Republican Reaction Not As Bad As I Predicted

You may recall a few weeks back there was this viral video of a bunch of school kids singing the praises (literally) of Obama, our nation's first African-American president for Black History Month. Predictably, this footage roused the ire of right-wing bloggers. When I saw it mentioned on Where Are My Keys, I remarked, "somebody needs to set those young traitors straight! Tree of liberty!" No one agreed with me, but curiously no one saw fit to back down from the ugly implications of my snarky comment.

Anyway, the blowback appears to be a lot more benign than MY worst case scenario.

Conservative groups plan to rally Monday near a New Jersey school where students performed a song celebrating President Barack Obama.

The planned rally has school district officials planning to beef up security at the B. Bernice Young School in Burlington Township, which houses kindergartners through second-graders.

...Citing concerns for the safety of students and staff, Superintendent Christopher Manno has asked organizers to reconsider the protest because classes will be held that day. Manno said protesters will not be allowed on school property and additional district staffers will be on hand.

Bill Haney, a rally organizer, said members of several groups would take part in the protest, although it was not clear Sunday how many people would be involved.

"Consider this a protest to squelch this trend to politicize our youth," organizers said in a prepared statement. "We are supporting the constitutional rights of our children and protest against the progressive social agenda promoted by the New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association."

I haven't heard how this went but I suspect it was peaceful if obnoxious. I doubt if any kindergartners were roughed up. In fact, here's what happened, from the same newspaper.

The protesters sang patriotic anthems and chanted slogans such as "Free children, free minds."

So at least they learned that schools shouldn't be politicized, thanks to the efforts of apolitical Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity viewers. Personally as a sensitive 5 year old, I'd have been terrified of an angry group of protesters outside my school, just as I was by some angry liberal hippies back in the day. But who knows... maybe, just maybe, these 5-year-olds can be convinced to not vote in the next election.