The utter failure of Operation American Spring -- which drew a tiny crowd in D.C. yesterday instead of the 10 million or 30 million or however-the-hell-many million its organizers hoped to draw for a demonstration intended to purge the U.S. government of all its insufficiently wingnutty leaders (McConnell and Boehner as well as Obama, Pelosi, Holder, et al.) -- can be explained a lot of ways, but I think danps at Corrente is right about this:
... it looks like the only way the Tea Party gets real numbers in DC is if the Koch brothers charter buses for the event. Not very grassrootsy!That's a point I made in one of the most-read posts ever on this blog -- or, to be accurate, most hate-read. The post, from last August, was titled "This Is What the Tea Party Would Have Been Like Without Fox and the Koch Brothers"; it discussed, um, a sparsely attended demonstration at which many embarrassing arguments and assertions were made. Why weren't the crowds at that demonstration bigger? Why were the messages so embarrassing? (Then it was racism; at OAS it was chemtrails and rumored FEMA roundups.) I said that it was because deep-pocketed pros weren't helping out with message guidance or money or publicity; in the absence of that, the fearsomely large, allegedly grassroots tea party was just an absurdly small collection of haters and cranks.
This didn't go over well with the 'baggers, as you'll see if you scroll through the 619 comments at that post, or the 171 comments at a follow-up post. (I'm not sure how they found what I'd written, but I was the hottest thing on wingnut Facebook for a while.)
The demonstration I was writing about was sponsored by a group then known as Overpasses for Obama's Impeachment, and now known as Overpasses for America. To state the obvious, the group focuses on hanging signs over overpasses demanding the president's removal from office. And, well, what do you know: Overpasses and Operation American Spring are allies:
Overpasses for America is teaming up with Operation American Spring to deliver "Articles of Impeachment" to the House and Senate on April 22, before a planned rally in Washington D.C. on May 16, Overpasses for America founder James Neighbors told the Examiner....Failure loves company, I guess.
Here's the horrible, Journey-esque music video posted at the Overpasses site in honor of Operation American Spring. (UPDATE: Sorry, folks -- as the only person on the planet who hasn't yet embraced the nerd/sci-fi/ComicCon culture onslaught of the past few decades, I didn't realize that this is the theme to Star Trek: Enterprise. It's still horrible and Journey-esque.)
That's actually the theme music to the TV show Star Trek: Enterprise.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the TV series where the Earth is governed by a central authority and everyone gets along?
As Mr. Aimai pointed out you'd need at least 300-3000 full time organizers to get 30 million people out to any event, if not more. If only the organizers had attended you've have had a better crowd than actually showed up.
ReplyDeleteYeah - I don't suppose they gave the song any attribution or anything, did they? Or paid Paramount for use of their property? I wonder how hey would react to a D&C?
ReplyDeleteOperation American Spring:
ReplyDeleteThis protest was NOT brought to you by the Koch Brothers.
Maybe they were too busy writing endowment checks to NPR, to rent busses for the Teatards.
But don't tell the cranks and loons about that, or they'll add the Brothers Koch to their hourly "Two Minute Hates."
On second thought - PUT THAT IN EVERY COMMENT ON REICH-WING SITES!!!
Heads... EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's pretty ghastly music indeed but they still have authors' rights that shouldn't be violated by these clowns. That's theft, and the organizers should be sued for it. Incidentally is there any significance to the way the initials remind us of the Organisation d'Armée Secrète that tried to destroy French democracy in the 1950s and almost succeeded?
ReplyDeleteI actually feel a lot better about the country after this debacle. Because I see now just how hard it is to turn people out, even people who feel strongly about something. I've long lamented how difficult it is to get people on the center/left out to protest anything. OWS showed that its possible, but only a very few people have the freedom and stamina to really protest and live their fight. But I thought there was enough money and energy on the far right to get a good number of TP'ers out if they choose to get out. Guess I was wrong.If the money bags aren't behind them these losers couldn't organize themselves to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel.
ReplyDeleteThe dismal turnout tends to confirm my feelings on the Internet Teabagger trolls: There are few of them, but they create multiple accounts for commenting purposes, and proceed to crap all over a comments thread.
ReplyDeleteIt is highly annoying and designed to discourage Liberals and Progressives, but we cannot allow them to control a phony narrative.