StrictConstruct

A day after the rally, it has become clear that the “over 1,000″ people attending the rally was definitely an exaggeration on the part of the reporter on rprradio.com - though I certainly take responsibility for my relaying of the report here. It seems from accounts of those there, it apparently peaked at around 300-500 people but otherwise was even smaller. The event was reportedly very unorganized, and a definite schedule was not posted online or made clear to the people attending.

There was a lot of controversy when the Granny Warriors initially announced that they would be holding a rally in DC on April 15th, as it occurred during a period where most were waiting for Ron Paul to choose a date himself. The date was seen as unacceptable by many, given that it was a Tuesday, at a time of the year where most are still in college, and additionally tax day when many others would additionally be busy. While the argument was made that truly committed people would go no matter what, this definitely didn’t bear out as many truly committed people simply could not.

I don’t want to downplay those who did, however, as there are many accounts of people attending and having a good time there. But the fact of the matter is, the outcome of this rally should stand as a lesson for future rallies or marches of this nature. This “Freedom Rally” was intended to be big, but big events don’t just happen. They take planning, good timing, and, ultimately, clarity as to what exactly is happening. Not providing a definite schedule of when people were speaking made it impossible for anyone who could only attend for a short time and not the entire 7 hour event to, for instance, attend when Ron Paul was speaking. Or attend when the guest speaker of their choice was speaking. It was entirely hit or miss. And that is unfortunate. Just compare it to his recent events elsewhere, when he spoke to 1,200 at Goucher College, and 2,000 at Penn State University. It’s not as though there aren’t people who want to hear him speak. With clarity and a proper amount of promotion, there is no reason this couldn’t have been achieved there, too.

Additionally, there are even some people stating that much of the microphone time was taken up by “fringe elements,” which I can only assume would include members of the “9-11 Truth Movement.” If that is the case, it once again shows the utter disorganization of the event and total lack of focus. What do discredited conspiracy theories have to do with freedom? Nothing, besides perhaps that freedom allows people to talk about them - but you didn’t see people from the flat-earth society get up and speak (at least, I hope they didn’t.)

So was the rally a flop? By all appearances, it certainly did not live up to expectations. But if people can learn from these mistakes, and improve their game plan for the Revolution March planned in the summer, perhaps that can be viewed as, ultimately, the redeeming quality of April 15th’s.

(Photo credit to Jim Bovard.)