Tea Time In Washington DC

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Permalink Reply by Tony on September 13, 2009 at 1:59pm

I've heard the count to be:

Tens of thousands - Fox Anchor
Hundreds of thousands - Sen. Jim Demint in D.C
1.2-1.5 million - D.C. Police Dept
2 million - D.C. Dept of Parks and Recreation

Either way.....WOW!

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on September 13, 2009 at 2:35pm

I returned from DC about forty-five minutes.

I have no idea why so many of the networks are using this "Tens of thousands" line (although I have viewed a video within the last 20 minutes that did use the "Hundreds of thousands" figure - but I forget which one it was).

Jim and I, assisted by Jim's wife Linda, carried the FairTax Nation banner from Freedom Plaza down Pennsylvania Avenue to within a couple of hundred feet of the speaker's platform at the Capitol building (we were later told that Jim and the banner were seen on Fox news). The entire area in front of the Capitol building was packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder. When I turned around and looked back towards the Washington monument on the "mall" and back down Pennsylvania Avenue all I could see was a sea of people. It was decided that I should leave early so I could get back to a rendezvous point on time, it took me 45 minutes just to work my way out of the crowd. As I walked back along PA Ave I saw hundreds, if not thousands, more people continuing to head towards the main crowd - this was about 1pm.

Tens of thousands? - completely understated!
Hundreds of thousands? - most definitely!
1.2 - 1.5 million? - highly likely!
2 million - very possible!

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Permalink Reply by chiefcook on September 14, 2009 at 7:31am

Check out this link

Smithsonian photographers document the march as part of continuing documentary coverage of events on the National Mall

http://photo2.si.edu/mmm/mmm.html

It is from October 1995, the largest ever gathering in American history

This was organized by a large organization (money) and well publicized.

Where does the Tea Party fit in?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Lee on September 14, 2009 at 9:29am

Chief- thank you for the interesting link. To me the size of the turn-out relative to their marches that have been held on the Mall, by the illegal immigrant groups for example, is not as important as the organisational capability they indicate.

The 9-12 March On DC was partly promoted by Glenn Beck on his "9-12 Project" Website and hundreds of smaller Social networks.

The illegal immigrants are very well organised and received the down-payment for their work on the 2008 presidential campaign with the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Their ultimate pay-back is another Amnesty.

Many Americans will be surprised how much political influence illegal immigrants have from city hall, Click Underlined Link: All the Way-Up to the White House

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Permalink Reply by chiefcook on September 14, 2009 at 12:57pm

Just a few more gatherings in DC

Washington's great gatherings
The number of people at the largest gatherings in the nation's capital, according to the National Park Service:

Event Date Crowd
Vietnam War moratorium rally Nov. 15, 1969 600,000
Iran hostage welcome Jan. 27, 1981 500,000
Vietnam War 'Out Now' rally April 24, 1971 500,000
Million Man March Oct. 16, 1995 400,000
March on Washington for Gay April 25, 1993 300,000
and Lesbian Rights
20th anniversary of Civil Aug. 28, 1983 300,000
Rights March on Washington
Solidarity Day Sept. 10, 1981 250,000
Civil Rights March on Washington Aug. 28, 1963 250,000

Source: National Park Service; USA TODAY research by Cindy Hall

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Permalink Reply by Jim Tomasik on September 14, 2009 at 1:25pm

I tried to count. Lost track at 37...

It was the most people I've ever seen in my life. It was like being in an ocean of people.

I've certainly never seen a FairTax Rally that big! Maybe we need to hire Dick Armey to run FairTax.org.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Tomasik on September 14, 2009 at 7:48am

That is a large crowd. How many were there?

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Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on September 14, 2009 at 7:01pm

I heard on Rush Limbaugh today that the British press reported the size of the crowd to be 2 million, which is even larger than the attendance at Obama's inaugural.

I've either seen or read reports that the numbers were anywhere from 1.5 to 2 million. Even if we low-ball the number at 1 million, it still beats the heck out of the 600,000 attending the event on 11/15/69.

Suffice it to say that 9/12 was record breaking - and I somehow believe the next one will be bigger still.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Daniel McCue on September 16, 2009 at 12:16am

This is absolutely amazing!! I am very disappointed to have been unable to go. The potential for future FairTax supporters there must have been huge. I can't stop watching the U-Tube videos!!

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Permalink Reply by Wally Fox on September 16, 2009 at 11:10am

I don't know if this link is posted anywhere in Fairtaxnation.com but it has a great message and summarizes by word and picture what the anti-tax/spend movement is about. The job is to get all onboard with the FairTax. They're ripe for our message. It's been said for every outspoken person there are 100 who are silent. If there are a million here, then 100 million who agree with the message sent to Washington. The key is to get them tuned to FairTax.

http://www.lookingattheleft.com/2009/09/conservative-woodstock-rock...

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