When politicians looked at the crowds in 2003, they asked themselves whether they were likely to lose their seat to anyone rising from the street below. If the answer is yes, they have to listen to the crowd.
“The answer is no,” Rojas said.
Yesterday, Clancy Sigal, of the Guardian, cited my research (with Michael Heaney) on the antiwar movement as evidence that the left has dropped Obama:
Meanwhile, Obama’s contribution to the left has been to weaken it. From the day of his inauguration, antiwar activity in the US collapsed. In a little noticed study last April, a University of Michigan survey, by professors Michael Heaney and Fabio Rojas, concluded that the movement evaporated because its mainstay Democrats, lulled by Obama’s “second coming”, withdrew almost in a body. As Heaney said, “the election of Obama appeared to be a demobilising force … even in the face of his pro-war decisions.”
A few thoughts. The antiwar movement, at various points in history, has often occupied a central place in American politics. My own view is that antiwar issues were dominant in the mid-2000s. Most historians would argue that antiwar sentiment was strong…
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