A week ago today I attended the rally for John Kerry here in Portland, Oregon. Right after the rally I had to drive to Bend, Oregon, to teach a week of classes there.
In this photo, I’m reaching out and shaking the senator’s hand. It is soft and well-manicured. I felt very honored; he is the first future-president that I have ever been that close to. (I can’t even allow myself to conceive of the idea of George Dumbya Shrub being appointed to another term. I know his poll numbers are slipping, but he didn’t even need to get the majority of the votes last time around.)
The rally was alleged to begin at 4:00PM. I had errand to run, but I ended up downtown by 3:00PM. By then it was way too late. There was already a line that snaked all the way around an entire city block, about five-to-ten people wide, queueing up for the security pat-down to enter Pioneer Square.
The people in line were very friendly. It was very encouraging to hear people of all races, religions, incomes, genders, and ages trash-talk pResident Shrub and the whole misAdministration. For a kid from Idaho, hearing people trash-talking Repugnicans is about as rare as hearing “Surf’s Up!”. I was standing next to some retirees who couldn’t stop complaining about Bush. A lot of discussion centered on Iraq, but they also complained about his Medicare plan, refusal to allow Canadian drug imports, and job losses overseas through “outsourcing”.
Other younger folks complained about Iraq, outsourcing, phony tax cuts, corporate cronyism, rich-get-richer scheming, anti-choice policies, it just went on and on. Sure, that’s to be expected at a DemonicRatic rally, but the passion with which it was delivered just shocked me. People hate this misAdministration.
During our wait, we filed north on one side of the block, turned the corner, filed east, turned the corner, filed south, turned the last corner and headed west toward Pioneer Square. Various petitioners circulated through the crowd, requesting signatures for their initiative causes. Oregon’s citizen initiative system is awesome! Other folks walked along with various signs while a few vendors also hustled the crowd for anti-Bush/pro-Kerry stickers, buttons, and t-shirts. (Pictures of some of these can be seen on my Photo Gallery.) Here’s some images:
One man carried a hand-written sign. The one held above his head featured a B&W picture of an Iraqi man holding his dead daughter. It read “TERRORISM: No Shame, No Conscience, No Nothing”. The sandwich board sign her wore read “Morally Bankrupt / Axis of Evil” then proceeded to list the members of the Bush Administration. The back of the board read “No Shame, No Conscience, No Nothing – What’s left? – No Honor, No Glory”.
A vendor was hawking “Bush Whackers”, which were fly swatters affixed with a picture of Bush on one side and the the logo on the back that read “Whack Bush in 2004!”
One of our mayoral candidates worked the crowd, carrying his own campaign sign and wearing a rather hot-looking suit.
There were multiple vendors selling buttons. The pro-Kerry buttons were plentiful, but the anti-Bush ones were hot sellers. I bought the “Asses of Evil” button that featured Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Others found the “Three Stooges” button more to their liking. The John Kerry as Superman image bothered me, though. I don’t want photoshopped images of my candidate in a Superman costume. Hmm, maybe they’re trying to pick up the Seinfeld vote…
Posted on the walls surrounding the square were some fairly rebellious guerilla actions of free speech. One featured the imfamous naked human pyramid photo from Abu Ghraib, with a title that read “BUSH DICK 04 — NEW WORLD ORDER” and below the photo was the tagline “OLD WORLD STYLE”.
Another poster was a close-up picture of Moqtada al Sadr’s angry face with the title “US EXIT STRATEGY FROM IRAQ” and the tagline below the photo was “GET THE FUCK OUT”.
A t-shirt vendor sold yellow shirts with a Bush likeness that read “I only lie when my lips move – Vote Bush 04”
A sign “Bush + Cheney + Halliburton = (Screw)ed America” on one side and “We don’t need a Texas Sheriff of the World”.
A bumper sticker that read “Practice Abstinence: No Bush. No Dick. in 2004.” (See www.abstinencetour2004.com.)
Another sign: “What is the ‘Bush Weight Loss Program?’ Think of the Bush Foreign Policy & Lose Your Last Meal!”
Another: “Ask Bush About 9-11 www.911visibility.org REDEFEAT BUSH”
We stood in the line for about an hour. It was 4:30PM, and the rally had started. Portland resident and Everclear bandleader/guitarist Art Alexakis played a few songs to get the crowd energized. Sean Astin (Samwise from the Lord of the Rings movies) made impassionate speech in favor of Kerry and criticizing Bush. Other local politicians and activists took the stage. It was obvious that the rest of us weren’t going to get into Pioneer Square.
So I jumped out of the line and began squeezing through the crowds attempting to get a decent view and to be facing the speakers, so my rock-band-abused ears could make out what the people were saying. I found a spot across the street from the stage where the network news vans. I was tall enough to be able to see their feed as they edited it on the truck.
Howard Dean finally makes it to the stage and introduces a ten-year-old kid who had all his friends give him Kerry donations rather than presents. He raised $450 for the campaign. The kid led us all in the Pledge of Allegiance, with the “Under God” part, which I had no problem with because it wasn’t a government endorsement of religion like it would be in a classroom, but I digress.
Dean made a great speech which spoke to American ideals and how we should be building a better America for all citizens, not for the wealthiest 1%, yadda yadda yadda. You know how political speeches are. But Dean’s a great speaker and he got the crowd all pumped up.
Finally, Kerry comes on at just about 6:00PM. Our local newscasts air at 6:00PM. Coincidence? 😉 The only thing I want to know is how did Kerry get the Gore label of being stodgy, wooden, boring, and elitist? Man, those Repugnican spin doctors are good! Because the candidate I saw was passionate, well-spoken, and motivating. OK, so he’s not in Clinton’s league, but that’s a pretty exclusive club. But he’s a helluva better speechifier than Bush! It’s hard to believe they went to the same university.
But the highlight of the day came after the speech. Crowds were still milling around, waiting for the limousines to drive away. Kerry ducked back into a building for awhile, the crowds stayed outside in the light drizzle waiting for him.
As I walked the sidewalks, I came upon a scene. There was a small cadre of Bush supporters with pro-Bush and anti-Kerry signs. They were in a heated monosyllabic political exchange with a couple of dreadlocked men carrying an Iraqi flag, carrying a sign that read “Homeless Front” and chanting “Intifada! Intifada! Fuck ’em all! Fuck ’em all!” The Bush people were yelling back at them “Nine eleven, nine eleven, fuck ’em all, fuck ’em all!” It was a very enlightening and stimulating exchange of ideas.
The Portland Police were watching the crowd build. Soon the Iraq-supporters toned it down a bit. The Bush people continued to heckle the Kerry supporters as we walked by. There was much shouting, and one of the Bush people had a megaphone. I couldn’t take it anymore. Since Jerry Springer wasn’t going to show up, I had to join in the fun.
One Bushite was yelling back at a woman, “where’s your facts, where’s your facts?” So I yelled out, “Here’s some facts: 3.5-trillion dollar surplus is now a 2.5-trillion dollar deficit! Net job losses of 2.5-million! Only world leader to ever cut taxes in a time of war! Prevented Medicare from negotiating for lower drug costs! Led country to war under false pretenses!”
The crowd was cheering each point as I yelled it. His response? “Tax cuts are good for the economy during a recession! It’s simple Keynesian economics, you fool!” Oh, that did it. One of my buttons is labeled “Patronize” and when you push it, I get very very angry. For every piece of Bushit they yelled out, I stood there and yelled back the facts at them. One lady in the crowd said I had a very strong voice for this sort of thing.
One of my favorites was the Bush woman who yelled out “I’m sure you’ll love it when Kerry raises your taxes!” I yelled back, “how many wrasslin’ pay-per-views did that $300 tax-rebate buy you? And how different were your taxes this year compared to last year?” She yelled something again about “raising taxes” and I jumped in with “yeah, on the rich people, not you! Maybe if Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Adelphia, and 60% of US corporations paid their fair share, you wouldn’t have to!”
Here’s some of the wit and wisdom of the Bush people’s signs, with my yelled-back retorts in parentheses:
WHO WOULD OSAMA VOTE FOR? (“I’m guessing Bush, since he won’t go after Osama!” The irony is that this sign was held by a sixteen-year-old kid. We yelled at him, “Enjoy the draft in a couple of years, kid!”)
9 OUT OF 10 TERRORISTS AGREE – JOHN KERRY FOR PRESIDENT (“Yeah, because they know Kerry wouldn’t let prison guards stack them in naked human pyramids!”)
FAMILY FARMER FOR GEORGE W. BUSH (“Which family would that be, ConAgra or ArcherDanielsMidland?” — poor sap didn’t even get the reference.)
KERRY/FONDA HEY! TERRORISTS HAVE FEELINGS TOO! (I actually had a conversation with this man, because I wanted to know why the Jane Fonda reference? He was a Vietnam Vet and was evoking the “Hanoi Jane” analogy against Kerry since he came back from Nam and protested our government’s involvement in the war. So I asked him, “what’s so unpatriotic about questioning your government’s war policy, especially if it’s gotten 50,000 soldiers killed? If they issued defective rifles that were killing soldiers, wouldn’t you question the gun manufacturer and the rifle contract? Well, LBJ’s and Nixon’s Vietnam policies were defective political tools that killed thousands of GI’s and millions of Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians.” He got very red and started yelling at me, about how I was too young to know anything. I told him “I was born on January 31st, 1968, and on that day you got me and the Tet Offensive, and both are going to remind you just how shitty this Iraq war is going to get.”)
“W” STANDS FOR WORKING FAMILIES FOR BUSH TAX CUTS (“Hey, ‘W’ stands for ‘Where did my job go?’ Oh, it’s in Malaysia! ‘W’ stands for ‘Why don’t you want to pay my overtime?’ ‘W’ stands for ‘Who got that big tax cut?’ Oh, it’s Westinghouse! And a bunch of other weally weally wich people and corporations!”)
(In just a general zinger at the Bushites, I yelled, “Middle class people voting for Bush is like the chickens voting for the fox!” That got a good response from the Kerry fans.)
I COULDN’T KERRY LESS! (“You couldn’t Kerry less? Well, we’re sick and tired of your Bushit!”)
One of our guys slipped into the Bush crowd and held up a sign with an arrow pointing at them that read “MORONS 4 BUSH”.
Finally, there was one guy who wasn’t a Bush supporter, with a sign that said “JOHN KERRY = just another puppet for the CORPORATE IMPERIALIST REGIME. Resist and support a SOCIALIST PLATFORM”. Hmm, I’m not sure I can completely disagree. Both parties are owned by special interests. I’m just less afraid of the DemonicRats big money donors.
After all was yelled and done, Kerry was finally emerging from his after-speech meeting. The campaign staff had a bus driver back his bus up so that none of the Bushites could be seen. We all cheered that!
As Kerry made his way through to his car, he was gladhanding with the crowd. I wedged my way toward the front, and took the picture you saw at the beginning of this post as I shook his hand.
Now that’s some full-contact politics! What fun! Vote Kerry in 04!!!
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