At daybreak Saturday, a group of Delawareans whose public face is a blog called Delaware Liberal gathered at the Wilmington Riverfront to board a sold out chartered bus headed for Washington, D.C. There they joined up with thousands of other fans of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” at a gathering billed as the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.”
At the rally, “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart said that the purpose of the event was to improve the country’s political discourse, especially in the media. But for “liberalgeek,” an organizing partner of the “Delaware Liberal” blog, it was something else.
“The rally had potential for actually making an impact,” he explained. “It was somewhat ill-defined in its goals, somewhat chaotic, but definitely organized by smart people with a sense of humor.”
Using high-definition aerial photographs, CBS News estimated the Stewart/Colbert crowd at 215,000. By comparison, an earlier rally in late August headlined by conservative Fox News commentator Glenn Beck drew some 87,000 attendees.
Liberalgeek” believes today’s tea party is not a new trend, but a continuing one.
“There is a lot of overlap” from grassroots supporters of 1992 and 1996 independent presidential candidate Ross Perot—“who are still angry,” said “liberalgeek”. “They’re angry at the size of government, at this notion that there are people out there getting ‘something for nothing’ at their expense.”
The Republican Party, he says, has “almost been hijacked” by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas “and these Republicans who started a splinter group that we call ‘astroturfing’ because it’s really a fake grassroots group that they are using to try to get leverage.”
Now, says “liberalgeek”, the Republican Party is “essentially using” the tea party movement, which “did start in a relatively grassroots way.” For example, he recalls the first Delaware tea party tax-day rally on April 15, 2009. “It was at the Wilmington Riverfront, and it was well attended by Delaware luminaries like [former state representative] Charlie Copeland and [WDEL talk show host] Rick Jensen. All these Republicans were there but later they pulled back because they lost control of the [tea party] moniker.”
“Liberalgeek” explained why his blog group arranged the bus trip to Saturday’s rally. “There’s this feeling from my generation—I was born in 1970—that we don’t get into marches or rallies. That was more of a liberal ’60s liberal thing. They didn’t accomplish anything.”
Sixties liberals might disagree with him, but enough of them packed into the Delaware bus to Washington to suggest they can adapt. But some things never change. As the young rally attendees streamed out from the rally on the National Mall, they held their signs aloft, creating an impromptu “march” as they walked happily along the streets of the nation’s capital.
