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President Bush was in St. Louis recently and had the privilege of being heckled by a young woman. It's not the first time he's been heckled, but what happened during the heckling gave me pause.

A moment or two after the young woman began shouting "Out of Iraq now!" and "Our troops are not renewable!" the crowd began applauding loudly, either at something Bush said, or to approve of, or drown out, the intruder.

The audience kept applauding while she was surrounded by security and hauled out of the renewable-energy conference at America's Center.

The protester, Laurie Ann Meier, kept shouting after the applause died down until her voiced faded out of earshot. It reminded me of how the voices of protest over many of President Bush's decisions are rounded up and disposed of neatly. While protests may be heard, the action of clamping down on them takes many forms, each one effective to keep Bush in charge.

When Bush misspent the $304 billion-dollar government surplus left by the Clinton administration, protesters of its demise were characterized as doomsday fanatics and anti-American.

When protests over the largest public financial hoodwinking of investors occurred, the government quelled the public with arrests of Enron executives and doled out lame sentences to some of the perpetrators.

Other financial giants deemed the sentences and fines appropriate, and the investors who lost millions were forgotten. The voices of reason were stamped out as being anti-capitalist and anti-American.

While Bush changed war strategies to invade Iraq in a pre-emptive strike, protests were drowned out by the voices of the so-called patriotic followers of this land. Anyone questioning Bush's invasion of a sovereign nation that hadn't attacked us, or planned to, were branded as anti-American.

The competitors of Halliburton, complaining of the monopoly of government contracts overseas and at home awarded to one company were pooh-poohed as jealous and inadequate to fulfill the contracts. Those who questioned the no-bid contracts and the ties to Vice President Cheney were labeled anti-American.

When Bush unveiled his tax cuts for the rich, increased military spending, cut entitlement programs and told the world he received his orders from God, protesters of the destruction of the republic were touted as anti-American.

It has been the battle cry of the Republicans to mark anyone who disagrees with any policy, decision, remark or belief that runs counter to theirs as anti-American. No other label has been as effective to hose down the right to dissent.

Being a dissenter of policies and decisions by the government used to be an American characteristic coveted by this country. Bush claims he's bringing this same right to the Middle East and any other country he deems fit to receive it. But in America, the right of dissent has been squashed.

How can you be a good American today? By being anti-American.