I was in Washington to visit my cousin who moved there recently to work at the world bank. I found out about this rally while I was there. So I decided I attend it just to observe the people to see whether what I have been hearing about this so called "movement" is true.
I got there at 1030 when Sarah Palin was making her speech. I would say there was around 150,000 (MAX) people there..(Michelle bachman held her own rally after, she claimed there was one million people) Almost 95% of them were white. That's the very first thing you'd notice.. self- consciousness and the feeling of being an outsider was certainly with me all day.. me and my gf stood out. a few people throughout the rally came up to us and said what we are doing there, I asked them why would u ask that, they all said well u guys kind of stand out.
It was an "apolitical" rally.. although I dont believe for a sec that the organizers behind it truly believed in that. read the new yorker article about who was behind it all. so therefore, there was not many signs, but people wore their political beliefs on their sleeves. I met this Italian journalist there and asked him if I could follow him around while he interviewed people, to just get a sense of the crowd.
almost everyone of them turned quite angry when they heard the name Obama. most of them said they dont believe he is a true American.. almost all of them said they are not sure even if he was born in America... one of them said he doesnt feel he is like them (aka "he is not white"). He went on to say that African Americans can't go up the ranks easily in the American system, so the fact that Obama could, is very suspicious to him....
Every time I tried to press them on what it was that they disagreed on, they just kept saying well he is a socialist, but couldn't for the life of them come up with one single policy that they disagree with.
Almost everyone of them said they want to take their country back.. and how its been taken away from them recently.. and that its not about Dems or Reps.. I asked why they didn't do anything during the Bush admin.. However, I didnt' get one straight answer..
The video that's posted here is a true representation of most of the people I talked to. It's NOT just "a few idiots"... It seemed like a trend.
everyone I talked to there absolutely loved glenn beck, and would follow him no matter what.. they all said they hope for a Beck Palin ticket in 2012
I also asked them about the mosque, and they overwhelmingly were opposed to it, and thought that all Muslims sympathize with the terrorists. They mostly said that they have the right to build it there, but it's not wise.. I immediately asked about how holding this rally on that very day in that very place is very offensive to some... they all immediately said well this is america, and we have rights etc etc.. completely forgetting what they said a sec ago about the mosque.
The saddest part is that they held this pointless rally on the MLK i have a dream speech anniversary, but almost overwhelmingly everyone there was middle age christian whites.
This point was emphasized when the other rally got close to glenn beck rally. You could see on one side the white people in large numbers all starring at the black crowd that was passing them by, and quietly speaking to one another.. You could see the division, the gap, the line physically manifesting itself right there in front of you, That was the most symbolic moment of the whole day for me. It is evident that there are still deep feeling of mistrust between blacks and whites, and characters like Beck try their best to profit from this division while wrapping themselves around the flag and patriotism...