Oust the Gang of Four

Red text over an altertered photograph of four men in black and white striped prison clothes in front of a white background with measurements on it and black plaques in front of each man with their name and a number in white.

This button was created in 2004 to protest President Bush getting another term in the White House and to protest the Iraq War. President Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney had been in office in 2003 when the United States began invading Iraq because of the erroneous belief that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons following the 9/11 attacks. John Ashcroft was the Attorney General at the time and was a supporter of the Patriot Act, an unpopular act that allowed the government to monitor civilians suspected of terrorism, while Donald Rumsfeld served as the Secretary of Defense and had numerous allegations of torture and human rights abuses. There were many calls for the impeachment of the four, though most either resigned on their own or remained in office until Bush’s term was over in 2008.

The term “Gang of Four” has its origins in the four heads of the Chinese Communist Party after Mao Zedong’s death. The group included Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, all of whom faced trial for acting against the Communist Party, and all of whom were given long prison sentences for their crimes.

Gang of Four. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Four.

Iraq War. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War.