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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on October 07, 2010, 11:42:13 AM
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For at least a day, unity on the left: One Nation rally proves that liberals can agree on a message
Errol Louis
www.nydailynews.con
Thursday, October 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
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The scandalously scant media coverage of last weekend's huge labor and civil rights rally on the Washington Mall tended to focus on whether the event drew more or fewer people than right-winger Glenn Beck's August event in the same spot, thus using the latest gathering as a leading indicator of what's likely to happen in November's midterm elections.
That's a reasonable way to interpret the One Nation Working Together rally, if you're in the political forecasting business. But from where I sat - about halfway up the steps on the east side of the Lincoln Memorial, interviewing speakers after they left the podium - the rally was about much more than the next election.
A minor miracle took place in the form of visible cooperation and coordination of more than 400 organizations from a wide range of movements: environmental, anti-war, student, immigration, gay/lesbian, labor and civil rights.
These folks, who rarely see eye to eye, often give lip service to coalition politics but rarely convert it into action. One Nation was a promise to change the script and build something real and lasting.
The crowd - estimated at around 175,000 by credible news organizations - seemed energized by the prospect. Rally organizers - the actual event was run by Leah Daughtry, the daughter of Brooklyn's Rev. Herbert Daughtry - took pains to put speakers from different movements onstage at the same time.
A gay activist would do a little banter with a union leader, and veterans and green jobs advocates all got their turn. Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist clerics led prayers. Well-known names (Jesse Jackson, Ed Schultz) alternated with student organizers getting a taste of the big time.
And while lots of politicians were in the crowd - I spotted City Council members Jumaane Williams and James Saunders and speaker Christine Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Controller John Liu, state Senate Democratic conference chief John Sampson and Reps. Charlie Rangel and Yvette Clarke - elected officials were almost entirely absent from the podium (the sole exception was Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago).
"These are the rank and file community leaders," National Urban League CEO Marc Morial told me, dubbing the gathering a coalition of tolerance. "This crowd is what I call the silent majority," he said.
Although it was clearly a pro-Democratic crowd, President Obama did not escape criticism. Singer/activist Harry Belafonte, standing a few feet from where he was photographed at the 1963 March on Washington, lit into the White House for continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he called "immoral, unconscionable and unwinnable."
Belafonte drew thunderous applause, but the rally was mostly about items everybody could agree on: job creation, school reform, support for infrastructure spending, a green economy and more stringent regulation of the banking system so that it works for ordinary people.
And speaker after speaker hammered home the theme of tolerance itself, offered as an antidote to the stale scorn and derision that often masquerade as sensible public debate these days.
We don't yet know if the One Nation coalition will last, or sway the November midterms, or continue beyond that key electoral test. But judging from the energy on the Mall, I'd say the analysts enthralled by the rise of the Tea Party movement are missing out on a more potent political development.
"This is absolutely the beginning of something big," NAACP President Ben Jealous told me.
Here's hoping that he's right.
elouis@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/louis/index.html#ixzz11hRpk88G
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The crowd - estimated at around 175,000 by credible news organizations - seemed energized by the prospect. Rally organizers - the actual event was run by Leah Daughtry, the daughter of Brooklyn's Rev. Herbert Daughtry - took pains to put speakers from different movements onstage at the same time.
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If they had 170k, beck had 4 million.
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(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs010.ash2/33864_436506766849_142868581849_5841281_3334936_n.jpg)
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The crowd - estimated at around 175,000 by credible news organizations
This is a lie.The 175,000 was not estimated by credible news organisations,it was a report given to news organasations BY THE ORGANISERS OF THE RALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!This fool doesnt even have enough brains to check his facts.NOT ONE!!News organisation reported the crowd at 175,000,they said that "organisers of the event estimated the crowd to be 175,000".Typical lib reporting,nothing but lies and the dolts on here knock FOX news?
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And they claim Beck had half of that at 87k?
ha ha ha ha ha
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what the picture proves is that their a lot of nuts in this country,shit i allready knew that ;D
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what the picture proves is that their a lot of nuts in this country,shit i allready knew that ;D
Your right,they voted in a little Muslim community organiser who hangs out with terrorists and racists and who is hell bent on destroying the country.
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HAHA
333 beat me to it. I just read that farce of an article in todays Daily News. What a joke. Errol Lewis is a complete and utter moron with a delusional point of view on local and national politics. He's the perfect spokesman for the left.