Guest Voz - The RB Blog: An Attendee of the Rally

Blogger Observations from Glenn Beck's "Take back the Civil Rights Movement" Rally.
. A good many of the people there had on some kind of American flag paraphernalia on or around them. I saw more than a few confederate t-shirts, hats and small flags. Lots of Tea Party gear and other assorted political stuff.
. I did see some non-white people in the crowd supporting the rally, but it was only a handful. All in all, I saw far more people of color working the vending carts then participating in the event.
. I only caught a few bits of Palin, but in her speech, she likened the rally participants to the civil rights activists who came to the Mall in 1963 to hear King's historic I have a Dream speech. She said it would be the same spirit that helped civil rights activists overcome oppression, discrimination and violence would help the participants of this rally as well. She then repeated some lines from King's speech to wild applause. I have to say it was a bit surreal, a bit like being in a Lewis Carroll novel; watching Sarah Palin invoke the spirit of Dr. King, with his words, on this day, in front of a sea of white faces, to roaring chants of USA! USA! USA! It just didn't seem to fit, and it took my brain a minute to grasp the utter historical mind fuck unfolding in front of me.

. It was obvious to me that Palin and Beck were attempting to take on the role of leaders of a the new 'oppressed' people, contrived to fit the theme of Dr. King's 1963 speech. Phrases like 'what was once ours' and ' take back America' and 'the way things were' and 'trampled on our rights' were heard over and over, and not just by the speakers. Beck's message was in part that the problems that the US suffers today are due in large part to the loss of or lack of faith. He was constantly invoking faith as the weapon with which they, the newly oppressed, could rise and overcome. Overcoming what or whom, he did not say. Palin, in the same manner, likened the attendees of the rally as being in the same conundrum as those from the civil rights movement in the 60's.

. In all honesty, I thought it was quite disrespectful to see Palin and Beck use the civil rights movement and King as a comparison to their own political motives and followers. Furthermore, I found the comparisons being drawn between Beck and the conservatives and Lincoln and the Union in 1863 a bit like comparing an arm wrestling match to the Battle of Stalingrad. It was all very much a pep rally, playing on the emotional strings of the attendees. I think I can boil the entire political message of the rally as one big giant ugly non sequitur. There is a saying that Christians like to use that goes, "Hate the sin, not the sinner." If anything, today I understood what that means from a non Christian perspective.