Glenn Beck and much of the mainstream media flattered itself that the One Nation Working Together Rally in Washington D.C. was staged as an answer, no a reaction, to Beck's phony counterinsurgent, badly misnamed Restoring Honor rally that insulted the name, memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was no such thing. The One Nation rally was planned long before Beck dreamed up his tawdry publicity stunt. Unlike Beck's charade, the One Nation rally was the perfect blend of grassroots local and national planning and organizing by civil rights, civil liberties and progressive groups. And unlike Beck's unabashed, shameless media play spectacle, it had a serious purpose. That was to reinforce the defined and specified goal of more and better jobs, justice and public education.
This also presents a special challenge. The challenge is to keep the troops fired up for November, and beyond. The last thing that's needed is another big feel-good gathering where thousands blow off steam, and then go home and do nothing. There's a solid model to insure that doesn't happen, and that's the model that One Nation proudly patterned itself after; the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice. The march drew a quarter million plus and it was an in Washington and the nation's face rally to put mass pressure on the Kennedy administration and Congress to pass the stalled civil rights bill and a raft of other labor oriented legislation. Civil rights and labor organizations bombarded the White House, Congress, and local officials with with letters, petitions, and mounted local actions to get action back then. March leaders, and grassroots organizers held strategy meetings, mini-conferences, and continued to march and demonstrate with their feet to force change. This was pure, sustained, and focused political activism in its best form.
There's another model that's proven effective in inspiring legions and forcing political change, Tea Party activism. Before Beck, Tea Party locals translated their loathe of big government, Obama, and the latent racial bigotry of many whites into quiet, active, focused planning, organizing, fundraising and result driven action. Their parade of bloggers, websites, and shrill rightwing talk show gabbers has relentlessly used the internet and airwaves to inflame and organize, and mobilize in the streets their base. Their sustained organizing toppled a few mainstream GOP stalwarts, and sent shocked tremors through the GOP mainstream and Democrats.
One Nation Working Together can do the same. The stakes have never been greater. Nearly a half century ago, the March on Washington leaders realized that a mass rally is great but to really mean anything it must not be feel-good theater. It must be a springboard for patient, sustained and when needed noisy, in your face organizing to achieve tangible results. Tea Party leaders have also figured that simple truism out.
Beck and company and the Tea Party have laid down the challenge. The 1963 March on Washington showed how to answer the challenge of reaction. The One Nation rally is a partial answer to that challenge. The final answer is the follow-up organizing and mobilizing, and continued follow-up organizing and mobilizing for change.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk show on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Justice Still Denied: My Mini-Sermon at the 'One Nation Working Together' Rally
Oh please, that rally was nothing short of an embarrassment and the worst that America has to offer. Progressives represent a people that want a classless society and believe that social justice is a means that end. I'm still amazed they were able to get as many people there as they did since only a fraction of the electorate identifies with the liberal ideology.
Should be:
"One Nation Working Together Rally Magnificent. Now What?"
I could continue, but your heading says it all really.
Comparing the Washington Post article about the One Nation rally to the Washington Post articles about, and aerial photo of, the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor rally, the crowd for the One Nation rally is said to have petered out along the sides of the reflecting pool while the crowd for the Glenn Beck rally is said and shown to have extended all the way to the Washington Monument.
In other words, both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the One Nation rally drew a smaller crowd than the Glenn beck Restoring Honor rally.
Does this matter? Yes. The organizers of the One Nation rally sought to demonstrate that "they" (a conglomeration of liberal groups and interests) were the "real majority" in America. They failed. This was despite the fact that they supplied hundreds of buses to give their people free transportation to the One Nation rally.
Thus, Glenn Beck, with some help from Sarah Palin, whipped the entire AFL-CIO, SEIU, the Communist Party USA, various gay and lesbian groups, etc., etc. -- in other words, Glenn Beck whipped organized American liberalism and the Democratic Party. Quite an accomplishment for an individual TV and radio broadcaster.
Why is it that people who say they look like America can't clean up their own filth when they have a rally?
: the condition of being diverse : variety; especially : the inclusion of diverse people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization ...
-merriam-webster
Thats the ultimate difference between the republican t-party with their rallies and the Left in general.....
Seeing as who their leaders and rally speakers are...
My husband and I were actually at the rally, for three hours, along with thousands of others, many sitting under the canopies of trees out of the sun. We folks of color don't worship the rays and thus, were seated/standing/smiling, under the trees. May I offer this: the rally was one of HOPE NOT HATE which did me, and countless others, a world of good. We Obama supporters don't need to disparage others or fill our hearts with disgust at "underlings" and/or rant about returning to the founders (and we all understand the code there). The speakers were inspiring, none needing to refer to talking points prepared in advance by the likes of dickarmey, the koch brothers, and/or fox... My husband is a retired military officer, and I am a college professor. We do represent the sanity of the left, proudly, and we are inspired to vote. As I hope we all are. Remember: we were actually at the rally.