The truism about conservatives throughout my cognitive life is that we just don’t do protests.We have day jobs and families, for the most part; standing around waving signs rarely rises to the level of “something we’re interested in”.<\/p>\n
I remember throwing counterdemonstrations at antiwar rallies that drew 15 people against 3,000 neocoms.\u00a0 I did another to counterprotest a big pre-RNC warmup rally in Saint Paul in September of ’07 that drew maybe 50 people against 600 or so of the other guys.\u00a0 And while 15 against 3,000 is a fair fight, I was never interested in being fair.<\/p>\n
But the Obama Administration changed all that.\u00a0 Last April 15, 600,000 workadaddy, hugammommy conservatives turned out to protest government spending.\u00a0 More still turned out at subsequent rallies – and, hardest to believe of all, thousands went to congressional Town Hall meetings to show powers that currently be that not everyone is enamored of the Hope and Change we’re being presented.<\/p>\n
In other words, there’s been a huge change in the way conservatives see public activism.<\/p>\n
But even that observation didn’t prepare me for what I saw today. I attended a protest outide an Al Franken pep rally for Obamacare in Minneapolis today.<\/p>\n
I parked a few blocks up Central, and walked toward the Temple; seeing a crowd gathered at Central and Uni, I steeled myself to walk a gauntlet of “Public Option Now”-chanting, preprinted-placard-holding Obamacare supporters.<\/p>\n
And I practically fainted when I saw the assembled crowd; close to thirty anti-Obamacare people, holding homemade signs.\u00a0 They were in a jovial mood.<\/p>\n
There were perhaps three Obamacare supporters.\u00a0 One was a very articulate guy and fellow User Interaction designer – yes, we talked a little shop – who stated a coherent case with not a few protesters on his way in and out of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Another – a tallish fellow who looked like an extra from “The Crazies”, scuttled about with a big sign that said “Yes, there are Death Panels; they’re called Insurance Companies”.\u00a0 I asked him “So that means Sarah Palin wasn’t <\/em>lying or crazy?”, I asked him (this is basically the same thing I wrote last spring);\u00a0 His eyes wobbled a bit, and he scampered away.\u00a0 His idea of an argument seemed to be “you people are the minority<\/em>!”.\u00a0 Over and over.\u00a0 And over.\u00a0 Again.<\/p>\n And there was one more.\u00a0 (Article about him to come shortly).<\/p>\n It was a pretty low-key time, until the rally let out.\u00a0 A few hundred Obama supporters, clutching pre-printed placard that they no doubt had spent the last hour waving on cue, milled out across the sidewalk.\u00a0 For the most part, they navigated the jovial, happy gauntlet of protesters without incident.\u00a0 (Again, one big exception coming shortly).<\/p>\n But a few of them?\u00a0 You could tell how bitterly they detested seeing dissent; their eyes burned with a thud-witted hatred that said, without speaking, “you were all supposed to go away after the election”.<\/p>\n I’d try to recap most of the arguments – but for the most part, they were ripped straight from the preceding pep rally, and made my eyes glaze over.\u00a0 People say conservative talk radio is dumb!\u00a0 (Actually, there’s another blog post in there, somewhere).<\/p>\n All in all, it was a lot of fun!\u00a0 Hope we can see you at the next one!<\/p>\n