So over this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington DC. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more out of place in my life. However it did give me a new insight into the motive force behind the conservative movement sweeping across America.
There has been a wide variance in the estimated number of people attending the rally. One source said 75-95K, Beck claimed 600K, one law maker said a million plus. However based on what I saw I’d have to say that 300K is a solid estimate. It was definitely more than 100K and definitely less than 500K.
The list of speeches varied much more than those in attendance. It included the likes of Sarah Palin, Dr Alveda King, and of course Beck himself. In all honesty it was extremely difficult to hear most of the speakers. The shear number of people prevented us from getting too close and while it was being broadcast on loud speakers it was still hard to pick up everything due to the constant murmur of people. What I picked up from Palin’s speech was all about honoring various military personnel, clumsily at that. King said a few things to honor her uncle, Martin Luther King Jr (it was the anniversary of his "I have a dream" speech too).
The highlight for me actually was Beck. As much as I couldn’t help but question the hypocritical statements he was making, he is a good speaker to a large crowd. It wasn’t like when he’s on television and acting over the top and emotional. He came across as sincerely human and passionate about his cause. That being said it was also littered with buzz words like “honor”, “hope”, and “charity”. In many ways it could have been taken straight out of Obama’s 08 campaign save a few details. Even down to the artwork designed:
***I have a picture to add here***
Now the real surprise to me was the people in the crowd. Everything that I’ve seen through various media outlets has made the tea party out to be a bunch of lunatics and this being billed by the media as a tea party event, I expected the worst. I was pleased to see that that wasn’t the case.
Everyone seemed to be extremely happy. As my sister put it to me when she went down the night before, “All of the people here are like crazy happy. Like they’re all on Prozac or something.” And she was dead on, with one exception. Everyone seemed to be genuinely happy, not like a drug induced euphoria, but actually happy about who they are and what they’re doing. I have to applaud that.
The other thing that I noticed was a distinct lack of signage. Apparently Beck told everyone to leave their signs at home in hopes of having it be non partisan. This was actually take to heart by the vast majority of people there. I think I only saw about 5 signs the whole time. Lots of “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, but very few signs.
***Picture***
I also have to say that, while it was a vastly white crowd, I didn’t notice any outward racism from anyone, despite media claims of rampant racism within the tea party. Now I have seen a picture or two or someone with an inappropriate shirt or slogan, but I have to say this was by far the exception and not the rule. The only signs of racism that I noticed during the event actually occurred on stage. Do not for a moment think that the diversity that existed amongst the speakers represented the diversity in the crowd. Minorities probably represented about 1% of the total people in attendance. It’s unfortunate because in the end the speaking list seemed to be established as a preemptive move to dismiss any calls of racism, when in actuality they very likely had set up their own version of affirmative action in order to achieve the dynamic that they did. Now you have some people coming out and accusing the minorities that participated of being “uncle Tom’s”.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. Because I don’t think that any of them had to “sell out” in order to participate in the rally, since it was more about Christian values than it was about politics.
What I will say is that it seemed like they went out of their way to make sure to include minorities as much as possible on stage while there were very few in attendance.
That kind of brings me to my final points. This rally was more about propagating Judea-Christian beliefs than anything else. Over all when it came to political partisanship it was essentially inert. They talked a lot about helping your fellow man and the rights of the individual; about how one man has the power to change the world and that each and every one of us is that one man. So on and so forth.
In the end it seemed like Beck came out well prepared, with his emotions in check, and a clear head, which is a far cry from his regular performances. The people seemed to be pleasant with only hints of fanaticism and ignorance. I was completely out of place the whole time, expecting the worst and getting the best.
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