Fraters Libertas

A Democratic Tradition

Today, January 20, the Constitutionally mandated occasion of the inauguration of the democratically elected President of the United States. This news update from Washington DC:

Not since Richard Nixon paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1973 has a presidential Inauguration drawn so many protesters -- and last time, people were out to protest the Vietnam War.

Demonstrators turned out in droves on Saturday -- a miserably gray and drizzly day, with temperatures hovering in the mid-30s -- to protest the Inauguration of President George W. Bush,

... there was a steady stream of heckling of Bush and Cheney as they moved along the broad boulevard toward the White House. And it wasn't entirely without incident. There were a few minor altercations between protesters and police. The AP reported that in one incident, impatient protesters who wanted to get closer to the parade route slashed tires on cars before getting arrested.

The hatred was palpable. At one particularly dark moment, a protester lobbed an egg at the presidential limo. Bush remained safely inside until the final block before reaching his new home. (In the past, Bush's father and even Bill Clinton walked large stretches of the parade route, but not so during this cold and contentious day.)

During Bush's swearing-in, officers briefly detained several thousand protesters, some who had gathered near the Justice Department for a National Organization for Women rally and others who had marched with filmmaker Michael Moore from the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood. The group was ultimately allowed to proceed down to the parade route, and a crisis was averted.

The protesters at Freedom Plaza hissed, howled, booed and jeered at President Bush as his limousine rolled by at around 3:30 p.m. EST. The cacophony was deafening -- and it was no doubt heard by the President and first lady Laura Bush.

"Of course, we're ashamed that Bush has decided to be a 'uniter' by uniting people against him," [a protester] continued. "They all chose to come out in the freezing rain -- even the weather couldn't stop these people."

Before anyone makes the mistake of taking any of this righteous dissent seriously, note the above was taken from a Salon article, dateline January 20, 2001.

Yes, before anyone invaded Iraq or anyone was "lying" about WMDs (at least before any Republicans were "lying" about them), before the civil rights of Americans were systematically stripped away by AshKKKroft, the usual suspects were out with their palpable hate, their cacophony of booing and jeering and hissing (hissing!), and their indiscriminate violence.

No, it wasn't about their outrage over Bush's performance as President back then. Instead we got this litany of catastrophic complaints:

They chanted and they chanted. "We won't go back, send Bush back." "U.S. Navy out of Vieques." "Free Mumia." "We want Bush out of D.C." "Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Bush and Cheney go away!" "Georgie go home, Georgie go home." "You're not our president." And so on. Sadly, due to strict regulations set forth by the feds and Washington police, the oversize puppets that had lent a sense of street theater to other protests during the past year were largely absent this time around.

(Note, with the sadness expressed over the absence of oversized puppets, that paragraph's author sets the new lower limit for the feeling of sorrow).

The years roll by, the world changes, most of us grow older and wiser. But the hatred of the Left and their out of power temper tantrums remain the same. Here's looking forward to a reprise of it all on January 20, 2009. God Bless America!