rssA Tale of Two Protests
Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 11:08 am
- 5 Comments
Byron York, covering the 2006 immigration rallies:
At the big pro-illegal-immigration rally on the Mall in Washington on April 10, thousands of demonstrators held aloft dark blue signs that read, “We Are America.” Below those words, in smaller letters, was the name “New American Opportunity Campaign,” and below that was a web address, www.cirnow.org.
Although not obvious at first glance, the small print on the signs said something important about the aggressive new drive to win acceptance of illegal immigrants. A visit to the website www.cirnow.org — those letters stand for “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Now” — leads to a site for the New American Opportunity Campaign, which in turn leads to a request for donations to an organization called the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
York again, covering the Tea Parties.
A number of press reports have characterized the tea parties as anti-Obama exercises. The Wall Street Journal carried an online story headlined “Anti-Obama ‘Tea Party’ Protests Mark Tax Day.” CNN introduced a tea-party story by saying, “This is a party for Obama-bashers.” The Los Angeles Times ran a column headlined, “Anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Parties Steeped in Insanity.” But in Winchester at least, the atmosphere was not so much anti-Obama — organizers posted a note on their website asking that everyone “Please DO NOT personally attack the President or any member of Congress by name” — as it was a classic conservative Republican, limited-government, anti-spending talkfest.
The 2006 immigration rallies drew two to threee times as many people as the Tea Parties. But in The Washington Examiner, it’s clear which one of these events was grassroots and which was a fraud.
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5 Comments
Comment posted April 16, 2009 @ 9:16 am
Jesus. I wasn't at the rally, but WTF is your problem with the tea party rallies. Your actual article on it was balanced. However, your recent blog entries have been filled with snark and venom. Maybe the DC event was downright awful. I don't know. You seem to be more concerned with impressing your friends (like Yglesias) than giving these folks a fair shake. Yes, there are plenty of kooks at these rallies and the right wing media/power base glommed on. You seemed to have focused on these aspects exclusively. Doesn't every rally have its kooks and folks looking to steer things in different directions?
Folks are genuinely concerned at the levels of spending and transfers of wealth via Federal attempts at fixing the economy. This is not necessarily an anti-Obama meme. I heard plenty of these concerns during the initial bailouts and TARP pt. 1.
Denninger gives his report of what happened:
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/961…
Maybe its too unbiased the other way.
David, please a little less snark and a little more balance. Thanks.
Comment posted April 17, 2009 @ 8:38 am
The 2006 immigration rallies drew two to threee times as many people as the Tea Parties.
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The difference is that the Tea Parties drew US citizens/taxpayers, while the immigration rallies drew large numbers of illegals who don't belong in this country and who don't pay taxes that anywhere near pay for the amount of social services and infrastructure they use. Maybe Byron York reasonably thinks that “grassroots” only legitimately applies to US citizens? I personally do not see how “grassroots” could apply to someone who squeezed under the border five days ago, doesn't speak English, doesn't know anything about our history or civic system, and has zero respect for our laws.
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