Rally To Restore Sanity / Keep Fear Alive | Washington, DC
You all know about the rally that was Saturday in DC. There is already one thread about it on the forum and will soon no doubt be more. Here are my pictures.
The rally caused Metrorail to break its all time Saturday ridership record.
We knew it would be super crowded, so we avoided transit and got there on bikes. We had out of town guests with us, so we hired pedicabs.
Obviously I didn't take this picture, but it's interesting. It's also useful as a reference.
I was standing approximately on top of the "S" in West Seaton Park, near the right side of the blue area.
Here was our vantage point, with no zooming.
These guys have got the right idea.
After some musical entertainment, the Myth Busters guys came out to run some experiments on the crowd.
Comparing the crowd reaction to instructions given over the microphone versus instructions given over the jumbotons.
Jon.
Stephen. If you look closely in this first one you can see the real version up on the stage.
__________________
"it was sooo damn sweet I vomited big time, in fact I threw up an entire meatloaf dinner and I haven't even eaten meatloaf in over three months....the show was that bad. " ~ Rockyi 12/16/06
i had a blast at the rally. lots and lots of very creative and hilarious signs out in the crowd. and of course stewart and colbert were awesome, as were the numerous special guests. the cat stevens/ozzie osbourne/OJ's peace train/crazy train/love train bit was outstanding!
great pics cirrus. you and i weren't too fat away from each other considering the ridiculous size of the crowd.
__________________ "Missing middle" housing can be a marvelous middle ground for many middle class families.
Wow, you must have arrived super early to get such an awesome spot. Imo, the Metro wasn't bad at all, it didn't seem like anyone had to wait for the next train due to crowding. Thanks for sharing!
The secret to big National Mall events is that people always crowd the outer perimeter, because they give up too soon. It looks crowded, so people just stop rather than moving forward all the way. If you push through into the middle you can often find decent places to stand.
You just have to develop a healthy scorn for out of town tourists, and assume they are always doing something wrong. ;-)
Cirrus-- with all due respect, the photos are excellent but this rally is perhaps one of the most ridiculous things in quite a while (although a welcome change from the Glenn Beck corporate-sponsored hate-fest in August).
The election is tomorrow (four days after this rally) and how many of these people who attended were phone-banking afterwards or helping with Get Out the Vote efforts for candidates that will support public education, investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and closing tax loopholes that encourage jobs to be created in China, not here in the US?
Of course it's not ridiculous. You are missing the point.
The point of all big rallies is to guide the media narrative and generate enthusiasm. The topic of the rally doesn't matter; the only point is to get on the news. Specifically, the point of *this* rally was to divert the national media narrative away from endless stories about how enthused tea partiers are, and to give liberals a reason to get enthusiastic about something themselves.
Every liberal who sees a news story about this rally is reminded of the election as surely as if they'd gotten a call from a phone bank.
By putting a massive liberal crowd on every TV and internet news outlet in the country, Stewart essentially phone banked the entire country. That's a whole lot more efficient than doing it one phone call at a time.
... Of course, it only works if your rally is big enough to get mainstream attention and you don't make yourself look like a complete jackass in the process. The big WTO protests a few years ago generated more sympathy than opposition for the WTO, because the protesters were so unlikable.
The election is tomorrow (four days after this rally) and how many of these people who attended were phone-banking afterwards or helping with Get Out the Vote efforts for candidates that will support public education, investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and closing tax loopholes that encourage jobs to be created in China, not here in the US?
i attended the rally and if i had not, i would not have been involved doing any of those other activities on saturday afternoon anyway. i probably would have just gone for a bike ride or something. for me, the rally was simply a time to laugh and mock our national media outlets with like-minded individuals. i'm not really all that political of person, though i do fear and hate theocracy, which i guess makes me a lefty these days, but i'm pretty politically agnostic on the big economic issues.
__________________ "Missing middle" housing can be a marvelous middle ground for many middle class families.
i attended the rally and if i had not, i would not have been involved doing any of those other activities on saturday afternoon anyway. i probably would have just gone for a bike ride or something. for me, the rally was simply a time to laugh and mock our national media outlets with like-minded individuals. i'm not really all that political of person, though i do fear and hate theocracy, which i guess makes me a lefty these days, but i'm pretty politically agnostic on the big economic issues.
No offense to you but this is exactly my point (if I hadn't made phone calls, personally, I'd have gone for a bike ride). I don't think many of the people who attended realize what is at stake in this election. We've several candidates running this year who loudly call for privatizing education, eliminating Social Security, etc... John Boehner/Agent Orange was campaigning for someone in OH this weekend who likes to dress up and play Nazi (http://toledoblade.com/article/20101031/NEWS09/10300401) . It's this apathy that is going to lead tomorrow to be an absolute disaster for anyone who cares about funding for transit, high speed rail, clean energy, or other important issues.
No offense to you but this is exactly my point (if I hadn't made phone calls, personally, I'd have gone for a bike ride). I don't think many of the people who attended realize what is at stake in this election. We've several candidates running this year who loudly call for privatizing education, eliminating Social Security, etc... John Boehner/Agent Orange was campaigning for someone in OH this weekend who likes to dress up and play Nazi (http://toledoblade.com/article/20101031/NEWS09/10300401) . It's this apathy that is going to lead tomorrow to be an absolute disaster for anyone who cares about funding for transit, high speed rail, clean energy, or other important issues.
well, i'm clearly just not as politically passionate as you are. the rally was a great way for me to point and laugh at our ridiculous media outlets in this country.
__________________ "Missing middle" housing can be a marvelous middle ground for many middle class families.
Honestly, yes. At the Glenn Beck corporate rally, I'd think nearly every person who attended will vote tomorrow. I'd be surprised if more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who attended Saturday's rally vote tomorrow.
The false equivalency is also nonsense. One party is just a little more shrill than the other this election.
Honestly, yes. At the Glenn Beck corporate rally, I'd think nearly every person who attended will vote tomorrow. I'd be surprised if more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who attended Saturday's rally vote tomorrow.
i can't speak for everyone at the rally, but i'll ABSOLUTELY be voting tomorrow. i vote in every election, primaries too. now, i might not vote for the candidates that you want me to vote for, but i'll definitely be voting.
__________________ "Missing middle" housing can be a marvelous middle ground for many middle class families.
Did you even read my first reply? It's not about the people at the rally. It's about the people back in Ohio who see it on TV. It's about providing a reason for them to be excited. You can't complain that one party is doing well because it's making more noise this election, and then criticize the other party when they make noise. For goodness sake.
Also, for the record, given that the Stewart rally was two and a half times the size of the Beck rally, even if only half the people vote it will have generated more votes than Beck's.
Honestly, the fact that you're in this thread talking about whether the rally was enough to get out the vote is itself proof that it was successful, because after all: here we are talking about voting, because of the rally.
Every sentence you type in this thread is a sentence you wouldn't have typed if the rally hadn't happened. The rally is riling you up, despite yourself.
Looks like it was a blast, wish I could have attended!
__________________
"You need both a public and a private position." --Hillary Clinton, speaking behind closed doors to the National Multi-Family Housing Council, 2013
Honestly, yes. At the Glenn Beck corporate rally, I'd think nearly every person who attended will vote tomorrow. I'd be surprised if more than 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who attended Saturday's rally vote tomorrow.
The false equivalency is also nonsense. One party is just a little more shrill than the other this election.
what a ridiculous thing to say. if people were motivated enough to come all the way to the national mall (even if they were already from the beltway), what makes you think the same people won't walk down the block to their polling place? isn't it pretty well documented how well educated (and therefore, presumably, how participatory) the stewart-colbert viewership is? stewart had the president of the freaking united states on his show last week, and the only thing he (obama) implored of those watching was to vote.
that said, since moving west a year ago, i have happily -- many would say ignorantly-blissfully -- eschewed any political interest i once had, and i will not, in fact, be voting in oregon tomorrow. it's not apathy, though -- i grew to loathe the political process so much that i no longer want anything to do with it. at very least, i'm taking a timeout from it.
thanks for sharing, cirrus. looks like an incredible event. i hadn't heard that about the metro ridership either, that's great.
Prev
Linear Mode
