Photo courtesy of Michelle Malkin. For the actual ariel time-lapse video of the march today, click here for the Rhetorician (via Instapundit). In addition, 50 photos from the event are posted by The Patriot Room.
The photo above is a view of part of the crowd of protesters who gathered in Washington, D.C. and around the country today to demand control of reckless runaway government spending and to voice their opposition to the government takeover of healthcare.
Police agencies estimates the crowd at 1.2 million. ABC News, however, reported this afternoon that the crowd was estimated at 2 million.
No matter which way you cut it, the size and scope of today's citizen march on Washington is an historic, groundbreaking event. Ordinary citizens who have been called 'the great silent majority' normally do not protest...at least not in public. That day is long gone.
The outrage expressed by normal, everyday citizens from across the nation at the town hall meetings in August is a case in point. Never before in recent history or memory have citizens been so clearly, visibly--and audibly--enraged by the actions of their government.
These are the people who go to work everyday, pay the bulk of the taxes of the country, raise families, and do their best to provide a safe environment for themselves in their local communities. They don't have time for 'political activism' as the hippies who protested the Viet Nam war.
Yet these dedicated men and women, at great personal expense, took the time to travel to Washington to make their voices heard in a tsunami of collective rage, mainly because they have become convinced that their elected leaders are not listening to them any longer.
And you bet they want 'change.' They want to replace most if not all of the Representatives and Senators in Congress for being hopelessly out of touch with the citizenry. They want a President who loves liberty, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and who reflects that love in the policies that are proposed. They don't want leftwing, radical extremists who espouse everything from forced abortions, healthcare rationing for the elderly, limiting free speech on radio, and other social and political engineering from bureaucrats who sit comfortably in their Washington offices while demanding that ordinary citizens in the heartland adhere to edicts that the politicians have no intention of following.
Further, these patriotic 'peasants with pitchforks and torches' clearly do not want the trillion-dollar proposals that add mind-boggling burdens to the national debt and budget deficit for generations to come. And they don't want their taxes raised to pay for the Washington elitists' insistence on unheard-of government spending that is sending the nation into debtor's quicksand to the tune of 400 billion dollars per month since Obama took office.
The question is, will Pelosi, Reid, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Steny Hoyer, Charles Rangle, and Barack Obama get the message and alter the present course? Don't count on it.
But one thing is for sure. The sleeping giant of the 'great silent majority' has been awakened, and they aren't going anywhere.
For more commentary on other issues, visit my blog at The Liberty Sphere.
Comments
Today my heart and spirit are with those in Washington, D.C.
You are misinforming your readers. I have lived in DC for many years, and I know when there is a big march because I can't drive anywhere. No streets were closed, I drove right by the washington monument on my way to the Kenned center at around noon. the only signs I saw were for the Black Family Reunion that happens annually. If there was a March, I didn't know it, and when I drve home at around 3, same thing. So stop pretending this is some big event, its not.
All 30k of them?
DC Resident, perhaps you were in another reality ala Fringe. *snort*
It was great to see. Everywhere people were reporting huge crowds and you could see it. Great signs, good people. Everyone just showing they don't want to pay for all this over spending!
Did you actually hear ABC News announce an estimate of 2 million? That report keeps getting repeated, but there's no evidence that it actually happened.
Dc Resident uhhh yeh it was...see the video at YOUTUBE.
WOW. That photo is AMAZING. God bless the patriots in D.C. today (and I don't mean the elected officials).
Watched it on C-Span, saw this sign...
Photo of Dr. M.L. King - He had a DREAM
Photo of Obama - He gave us a NIGHTMARE
awesome
DC resident
quit drinking the Obama kool aid. You probably also believe that there was no moon landing and that 9/11 was an inside job.
Truly amazing. Guess I am part of the majority,a majority called "Common sense." Guess they might start listening now considering the "Million Man" march only produced 50,000. More Americans turned out to protest big government today than there were for Obama's inauguration and as you noted at their own expense unlike the huge extravaganza the Obama's threw on inauguration day. Truly Amazing!
I can't find any link to back up your 2 million. I would like to believe it.. but it sounds like an unfounded rumor so far.
Drove through DC today - saw the protest... I don't blame them! Why should we pay for people's health care???? It's their problem, not mine! Obama needs to listen to his citizens, not his socialist ideas!
Another sign read "I AM NOT YOUR ATM MACHINE"
and
"Socialism will scare you half to death…twice."
and
"It’s the Constitution Stupid!"
I was there, there was well over a million people there. The DC police had an estimate of 1.2 to 1.5 million at 1 p.m. Anyone who just says thousands obviously was not at the march.
First of all, as of 1997, the D.C Police do not estimate the crowds and have declined to give an estimate on this crowd. So it is impossible that they have estimated the crowd at 1.2 million. As for ABC News, I just went to their site and they are saying tens of thousands, not millions. And the estimate by Freedom Works only has the number at 450,000, which I suspect to be at least slightly inflated given their bias. As with so much that is communicated by those opposed to healthcare reform, this is is a misrepresentation of the facts. Or, in other words, you lie.
Please do not pay attention to any Democrats in here. None of them did very well in school, especially arithmetic.
I tried to count them but they wouldn't stand still...you know how those White Folks are, always moving around. They need the syrup.
The main difference between today's march and the inauguration is that people today picked up all their own garbage and didn't leave it for the government to do.
"you lie"? Oh, that's what Joe Wilson said during BO's speech...and he is truly a Truthseeker, having first-hand knowledge of attempts to write the bill to exclude illegals which were struck down by Dems. It's simple. Some of us are wise enough to see where government health care will lead, and some of ya'll are NOT. Like abortion, it's another way the self-appointed elites can control the population of undesirables. You can be sure that care will be denied to "undesirables" based on the answers to questions such as "Christian or Muslim?" Christian dies. "Teacher or homeschool mom?" Mom dies. If government would stop the hand-outs, people would straighten up their lives and find some morals, because the churches would be doing the benevolent work we are supposed to do in the name of the LORD, not the government. Don't understand why we don't want government-run health care? Remember Terri Schiavo? Read the true story written by her lawyer, "Fighting for Dear Life."
We raised our son to think and act for himself and not wait for some thug Chicago Goldman Sachs front man to think for him.
We are proud of our boy.
My only regret is that I didn't use the inauguration to break into their houses and get my stuff back.
It was huge turn out.
Dear Truthseeker, thanks for pointing that out. My mistake. It wasn't the D.C. police that did the estimate, but another police agency (there are many more than just D.C.'s you know). And ABC News, did, indeed, report 2 million on TV, not on their website.
You're gonna have to do much better than that. Ariel photos of the crowds indicate many more than just 400,000, no matter which way you cut it.
Nice pic! Why is the flag at half mast?? Maybe cuz it's the fake photo from the fake Malkin! This is the photo from the crowd From T Kenedy funeral procession. Time laps video from todays DC cameras will show a very different picture than this. Nice deception!
Wrong, Ms. Burton. Malkin didn't take the photo but used the real-time photos provided by Westwood One. Go and see for yourself.
well lets see.. 500 buses were charter multiply that by 55 ppl and you get how many????? more than tens of thousands.. that's not even addressing the fact that still more drove in... 1.5 million would be more like it. It took at least 4 hours for everyone to make it down PA Ave.
@ Righty - It's interesting that instead of addressing my actual comment on the number of people at the protest you swerve off into some wierd illogical rant about the government wanting to kill Christians and moms that homeschool their children. If you were the Christian that you profess to be I would think you would care about the people without healthcare insurance and want to alleviate the suffering they endure by not being able to get adequate medical treatment. By the way, being uninsured does not equate to a lack of morals or work ethic.
Keep telling yourself!
The flags around Camp Lejeune NC were at half staff today too, but I don't know why. Sure as hell wasn't Uncle Teddy.
Clearly there were lots more than 10's of thousands of people at the march today. The MSM just hates it when conservatives show up to demonstate. Make your own estimate of the crowd size based on the following article from USA Today re: Obama's swearing in back in January.
"(www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-01-19-crowd_N.htm)"
Why were the flags at half staff?? Because yesterday was Sept. 11. Quit being so disrespectful, bitch.
haha 2 million.. what a laugh! www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnW6ckUBIg
Flags were flown at half mast yesterday, not today, in honor of the people who died on 9/11. So before you lash out at someone for being disrespctful, maybe you should get your facts straight. Perhaps you can find and post an adequate explanation for why the flag is at half mast.
And also I have to point out that 500 x 55 = 27,500 which falls within the definition of tens of thousands. I guess the fact that I did very well in school and especially in math helps me to reach this logical conclusion.
I just got word that the Secret Service is estimating the crowd to be 3 million.
Can you please tell me where I can verify the information that the secret service has estimated 3 million. I'm sorry, but just saying it doesn't make it true, especially since past posts have proven to be incorrect and I cannot find any corroboration on the web.
It's time to speak up. We've had enough Elitist top-down gangsterism! Enough of the Rockefeller and Rothschild MONEY-GRAB! This COVER-ment is out of control; it's Fascist running by the Hitler Playbook! Out! Out! Out!
Truthseeker, I have already provided links to ariel time-lapse views of the crowd, photos, plus crowd estimates from local police and others. I have no interesting in going back and forth, particularly since you can provide ZERO justification for your claims that the crowd was well below estimates. But, even newspapers in the UK are reporting 2 million. Take a look at Drudge for the link--it's his lead story. As for me, I am through with this. You are obviously going to believe what you wish, no matter what, since you have a vested ideological interest.
DC Resident says:
You are misinforming your readers. I have lived in DC for many years, and I know when there is a big march because I can't drive anywhere. No streets were closed, I drove right by the washington monument on my way to the Kenned center at around noon. the only signs I saw were for the Black Family Reunion that happens annually. If there was a March, I didn't know it, and when I drve home at around 3, same thing. So stop pretending this is some big event, its not.
I happened to be at the rally today. If you did not see the crowds of people and the Pennsylvania Ave. road block you were not in DC today. Nice try. The DC park authority estimated 1.5 million.
also these folks paid their on way and it had to be on a Saturday because they all work on Tuesday
ABC news debunked this claim on their website.
This board will not let be post a link.
Too bad we have such a cowardly President who would avoid facing the people who oppose him. He always runs to what he believes is a safe haven when controversy occurs. If he can't find one, he will have SEIU and ACORN bussed in so he gets some cheers and applause.
NO ONE is saying preserve the status quo. NO ONE! We are saying we want TORT REFORM, we want INTERSTATE ACCESS to health insurance, we want SOME REGULATION and STRICT OVERSIGHT of insurance company tactics, we want our elected representatives to DETECT, INVESTIGATE, and ELIMINATE/PROSECUTE the fraud, corruption, and inefficiencies in SS, Medicare, Medicaid, VA Services, and all social programs and gov’t agencies currently operating. We want Congress and the President to THROW THEIR SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS UNDER THE BUS, and actually do something for the American citizens, for CHANGE WE CAN SUPPORT. Stop protecting those big supporters of your re-election, who promise you the means to increase YOUR OWN wealth and power. Show some integrity and do the job you were elected to do.
I don't want to be forced to have health insurance to make the jackasses' health care plan work. Anybody who thinks this is a good idea doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.
the million JERK march!!!
You're right, our conversation is over. Evidently you have no answers to my questions. The Drudge report is in no way an unbiased source any more than if I spouted facts gleaned from Daily Kos (something I would never do even if it bolstered my opinion). A video doesn't tell me how many people were present. And all I did was ask for verification of your facts which any true journalist should be able to provide. Since you can't I will disregard your post entirely. I started this afternoon trying to get actual unbiased information on the number of people who turned out to protest, instead all I can find is partisan posturing on both sides. Very sad state of affairs.
ettucat You said it perfectly. I went on another news station and they report us Americans as being dark,deep seeded hatred for the left. these people are so arrogant they are cow fodder!
We built this country so of course we know what it takes to keep it running!! Kicking the tire by the President and the Congress just AIN'T working for us anymore!!! Move over boys! We are getting ready to crank this machine up and steer it straight, so don't get in the way or we will run you over!!!
truthseeker: I recognize you and your kind of blogs. We call them trolls. This is so acorn and Axlerod!! Go home and leave these good Americans alone. You can't destroy this march you had better tuck your tail between your legs and go on back to Craigs list. You know that list where they hire people to come to rallies and back their President. He needs to quit preaching and start listening. We are the backs of the People... We built this country and by God we will raise her to a higher level than
the czars the preident and acorn can imagine. your quibbling over number,look at the trillions your president is throwing away!!
Thank you, Mr Anthony G. Martin, for a good fair article.
truthseeker (that's funny) - I can assure you that the department of the Treasury is not responsible for calculating the size of a crowd. D.C. Metro will take a look at all grids, and within a day or two the size will be made public. This is done by aerial photographs and an algebraic equation. Now, as for the Drudge Report comment - Drudge doesn't report the news like your leftists MSNBC, CNN, etc. Drudge merely connects to other news sources - pull your head out of your Obama! as far as my qualifications for determinung the fore - let's just say I know a bit about law enforcement.
Just like last week when Obama's WH economists said he had "saved or created" a million jobs, today's 9/12 Project (sorry tea partiers) had attendance of at least 200 million who either a) were there, or b) were there in spirit.
We watched on tv, and were gonna join our local thing, but we got rained out. Call us wimpy, but it was good watching Glenn Beck host several events simultaneously.
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