Those of us who’ve shown little confidence in what remains of “the people” may have to swallow some pride. That’s fine, because I have never wished so hard to be in the wrong.
The Daily Mail: “Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as ‘Obamacare makes me sick’ as they protested the president’s health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.
The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.”
People were chanting ‘enough, enough’ and ‘We the People.’ Others yelled ‘You lie, you lie!’ and ‘Pelosi has to go,’ referring to California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Today’s rally, the largest grouping of fiscal conservatives to march on Washington, comes on the heels of heated town halls held during the congressional August recess when some Democratic lawmakers were confronted, disrupted and shouted down by angry protesters who oppose President Obama’s plan to overhaul the health care system.”
Contra the English Daily Mail, American news organizations pegged the number of protesters in the tens of thousands only.
CNN, I am sure, is not the only mainstream media outlet to frame the march as the product of the shenanigans of “The conservative advocacy group Tea Party Express,” which “massed at the U.S. Capitol on Saturday to protest health care reform, higher taxes and what they see as out-of-control government spending.”
The subtle suggestion is that these people have been organized and incited. However, first comes the discontent. Organization follows the discord.
“What they see as out-of-control government spending”: as though the stratospheric nature of Washington’s debt and deficits was not settled but open to debate.
The New York Time leads its online US Section with a story about … “pollutants in drinking water [that] have damaged residents’ teeth.”
Unlike the Times, The WaPo covers the event, under the headline, “Lashing Out At The Capital.” The peons from the provinces are disobeying Rome. Dishonestly the WaPo categorically asserts that the protest is an extension of the Republican Party, a “populist dimension” of it.
Nothing at the Christian Science Monitor, except for an item buried under the headline, “Obama takes on Glenn Beck and ‘tea party’ critics over healthcare.”
Meanwhile, Obama beat a hasty retreat out of DC, to “Democratic-leaning Minnesota.”
Updated (Sept. 14): FLY-OVER OBAMA. I extend our appreciation to Chip for imparting the feel and impetus of the march he attended. We hope to hear more from him. Chip’s “Goebbels” comment: According to the Pew Research Center, “The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.”
The underlying process that accounts for the malign and deficient reporting on the rising opposition to statism is suggested in Pat Buchanan’s latest:
“In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays, and share the same music, poetry, art and literature?”
The answer is: America, for the most, is no longer a nation, but a disparate collection of identity groups supervised and subdued by a massive managerial state intent on dissolving the historical people and electing another. The propositional nation has replaced the nation. America is but “a notion and an idea; not a community of flesh-and-blood people sharing a mother tongue, traditions, history and heroes.”
The New York Times’ JEFF ZELENY has a decent report (which I had failed to locate yesterday, becasue not on the front page):
“A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since he took office … demonstrators came from all corners of the country, waving American flags and handwritten signs explaining the root of their frustrations. Their anger stretched well beyond the health care legislation moving through Congress, with shouts of support for gun rights, lower taxes and a smaller government. … many demonstrators expressed their views without a hint of rage. They said the size of the crowd illustrated that their views were shared by a broader audience.
Republican officials said privately that they were pleased by the turnout but wary of the anger directed at all politicians. … [My emphasis]
Protesters came by bus, car and airplane, arriving here from Texas and Tennessee, New Mexico and New Hampshire, Ohio and Oregon. The messages on their signs told of an intense distrust of the government, which several people said began long before Mr. Obama took office. …
In conversations with demonstrators, people identified themselves as Republicans, libertarians, independents and former. …” Democrats. [Ditto re emphasis]
ON HIS NOT-SO-MERRY way out of the capital, “Mr. Obama … flew over the assembling crowd in Marine One. The helicopter could be seen flying overhead as the demonstrators marched down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
