The Posterboard Is Mightier Than The Sword

Ezra writes a rather scathing review of Mark Penn's new tract Microtrends.

Having not read the book, or having any intention of reading it, I have very little of substance to add to the conversation. I think Mark Penn is a blight on the face of the Democratic party (hopefully we can get to the point where he's more like a pimple on the ass of the Democratic party, but we're not there yet), and he might be the single strongest reason not to vote for Hilary in the Dem primary.

However, I loved Penn's claim that "ten people with bazookas can overcome 1,000 people with picket signs, but they can’t overcome 10,000 people with picket signs." I don't really know what that means, but I am literally envisioning 10 Marines, with bazookas, trying to hold off 10,000 protesters. With every shell the Marines send off, banners and posterboard fly in every direction. Oh, the humanity! The khakis! The homemade protest buttons! In time, however, the sheer number of protesters allow them to breach the Marines' defenses, and eventually the protesters stab the Marines to death with the wooden stakes from their protest signs, and a thousand flowers bloom across the land.