Why can't we pull similar numbers?

[pickemuphere]

ARG. I can't stand to watch the television anymore. While the actual numbers will be disputed ad infinitum, there's obviously big, high-profile turn out in NYC.

Why don't we conservatives organize something along these lines? Freepers do a great job of representing the cause, but we need large numbers of people, across the country, world etc.

Why is it that the libs/socialists can pull this off, but we can't? I'm ready to break my TV at this point!

[anniegetyourgun]

Welcome to FR. There are MANY more of us than there are of them....don't forget that. Take heart....they have nothing better to do with their time.

[volchef]

Because we would rather spend time with our children and families while these sickos have no job, no morals, and nothing better to do. It was a BEAUTIFUL day here in Orlando and I'd rather have fun with my kids. G.W. knows he has support to heck with the commies.

[Illbay]

Why don't we conservatives organize something along these lines?

Because most of us work for a living.

The problem most like you have is that YOU think demonstrations like this matter. They don't.

What matters is what the pols' constitutents are telling them, and what they're saying is "we don't want to go to war, but we trust our President, and if he says we ought to do it then we will support him."

We need to pay a lot less attention to what these anti-Americans are doing, and more attention to business.

[JeeperFreeper]

Dear Annie, it's a legit concern. But remember we give $$ to Repubs(mostly) and we vote. And that's what gets the brass ring every time.

[John H K]

Yeah, PJ O'Rourke pointed this out in "Parliament of Whores."

Conservatives have jobs, families, hobbies, etc. That's basically it.

[thoughtomator]

... because we're not dumb enough to go around making big juicy targets for WMD terror strikes on the eve of a war?

[AntiGuv]

I always figure it's because there's little to protest and demonstrate when you're in control of the establishment.

[Bubba_Leroy]

A big part of the problem is press coverage. When 10,000 hippies march to protest Bush it makes all of the networks. When 10,000 people march to protest Roe v. Wade it doesn't make a single one of the networks.

[GRRRRR]

Exactly Right and CORRECT--WE don't need to protest and stamp our little feeties in a tantrum. There may be a million out protesting today, across the world.

There are, however, around 250 Million that stayed home and are LAUGHING at those clowns...

GRRRRRRRR

[templar]

We need to pay a lot less attention to what these anti-Americans are doing, and more attention to business.

I understand the sentiment, but I consider these people to be enemies. I never underestimate and enemy and I never ignore one.

[Renegade]

Seems like the largest protests came from the cities that voted for the Goron.

[BfloGuy]

There are some issues which consistently draw large numbers of Conservatives. To wit, the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.

People take action more forcefully when they're against something. It's relatively rare to see demonstrations in favor of a government's policy.

And besides, Conservatives tend to want to shape events through direct action: elections, fund-raising, in general -- just "doing".

And besides, can you imagine the snotty coverage NPR would give to a pro-Regime-Change demonstration?

[moodyskeptic]

We are the silent majority. Take heart.

I will tell you that if you do join a Freep demonstration, the difference between the left and right is immediately obvious. In my experience, the Freepers/conservatives are smart, controlled, friendly, funny and genuine nice people. The more "professional" demonstrators on the Left are mean, angry, shallow and arrogant.

They only get animated when the TV cameras roll, for a minute or so, then the TV crew adjourns to their truck to edit, and the lefty liberal demonstrators pack it up and move on. They know this game, they created it. The lamestream media agrees with them, and they ignore conservatives, but you KNEW that. If you Freep, don't look for TV coverage from the alphabet networks, they've chosen sides and will ignore you. Passersby get it, the flyover nation gets it, increasingly minorities are getting it... the culture has turned a huge corner and ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBC will be the last to acknowledge it.

[TankerKC]

Two reasons:

1. We work for a living. and/or...

2. Our unions (or other commie front group) won't pay for the trip.

[geedee]

Because when a conservative sees what they consider a wrong, he or she rights it. When a libber sees what they consider a wrong, since the problem-solving gene skipped their DNA spiral, they protest and rant and make themselves look like the idiots they are.

And to you folks who say only libbers are bums without jobs...I resent that. I'm a bum and I'm conservative.

[Coroner]

>why is it the libs/socialists can pull this off but we cant?<
Because we have jobs!!!

[FreedomCalls]

Why don't we conservatives organize something along these lines?

Because the young conservatives who would show up are already organized elsewhere. They are the ones wearing Desert BDUs encamped in Kuwait. They are patrolling Bagram Airbase and distributing food and medicine to the locals in Afghanistan. They are in ships off in the Persian Gulf. They are writing letters to their loved ones back home. They are too busy right now for something as frivolous as a demonstration.

As I've said before, the young liberals who show up for these things are the unemployed, welfare-sucking, Maury-Povich-watching, lunatic fringe.

[widgysoft]

yep, that about sums it up!

[Defender2]

The reason is we are working!!!! We come home tired on friday evenings!!!! Most of Our Country loves Our Country!!!! You do not see them because they are indeed working for Our Country(as well as themselves)!!!! Be uplifted in Spirit!!!!:-)

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

"..Why is it that the libs/socialists can pull this off, but we can't?"

Useful idiots are easily herded like sheep. Many of the younger crowd are merely going along with their peer group. This absolves them from having to think and actually learn detailed information and history on the subject. Similarly, many of them are not capable of understanding complex issues as they are the product of our fine government schools.

[Rebelbase]

Because even evirowhacko-gay-femminist-vagitarian-SUV hating-academic socialists need validation every now and then.

[Quick1]

Most people don't work on Saturdays, though.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Ditto. Conservative folks work. They go to Sam's Club on Saturday and play with their kids. On Sunday, we go to church. Libs don't have a regular life. Hence, they don't have anything better to do.

[Defender2]

A lot of us come home tired from working all week and do have to rest up the upcoming work week. We are here we're just not seen!!!!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

I have noted at these events there is always the usual suspects of characters. Aging hippies, the HollyWeird lefties and guaranteed coverage from all the news outlets. I have also noted on those occasions when conservatives do manage to turn out in large numbers, there is no live coverage, treated as a five second blurb on the 10 PM slot and buried on page 14 in the print media.

The largest factor in MHO is, conservatives are out living real lives, in the real world, (present company excepted for some of us here in Freeperville) for the antis, the protests are, "their lives, and their world".

[Diana Rose]

Conservatives are adults

[Cagey]

Because we pay for our Phish tickets.

[Recovering_Democrat]

They are fighting a losing battle, and the leaders thereof know that, Pickmeuphere.

When 60+% of America supports Bush, and when they see the kind of lunacy inherit in these protests, the position of the "Disarm Iraq" majority is solidified.

Anyone who treats America like the Bad Guy in this instance is looked upon as a fool by the majority. Well, some of us may choose to look upon them with pity, but MOST of us would choose to look upon them as fools.

We are not the Evil Doers: Saddam and his ilk ARE. America understands that, and we're strong enough to tolerate dissenting voices. If these protestors went to Iraq and tried to publicly disagree with him, they'd be tortured and murdered. The sad thing is, they don't even realize this fact.

[RandallFlagg]

I just got back from the rally in Longmont, Colorado. The peaceniks numbered in the many and we patriots numbered in the few (About 25 to their 50). But it was so great watching all the thumbs-up we were getting, and watching all the middle fingers they received. Hearing all the horns honking for us and all the "LOSER HIPPIES!" for them.

They might be able to outnumber us because their lives are only filled busy chopping up their dosage of medical marijuana (?sp) for snorting during their protest, or they are taking a break from sleeping with their professors.

Either way, I will take GREAT PLEASURE knowing how insignificant they all will feel when the people of Iraq are hugging our soldiers and dancing in the streets. I just hope they don't get too depressed and stop warming up their side of the street.

[VRWC_minion]

Because Bush is sending about 150,000 of our proxy votes to Iraq.

[GOPJ]

In the 60's there was a book called the Strawberry Statement -- something about protesting and getting laid being paired...

[GOPJ]

In the 60's there was a book called the Strawberry Statement -- something about protesting and getting laid being paired...

[Dec31,1999]

Many Conservatives are older and more experienced with mortgages, responsibilities, kids and the like, whereas most of the people who go to Leftist protests are young college students with few responsibilities, with no children. A lot of the older folks at these large protests have aborted their children, so they have the time and money to travel.

The Marxists have a strangle hold on the colleges where they advertize these events with virtually no competition. Socialist organizations fund the protests with money from, well, foreign and domestic sources, student activity fees, union dues, even tax-funded photocopy machines for fliers!.

[Bullish]

Remember, it's not really an anti-war protest. Their real beef is that George W. Bush is president. The worthless crybabys of the left are out in droves just to be a part of it all.

[grimalkin]

Most of us have lives and responsibilities such as family and work.

[MonroeDNA]

Follow the money.

[finnman69]

Why evern worry about competing with idiots like this.

CNN has this up on their main page!

[timestax]

A lot of them are organised and mobilised by the Unions. The Union heads are still p*ssed that lyinAlGore lost!!

[M Kehoe]

Welcome!

Why can't we pull similar numbers?

We did, Nov 7th thru Dec 12, 2000. When it really counted.

5.56mm

[abner]

It would be nice if we could pull bigger numbers. There is only one problem with that. The media will distort the numbers in the other direction. That is what happened consistently during the 2000 Presidential election aftermath. While at the VP's house, CNN reported that the numbers were equal on each side. It was a blatant lie. That day- reality was that there were about 30 on the Gore side and a minimum of 300 on ours.

That is what we are up against. We just have to do better. I have no doubt that we can.

[Dan from Michigan]

The bottom line is this.

WE ARE TOO LAZY

We are too lazy overall(speaking in general terms). When it comes to grass roots action, unless the issues are ABORTION, TAXES, or the SECOND AMENDMENT, we don't get the job done. I was at Lansing. I'll be blunt, we were outnumbered badly. We had about 40 people there, and that's about double our normal amount at the Lansing rallies. We did our part, and we agitated the leftists enough for reactions, and a couple of our ranks got into the papers(THAT'S what's important).

Today is Saturday. I understand the "work" defense during the week, but this is the weekend, and I suspect a good percentage of us have the day off.

Does the leftist high turnout today effect us? Nope, at least currently(It's a year away from presidential primary elections). They were mostly "International Socialists?", your 60's libs, Democrats, Greens, and anarchists. These people wouldn't vote for the right anyway.

We aren't the "silent majority", and the Lefties aren't either. The majority of people are those that hate politics. They don't vote. They don't pay attention.
You have the die hards on each side.
You then have the "squishies". These are the people that are important.Many of them want to vote for a 'winner'.(You see more Green Bay stuff nationwide than the Detroit Lions -it's 'cool' to cheer for winning teams) The leftists are banking on using protests to do this.

That's why this is important. We need to get our guys out there. Too many conservatives don't go out there to the front lines, and a lot of that is a liberal type snobbish attitude toward protests in general. I usually see it as a defensive posture. When we outnumber the others at an abortion or gun rally, we gloat, but when outnumbered, it's excuses.

IMO, our biggest enemy isn't Iraq, or even Bin Laden. At least those jerks are 5000 miles away. It is the jerks right here in our own backyard. The Ramsey Clarks. The ANSWER people. The Pat Leahys.

Many are anti-war. I have no problem with that. However, the ANSWER people and the Pat Leahys have to lose. That's the bottom line, and that's why I'm out there.

[HitmanLV]

Conservatives tend to have a life. This morning I woke up at around 8am in Las Vegas, did some work on my business until noon, showered, shaved, went to get a nice lunch at my favorite 'In & Out Burger.'

This eve I'll take my honey out to dinner and back at my place to watch some DVDs.

Conservatives tend to have lives - we don't make good activists and naturally aren't attracted to chicldish displays like protests.

[The Shootist]

I don't know but if a million American gun owners marched on Washington City you can bet those nitwits in Congress would think twice before passing another "gun control" bill.

[Poser]

We can't get similar numbers because we are reasonably satisfied with the way our government is acting. If there were a bunch of peaceniks running the government, we would be much more visible. Dissatisfaction is what causes demonstrations. The peaceniks are frustrated. We watch Rumsfeld a smile.

[SunTzuWu]

The bottom line is this. WE ARE TOO LAZY

I don't know about you Dan but most of us HAVE A JOB!

[timestax]

The media will distort the numbers in

You are darn tootin. In downtown Cincinnati we had about 1000 in a Pro Bush, anti Gore rally right after Presidential election, when lyinAlgore was using the race card, and chad to try to usurp Bush's victory. Press coverage= ZILCH. But have a few liberals b*tchen about something, and they will get five minutes of prime time news coverage!!

[Let's Roll]

Illbay is right. All pols, including our current Administration, use internal polling, i.e., they conduct their own polling to get a feel for what the people are thinking. In other words they don't trust ABC's or the NYT's manipulated data to tell them what the people want.

[Dan from Michigan]

On Saturdays?