Walking down to the Mall, I was treated to this bit of loveliness parked across the street from the Environmental Protection Agency:

Hmmmmm, not sure "We the People" was a cornerstone of the Confederacy, but whatever.

I got down to the Mall, east of the Washington Monument, at around 12:00 and to my surprise, there were a good deal of his followers walking in the opposite direction:

Not a good sign for a burgeoning "movement," but still a good number of people. Still, I was heartened to see these good people representing the voice of sanity:

As I walked west towards the Washington Monument, the crowd became more dense, surprisingly so I must say:

Closer towards the Lincoln Memorial at the WWII Memorial, I could see that the crowd was rather impressive, several tens-of-thousands, by my estimate.

Ah yes, "taking back the civil rights movement" by smearing a civil rights icon. Keep it classy bagger:



"The Bold Truth MLK was Pro-Communist!"

As is the norm for anything with Glenn Beck, here are some ironic shots of his devoted followers "restoring the honor" to our veterans at the WWII Memorial:

It's a memorial, shit for brains. That means: don't fucking climb on it and don't let your fucking kids wade around in it as though it were some strip mall penny fountain!

Here's a shot of teabagger's spawn kids cooling off in the water provided by the DCFD and my hard-earned tax dollars. No irony here:

I didn't venture any further towards the Lincoln Memorial as the crowd was annoyingly dense and my dog was getting hot, but I was able to capture several more images to give you a feel of the rally:

Overall, I have to say the crowd was much bigger than I had anticipated. It was a sea of teabaggers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the WWII Memorial and dispersing somewhat up the hill to the Washington Monument. While there there were speakers broadcasting Glenn's screed, it was difficult to make out what he was saying. It was something along the lines of [in Charlie Brown teacher voice]: "Wah wah wah, whawhawha wha, GOD!"

Obviously, the diversity amongst this crowd was non-existent...unless you count variations in shades of denim jean shorts and patriotic paraphanalia as "diverse."

While fairly dense, the mob was not very animated. They would occasionally golf clap or even give a sad little "woohoo" but they were more milquetoasty than I expected.

In giving credit where it is due, they were mostly well-behaved and teh crazy was at a minimum. They may like to speak of "revolution" and "replenishing the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots," from the safety and comfort of their dial-up internet, but I don't see that happening.

Put simply, this is a crowd of mostly older, white-folks-in-lawn-chairs™ who fear change, even if for the benefit of themselves, their families, and the country at large. They are the heels in the sand of progress and like it or not, we progressives will drag them forward, kicking and screaming, to a better day, as we have always done.

Newton thanks you for reading!



NOTE: It's Saturday, and I don't want to sit behind my laptop for the rest of the afternoon. Please do comment (if you like) and I will respond later this evening. :)

UPDATE" Rec list? Holy shit! Thank you! I'm honored! First time!