Shot in the Dark

Apparently The GLBT Movement Is Dead, Too

The Strib’s Bob Van Sternberg apparently was at the Tea Party on Saturday.

He noted correctly that the attendance was down a bit; while there were 5-7,000 at the rally in 2009 and close to 2,000 last year.  There were a couple hundreds there on Saturday:

A mere shadow of its showing in recent years, the annual “tax day” rally at the state Capitol attracted only a smattering of adherents on a cold, wet afternoon Saturday.

Van Sternberg is too modest.

Cold and wet is a May drizzle.

It was 33 degrees at noon, when I spoke, and there was snow on the ground, and a cold wet wind was howling from the north giving wind chills in the teens.  Not prime rallying weather.  More like Valley Forge.

And it’s an off year.  No imminent elections, no serious presidential or Senate campaigning, the Legislature is settled for another year.

But he noted I was there:

“Is the Tea Party dead because it could only bring out a couple hundred people on a cold, snowy day?” asked radio talker Mitch Berg, adding, “No, the Tea Party is watching them. The Tea Party is coming for them.”

After the 2010 Tea Party, some in the media and left (ptr) said “look at the turnout!”.  They were wrong, of course; they multiplied by a couple orders of magnitude and showed up at the polls in November.

By the way, an observer at the Capitol told me that attendance at the annual LGBT rally with Governor Dayton was “way down” from previous years.

Is it because the gay rights movement is dead?

Or is it because it’s an off-year, and the weather was  in the fifties and “wind-swept?”

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11 responses to “Apparently The GLBT Movement Is Dead, Too”

  1. Lassie Avatar
    Lassie

    Another factor: several hundred (including myself) were also attending a MNGOP State Central Meeting in Bloomington that didn’t adjourn until 2:30pm.

  2. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    Guilty of staying home because of bad weather. If only the global warming predictions were right, it would have been a great day. But then there would be unicorns grazing on the Capitol grounds, the seas would be receding and the planet would be healing.

  3. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Hey Mitch, congrats on being interviewed in the STrib.

    I believe the assumption that the Tea Party is, if not dead, at least limping along as a shadow of its former self, is based not on only this even but on similar events around the country, including places where there were no similarly inclement excuses, (like Florida).

    I don’t think a similar claim can be made for the LGBT community (as it is more frequently known) has been pretty consistently strong, and steadily growing and being politically active.

    golfdoc50, too bad you don’t understand that climate change, aka global warming, also results in dramatically colder weather patterns as well.

    Sorry to have been neglecting my blogging friends, here, on Penigma and elsewhere, but I’m sort of ‘back’. (Thanks for the strong shoulder and sympathetic ear Mitch.) I definitely needed my Mitchketeer fix.

    I may disagree with you often, but I am fond of you (well, most of you anyway).

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/poll-tea-partyism-in-major-decline-as-america-simmers-down/71984/

    http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/718/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx

    http://www.examiner.com/populist-in-national/poll-tea-party-popularity-declining

    http://saintpetersblog.com/2011/03/poll-tea-partyism-in-major-decline-as-america-simmers-down/

    “The buried lede here is that only 28 percent say they “agree with…the Tea Party movement,” whereas 43 percent said they agreed with the movement at this time last year, and 47 percent said they agreed with it in September, as the midterm elections approached.”

  4. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Mitch, dear, why is this waiting comment moderation?
    Dog Gone Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    April 18th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
    Hey Mitch, congrats on being interviewed in the STrib.

    I believe the assumption that the Tea Party is, if not dead, at least limping along as a shadow of its former self, is based not on only this even but on similar events around the country, including places where there were no similarly inclement excuses, (like Florida).

    I don’t think a similar claim can be made for the LGBT community (as it is more frequently known) has been pretty consistently strong, and steadily growing and being politically active.

    golfdoc50, too bad you don’t understand that climate change, aka global warming, also results in dramatically colder weather patterns as well.

    Sorry to have been neglecting my blogging friends, here, on Penigma and elsewhere, but I’m sort of ‘back’. (Thanks for the strong shoulder and sympathetic ear Mitch.) I definitely needed my Mitchketeer fix.

    I may disagree with you often, but I am fond of you (well, most of you anyway).

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/poll-tea-partyism-in-major-decline-as-america-simmers-down/71984/

    http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/718/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx

    http://www.examiner.com/populist-in-national/poll-tea-party-popularity-declining

    http://saintpetersblog.com/2011/03/poll-tea-partyism-in-major-decline-as-america-simmers-down/

    “The buried lede here is that only 28 percent say they “agree with…the Tea Party movement,” whereas 43 percent said they agreed with the movement at this time last year, and 47 percent said they agreed with it in September, as the midterm elections approached.”

  5. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    It seems a bit more difficult to determine reliable numbers for the LGBT community btw:
    http://gaylife.about.com/od/comingout/a/population.htm

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    I believe the assumption that the Tea Party is, if not dead, at least limping along as a shadow of its former self, is based not on only this even but on similar events around the country, including places where there were no similarly inclement excuses, (like Florida).

    The assumption is wrong on many levels. First of all, the Tea Party is not primarily about showing up at demonstrations; it’s about showing up at the polls. As, clearly, we do.

    If the Tea Party is “limping along”, you wouldn’t know it from the politicians – like every GOP presidential hopeful – who are courting the vote, or from the Democrat pols – like Amy Klobuchar – who are taking pains to avoid arousing it.

    And don’t rule out the dual influences of the off-year and the victory last November. Conservatives aren’t by nature protesters. As we saw 1-2 years ago, that can change in the drop of a hat. And I think it will.

    Rumors of its illness are greatly exaggerated.

  7. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    The Tea Party will go away when people’s fears about the size of government debt recede.
    The LGBT community has a hard limit on size for various reasons. It may not go away, but it won’t grow much, if at all, ever.

  8. jimf Avatar
    jimf

    Dog Gone- “too bad you don’t understand that climate change, aka global warming, also results in dramatically colder weather patterns as well.” To bad you Libs don’t understand that “climate change”, aka the process that’s been going on for 4 billion years or so, is not the result of too many SUVs, or whatever Egore says it is. By the way, did you see that the United Nation’s prediction, made in 2005, that there’ld be 50 million “climate refugees” by the year 2010, uh, sorta didn’t come true? But the science is settled!

  9. Republicans Are Whiners: Mitch Berg Tea Party Edition « Mercury Rising 鳯女

    […] Here’s how Mitch Berg described his appearance at the Tea Party rally that was held at the Minnesota State Capitol last Saturday: It was 33 degrees at noon, when I spoke, and there was snow on the ground, and a cold wet wind was howling from the north giving wind chills in the teens. Not prime rallying weather. More like Valley Forge. […]

  10. Republicans Are Whiners: Mitch Berg Tea Party Edition | Renaissance Post

    […] Here’s how Mitch Berg described his appearance at the Tea Party rally that was held at the Minnesota State Capitol last Saturday: It was 33 degrees at noon, when I spoke, and there was snow on the ground, and a cold wet wind was howling from the north giving wind chills in the teens. Not prime rallying weather. More like Valley Forge. […]

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