By Amy Gardner Krissah Thompson & Philip Rucker
Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck on Saturday drew a sea of activists to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he championed a religious brand of patriotism and called on the nation to recommit itself to traditional values he said were hallmarks of its exceptional past.
On the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech steps away from where it was delivered Beck and fellow tea party icon Sarah Palin staked a claim to Kings legacy and to that of the Founding Fathers. They urged a crowd that stretched to the Washington Monument to concentrate on the nations accomplishments rather than on its psychological scars.
Something that is beyond man is happening Beck said. America today begins to turn back to God.
The event was billed as nonpolitical and Beck steered clear of the partisan commentary that has made him a hero to many conservatives and a nemesis to many on the left. But political overtones were unmistakable and the rally drew an enormous crowd - including many who said they were new to activism - that was energized and motivated to act.
The effort by Beck and Palin to lay claim to the mantle of the civil rights movement drew protests from the Rev. Al Sharpton and others who marched in a separate
and much smaller event to the Mall from Dunbar High School in Northwest
Washington to commemorate
Kings speech 47 years ago.
The March on Washington changed America Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said at the Sharpton rally referring to Kings speech. Our country reached to overcome the low points of our racial history. Glenn Becks march will change nothing.
The simultaneous rallies rendered the countrys political and racial divisions in stark relief.
Sharpton drew a mostly black crowd of union members church-goers college students and civil rights activists. The Obama administration weighed in too with Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaking of education as the civil rights issue of this generation.
The Beck crowd meanwhile was overwhelmingly white and many in the crowd described themselves as conservatives with deep concern about the countrys political leadership and its direction.
But the mood was peaceful and calm at both events and by the time the Sharpton march arrived on the Mall the crowd from Becks rally had largely dispersed. Despite the potential for tension the events appeared to produce none of the politically damaging imagery that emerged from some earlier tea party rallies.
Numbers game
The attendance at Becks gathering promises to be a subject of contention. Crowd sizes on the Mall are often controversial and notoriously difficult to estimate so much so that law enforcement agencies have stopped providing numbers. At one point Beck joked he had just g
otten word from the media that there are over a thousand people here today. Later he told the crowd he heard it was between 300000 and 500000.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) speaking soon after the Beck rally at her own impromptu event nearby said: Were not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today - because we were witnesses.
Beck a Fox News host has developed a national following by assailing President Obama and Democrats and he warned Saturday that our children could be slaves to debt. But he insisted that the rally has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with God turning our faith back to the values and principles that made us great.
Kings niece Alveda King an anti-abortion activist addressed Becks rally with a plea for prayer in the public squares of America and in our schools. Referencing her Uncle Martin King called for national unity by repeatedly declaring
I have a dream.
Many in the audience said they had come because they fear that the country is at a perilous moment. They spoke in stark political terms. They carried Dont Tread on Me flags - an emblem of the tea party - and wore t-shirts with such messages such as I Can See November From My House and RECESSION: When your neighbor loses his job. DEPRESSION: When you lose your job. RECOVERY: When Obama loses his job.
Others said they were motivated more by their deep appreciation of Beck whose talk-radio show is the third-most popular in the country and who heavily promoted Restoring Honor on radio and on his television program on Fox News.
John Sawyers and Linda Adams said they flew in from Colorado because they are frustrated at what they call the ruling class at the health-care bill they say few supported at schools that no longer require that students say the Pledge of Allegiance and at elected officials who run on one platform and govern on another.
We want our country to get back to its original roots said Adams 52 a university administrator who said her ancestors were on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution.
Its not anger said Sawyers 47 an engineer who grew up on a farm in Virginia. Its more Guys why are we going this way? Its time for the silent majority to say its wrong.
Sawyers a registered Republican and Adams an independent said they were moved to attend by Becks theme of honor.
Both of us are unhappy with the perception Obama is apologizing for everything we ever did said Adams wearing a T-shirt with the slogan Does the Constitution say we the sheeple?
We feel the United States is the greatest country Adams added. And we felt we had to do something.
Military theme
Saturdays event came on the heels of a primary election season that has emboldened tea party activists - and with even more crucial midterm elections
looming in November.
In Palins home state of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski a member of the GOP leadership is trailing in a primary behind a political neophyte whose underdog campaign was propelled by Palin and tea party groups.
After Tuesdays primary Persian Gulf War veteran and lawyer Joe Miller leads although no winner has been declared and vote-counting continues.
Still Democrats attempted to find political advantage in the rally by launching an offensive designed to link it to the Republican Party and thereby portray Republicans as extremists beholden to the tea party agenda. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee assailed Republicans for pursuing a destructive agenda and called out the tea party movement for pushing the GOP to the extreme right.
The event had a strong military theme with Beck paying tribute to three soldiers. The rally was paid for through donations to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation which funds scholarships for children of service members killed in action. During the rally Beck announced that the foundation had raised $5.5 million for the event; he did not say how much would go toward event costs and how much to the causes the foundation supports.
The crowd erupted when Beck introduced Palin a tea party heroine and a former Republican vice presidential candidate. Palin said she was speaking not as a politician but as the mother of a combat veteran.
She said the military is a force for good in this country and that is nothing to apologize for. She honored three military veterans hugging them onstage and told people to look to them as inspiration even when the nations challenges might sometimes seem insurmountable.
But here today at the crossroads of our history may this day be the change point Palin said.
Look around you. Youre not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them.
The crowd responded with chants of USA! USA! USA!
looming in November.
In Palins home state of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski a member of the GOP leadership is trailing in a primary behind a political neophyte whose underdog campaign was propelled by Palin and tea party groups.
After Tuesdays primary Persian Gulf War veteran and lawyer Joe Miller leads although no winner has been declared and vote-counting continues.
Still Democrats attempted to find political advantage in the rally by launching an offensive designed to link it to the Republican Party and thereby portray Republicans as extremists beholden to the tea party agenda. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee assailed Republicans for pursuing a destructive agenda and called out the tea party movement for pushing the GOP to the extreme right.
The event had a strong military theme with Beck paying tribute to three soldiers. The rally was paid for through donations to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation which funds scholarships for children of service members killed in action. During the rally Beck announced that the foundation had raised $5.5 million for the event; he did not say how much would go toward event costs and how much to the causes the foundation supports.
The crowd erupted when Beck introduced Palin a tea party heroine and a former Republican vice presidential candidate. Palin said she was speaking not as a politician but as the mother of a combat veteran.
She said the military is a force for good in this country and that is nothing to apologize for. She honored three military veterans hugging them onstage and told people to look to them as inspiration even when the nations challenges might sometimes seem insurmountable.
But here today at the crossroads of our history may this day be the change point Palin said.
Look around you. Youre not alone. You are Americans! You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them.
The crowd responded with chants of USA! USA! USA!
