For Debate Protesters, a Loud Backfire

You thank heaven for Berkeley if you’re a political conservative. Berkeley protesters specifically. Any rowdy protesters will do, actually, but Berkeley’s are the best. They’re grand symbols of shrillness and stridency; wonderful role models for raucousness.

Historically, they’ve been world-class at advancing causes--usually for the other side.

This came to mind Wednesday night as I watched TV reports of the demonstrations at Cal State Northridge. What I saw leading the news was film of more than 1,000 young people--”many of them from Berkeley and other Bay Area schools”--chucking bottles and rocks at police in riot gear.

They were protesting the presence of ex-Klansman David Duke and advocating the continuance of government affirmative action.

“An explosive situation,” said the TV anchor. On the screen, young people were shouting, slinging and shoving.

Two black men were beating up a white guy who had a headband around his eyes. Don’t know the story, just saw the film. Only know that this was not a good message for middle-class white voters watching from their family rooms.

Opponents of Proposition 209, including the student leaders who cynically invited Duke to debate the measure’s merits in an unsubtle move to link 209 and the KKK, have argued that the issue is too divisive. And here on campus their thesis was being demonstrated.

In all the ruckus, the debate itself got little TV coverage.

*

At a critical time in the initiative fight when neither side can afford TV ads, the opponents came along and provided one free for 209 supporters. It ran on virtually every TV news show.

True, it was somewhat confusing. Who’s the bad guy? It’s surely Duke, but as one anti-209 debate attendee told The Times: “The dude’s got guts.” The dudes outside supporting affirmative action were pelting police and horses. They made the former KKK grand wizard seem almost civil.

“Well, most of them are Communists,” Duke said.

We smirk. But many did identify themselves as Communists, according to the Associated Press. Amazing. The Russians have rejected communism, but it’s still being espoused by Berkeleyites. This must hearten old Republican red-baiters. Somewhere Richard Nixon is smiling.

A woman yelling epithets at police said she was from the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action by Any Means Necessary. Any means? One more soothing message for swing voters.

If you’re running the 209 campaign, how should you handle all this? You should fax the protest leaders your daily schedule of events. Send bus tickets. Offer to pay for gas. And be sure to tip TV.

It’s a proven winner.

*

Ronald Reagan was elected governor and won a national political following with the substantial help of UC Berkeley protesters. They demonstrated angrily for free speech and filthy speech; against the Vietnam War and, eventually, him. He repeatedly warned the students, sometimes to their faces: “Obey the rules or get out.” His ratings soared.

Nixon prospered from protests. He was elected president largely because of anti-war violence that fractured the Democratic party. Once, as president, he climbed onto the hood of his limousine in San Jose and goaded a big mob by flashing his arms and fingers in the “V” salute. “That’s what they hate to see,” he gleefully told Reagan as eggs and rocks flew.

Ultimately, massive anti-war protests, together with daily TV film of body bags, wore down Washington and forced a peace treaty. Demonstrations can work, especially if the protesters are peaceful, as in the ‘60s civil rights marches. Burly white sheriff’s deputies attacking black marchers with dogs and water cannons sent a revolting message that hastened the end of segregation.

The classic case of a demonstration backfiring, however, was when tens of thousands of Latinos marched in downtown Los Angeles in protest of Proposition 187 just before the 1994 election. Some waved Mexican flags, the wrong message for wavering voters.

“It was like getting slapped in the face with a wet bar rag,” recalls political consultant Dick Woodward, who managed the anti-187 campaign. “From that moment on, things went south on us.”

In coming weeks, 209 chairman Ward Connerly could climb onto the hood of his car and read protesters the initiative’s fundamental language:

“The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.”

Then turn to the governor and tell him, “That’s what they hate to hear.”