What I Saw at the 9/12 March

“Are you with ACORN?”

Two questions into my interview with a woman from Georgia, those words cross her lips.  I responded: “No, ma’am, I’m a writer with FrumForum.com. We’re a center-right website. We oppose Obama!”

“Well, alright, then. I want Congress to hear this: No TARP, no bailout, no cap-and-trade, no socialist healthcare, no healthcare paying for abortions, no czars!”

Another woman said: “We want less government. Get out of our lives! Get rid of the czars that are Communist. No healthcare, the — the cap-and-trade, no stimulus! There’s no transparency!”

And then: “Balance the checkbook, give Medicare to those who need it, and get government out of my healthcare!”

Sarah Palin was without a doubt the unsaid queen of the 9/12 march. Of the many people I interviewed, about a dozen expressed solid support for a Palin candidacy, with all of the others at least open to supporting her.

Many were caught up in the fervor of Joe Wilson’s recent outburst. At moments, it seemed as if every other person was holding a “You Lie” sign. Joe Wilson, indeed, was a name I heard with much greater frequency than Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee (whose name crossed no one’s lips), and Tim Pawlenty. Floated names did include, however, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck.

“All eyes are on Sarah Palin,” a man said. “Without her, McCain would have lost in a landslide.”

“Palin is from outside the Beltway. They hate her down here in D.C., and that’s why we need her,” one woman said to me.

“Quitting as governor was so smart,” another man said. “She got her leg out of a political beartrap. They were trying to sink her up in Alaska.”

Palin for President pins, shirts, and even signs were constant. Among those with whom I spoke who were committed to a candidate, she was the only name who came up. Her anti-Washington credibility overwhelmed them.

“She has ethics and moral values, she’s pro-life, she knows what she stands for and she speaks with integrity,” one protester added.

But Palinmania wasn’t everywhere.

More often, the crowd seemed utterly disillusioned with the entire batch of politicians available. To them, both parties had completely lost their ways and were committed to what Glenn Beck identifies as progressivism: the idea that government should shape society, rather than the reverse.

“It might be Sarah Palin, we’ll see. But I’ll say for now: whoever is committed to fiscal responsibility.”

“Whoever follows the Constitution!”

“Anyone who can beat this gang in Congress right now!”

Indeed, the gang in Congress right now was a constant target of ire.

“They don’t read their own bills, they can’t even handle Cash for Clunkers, they’re trampling over the Constitution, and we want to stop it! They don’t listen to we the people!” a man from Tennessee explained. “They can’t even run Amtrak, but they want to run healthcare?”

“We want Joe the Plumber, we want Suzie the Waitress. We want people with real lives. We’re sick to death of politicians and we’re sick to death of lawyers!" added another.

“We have no leader right now. For now, this is a citizen’s movement. They must hear us. They work for us. The people have to lead this.”

As an ubiquitous sign at the rally read: “Don’t tread on me.”

I approached a man holding a gigantic sign bearing the word “Jesus.”  “What brought you out here today?” I asked, and the man rattled off a list of offenses: cap-and-trade, the debt, the deficit, Obamacare.

“What does your sign have to do with that, if I may ask?” I replied.

“Well, first, look at your shirt. What’s on it?," he asked. "Don’t look, but tell me what’s on it.”

“Well… it’s a dragon, hovering over a boat or something, across some mountains," I responded.

“Right. A dragon. A serpent. It represents Hell.”

With that, he pointed to a woman walking by and said “What does this sign mean to you?”

“Jesus. My Lord and Savior, who died on the cross to save me from sin,” she answered.

“Do we know each other?” he asked her, to verify that she was not with his party, but I interrupted: “Wait, wait. That’s fine, but what I wanted to know was the sign’s relevance to today’s rally.”

“Well, we’re a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and we need to get back to those,” the man responded.

“Jesus died,” the woman added, “so we could be free. We’re having that taken away from us.” She walked away, but the man continued: “Have you read the Gospel of John?” I said that I had. “Well, read it again. Five times this time. And don’t think of yourself. Read it carefully and ask yourself: who is this man? Who is this man? Because he must be either a liar, a lun — .” I again interrupted him and noted: “Yes, yes, C.S. Lewis’ trilemma. I’m familiar with all of this. He’s a good writer, but I’m not a believer.”

A woman I’d addressed earlier struck a similar tone. “Obama opposes the Bible. The Constitution is an extension of the Bible, because it was written by God-fearing men.” This woman, one-half of a couple that had come down from Michigan, was fairly elderly.  Her husband added: “We’re seeing our freedoms taken away. We’re old. We’re afraid of the death panels. At first I was worried just about my grandchildren, but now we’re worried for us, too. But today’s turnout — I didn’t know whether it’d be one-thousand or whatever number of people, but this is amazing. It’s the answer to a prayer.”

One college-aged woman I spoke with was concerned with the next generation: “Young people have no idea what’s going on in this country. They don’t know the truth. I have to be a representative for our generation. I don’t want our rights taken away. They’re trying to take away free speech, our right to choose healthcare, ‘Under God’ from the dollar bill… that’s the way it’s always been. You take away God, and you hand over the United States to Satan. This country will go straight to Hell.”

I came to sympathize with the protesters I met. Their hearts are in the right place. The figures of the American Revolution we remember are George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Forgotten are the men who knew nothing of political philosophy or military tactics, but were ordinary people who just wanted to live free.

“Throw the bums out!,” one man exclaimed. “They’re wasting our children’s future. I want my children to have liberty, to be free.”

“I never thought I’d be protesting at my age,” a woman from Michigan told me. “But I had to come. It means too much to me. This is for my grandchildren. I want them to know that I did something for freedom.”