Nations crumble from within when the citizenry asks of government those things which the citizenry might better provide for itself. … [I] hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
- Ronald Wilson Reagan
Saturday October 2, tens of thousands of Americans who wish to expand government and contract liberty gathered in Washington, D.C., at the behest of unions and other liberal and progressive activist groups for the "One Nation Working Together" rally. I think we can all imagine what Ronald Reagan's reaction would have been to this parade of purple-shirted SEIU unionistas, placard toting self proclaimed socialists, cliché spouting communists, anti-Israel/pro-Palestine loons, open borders activists, and all the other assorted malcontents, flotsam and jetsam streaming past the reflecting pool and up to the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
I think he would have stood there sadly shaking his head, and then he would have paraphrased himself and said "well, there they go again."
The AP story by Philip Elliott opened with this observation:
Tapping into the same anger that fuels the tea party movement, a coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats struggling to keep power on Capitol Hill.
Beyond that little bit of questionable news "analysis," I was actually surprised by the rather mild coverage this story received from some of the reliably liberal newspapers in their overnight on-line editions. I had to look around for it in the New York Times, which gave it rather cursory and bland treatment and even the reporting from the reliably lefty Washington Post was basically straight forward and spin free. In fact WaPo was very fair by reporting the crowd size as having "stretched down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial then petered out down the sides of the reflecting pool…"
The Post reported that the organizers expected a crowd of about 175,000 and that seems to be about the agreed number in attendance. Considering that the MSM has a history of under-reporting the size of conservative rallies and overestimating the size of liberal rallies – I was actually surprised by their candor.
Of course this is considerably fewer than the estimated 500,000 Americans who came from all parts of the country for the "Restoring Honor" rally hosted by Glenn Beck, but as we are reminded by the Post, this event had "been in the works since April" and "wasn't met to be in competition" with Beck. To which I say "ya sure, 'One Nation' organizers, like we're buying that line."
In reality the 'One Nation' rally turned out to be what most of us thought it would be — a progressive/liberal/socialist hate fest featuring speakers railing, screeching and preaching against the various perceived evils of conservatism, capitalism, corporatism and the Tea Party to the assembled faithful much like aquarium workers tossing bait fish to appreciatively bellowing seals.
All told "One Nation" generated a predicable blast of hot air and, even more predictably, it generated trash on an epic scale. If this rally truly were about a "nation working together" they could have at least "worked together" to clean up their own mess.
What really transpired with this laughably misnamed rally was the biggest display of "Astroturf" outside of the Astrodome as union members were bused in by the thousands and the activists squeezed into their Priuses and carpooled in to hear such bombastic speakers as "Mr. Ed" Schultz, wealthy communist/entertainer Harry Belafonte, and Al Sharpton shout, implore and cajole the faithful to get motivated and convince their neighbors and friends to join them in surrendering their freedom to the government.
Apparently the other angle that the organizers wished to emphasize was that this rally was "diverse" and "represented the voices of a majority of Americans." I'm sure that misconception of reality would make a modicum of sense if a "majority" of Americans were members of SEIU, UAW, the NAACP, La Raza or any of the other multi-hued rainbow of leftist groups in attendance.
Personally I'll stick with the group of Americans who are in league with Ronald Reagan – and limited government conservatism – he knew what was true and right many years before 10/02/10.
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