Our first-ever political rally (10/19/00) was supposed to be a handful of Lazio and NYC-based GWB for President volunteers quietly standing on a street corner near David Letterman's studio holding signs "Welcome Gov. and Mrs. Bush". The purpose was to be visible when Dubya's motorcade drove by, dropping him off at Letterman's studio.
What we found when we got there were about 1,000+ wild-eyed, shouting angry Teamsters, SEIU and other union members across the narrow street from us. Gathered under a giant blown-up black rat. They had just spilled out of a massive Gore/Lieberman, pro-Hillary rally at a nearby hotel. They had been fed with "George W. Bush is going to take away your union jobs and benefits!" lib union propaganda, and were loaded for bear. Some of the bigger, tougher looking guys even nearly threatened physical violence.
It was exhilarating and exciting, we had never faced anything like this before. Hubby and I were hooked. ;-)
I found FR in 2000 and connected to so many like-minded conservatives, both online only and in person, and the rest is history. I'm still a bigger political junkie than hubby, but he's not far behind me.
Quite an experience! I always thought Lazio won that famous debate - Hillary did too which is why the early reports were that she and her staff were depressed after the debate. Then one of her Carville-types came up with “Lazio invaded her space” which my idiot fellow NYers agreed with - no matter how wrong-headed and childish. A senator was born!
My husband tried to get rid of his union staff about ten years ago and he ended up with the giant rat outside his building, lol. New York unions are a disgrace.