is a great opportunity to situate yourself for ’08 races as an experienced campaigner.” Don’t do it because you believe in it…do it to advance your career. The campaign is called “Iraq Summer,” and it’s being run in conjunction with MoveOn.org, USAction, and Americans United for Change. Comparing the campaign to the “Mississippi Summer that helped pass the civil rights laws, and Viet Nam Summer that helped end the Viet Nam War. . . . Iraq Summer will be the 21st century edition of those historic projects.” Ah yes, just like those kids who campaigned for civil rights, and the hippies that spent their summers sticking it to the man, you too can be a part of history by becoming a mercenary in the grass roots army to “fracture critical elements of the Republican base of support for the war.” Absent a real grass roots movement among young people to end the war in Iraq, the left seems to have decided it might just be easier to buy one. But one wonders if there’s been any thought to the possibility of provoking a backlash from sending a bunch of lefty college kids into Republican strongholds with the aim of convincing voters of the error of their ways–the error of the “President’s disastrous policy in Iraq,” which, despite all the disastrousness of it, still polls pretty well in Red America. Does anyone remember what happened to Howard Dean when he sent his grungy left-wing minions forth in Iowa:
Of course, those kids were, for the most part, true-believers. Maybe the idea here is to pay the kids and offer them career advancement in the hopes that the most offensive, anti-establishment candidates will choose not to participate. I mean, it all sounds so Republican…working for money and a chance to get ahead. And the campaign also requires all applicants to have access to a car–not very eco-friendly.
