Nick Gillespie, writing at Reason:
First, the crowd was truly huge. Second, the crowd was from all over the place (both geographically and ideologically).
Yes, it varied from the center-right to the far right. The teabag movement is obsessed with pretending that it has no party nor ideology when that simply isn’t true. It is a very conservatve, Republican-voting constituency. They have a habit of propping up “former Democrats” or “independents” but frankly its almost totally composed of people who voted for McCain and Bush.
They didn’t exactly vote for McCain. A lot of them stayed home in 2008 (and 2006 too.)
Amazing the amount of attention you pay to something you declared all but dead back April.
McCain and Bush? Looked more like the David Duke crowd to me. But i guess there’s an unfortunate amount of overlap there.
Well to be fair, Reason is trying to expand its demographic… but honestly, there’s really only so many racists out there who haven’t joined up with them yet.
Seriously… when Weigel left Reason did he literally take the last shred of that place’s sanity with him?
Dennis: Look! Over Here!
It’s Fox News’ project and they got some people out, and will continue to do so as long as they promote these things.
If Rupert Murdoch didn’t exist, there would be no “movement” of the neo-Birchers.
interesting read and Farris is correct, McCain didn’t have the support of the majority of those people.
Spanning the ideological spectrum from crazy to batshit crazy.
Yes, it varied from the
center-rightReliably Far-Right Fox News Dittohead Douchebags to thefar right‘Holy Fucking Shit!, S/He Did Not Just Say That’ Lunatic Right.Technically fixed. Although, to be fair, “center-right” is pretty much whack-job Fox News Dittohead territory at this point anyway.
Amazing the amount of attention you pay to something you declared all but dead back April.
It’s simply not wise to turn your back on a white supremacist rally of this size, Dennis.
Don’t point out that the movement is monolithic! People like AO and his friends will lecture you that accurately describing a crowd by race, age, and socioeconomic status and ideological bent is racist! Nevermind that it is a description and not a derogatory statement. As it is said many times over on this site: This is who they are.
Where were these clowns when Reagan tripled the national debt?
Anyone who thinks this is about “runaway” govt is fooling themselves.
The only thing missing from some of these people, is the white hood, IMO. Sorry if some find this offensive. I think a lot of this is racism “masked” as social activism of some sort.
After all, it was Glenn Beck himself whos stated that Obama didn’t like Obama people.
They are a truly loathsome bunch.
Dennis isn’t doing “look over there”, he’s doing his standard schtick of “aha, the fact that you pay any attention to right-wing asshattery must mean that you’re really shitting your pants over it.” Which was asinine the first time he did it and now both asinine and hackneyed. Find a new one, would you Dennis?
Reason is an establishment whore magazine defending Dick Armey and John Mackey
@Dennis and all of the TEA PAERTIES UR AWEESOOMMEE folks
This is just short term game. Same with the McCain campaign when they whipped it up. Why?
1. No message
2. No Endgame
Ask ten different protesters and they want ten different things. Crazy, batshit things.
You folks thing you found the magic fountain of youth for 2010 so you are going to ratchet this shit up. In 1993-4 Newt Gingrich had a gameplan.
Now? “Tea Bags!”
20-25 House Seats flip to Republicans for 2010, tops. And I am calling it even with the crazy media-generated environment. If Healthcare reform and one other major item passes (Financial Overhaul or Climate) along with the slow and steady recovery of the economy you guys won’t even get that much.
Well at least it was peaceful, and no one lost a finger, or was shot while in a wheelchair. “they came, they saw, they protested, they went home” -Impaler
These were actually 2 million people who voted for Obama and now think he’s a Communist Nazi from Kenya. Makes sense to me.
@Impaler …
Ummm, No. Guy for the public option who tried to make himself visible? Had to be escorted.
By at least ten police officers.
Hold the phone ! The “teabaggers” are Republican and conservatives ?
They’re not Liverpudlian postal workers ? Or Patagonian fisherman?
Well, I’ll be durned.
Fuck the teabaggers. I hope they all get cancer and go bankrupt trying to pay for medical treatment. Fucking idiots.
I’m new here but it’s funny that a year ago a rally of this size by code pink, moveon.org, or acorn would have be called successful. But now if 60,000 or 2 million people show up to speak truth to power it not cool any longer and they are called racist.I truely believe protest is patriotic, but it cuts both ways.
“But now if 60,000 or 2 million people show up to speak truth to power it not cool any longer and they are called racist.”
HA! “Speak truth to power.” Right, Larry. Right.
Larry – “speak truth to power”
Riiiighht. The only remotely cohesive message these losers have is that they’re pissed off at our president. A bunch of lower-middle class morons riled up by their super-rich betters to go to DC and whine like a kindergardener after the ice cream truck drove by. It’s usually a waste of time to protest an action. It’s always a waste of time to protest a person.
“But now if 60,000 or 2 million people show up ”
They’ve been building this thing for months and now that 30 thousand people showed they have to lie and say it was 1 or two million. Just now Beck is citing a British newspaper that claims 1 million people showed up!! A British paper!! Talk about looking far afield for corroboration!! Maybe there’s a paper in Tibet that claims 5 million folks showed. Maybe? No shame.
It was a miserable failure. It will shrivel and then die on the vine. Sorry. But keep pretending if it makes you feel better.
@Larry
No one said they can’t protest. But if you think that “Obama is the muslim socialist!” crowd isn’t racist then that’s just ignoring reality.
The anti-war crowd has been consistant – There were a few anti-war protests this Spring and Summer when Obama took office. There haven’t been any “Bush is the socialist crusador!” protests from these folks when Bush was in office – and he spent on shit that didn’t make sense.
Dennis: Look! Over Here!
Oliver, haven’t you worn that out? It was funny at first, now it makes you look childish……………..them again.
Oh, and as far as that gathering in DC, please continue to pretend it didn’t happen.
The gathering in DC that happened.
No one should ever forget that it happened. Never forget.
More at TPM:
Heh.
Good photo essays – if the GOP win anything with that rag tag bunch of Beck bots, oh boy!! Even Canada’s not a far enough place to live. I’ll be moving back to my ancestral homeland, as soon as I find one.
Oh, and as far as that gathering in DC, please continue to pretend it didn’t happen.
It did happen, and the next day the overweight middle class losers all went back home after trashing the mall to their boring mundane suburban lives, still cowering in fear over whatever Glen Beck tells them to. In short, their little temper tantrum did nothing to advance their cause or sway indies and moderates. If anything, they show their true colors and further marginalize themselves as the wacko but loud minority of a dying political demographic.
I mean, who still throws around the word “Communist”?(Other than stupid old white teabaggers)
Talk about out of touch. This isn’t 1959. Do they think they are going to get young people into their ranks by using scary words from fifty years ago? I love how they use all the old tired worn out slogans with lots of ‘isms’.
Maybe this is Michael Steele’s version of being ‘beyond cutting edge’
After 6 months of having Fox News promote it non-stop, 60K people is a pretty weak turnout. They couldn’t even get a six figure sized crowd.
Then again, the dummies who organized it probably should not have chosen the second week of NCAA football to have it.
Because whether you are liberal or conservative, we all LOVES US SOME NCAA FOOTBALL
DIE USC!
DIE USC!
I mean, who still throws around the word “Communist”?(Other than stupid old white teabaggers)
It’s a Lee Atwater Situation. Outside of the South Carolina Republican Party HQ, you can’t yell “Nigger, nigger, nigger!” like you could in 1954, so they had to pick something. (Which is progress, but based on the Teabagger signage and interviews, just barely.)
Larry, Welcome to Obamaland, most of the people here are nice, so enjoy!
Jane get me off this crazy thing! – G.Jetson
Chris K. “The anti-war crowd has been consistant” well I think this another Freaky Friday moment (when democrats on one magical night became republicans), they were anti-Bush, anti-war, then Obama comes along, and Bam, over night, not protests. all of a sudden, they become war supporters.
So Sayeth the Democrat!
It did happen, and the next day the overweight middle class losers all went back home after trashing the mall
“Trashing” being a relative term.
all of a sudden, they become war supporters
Who did?
Slayer- “then Obama comes along, and Bam, over night, not protests. all of a sudden, they become war supporters.”
Maybe because Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11? Maybe because the Taliban gave (gives) protection to your real enemy, Bin Laden. Just a crazy thought.
So Sayeth So Sayeth
It’s like listening to a Weird Al Yankovic song. The first time you hear it is mildly funny, the second time garners a lesser chuckle, by the third time you are over it. By the fourth time, you shut the radio off.
Hold the phone ! The “teabaggers” are Republican and conservatives ?
They’re not Liverpudlian postal workers ? Or Patagonian fisherman?
Well, I’ll be durned.
Post that at Reason, not here.
They didn’t exactly vote for McCain. A lot of them stayed home in 2008 (and 2006 too.)
That’s true! McCain was deemed not crazy enough for them.
Well not Republican enough, but here this maybe one in the same. LOL
“It was a miserable failure. It will shrivel and then die on the vine. Sorry. But keep pretending if it makes you feel better.”
He he, Keep dreaming, its going to grow and all the while you’ll deny it. It will shake out at close to 1,000,000 people in the end showing up for that “miserable failure”. If 1,000,000 American citizens show up on your front door and tell you that you are fucking up, You had better listen! For everyone that showed up there are more that could not who will continue to support it and after the success of this demonstration, there will be more.
The left is starting on the path of selfdestruction, acorns recent implosion is a start. They can’t help themselves for the left is like the kid in the candy store grabbing for everything for they know thier time is short.
The parents are waking up.
“Second, the crowd was from all over the place (both geographically and ideologically).”
That quote reminded me of this one from The Blues Brothers:
“Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.”
If 1,000,000 American citizens show up on your front door and tell you that you are fucking up, You had better listen!
And if a million people show up at your front door shouting random words like “Birth certificate!” “Death panels!” “Socialism!” just close the door and go back to whatever you were doing.
“The left is starting on the path of selfdestruction, acorns recent implosion is a start.
Oh, quit showing off your ability to morph alliteration and abnormal botanical processes to us. Your brains are waaaay to big for us.
The parents are waking up.
They woke up in 2008. It was the special needs children who came out to play on 9/12.
SaveFarris is right – they didn’t vote for McCain – they voted for Sarah Palin.
No Republican running to unseat a Democrat in a close Congressional District will be anywhere near one of these teabag carnivals if they have any hope of winning next year.
The DC fire department estimated the crowd at 60,000-70,000, and the DC fire department does this kind of thing whenever there’s a rally of some significance.
This pales in comparison to the anti-war rallies under Bush, and the pro-Obama rallies leading up to his victory/mandate from the American people.
Remember St. Louis?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/18/obama-rally-in-st-louis-d_n_135826.html
Or for that matter, the inauguration?
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/21/nation/na-inaug-crowds21
But why bother counting the numbers at all? As we all know, when George Bush was president all protests, especially the really big ones, were meaningless gestures made by the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party.
Why should we think of teabaggers any differently?
@Crusty Dem
So true.
I am sure that there are a considerable number of people who are angry at Obama for not being progressive enough, especialy with the financial system. Thus, healthcare reform is suffering because of that. He looks weak-minded and the type that just wants to furl around the edges of a problem instead of seizing the initiative in front of him.
But there are serious people within the GOP that believe a return to racism is the ticket.
Let’s be clear, all that will do is two things:
Solidify their support in the South and MidWest; but alienate everywhere else.
Force the party to move harder to the right. Once, people thought Bobby Jindal could have taken the mantle. Now, they will only be able to push a white man who’s ready, willing, and able to pander to every batshit demand they have. Except for Mitt Romney. No mormons.
“Your braaaaaaaains are way too big for us.”
/zombified