kristinn was my real introduction to Free Republic. I had just created an account, and saw the threads about the DC Chapter protesting down in Washington DC, so I asked him about what was going on.
He encouraged me to come down, and I have always appreciated that. I learned a lot about the Left as I stood with the DC Chapter in the weekly Freeps at Walter Reed and Olney, as well as the Gathering of Eagles, Taxpayer March on Washington, and so on, but I also learned a lot about who we are as Conservatives.
None of it good about them. And almost all of it good about us.
I learned they were vile. I saw and heard shouted profanity from them. They grabbed our signs once and threw them onto the Walter Reed property. As a matter of fact, that is kristinn in this picture talking to the Police on his phone with the signs on the ground the Code Pinkos threw over the fence onto the property.
They held signs outside Walter Reed (with wounded troops inside) that said "Enlist to die for Enron" and so on. Once, I saw a skinny, bony older woman shuffling along our lines of parked cars, and she looked like she was completely lost and confused. This was her:
When I mentioned that we should ask if she needed help and pointed her out, somone said "Nah. She is one of the Code Pinkos." She was wearing a pink t-shirt, and when I asked why she was behaving oddly, they said she was taking pictures of all of our license plates to post online.
So, Iearned a lot about the Left that fit exactly what our estimation of them was.
But I did learn about us as well.
I learned we had people from all backgrounds in life that still cared about this country and its freedoms.
I learned that we were as dedicated to our own rights as we were dedicated to the thought that those vile people up the street had those same rights, as much as I came to detest their employment of those rights.
I learned that we respect the rule of law. By the way, every single protest I ever attended with that group where the police were present, the police clearly never, ever viewed us as a threat. We treated them with courtesy and respect, and if they told us we had to stay behind a line or do whatever, we did what they asked of us. We didn't want to make their job harder.
I learned that we largely opposed the use of profanity and vulgarity in public, although we did use the word "Hell" painted a foot or two high on a large banner when counter-protesting outside Arlington National Cemetery:
I also learned that the nature of our protests came from the grass roots, individual citizens deciding to act, rather than an orchestration of the group that was done by the Left, who made a practice of bringing their protesters in on buses, handing them pre-made signs and box lunches, and telling them what to chant.
I did an analysis of their signs and our signs from pictures that I took, and the difference is stark as I describe in the pictures:
LEFTIST PROTESTERS AND THEIR SIGNS 
CONSERVATIVE PROTESTERS AND THEIR SIGNS 
NOTE: This is another reason I believe the January 6 rioters instigating violence were Leftist plants. In the thousands of times I saw Conservatives brandishing American Flags,at protests, those flags were always treated with the utmost respect. Many of those people I have seen in the January 6th videos were using them as props, tools, or even weapons, even letting them drag on the ground. I never, ever saw Conservatives treat a flag with disrespect or neglect. Ever.
One of the things that I found most interesting was that the people I met in person were largely consistent with their online personas. And that has influenced my decision over the years to stay on Free Republic and continue to contribute, since I believe this to be generally (but not universally) the case with people I have met on this forum.
But just as importantly, when I found myself encountering these vile people directly in real life, my negative impressions about the Left, their tactics, their values, and their acolytes, were validated. Spot on. And that had value too.
SHOULD WE AS CONSERVATIVES PROTEST IN THIS CURRENT ENVIRONMENT?
In short, YES. But kristinn's advice in this is sound and spot on. I saw it in practice for many years, and it was shown to be valid each and every time. It is a winning formula. People may not want to get out in front of the cameras and be seen. That is fair enough for people and their own personal reasons.
But to surrender that right is, and should be anathema to real Americans who value real freedom. If we surrender that right because we are afraid we will be set up and arrested unjustly as the vast bulk of the January 6th protesters were, then the other side wins, hands down, and the United States as a Constitutional Republic as we have known it is over.
It is important to keep in mind: On January 6, 2021, the goal of the people who would exercise tyranny over us as citizens WAS to have exactly this inhibiting effect. That was the whole point, cooked up by the likes of Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Graham, the corrupted FBI, and the execrable DOJ, and a host of others, to extinguish dissent.
Do we really want to hand them that on a silver platter, that which they explicitly planned for and strove for? Just hand that to them as a total victory to keep our mouths taped shut and our bodies hidden in faux anonymity?
And let's give it a break characterizing as idiots and dupes Conservatives who care enough to go out and be seen and heard. And it goes both ways. Many people have personal reasons other than abject cowardice for not going out to be seen and heard. So how about stopping with innuendo and outright insults to those who want to make their voices heard, and those same people should dampen their criticism of those who decide for whatever reason NOT to go out on the street. We should be able to do that, right>
If you care about your rights and liberties, you CAN and SHOULD protest. But it has to be done by OUR rules, by "Kristinn's Rules". If we play by their rules, we WILL lose. We will lose not just our liberty in unjust arrests by corrupted legal processes.
We will lose our reason for being if we become just like those Leftists in our quest to be heard.
We will also lose our reason for being if we shut up, surrender, and cloister ourselves in our homes, leaving the field to the Leftists.
So, to choose between the horns of a dilemma, to preserve our country, and to restore and strengthen our liberties, we should go between the horns of that dilemma and adopt "Kristinn's Rules".