From Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish:
"So this wasn't an angry rally for the alienated Democratic left; or even a joyous rally like last fall's March for Equality; or a desperate and frustrated rally like the Tea Partiers. No one was demanding their country back; they were just demanding, well asking, for a little less polarization, and a little more mutual understanding. It was an Obama rally that didn't want to be an Obama rally. And it was only an Obama rally sotto voce because he seems currently the only adult in Washington with any interest in compromising with anyone.
There are, after all, three political groupings in American politics Republicans, Democrats and Independents. But there are also three cultural groupings: ideologues, the pragmatists, and the totally indifferent. This was a rally for the pragmatists, which made it, for my money, the core Obama base.
It wasn't ethnically very diverse, but there were many more boomers than I expected. It was very good humored, and one sensed that the entire crowd loathed Fox, felt queasy about MSNBC, couldn't bring themselves to watch CNN and caught NPR in the commute. The young were out in force, but, again, they seemed like the Obama generation - not the facile dreamers who saw a Messiah in 2008, but the resilient rump who knew full well what he was up against."
4 comments:
There were lots of 50-somethings there. Also many brown people. A very nice autumn afternoon to spend with friends and strangers being reasonable. I looked at over 300 signs on one of the sites. Loved them! My favorite was: Civil is Sexy.
SMILE
Yes, Charlene, it was a great way to spend an autumn afternoon.
Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo has many more signs to read. All of them clever, funny, and with no H8 in them.
Link here.
I think this rally with it's sanity message came just at the right time. It's been a nasty two years and the rally proves that there is a kinder, more gentle America out there. And this was one event the MSM couldn't ignore.
I viewed the TPM photos. Charlene is absolutely right. The oldies and "minorities" (hate that word) were well represented. Hell, if there had just been four African Americans, that would have been twice as many as at a TP rally.
Besides, I'm thrilled that young people are interested enough to get involved these days. It was the youth of our nation that called attention to Civil Rights and Vietnam.
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