Protesters, supporters put on show

unionleader.com ^ | 06/03/07 | STEPHEN BEALE

[TornadoAlley3]

GOFFSTOWN – Instead of a bullhorn, Steve Lindsey held a slide trombone, blaring away as cars passed through the main entrance to St. Anselm College yesterday afternoon.

At his feet was a handwritten sign: "Honk to Impeach."

Although the election to replace President Bush is barely more than a year away, Lindsey is still eager to see Bush impeached.

"One, he doesn't learn from experience and, two, we were led into war on false pretexts," the Keene native said.

As for the eight Democratic candidates coming to campus that evening to debate the war and other issues, Lindsey, a cab driver, said he supported John Edwards. He agrees with the message the former U.S. senator presents about "two Americas" split into an upper and a lower class.

Lindsey said he majored in history at the University of New Hampshire but has spent his whole life as a working-class man, starting at the age of 16 when he was employed in the Troy mills. Now middle-aged, he says he has no family and no property and lives on a limited income.

"I don't have health insurance, and I don't have a future," Lindsey said.

Across the driveway were two pink-clad women representing what they said was a global peace action network known as Code Pink: Women for Peace. One, Barbara Hilton of Portsmouth, held a pink sign that read: "Pin the War on the Donkey."

Hilton said she was there to get the message out to voters that the Democrats were complicit in the war in Iraq, as shown by their recent vote to continue funding it without a timetable for withdrawal.

"The leadership didn't bring an end to the war," she said. "They could have, but they didn't."

Left-leaning groups weren't the only ones who showed up for the debate. Farther down Saint Anselm Drive were several representatives of fairtax.org. They came from South Carolina to get their message out about the merits of replacing the income tax with a sales tax.

The group members said they were strictly nonpartisan, even though they cheered as a campaign bus passed by carrying Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Supporters of various Democratic presidential candidates also lined the sides of Saint Anselm Drive in the hours leading up to the debates. Near the entrance of Rundlett Hill Road, about 40 Hillary Clinton supporters and an equal number of John Edwards fans faced off.

"When I say President,' you say Hillary!'‚" said one woman. She yelled "President," to which the crowd across the street responded "Edwards."

"This is why you come up here, this kind of stuff," said Tim Morrison, an attorney who flew up from Atlanta, Ga., to support Edwards.

[AnAmericanMother]

Lindsey said he majored in history at the University of New Hampshire but has spent his whole life as a working-class man, starting at the age of 16 when he was employed in the Troy mills. Now middle-aged, he says he has no family and no property and lives on a limited income.

"I don't have health insurance, and I don't have a future," Lindsey said.

. . . and whose fault is that, Mr. Lindsey? Unless you had a debilitating disease (which you don't mention), if you couldn't cut it in academia, you could have gone to trade school and learned something useful, instead of working a low skill job with no benefits and just drifting along until you found yourself middle aged with no family, no property, no insurance, and no future.

Of course, if you're only middle-aged, you still have lots of time if you'll get off your duff and apply yourself. With no family and no property, you can go anywhere to find a job.

[pillut48]

Next!

[TornadoAlley3]

Why do that, Edwards will take care of him:)

[AnAmericanMother]

If he thinks Edwards is going to take care of (or even think) about a college dropout who can’t deliver a couple hundred votes or pony up a big donation, I have a $400 haircut I would like to sell him . . . .

[Theresawithanh]

Yeah, Mr. Lindsey, keep on tootin’ on that trombone and keep on thinkin’ that Johnny Edwards really gives a rat’s @ss about you!

[rxgalfl]

This man has more opportunities, more freedom and more options than most people in the rest of the world. His choice is, however, to blame Bush for his lack of ambition, will or desire to make something more of his life with which he is clearly unhappy. Even the illegals crossing the border have more ambition than this fool. They are at least eager to risk their life for something better. They are foreigners and they get it unlike this idiot. But why is he not blaming Clinton? Wasn’t Clinton, according to the Democrats, that brought 8 years of unparalleled economic growth?

[AnAmericanMother]

You nailed it.

People risk their lives and sell everything they have to get a bare chance at the opportunities that Lindsey has squandered.

[rlmorel]

Boy, you beat me to it. Just what I was going to say.

These people, specifically him, are just typical pathetic liberals.

[rxgalfl]

People like him need to have their citizenship taken away and dropped off in Cuba or China or Venezuela. He can have the paradise he thinks socialism and government care is being offered to people. I detest people who have the opportunity and when they don't take it, they blame everyone else but themselves. I was born and raised in a communist country, I moved here legally, obtained my citizenship legally and served my country in gratitude for the opportunities, the freedom, the chance, for everything. People like Lindsay will never appreciate what it means to walk down the street and carry a sign saying "IMPEACH BUSH!" and not fearing for his life because of it. People like Lindsay will never understand that by blaming Bush for his own failures he is insulting the men and women who are now dying for him to have the opportunities which clearly he never appreciated. People like Lindsay are the reason why Democrats do exist. They are the voters and this is who they represent.

[originalbuckeye]

The immaturity of the Dem supporters knows no bottom rung on the ladder. Talk about stuck on stupid!

[I_like_good_things_too]

Thank you for succinctly summing up what I thought about Mr. Lindsey.

[Rembrandt]

“Lindsey, a cab driver..”

Couldn’t even learn how to say “y’wan french fries with that?”

[boop]

"Lindsey said he majored in history at the University of New Hampshire but has spent his whole life as a working-class man, starting at the age of 16 when he was employed in the Troy mills. Now middle-aged, he says he has no family and no property and lives on a limited income."

No, say it isn't so. A history major not finding work of any kind in this country? Actually cab drivers can make a pretty good living. If he's "middle age" with no family what the hell did he do with his income for the past 20 years? If I was the reporter I would have GRILLED him about this.

[AnAmericanMother]

We also need to consider that the whole story is made up, for the sake of political theater. The reporter obviously didn't verify anything, and doesn't give his age.

He sounds like one of those seminar callers that always begin "I have always been a Republican, but . . . " Just a different wrinkle, but it sounds too bad to be true, if you know what I mean.