Okay, I just checked with Beck, he made one exception ...
Costumes had their place at one time, when the movement was small and gaining traction. It brought attention, as elaborate costumes often do. However, Beck’s point is valid. Nothing against wearing costumes, but after all these recent victories, the MSM can no longer ignore the movement, it’s finally being recognized. But that also poses a problem. Now that the MSM and DIMs can no longer ignore the Tea Party, they are going to do everything in their power to discredit it. It’s time for everyone to don our most powerful uniform. The uniform of the every-day American. People should see us and say, ‘hey, they’re just like me’. The costumes had their role, but that role is not necessarily valid anymore.
Lose the costumes, keep the signs, but show a little bit of self-discipline with the words you put on your sign. Keep the message on-message for the upcoming battle in November.
The November election isn’t about Obama’s birth certificate (though I do believe that’s a legitimate issue for another day); it is about repealing MengeleCare, repealing EPA defacto capntax, and rolling back taxes and spending.
One of the biggest problems we have is someone telling us what to do, what to think, or what to believe.
Reminiscent of Elijah Muhammad and the FOI dress code.
Leftists don't have any trouble dressing up in crazy outfits. It seemed to work for the anti-war movement re: Iraq. Somehow it appeals to young people.
I don't think being completely stodgy is necessary.
Also, if it drives the media or the politicos crazy, is there any harm?
We started wearing liberty hats to rallies after reading a Heinlein's book, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:
"Liberty Caps started appearing on Stilyagi and their girls; Simon Jester began wearing one between his horns. Bon Marche gave them away as premiums. Alvarez had painful talk with Warden in which Mort demanded to know if his fink boss felt that something should be done every time kids took up fad? Had Alvarez gone out of his mind?I ran across Slim Lemke on Carver Causeway early May; he was wearing a Liberty Cap. He seemed pleased to see me and I thanked him for prompt payment (he had come in three days after Stu's trial and paid Sidris thirty Hong Kong, for gang) and bought him a cooler. While we were seated I asked why young people were wearing red hats? Why a hat? Hats were an earthworm custom, nyet?
He hesitated, then said was sort of lodge, like Elks. I changed subject."
We got their, (liberal, progressive, rino’s) attention.
Now we kick it up a notch, a little cooking lingo. We are Mr. & Mrs. Smith going to Washington. Time to put on our Sunday best and showcase our talents.
This relates to a major problem in the conservative movement. An insistence on lockstep agreement and groupthink, right down to every trivial detail. Fail to pass one little litmus, and you’re out, no good, the enemy. This must change or the conservative movement is going nowhere.
You want to wear a costume? You won’t be kicked out of the rally. Beck thinks costumes are counterproductive? That’s his prerogative. When I saw young people wearing colonial era costumes at a Denver Tea Party, I was very impressed. The costumes told me they weren’t just hanging out, they were into it. Older people in costume looked a little silly, but no harm done imo. But, maybe Beck’s right. Time will tell. Can we agree to stay away from the giant paper mache heads at least?
I applaud Beck for his 8/28 rally. It was one hell of an accomplishment and one that I doubt I could ever come close to matching.
But I wasn’t a participant. He lost me with his demand of no costumes, no banners, no signs. It became apparent that unlike the TEA party rallies that I’ve attended, I considered that had I gone, it would have been as a prop for Glenn’s expression - not mine.
I do not agree with his “the parties are all alike” meme. It is simplistic to the point of being critically flawed. Both parties act like aircraft carriers at a time when you need a fast destroyer. Both are top heavy with dead weight. However, there is no way that a reasonable person can say that the aims, ambitions, or agendas of the dhimmicrats are the same as the pubbies.
Beck also had a valid point about the need to keep our faith prominent in our society. But his attempts to “revise and extend” his remarks over the last few days has become a convoluted exercise in rhetoric nonsense. I’m trying to reserve judgment, but admit that he’s losing me.
He is right about the costumes....but only if you buy his agenda.
However, the hand-made home-made signs I believe are critical. They show that the rallies are populated by real people. People who have taken the time to make their own signs. Professional, mass-printed signs (the kind you see at a lot of lib and 'rat rallies) smack of big money backing and "astroturf" - fake support.
Beck is absolutely 100% right. The mainstream media has a mission when it comes to protests and that mission is to make left-wing protesters look normal and mainstream no matter how freaky they really are and make right-wing protesters look freaky no matter how normal they really are.
In the 1980s, I attended the March for Life and the mainstream media would focus in on the people in costume and, memorably, an old woman clutching a huge picture of Mary and holding a crucifix in the air like the Statue of Liberty. While there is nothing really wrong with those people, they let the mainstream media feed the perception that right wing protesters are nuts.
And the reason why I know they do this deliberately and know it's important is that they do the exact opposite at left wing protests. Years ago, there was a thread on Free Republic where a person took a photo at a left-wing protest and then showed the close-in photo that appeared in the local paper of the same group of people. The paper made them normal. The long shot showed them as radical socialists with nutty slogans hanging around people with masked faces. The site zombietime.com contains plenty of raw photos of protesters and their signs at left-wing protests (WARNING: NOT safe for work since left-wing protesters like protesting in the nude) and you'll see none of those people in the mainstream media. In fact, the mainstream media will ignore them to find the hand full of normal people, much as they find the handful of normal-looking homeless families to act as the face of the homeless crisis (well, when Republicans are President, anyway) instead of showing the majority of homeless people, who have mental or substance abuse problems.
But if you want a really great example of how it goes the other way, read the article Did the Networks Sanitize the Gay Rights March? by Alicia C. Shepard in the American Journalism Review from July/August 1993. It describes what happened when America got to see a gay rights march in DC, unedited and uncontrolled, courtesy of C-SPAN, and how what the people saw on C-SPAN and tourists saw in person differed from what the mainstream media showed of the event.
Bottom line: Image matters and the mainstream media will bend and twist the truth as much as possible by focusing on the freaks who show up at right-wing protests and by ignoring the freaks at left-wing protests. Think about how they blew one person shouting "kill him" at the mention of Ayers name at a Palin rally into the face of the hateful right. It's what they do. As a result, being goofy or freaky at a right-wing protest is only feeding the mainstream media's efforts to smear the right, so Beck is correct.
If Beck really wants to blow this open, he should send his own camera crews out and show montages of the crowds, how they really look in long shots, at left-wing and right-wing protests. What the mainstream media shows is almost the exact opposite of reality and all too many people are suckered by it and believe it.
Wrong Wrong Playing nice got us into this mess and Mr Beck start on the Muslims and Liberals with the same vigor.
I think Glenn is “not the boss of me”. I attended both the 9/12 protest last year and this years 8/28. Glenn set the rules for 8/28 and people honored his request but I “know” I trust the individual patriots to follow their own direction in how they want to share their thoughts and feelings. I love the signs and costumes. God Bless the patriots who are driven to produce a sign that expresses their heart and tote it down a street to share with their fellow citizens. God Bless Glenn but I will hitch my star to my fellow citizen who loves this country so much that they will dress up in a Statue of Liberty outfit and shout at the top of their voices that America is worth saving.
Glenn aside, I think wearing costumes does look a little dorky, IMHO. It’s best to look as you do in everyday life. People on the fence can identify with someone that looks like they do. Leave the glitter paint and torches at home.
Dress normally, stand up straight and represent America. I love The Flag and signs.
Screw Beck on this one.
He is wrong.
MORAL, the MORAL OF THE TROOPS, is something that every true leader needs to consider.
We are not going to be ordered around by any politician.
We ALSO will NOT be ordered around by Glen Beck!
These signs and costumes give us the “grass roots” atmosphere that we need, they make it fun, and they are part of what we are.
BECK IS A TERRIBLE STRATEGIST!
BECK HAS ALWAYS BEEN A TERRIBLE POLITICAL STRATEGIST!
Let Beck do what Beck does best, but ignore Beck when Beck is wrong.
I like Glenn Beck... I was an earlier defender ... but Beck is getting caught up with himself ... reading his own headlines ... and on this subject BECK SHOULD JUST SHUT UP...
So many Americans know nothing of their history or heritage... American young and old need to learn about what has gone on before...
Beck is fast becoming a silly GEEK you thinks everyone ought to see the world exactly as he does...
Beck can be useful - I just hope he doesn’t become a useful idiot...
This is one of many reasons I'm not a Beck fan.
The MSM is NEVER going to give us a break, so why worry what the he!! they think anyway. Gutting our side’s fun doesn’t accomplish anything but turn off people.
Beck, go cry somewhere and let “We The People” do what we must (and want to)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2XlSXcwJ3o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0hvm10AHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBsRvdHJUDk
