Methinks We Doth (Not) Protest Too Much

We drew (according to one count) about 30 people to yesterday’s counterprotest on John Ireland Boulevard.

It was a huge success.  Before I took off from the house Saturday morning, I had a hard count of maybe 18.   Getting nearly double that?  Awesome.

Of course, the point wasn’t to demonstrate.  Demonstrations don’t really affect policy in any way at all.  What they are, if you keep things in perspective, is a dandy social occasion; a time to get together and realize you’re not alone out there. 

Liberals and “activists” are like tuna (and, if it’s possible, please believe I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense); they travel in big groups, they get uneasy when they’re NOT in a big group, they have a hard time conceiving of existence that doesn’t involve big groups. 

Conservatives are like sharks; any one of us is a match for dozens of liberals, and our very presence at marches or school board meetings or community council elections provokes unreasoning fear, panic, irrationality and an “end justifies the means” mentality.  And we usually operate alone.  Conservatism is fundamentally a solitary thing; we usually come to the movement alone, or with a spouse.  Liberals have their marches and their union meetings and their poli-sci classes; our social impulses are usually carried out via talk radio and blogs, at work or while hauling kids to school.  Getting a group of five or more conservatives together for ANYTHING but an open bar is a major undertaking.

So I have neither the illusion of nor the desire to try to get thousands of conservatives out into the street next year for the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul.  But I do want to get dozens out on the street, and spotted around the city’s various choke points, with cameras and video and laptops and wireless cards, to make sure that the “demonstrators” are held accountable to the world for the actions of their, er, less-restrained fellows.

Like Brad Carlson did with this guy.

The left labors under the fantasy that there’ll be an equal amount of provocation from the left and the right.  My goal; to have the radical far left’s sins and crimes spread far and wide, in the event that their lunatic fringe misbehaves in Saint Paul this year.

And yes, I fully expect that the left will have its phalanxes of “citizen journalists” trooping through the streets with cameras, trying to do the same.

Hopefully we’re all going to be bored stiff.

Anyone wanna place bets on who’s gonna be busier?

Kermit, Brad, Dr. Jonz and Swiftee were there…

20 thoughts on “Methinks We Doth (Not) Protest Too Much

  1. I still remember the rage I witnessed as a counter-demonstrator at the big McGovern appearance/anti-war rally at the University of Minnesota main campus mall three and a half decades ago. I was on the board of the College Republcians chapter there, and we, along with some general members of our chapter, marched through the seething crowd with our own signs. As a group, we were punched, kicked and spat upon. I got all three treatments. The hatred we encountered was amazing. We heard the taunt many times that we were being paid to counter-protest. They couldn’t believe that anyone would do it out of personal belief and conviction. My personal experience is that “peace activists” aren’t very peaceful. They also beat the snot out of a campus cop trying to maintain order, too far away from me for any chance of my rendering help. They firebombed Ford Hall, the Philosophy building, and the firefighters were enraged that the administration of the school had given orders that the fire was to be described as accidental, starting in oily rags. One fireman at the scene told me: “Sure, oily rags, stuffed into the necks of bottles filled with gasoline, lit and thrown into the building!” They also blew up a power substation feeding the hospital and health science complex. My mother was a cancer patient there at the time. But I’m sure that she and all the other patients, including a few on the operating table who would have died had the backup generators not gone on, were all members of or tools of the military-industrial-complex cabal of warmongerers, and thus legitimate targets of the “peace activists”.

  2. Oh, in a hilarious sidelight to the campus protests during the Vietnam War, someone firebombed the converted RV mobile laboratory of a unit of the Biology Department at the U of M. There was room on the sides of the mobile lab for the full name, Freshwater Biological Institute, but on the rear end, which is where the Molotov Cocktails hit, they only had room for the intitials, FBI.

  3. My favorite part was talking to a couple of young guys wearing “Iraq Vets for Peace” shirts.

    As they walked up, I asked them if they had actually been in Iraq. After they assured me that they had, I identified myself as a fellow vet and asked them with genuine incredulity “You’re not going to march with those people are you?”

    I explained that I was not a war supporter, but an America supporter that had shown up to confront the people who are saying that guys like them were Nazi stormtroopers….and right on schedule along comes a moonbat with a shabby little, hand lettered, Bu$hiter sign.

    I said “There he is guys, take a good long look.”

    As we watched the nutcase pass by, I asked the guys again..”You’re going to march with *that* guy and his buddies?” “Really?” “Let’s us go on down to the bar..I’m buying.”

    We all had a laugh, they shook my hand and walked towards the anti-American rally point, but I did not see them march. I like to think that they had a second thought.

  4. Swiftee was one of tops yesterday in terms of valor and a presence with the protesters. I broke from the group when the marchers past us, and walked alongside on the sidewalk next to their truck. Raging Protester Guy approached me near the Xcel Center and I calmly told him we caught his antics on tape and I had the police commander’s number programmed in my phone. He buggered off.

    While walking back to the group, a bystander offered to help me carry the big sign back. He was an Iraq vet (listening to Mitch in his headphones) who heard about the protest and came to see the action. Some leftists hurled insults at us, but we remained calm and let them expose themselves as angry, non-peaceful lunatics to onlookers.

  5. Thanks Lassie, I had a great time!

    You and Mitch did an outstanding job getting this thing set up and I think it was a huge success. As Mitch says, it doesn’t take many patriotic Americans to stand down a mob of leftist pukes.

    Speaking of leftist pukes, you know Raging Protester Guy walked right past me and never opened his yap. I could see the rage welling up in his pinched, ferret face, but he couldn’t even muster the balls to meet my stare.

    I’m not surprised that he decided to harass a petite woman..it’s how loudmouthed lefty cowards like he and his ilk roll. It’s great to hear you stood the punk down, although he probably went home and took it out on his kids.

  6. I liked how the marchers had some flaks stand on the sidewalk next to (in front?) of us. Who were they protecting, us or them?

  7. One of the kooks told us to enjoy the money the GOP paid us to be there. Mitch, I know you secured the permit but were you also responsible for the monetary disbursements? I guess you were in such a hurry to get to the radio station that you must have forgotten.

    I’ll be in touch!!!

  8. Mitch explained: “We drew (according to one count) about 30 people to yesterday’s counterprotest on John Ireland Boulevard.”

    You shoulda called it the Million Mitch March. Did the cops estimate the turnout from overhead surveillance photos? Or maybe you’re just not sure of the turnout cause Swiftee’s count can’t be trusted above single digits?

  9. Swiftee said: “I identified myself as a fellow vet”

    Bet you especially enjoyed organizing those nude-prisoner pyramids.

    “I explained that I was not a war supporter, but an America supporter”

    Angryclown thinks of you as an athletic supporter.

  10. Angryclown thinks of you…athletic supporter.

    Not sure I’d lead with that, ol’ buddy.

    Just saying.

  11. Pingback: Truth v. The Machine » Archives » Answer: five

  12. Kermit thinks of angryclown as the residue that accumulates on the bottom of a used athletic supporter.

  13. “Angryclown thinks of you as an athletic supporter.”

    Of *course* you do…what else *would* a dickhead be thinking about?

  14. Kermit observed: “If Kermit were a 19th Century French novelist, he’d be dead.”

    Everybody wins!

  15. Swiftee throws twice and misses! OK, you’ve had two tries and a whole night to think about how you’ll come up with a devastating put-down.

    Angryclown taunts you from the chair of the dunking booth. Three tries for a dollar! Whatcha got, punk?

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