have you ever protested Kerry or Bush?

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I think most protests are inane, and the tactic has been way overused.

It would be far better to spare this tactic for only the most serious situations.

Part of my attitude probably comes from having grown up in the aftermath of the 1960s.  I came to believe that many people protest just for the sake of belonging to something, and not because they have even the slightest understanding of the issues involving their protests.

While demonstrations are sometimes beneficial, the left in particular has become overly dependent on them, to the exclusion of actually doing anything positive about the things they profess to care about.  Demonstrations about many issues are simply childish, akin to sitting in your high chair and screaming and throwing things until somebody else fixes the reason you're not happy.  The more adult approach is to find a constructive contribution to make toward fixing problems, but this is beyond the intellect and real commitment of many protestors.

I'll agree protesting is mostly useless.  I protested and got in arguments, lots of Dems got really pissed at my poster "4 years with John Kerry would be the SAME AS BUSH"- and I listed how both support the Patriot Act, gun control, big government,..ect.  It was interesting talking to the few handful of people at the rally who were able to carry on a good civil conversation.  The Bush protestors were'nt happy either, but I did find someone who said he was voting Badnarik and Bush supporting Patriot Act was crossing the line.  I know that I really didn't do much, but if I was able to convince even a few people to change their vote for Badnarik or even consider alternate options, I think it was worth my time.

You're wrong on the Patriot Act. Kerry favored weakening the Patriot Act. Bush facors strengthening the Patriot Act. While there'd be big government under both adminstrations, at least Kerry would be fiscally responsible and not have a tax cut of the minute.

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Still, Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, and if he really wanted to strengthen civil liberties, he'd probably not vote for it in the first place.  I disagree with Kerry being fiscally responsible.  The Bush crowd labeled Kerry as a tax and spend liberal.  I doubt Kerry would dig the national debt or deficit nearly as much as Bush has in the past four years, but there's no doubt in my mind that he would raise taxes.  Now he might raise them and contribute to balancing the budget, but I don't know that he would, and I'm afraid of what might happen if he tried creating more social programs to waste taxpayer money on.

Anyone would be better at balancing the budget than borrow and spend Bush. As for the Patriot Act, yes, 99 Senators voted for it, but some of those later realized that parts of it need to be eliminated. On the other hand, Bush says that the Patriot Act should be expanded. That's a pretty clear difference, if you say otherwise, you sound like Ralph Nader.