I don’t support the groups that endorse this rally (AFL-CIO, SEIU, Communist Party USA, et al) and am heavily anti-public-union, but it is important to understand what the other side is saying and thinking. Adding in pictures I can grab or find during the rally.
In an AP report, the lack of enthusiasm seems to be blamed on Conservatives?, “There may be an enthusiasm gap, but we’re not going to know until we have an election,” said Ken Bork, who came from Camas, Wash. “A lot of the noise from the extreme right-wing stuff, it’s been well orchestrated by big money. But it’s not as bad as they’re making it out.”
Big money? You mean like George Soros’ TIDES foundation or the AFL-CIO? Yeah, there was HUGE money supporting the One Socialist Nation indocrtination event, er.. rally. Bus transportation, t-shirts and meals were paid for by big labor and socialist interests like TIDES.
Even with that, a the report tried to put a positive light on the obviously light crowd.
Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck’s rally. But Saturday’s crowds were less dense and didn’t reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck’s rally. The National Park Service stopped providing official crowd estimates in the 1990s.
Another AP article had this to say about the crowd
There were people with union T-shirts and others participants who carried banners advocating expanding Medicare for all Americans. While the Beck rally stretched well down the National Mall, Saturday’s event was shaping up to be far smaller, with sparse groups lingering around the reflecting pool and other monuments.
Many are seeking to compare this crowd’s size to Beck’s 8-28 rally. I was also at the 9-12 March on D.C. (yeah, another Conservative event) and I am fairly certain they didn’t even rival that less publicized event.
Irrespective of the crowd size, what I found disconcerting was the disparate, disjointed messages that were represented. So many different agendas were represented at the rally and it got even worse if you were watching Free Speech TV’s livestream coverage. There were signs equating Christianity to Nazis while speakers at the pulpit were calling for “..faith to be the rudder”. I heard pushes for transgender equality, students complaining that the student loan debt that they chose to take on was somehow my problem, calls for income redistribution, single-payer health care, support for Africa, an end to alleged injustices against Haitians by Home Depot, an end to “shopping deserts”, a call for the card check bill to pass, pushes for green energy and a plea for more union membership. That’s a whole crap-load of social issues to digest and I am fairly certain that I didn’t catch them all.
What was evident, is that the crowd was bought. In something akin to a banana republic-style rally – they did what they were made to do – show up. Thousands of people were bussed in, given signs and told to stand there. They did at first, but the crowd thinned quickly.
The enthusiasm from the crowd came from different areas as one group might agree that we should throw even more money at a failing public school system, but another group would only become enlivened when the subject was wind energy. With so many social issues, getting them all to agree to much of anything might be an organizing effort in its own right.
Glenn Beck’s rally had a single message and a crowd that was intensely involved. At the One Nation rally, the crowd seemed to be sparse and milling around – the only intensely involved attendees seemed to be the organizers, liberal media, and the speakers.
Rally isn’t even 24 hours old and these dolts already managed to cost the U.S. taxpayers more than they should. I guess it’s to be expected – they think we should all pick-up after all the rest of their messes.
Here’s a pic linked on DailyKos – awfully empty mall.
I know it’s still hard to tell. Were there as many at this Union indoctrination festival or not? Anyone remember how even the port-o-potty area at the Beck rally was shoulder to shoulder? Here’s the same area Proggy-style. Wow, that’s a veritable sea of humanity.
Finally a shot of One Nation rally from the same vantage point as Beck’s:
For fair comparison, here’s a crowd shot of the Restoring Honor rallly:
And the obligatory Youtube video of the aftermath from @hostagehoosier
Good job, and this screen shot does not include the empty overflow area. Which was filled during Beck’s 812 rally.
After having slept on it, I forgot to mention a few other agendas that were presented at the rally: immigration reform and a running theme – Conservatives suck.