On the importance of dissent

Got the following email from reader, Jake, and I agree that this is a topic which needs discussing:

I just spent a day in Crawford. Certainly the Bush Crowd was there in strength, shouting slogans and waving nationalist paraphernalia.

The interesting part was on the Cindy side of the street, specifically at Camp Casey 1, the less than elite crowd was told to behave or protest somewhere else.

In other words, protest our way or leave.

The rhetoric on BOTH sides of the debate is all about silencing dissent from within. Bushco wants to silence dissent from within America, and the Cindy's immediate supporters want to silence dissent from within the supporters at large. Each believes it has a vision that overrides the NEED for dissent.

Yet dissent is the true strength of a free community - civil (non-violent) protest is a requirement, not a luxury. How else to stop the "crowd" from becoming the controlling voice? If not for 9/11, Iraq would never have happened. It was the silencing of informed dissent by the Bush apparatus that brought us the Iraq war, and will bring Bush's presidency to an ignominious end.

Dissent is not to be just tolerated, it must be encouraged.