printThose 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.”
Ilana – on target – it IS heartening that the heartland has spoken, as it has in the past. The American people have been maligned and misunderstood and underestimated by friend and foe alike. In the last century by the Japanese and the Germans, on 9-11, and to this day by Iran and North Korea. Our so-called leaders in DC have also maligned their own people – choosing to define discontent and disagreement as ignorance, evil, and racism. They are beginning to see that a price is to be paid. Those they have angered and lost have become opponents for life. 2010 and 2012 will bring their retribution.
Yahoo News listed it as a “Large group” (No numbers) but otherwise gave the march a fair hearing. Stating that the people in the march were courteous though loud in chanting their objections. Even stated that the people had paid their own way to Washington, therefore it was NOT a paid for march. As normal with MSM, if it is an action expressing dissatisfaction with the current administration- it did not exist. However, if 2,000 people march in support of the current administration, it’s front page news and magic occurs, the number becomes a half million or some other miracle, why should the truth get in the way of “Change.”
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m just not all that impressed. Where were these folks during the 8 years of the Bush Administration? I suspect this is more anti- Obama sentiment than anything else and, once Obama’s gone, the Tea Party folks won’t be heard from again.
I watched the march on C-Span. I was glad to see Americans finally wake-up from their inertia to government encroachment. But I cannot deny the lack of depth from the speakers. The only speaker I wanted to hear, Yaron Brook was only given 5 minutes to make his moral agrument. Hardly enough time.
There is a need for intellectual ammunition to fight this onslaught. The Republicans can’t do it, they are not capable, they are morally impotent. We have our cut out with regards to Cass Sustein. You are on the mark with this man. I’ve been following him for years here in Chicago. He is far more dangerous than the half-literate hacks that permeate the Obama administration. Van Jones is totally anti-intellectual, he’s easy to defeat. But Cass Sustein, he’ll pull the wool over those who don’t have the intellectual framework(since its been “educated” out of citizens to think rationally) to fight this. That is a concern of mine that Americans out marching DC still need to the intellectual armor to withstand what’s coming to us via Sustein.
Dear Main Stream Media,
Please keep destroying your credibility. “The wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceeding fine.”
Maybe us fishin pole carryin, Huntin, Football & Nascar luvin types are good for something.
Intellectual’s have their place, but isn’t it the Ivy league (among others), Intellectual blue-blood types from the right and left, with their Cass-style theories who have, for the most part, gotten us in this mess we are in now?
Now if you take a book-smart intellectual and combine it with some okie farmer common sense , now you got a force that’s hard to beat.
When we combine all of our talents and abilities we have proven we can move mountains and is a recipe for success .
When we holler and snipe at each other, and try to make the case that “I am better than you,” that is a route to failure.
“Where were these folks during the 8 years of the Bush Administration?” They were dumb and ignorant, believing politicians that bailouts were normal. This last October I think it was, Bush had a small bailout, the news overlooked it, people didn’t complain, then the economy tanked and another larger bailout was needed and surprise, surprise, Fox and some of the financial networks had a “Information series on why it tanked” These networks answered the question, “What caused the system to fail- government intervention,” Austrian Economists like Peter Schiff were given the chance to explain real economics and for the first time in history the citizens learned about how “government economics” worked and were not pleased, especially when Obama copied Bush in failed economics and even expanded spending. If Obama had followed Peter’s advice and made real change downward, no one would be protesting. Like Clinton’s champagne slogan. “It’s the economy, …” The American public has been educated by the ‘mushroom theory’ for years (Keep them in the dark and feed them BS) Finally a little light has came in and showed the filth, protests resulted Just think of what they might accomplish if we really gave them an education.
My neighbor and I drove from Cincinnati to Washington and attended the event. I don’t believe there were a million people there. Probably closer to a couple hundred thousand. Sorry Fred, its not about anti-Obama sentiment. I was at the VOA Rally in West Chester OH last week. 10-18k there. Four Republican showed up and took questions, including my Rep. Mike Turner. Good questions and when they tried to wonk and spin the crowd shouted them down. I have been to four events like this now and at each one it is the people that actually make this country work that were in attendance. It was about getting Government off our backs. Democrat and Republican government. If you don’t get that then you are being willfully ignorant. The rank and file in this country get it. They have carved time out of their busy lives to come to these rallies because they get it and don’t know what else to do. They are sick of being labeled as racist, selfish, stupid, mean and angry idiots. They have been busy supporting their churches, their charities, their communities and their families and they are finally getting sick of taking it in the shorts by corrupt politicians and self serving media whores. The Bush bailout was a wake up to them. The McCain nomination was a bitch slap to them. The Obama administration is simply the last straw.
I am part of them.
[And we salute you and ask that you posts more reports about what went down at the marches.–IM]
Not much went down in DC actually, except that several hundred thousand families gathered to peacefully protest the takeover of their country. We spoke with one of the DC Police officers out on duty and they stated that it was the best crowd they have ever seen. The trash cans were filled to overflowing but I took note that the garbage was all contained around the disposal bins, not spread across the mall. I could not hear the speakers very well because of the crowd and frankly did not come to hear anyone. Most people came just to come and stand and be noticed. I saw bikers, rednecks, soccer mom’s, farmers and plenty of entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on a crowd, pushing their t-shirts and buttons.
I’ve added a couple of pics to the Ilana Mercer facebook group. You can check them out here
The rally at Voice of America park last week was actually more fun in the sense that there were politicians there that took questions from their constituents and attempted to answer them, in from of 10,000+ people. I find watching them squirm particularly satisfying, but perhaps I have a morbid sense of fun.
Minority leader John Boehner (pronounced B-oh-ner in my book) looked as if he spends most of his day in the tanning booth. Asked why he voted for the Bush bailout he dished op a serving of “we were on the brink. The system was ready to lock up, blah-blah blah”. He then stated that he would do the same again, demonstrating that he is no different in kind then the current administration, only degree. He then followed up by stating it was unfortunate that the money was not spent they way it was meant to be. It’s too bad no one pointed out to him that if the economy were truly on the brink [it is, but bailouts are not the answer], and by his own words the prescribed remedy was not followed (i.e. the 700 billion not spent to fix it), then obviously the economy was not on the brink and we would have had at least the same outcome (sans banker bonuses) had they done nothing. This contradictionseemed to escape him.
Jean Schmidt was questioned and she stated that “the courts have all the power”, apparently unaware that as a Congress person she has the power to try to impeach a renegade judge and to at least not fund the mandates that emanate from the bench. Clearly not the sharpest of gals, she at least did not dodge the questions. She was also caught on tape remarking to a person questioning the legitimacy of BO’s birth that she agreed with them, but the court didn’t.
John Kasich [a FoxNew Republican to the core] was there and in my opinion was the most believable of all the pols. He is running against Ted Strickland here for governor and I will support him, tan notwithstanding. (As a native Californian and former Huntington Beach resident and surfer I am always amazed at these Midwestern tans, but that is off topic.)
At any rate, the theme at all these events is that it is families that are showing up with their kids and they recognize BS when they hear it. They don’t want to hear it anymore. It is my belief that if there was ever a time in this country that a true Statesman was needed, it is now. We the People recognize that the “Representatives” have not been representing us for a long time. We are tired of paying their salaries.
I would urge all readers to just show up at an event, if nothing else. It is remarkable to see the people there and then to contrast that with the characterizations in the media. Goebbels is alive and well in the USA.
“[we salute you and ask that you post more reports about what went down at the marches.–IM]
Amen to that.
‘ “… Republican officials said privately that they were pleased by the turnout but wary of the anger directed at all politicians. …” [My emphasis] ‘ Ilana
I’ll pound it home. I used to vote Republican but now I absolutely loathe and hate the party of Lincoln and bankers. I don’t like the Democrats either and would never vote for one unless Andrew Jackson or Thomas Jefferson or such came back from the grave.
I won’t choose either but I am less angry with the dumb party than with the evil party.
I also welcome contributor Chip. Restoring liberty is DIFFICULT because:
(1) Extremely powerful interests: government and their contractors, universities, MSM, financial institutions, agribusiness, “the elderly”, “minorities”, auto dealers, unions, and tens of thousands of lobbyists are vested in the Welfare-Warfare state.
(2) “Pulling the plug” is very drastic and it will take a lot of willpower and dedication to systematically DISMANTLE the welfare-warfare state over 20 – 60 years.
(3) Even among those who support individual liberties, distracting social issues such as gay marriage (etc.) can be used by the politicians as a means of disrupting any consensus to dismantle government.
I do recommend that those who participate in “tea party” movements see the movie “Meet John Doe” on how movements can be manipulated by those with money. Statists like Mitt Romney are chomping to get all those juicy “tea party” votes so that we can enact HIS health care in 2013 instead of Obama’s in 2009. (Oh boy!)
Going OFF-TOPIC – I learned this week that Maimonides said that one cannot repent when one “steals from a thief” (because there is no one to ask forgiveness of) – does that apply to getting a government grant?