The teabaggers March on Washington
Demonstrators are shown during a rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009. Thousands of protesters have packed streets in the nation's capital to protest what they consider the federal government's out-of-control spending. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Well, it ain’t exactly August 28, 1963, but they’re trying, with the Glenn Beck 9/12 March on Washington! Meanwhile, the Hot Air blog tags the expectations game:
A top House Dem leadership aide has emailed a memo to Dem aides on the Hill and outside liberal groups warning they should brace for a turnout of up to two million people, suggesting Dems worry that if enough conservatives descend on the Mall it will amount to a major PR victory for the right.
The aide, Doug Thornell, warned in the memo that the dust-up over Joe “you lie” Wilson has been invigorating conservatives. “It looks like Saturday’s event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people,” Thornell wrote in the memo, which was forwarded by a source.
Reality, of course, being the best disinfectant, and a little deflating:
Saturday’s “Taxpayer March”– at which organizers expect anywhere from 20,000 to 200,000 people – as well as dozens of smaller marches around the country, will prove that the fledgling “Tea Party” movement is real, according to Mark Williams, a conservative radio talk show host from Sacramento who is vice chairman of Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a political action committee that is co-sponsoring the march.
Awww… CBS News also reported that the protest stretched for like … blocks … And I mean entire blocks… Let’s take a look at what I call, “Marches on Washington; then and now” …
During the 1963 March on Washington, people rallied for jobs and freedom...
Today, the 9/12 March on Washington features people in funny hats, and cries of Socialism! Marxism! and You Lie!!!
The 1963 March on Washington was capped by Dr. King's historic "I have a dream" speech
Today's freedom marchers will hear from Glenn Beck.
Yep. Exactly the same. Some Republicans worry that certain marchers will make them look bad … as if …
Searching for ways to compete with Democrats after two consecutive electoral drubbings, Republicans have moved past earlier uncertainty about the protesters, who organized nationwide rallies this summer that have threatened Democratic health-care plans and eroded President Obama’s standing with the public.
Several key Republican lawmakers, including House GOP Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, have helped to drum up support for the march and are slated to deliver speeches to the crowd.
But top Republican strategists and many party observers also worry about the impact that the most extreme protesters might have on the party’s image, including those who carry swastika signs or obsess over the veracity of Obama’s Hawaiian birth.
Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and other Republicans, said there is an “opportunity for Republicans” to tap into legitimate fears about an overreaching federal government. But he said that “right-wing nutballs are aligning themselves with these movements” and are dominating media coverage.
“It’s bad for Republicans because in the absence of any real leadership, the freaks fill the void and define the party,” McKinnon said.
And you thought the freaks just come out at night … BTW have I mentioned how much I like Mark McKinnon? Witty guy!
Meanwhile, Allahpundit has a question:
While we’re on the subject, anyone want to try explaining to me why this is a “core principle” of what amounts in practice to a giant tea party?
I believe in God and He is the center of my life.
Why does Glenn Beck care whether I go to church — and he does care to some extent if he’s putting this on the list of core convictions — if if I’m willing to vote with him on cutting taxes? No one was bugging me about my faith or lack thereof on 9/12/01, which the Project claims in its mission statement it’s trying to “bring us all back to.” And quite frankly, any form of aspirational language in a political context about what “the center of my life” should be is … odd. Is this about smaller government or self-help?
Good question. Here’s another: is one of the other 9 principles “I hate the 9/11 victims’ families?”
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12 Responses to “The teabaggers March on Washington”
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million moron march well the 1000 moron march
LOL. Exactly
umm, I’ve been looking at some aerial shots and I think you might have to rethink your numbers cause that is a hell of a lot of people. It kind of resembles the M.L. king pic you have posted.
Barack Hussein Obama is not a constitutional president, which is to say, we do not have a constitutional federal administration at present and every anti-American policy of the last six months is also, unconstitutional!”
So say we all!
I am a former federal bankruptcy trustee and bankruptcy attorney for over 25 years. I attended the march on Washinton DC Sept 12, 2009. We have heard estimates of the arial pictures may indicated that the attendance was between 1.5- 2.2 million people.
The numbers were staggering. There was no serious media coverage of the event. We saw only one Fox camera man on the gound, one Fox truck and a helicopter fly over three times, hopefully taking pictures. Let’s see those arial pictures at 2pm or 3pm when the crowds were the greatest and have an expert interpret the results.
We had to start the march an hour earlier because the police did not think the space could accomodate the incoming crowds. The initial gathering before the March was beyond what the eye could see. At the Capitol lawn, the crowds became so dense that by 2pm you could barely walk among the people. The crowds extended betond the Capitol lawn into the neightboring streets The bridge had to be shut down due to the loggerjam of traffic of protesters still trying to arrive. At 2 pm , large numbers left to get on buses that were leaving at 3 pm and new throngs filled in their spots at the lawn.
It is interesting to me that the effort to verify the numbers among the liberal media has been tepid, due to the realization that this grass roots response has gone from about 4,000-6,000 who marched in Washington DC in April o9 to what some have estimated at a million to two million people-just in Wash, DC. Add to that the tea parties all across the country that were held.
Minimize these facts, then how are we different from Iran where the student reports of their numbers in the streets and pictures refute the weak numbers the government was reporting?
Hey A$$HOLE, teabaggers is a bigotted term that should not be allowed on the internet. Are your children proud of daddy using homosexual slang??
Teabagger
One who slaps another person in the face with their nad sack.
Libnuts have no class at all. Glad to see you lose 20 seats next yr.
@ Azzy -
Okay, let’s think of another term: racist Palinite hypocrites who were all for Bush’s big spending and abrogations of the Constitution but somehow have been “activated” by the election of a Black president? Or should we just stick with “teabaggers?”
I think it was great to watch all those Americans standing up for what is right.I read somewhere there were 450,000 people.Thank God for FoxNews and sometimes CNN.So we can get both sides of the story.I thought that what free speech is all about.There is a couple networks that are one sided.So I don’t watch because I already know what they are going to say.So I just watch Fox and CNN.
A black man who is smarter than your million moron march put together won so get over yourselves. Stop the racism because that is all you represent. The republicans and the other crazies like Glenn Beck are totally insane.
Chris ( One white guy representing the 70% of americans left who are not crazy )
I have one question for all of you who resort to the constant name calling of those of us who are standing up for what we believe in. If we are all so racist, then why is it always those on the ‘left’ who bring up race, not us? Many of us would have at one time supported Colin Powell and would still support other people like Kevin Jackson. Why does the ‘left’ find it so hard to accept that we are against an administration that is surrounding itself with radicals and not because of some perceived outrage about race? Many of us on the ‘right’ were upset with Bush’s spending and certain legislation that passed as we have been for several administrations. The cries have only become louder because the actions have become more extreme and the only answers we hear are the same old pieces of rhetoric.
I was at the 9/12 march and I will tell you that the mainstream media is downplaying this in an extreme manner. The metro police estimated the number at 1.2 million by noon and the crowd peaked later in the afternoon. World news organizations are reporting the numbers at 1.7-2+ million. If you do not want to take our word that is your choice but it is difficult to dispute unbiased and often disinterested third party reporting.
And while I have never been particuliarly active in politics, I have been aware for many years-back to writing school papers in middle school on various political topics to participating in various debates and round table discussions. I do not agree with big government; I have never wanted nor allowed the government to take care of me-although I am eligible for disability benefits, I have not applied-I can take care of myself and no benefit would be worth the government intrusion into my personal life-and before you ask, I do not have health insurance nor am I weathy; I have disapproved of government social programs as a general principle-I believe ’social programs’ belong strictly within the family first and the community second. Government ‘help’ always comes with strings attached. And contrary to popular believe, the ‘commerce clause’ does not give the government free access to every aspect of our lives.
Sally,
Sorry, but I find you completely disingenuous. You Glenn Beck followers insist that you were just as upset by the excesses of the Bush years, when your party controlled congress for 6 years, but the evidence of that is thin. The big bank bailout (TARP) — didn’t happen under President Obama. It was a bill written by Hank Paulsen, shoved down Congress’ throat, and singed by President Bush. That was $700 billion, and no protests. Not ONE. The Obama administration is merely ADMINISTERING TARP. They didn’t create it.
Next came the auto bailouts — again, these started LAST SPRING, when Barack Obama was still a Senator. President Bush’s administration doled out tens of millions of dollars to the Big Three, no strings attached. And from you people? No protests. Not a single march. When Obama came in, he told GM and Chrysler that if they wanted to come begging for more, they’d have to agree to a major restructuring. Low and behold, both companies are beginning to turn around.
You talk about “extremists” in the Obama administration. Where are they? You mean Larry Summers, the former Harvard president? Tim Geithner, from the “radical” New York Federal Reserve? Rahm Emanuel, who has been in government for about 15 years without raising alarm bells? Give me a break. The Bush administration contained persons who believe that the president is a “unitary executive” whose powers supersede Congress and the Constitution, and who has the authority to detain any American citizen at will, for as long as he chooses, to search your home without a warrant, and then to prosecute you as an “enemy combatant” using the evidence, which you and your lawyer will not be allowed to see. His “Justice Department” believed that the administration had the right to read your mail, tap your phone, and read every singe email you send, without permission from a judge, and without showing a single shred of evidence that you are a terrorist. Radicals? THOSE are radicals, dear. Where were your protests??? Where were your “Marxist” signs? Where, madam? Oh, that’s right. Bush was “just protecting the country” (having utterly failed to do so on 9/11.)
And since you have such distaste for government benefits, I’m sure you will be declining to accept Social Security and Medicare when you retire, right? Yeah. I won’t hold my breath waiting on that one.
You tea party people are rank hypocrites who wouldn’t know the Constitution if it bit you. If you want to protest, or fantasize about 1 million people on the Mall, go for it. But don’t ask thinking people to take you seriously.
JReid,
Well said. Dont expect a pesonce. Well thought articulate facts will not be reponded to because people who push the Glenn Beck agenda are usually uneducated about politics. They simpley see a black president and all of a sudden they start marching. Sad to see how many americans really feel.