Eventually what you learn is you don't count

Happy Iraq War Day.  May all your missions be fully accomplished.

There have been several pointed comparisons today between the relative impotence of the hundreds of thousands strong anti-war protests in major American and Western European cities that preceded the invasion compared to the effectiveness of the smaller, but more focused, funded, and better treated by the news media "Tea Party" reaction to President Obama in 2010.

Here, Digby reminds us of Clear Channel's astroturf pro-war rallies that were falsely cited in the media as a "balancing counterpoint" to the massive protests. Despite the difference in numbers, the Iraq protests had zero effect on the decision to go ahead and spend trillions of dollars killing hundreds of thousands of people.

The Tea Partiers, by contrast,  took control of congress and, more crucially, enough state legislatures and governorships just in time for redistricting and so continue to dominate the national agenda. Or at least their concerns do.

The lesson, as always is, yell and scream all you want. Nobody who matters is ever listening.