What is so endearing about President George W. Bush is that quite literally anyone can make fun of him. You don't need any highfalutin educational foundation --- no fancy book-learning. He is truly an equal-opportunity subject of ridicule. It is no secret he did cocaine, was an alcoholic and is not particularly bright. It's almost too easy. This is all very entertaining, but it has not helped the liberal cause as a whole. In particular, campus liberals seem to be resorting to knee-jerk, superficial tactics when trying to get across their points regarding Bush. As in many other arenas of American political discourse, it has become a contest not of who is right, but of who is more loud, ostentatious and insulting to his adversary.

When arguments take on this nature, you see figures like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter emerge. Campus liberals should not want to head in this direction. Ignorance is ignorance, regardless of whether it leans to the left or the right.

More than ever, we need to temper our passion with knowledge. I agree with Harold Meyerson who wrote in The American Prospect that " ... obtaining Bush's defeat is an urgent matter of national security -- and national honor." Our country will not become a fairer, more open-minded place while we have our current president. But this cause - getting him out of office - cannot become merely a showcase for our catchy slogans or our knowledge of the words he mispronounced or misused

Rallies are fun, chants are fun, and vitriolic, self-righteous indignation is fun. But none of these will fetch us a new president. We must educate ourselves.

For every rally we attend and for every placard we make, we should put an equal amount of time into learning why Bush's economic plan failed 20 years ago, or exactly how he is trying to undermine environmental regulations.

Large gatherings at which we further convince ourselves that Bush is Satan's spawn will do little to convince the average American that he should vote for whichever Democratic candidate emerges from the primaries. Given the fact that the Democratic party has done much to lose its identity and credibility over the past few years, it is vital that every left-leaning college student can explain why everyone but the elite would be better served by a Kerry/Lieberman/other generic Democratic candidate than by a Bush.

I do not mean to over-generalize here; there are plenty of liberal college students who know exactly what they are talking about and understand that visceral and superficial shows of hatred for Bush are not enough. At the same time, however, we would be well-suited to collectively strive to understand - and lead others to understand - that the reasons we hate our president run deeper than a few hilariously inept quotes and a checkered past. This devolution to name-calling and superficial arguments is a trap I have fallen into on many occasions myself, but educating ourselves is the only true recourse for those of us who view the Bush administration as a catastrophe.

Nalbert Tero '04 had it right when he wrote a letter to the Justice complaining about the Brandeis activist community's reaction to the war, which included " face painting and dancing." He wrote, " Effective resistance, to this war and the Bush administration's warlike goals in general, can only come from a major effort on the part of the activist community to gain the support of the general population."

Tero is right; nothing will change as long as campus liberals decide that the best course of action is simply to preach to the converted, take the easy way out and focus on the wrong things.

With an election a mere 19 months away, now is the time for true mobilization. It should be in the form of education and effective, opinion-swaying activism from all those who do not wish to be subjected to another four years of " Dubya."

- Jesse Singal '06

submits a

column to the Justice.