Since I live outside of Washington DC, I could not resist the temptation to go down and look at the freak show on the mall yesterday. In nearly all respects, however, it was pretty disappointing. The Freak Flags were not really flying, and instead it was a milk toast religious revival about as lively and original as an episode of General Hospital. The crowd was mostly older with a few families, and all white. Let's just say that many of them are not in the best shape of their lives. I'm not going to repeat what's already out there about the "Restoring Honor" rally/revival, but I have a few interesting pictures.
First--Size of the Crowd
These first two photos are around the Lincoln Memorial at 10:30 am.
Plenty of space to be had around here. I took the Metro down and walked from the Farragut North station to this point on the Lincoln Memorial without any delay. It was very easy to get around.
Here's a view of Memorial Bridge from the back of the Lincoln Memorial from about the same time--not a whole lot of people coming over.
Here's a sample of the grassy areas just to the side of the reflecting pool--again, loads of room.
I have been to more than a few protests in DC, and I was there for Obama's Inauguration; so I'm pretty good at estimating crowds. This was probably around 100K. I met a good friend who lives in DC and he thought it was around that figure as well, but he added at the very most it might approach 200K, but that was an absolute high limit.
General Observations
One of the strange aspects of the political/social disconnect of this event was the whole Lincoln Republican theme. It was as if they were trying to claim that this legacy still was associated with Conservative/Right politics. One banner had Frederick Douglass:
Then there were these interesting signs from Black Republicans:
It was as if the 60s and the "Southern Strategy" did not exist. While it is no doubt true that KKK founders and the bulk of its' members were likely Democrats, that certainly is no longer the case. One should change opinions, or at least re-order their relevance when circumstances change.
As I was walking up to the Lincoln Memorial, the speaker at time was nattering on about Christianity as the central theme of the colonies. When I saw one of the banners displaying a Native American, I found that strange, as these non-Christians were certainly slaughtered by so many "Men of Faith." Is that the "Honor" they are trying to restore? Make amends with the First Nations? Somehow, I doubt it. On second thought, maybe that banner is a character from The Road Warrior.
Then, there was this nutty neo-fascist sign:
My DC friend called this rally the social base for Fascism. Well, these "vets" certainly aspire to be more than the base. Is this not what the Beckites suspect that Obama and his followers are for Communism/Socialism/Islamism or whatever?
This was my favorite, and about the only counter demonstrators I saw:
While I took this picture some self-righteous woman was lecturing these PETA Vegans on their First Amendment rights and how nice it was that she was "tolerating" their presence at what was clearly her people's rally. I pointed out that the First Amendment is what allowed for this event in the first place. It was as if her "perspective" was normal, while these "radicals" clearly needed First Amendment protection.
After all this, I needed to re-base myself. So, I went to the FDR memorial--one of my favorite DC places. It's about a five minute walk south of the Lincoln Memorial. It is all there folks--this is what we are still fighting for in this country.
Spirit restored, I went home. Don't let the wingnuts get you down. Let's get back to GOTV and shore up this November. There are some battles that need to be won.