Posted on 08/27/2008 4:25:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
DENVER -- Never was so much hype created by so few to simulate the appearance of so many.
The hard-core left vowed to turn out 50,000 protesters for the Democratic National Convention this week. They pledged to "Re-create '68" and cause the kind of tear-gas-infused revolutionary havoc that marked the DNC in Chicago four decades ago. Police prepared for the worst riots. Media from around the world anticipated the best pictures.
But when rhetorical push came to real-life shove, the nostalgic, Marx-adoring organizers of Re-create '68 seem to have mustered no more than, oh, 68 bodies. Their presence here is dwarfed by the massive show of police, press and camera-toting looky-loos. You can't take a picture without someone else taking pictures of everyone else taking pictures of not much else getting in your frame.
The chaos-inducers' mouths were a mile wide. Their crowds have been an inch deep. What's left of the leftover '60s movement is all sizzle and no steak. Or veggie burger. Deep-fried tofu. Whatever.
At an abortion protest/counter-protest on Saturday in front of a Planned Parenthood mega-facility, I counted fewer than a dozen pro-abortion activists milling about with three times as many media members. The majority of demonstrators were more exercised about the war in Iraq than about the vaunted woman's right to choose death for her unborn child -- the stated focus of the demonstration.
And while Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean excoriates the Republican Party as the "white" party, I saw only one non-white agitator among the pro-abortion gaggle. (This goes for the rest of the Re-create '68 populace, too. It's as pale and colorless as a Colorado snowfall.) Across the street from the Planned Parenthood event, however, were many incensed black- and brown-skinned moms -- incensed that an abortion mill had been built right across from the park where their children practice football and swing on the playground set.
One of the moms said bluntly: "I don't want a f**king abortion clinic in my neighborhood!" A Hispanic mother added: "It's against the Catholic Church." (Are you listening, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi?) When asked about her views on abortion, a black mother of three told me simply from her minivan: "I don't believe in it."
Speaking of disbelief, behold the dregs of the self-pitying anti-war movement. The white-flag crowd had so much trouble getting coverage of its worn-out, giant puppet-toting, drum-beating, ratty lingerie-flashing, Bush-cursing antics on Sunday that a sympathizer at the Associated Press devoted an entire sob story to the apathy. "CodePink faces tough odds for public's attention," the AP's Christine Simmons mourned. Perhaps if more than 10 of them showed up at one time to do something other than scream about BusHitler or bawl about detained Gitmo jihadists, they'd have better luck.
At Denver's City Center on Monday night, law enforcement authorities encountered about 100 aimless grievance-mongers -- self-described as "anti-capitalist, anti-fascist, anti-war" -- who finally fixed on something concrete to protest when their friends were arrested for refusing to disperse. "My freedom of speech was suppressed," one protester complained as she spoke freely to the media and acknowledged that she hadn't been arrested or asked to show identification.
In the melee, a few responsible adults were accidentally hit with pepper spray. Otherwise, Denver blogger Charlie Martin, who was covering the scene for Pajamas Media, quipped: "It was the world's most boring riot."
Finally, in a sorry attempt to re-create Abbie Hoffman's satirical stunt aimed at levitating the Pentagon, a dozen Re-create '68 stragglers dressed up like the cast of "Harry Potter," wielded magic wands and joined hands to float the Denver Mint. The Mint stayed firmly on the ground. To salvage the abysmal turnout, an unhinged contingent of 9/11 conspiracy theorists started barking at me. One buffoon shouted, "Kill Michelle Malkin," while the levitation experts chanted, "Peace and Justice!" and a wizard paraded around in his "Arrest Bush" T-shirt with Che Guevara promoters tossing fake quarters in the air.
To paraphrase a favorite left-wing bumper sticker slogan, discombobulation is the highest form of patriotism. Blame bankrupt ideology, not the altitude.
No, the throngs of protesters, or their ideology, are now on the Democratic convention floor, on the podium, in places of power, as presidential candidates. Don't look for the war protesters on the streets - they're running for President.
“Blame bankrupt ideology, not the altitude.”
Amen.
Maybe there is a benefit to high gas prices after all. The welfare sucking parasites on the left who protest for a living cant afford the gas to drive to Denver.
but there is a 90% chance one will vote for Obama and a 70% the other will.
*snicker* :)
I’m so disappointed, I guess the ‘99 - ‘01 anti-globalization riots were the high-water mark of that particular era.
We need a new spate of nostalgic documentaries and at least one dance-number musical to commemorate that brief, shining moment.
I suppose there are already late-twentysomethings hanging round Starbucks reminiscing about the good old days.
I’m not sure how to take this news. It appears to me to say that the real hard-core nutbags are few and far between. Would have been better for the Republicans if tens of thousands had showed up.
Nope, wrong metaphor. The sizzle and aroma from a steak on the grill is pure heaven and a tantalizing foretaste.
The correct metaphor for the 60's "movement" would be "All Stink and no Poop".
I was hoping for teargas.
We shouldn't be surprised, just prepared for this and be able to help them mature and learn by demonstrations of logic/reasoning. Ignorance is truly bliss for them. For the hardcore leftists, I wish they would move to a country that offers what they view as the ideal society instead of wishing that the rest of us change for them.
Doesn't it seem that these people just haven't grown up? They are like little kids crying until they get their way.
From the article:
In the melee, a few responsible adults were accidentally hit with pepper spray. Otherwise, Denver blogger Charlie Martin, who was covering the scene for Pajamas Media, quipped: “It was the world’s most boring riot.”
The fire just isn’t there any more.
I watched the scene of Michelle being screamed at by that moron, “Al Jones” and all I could think of were the followers of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro- we have seen these people before. Stupid, clueless, naive bullies without a clue.
If you could ever get “Al Jones” to STOP screaming and actually debate like a grown-up, we would find what we ALWAYS find...that they haven’t a thing but emotion, what they “feel” and the bumper-sticker slogans they have been fed. Facts don’t register in their world. In their bitterness, unhappiness and lack of fulfillment, they feed off each other like parasites.
Michelle needs to be more careful “out there”. These people are not decent fellow citizens. They are over-sized babies who act on their impulses, and she could be hurt.
I heard this moron say that Dick Cheney wanted to attack the ships. Where he came up with that nonsense is beyond me
Because the ideologies of the convention-goers is virtually identical to that of the protesters. No wonder there wasn't much to protest.
During the '68 Dem Convention, the party still had a modicum of decency rooted in at least a vestige of respect for Judeo/Christian societal norms. The resulting contrast with the degenerate protesters was understandable then.
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