COVER -> American Dreams
20 January, 2001 11:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) - The first US Presidential Inaugural of the 21st Century took place today. Hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out to view the event and line the parade route --- many of them protesters who endured the rain and cold (and police strategies to contain the protest message) for long hours. The inaugural parade ran nearly two hours late, adding to the frustrations of those for and against the Bush presidency. This Reporter was there to cover the event and comment on what the Mouthpiece Media has thus far provided.
First, some general observations:
- For the first time since the second inaugural of Richard Nixon, over 25 years ago, Americans turned out in large numbers to protest the election of a new President. Authorities expected and budgetted for 20,000 protestors. Estimates now show that over 60,000 people arrived in the nation's capital.
- FOR THE FIRST TIME IN US HISTORY, checkpoints were set up along the parade route to inspect citizens before letting them view the event. Purses and backpacks were checked before US citizens were admitted to the parade route. Some argued that their right of free assembly was thereby compromised. The anger was palpable and the lines long, often funny, but mostly frustrating.
- One of the shortest "inaugural walks" in US history occured today, despite relatively mild weather, because Bush emerged from the new, armored presidential limousine only at the very end of his walk, to find hundreds of booing protestors at Washington's Freedom Square. He quickly jumped back into the limo and sped to a subsequent area where Republican supporters --- who had paid $150 and up for a reviewing stand seat --- would provide a more "appropriate" photo opportunity for the ritual.
- Though some media outlets, intentionally in our view, played up the isolated incidents of "vandalism" DC police report at this hour that only SIX (6) people of the tens of thousands of protestors committed acts requiring arrest. Notably, some media organizations, confronted with an audio feed of the parade containing more boos than cheers, ran "commentator" gibberish rather than actual audio during their "live" feeds of the event.
What this reporter viewed on the ground was a broad spectrum of the American public outraged by the Bush installation, many of the older protestors stating this was their first protest ever; outraged by how they were treated when attending one of our country's most cherished rituals; outraged by the level of police interference in their chance to express their views (lines of abreast police being four deep in some areas of the parade route,) and --- and this is IMPORTANT --- despite police efforts to divide the groups of protestors from the Bush supporters --- a parade route covered by LOUD and VOCAL views against the agenda of a new Chief Exectuve who did not leave his vehicle for over 90% of the parade route.
This is one of the most physically arduous stories I've had to cover in a long time. I'll tell you why below. [See "Editorial Notebook."]
A New Century for America
THE BACKDROP: The United States of America, the world's putative only superpower, had struggled to elect a new President leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many of its citizens. For the first time since southern states had broken with the national government over issues of states rights and slavery more than a 100 years prior, leading to a national civil war, the American people were talking of a divided country. Commentators abroad and citizens at home questioned the very legitimacy of the American electoral system. The Supreme Court --- normally considered above the poltitical fray --- was accused of potentially having faced a conflict-of-interest because of partisan and self-interested statements made during the election by one of its justices. With the popular vote having gone to the official loser of the election by over half a million votes, and electoral college votes being awarded to the winner based on a single of fifty states (where the winner's brother was the chief executive,) it was difficult not to wonder about the need for electoral reform. So now there were two challenges to how America chooses its leaders:
- Campaign Finance Reform - advocated by a number of the contenders for the two dominant political parties' presidential nominations, and
- Electoral Reform, including the abolition of the Electoral College, advocated by an increasing number of citizens once this latest US presidency was perceived to have been decided by the Supreme Court rather than the people.
Against this backdrop, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the nation. Against this backdrop, 60,000 people came to the inaugural determined to send a message that they did not support his policies or consider Mr. Bush their President.
Against this backdrop, the first Presidential Inaugural of the 21st century must be bookmarked by the extraordinary measures taken to control the participation of the American citizenry in one of the country's most cherished rituals and observers must ask what this bodes for the future policy decisions, both domestic and international, of the new American administration.
LESSONS FROM SEATTLE
If we look at both sides of the inaugural protest --- police and demonstrators --- as two sides of the same public discourse coin, then both groups responded to the lessons of the WTO protests in Seattle and all subsequent protests as learning tools. Both sides came to the inaugural armed with counter-measures for each others actions.The success for the protestors, in our view, was their ability to both minimize the arrests and violence while effectively delivering their dissident message and expanding their constituency. The success for the police authorities was their ability to both increase their penetration of dissident organizations and lower the impression that they were imposing repressive tactics.
That is unless one considers the checkpoints along Pennsylvania Avenue and the barbed-wire-topped fencing. That is an ominous image that even incensed some Republican elected officials...
What was made more clear than ever at the Bush inaugural was that Gen-X and Gen-Y have become involved in political activity. By my estimate, the vast majority of the protestors in Washington, D.C., today were in their 20's and early 30's. People my own age were represented, but in rather short supply. The leftist, dissident movement has been effectively taken over by new generations. This is important in far-reaching ways because it represents a new invigoration of the Left and one with a new sensibility and a new sense of humor.
At the same time, one reflection of this changing of the guard for the left is a lamentation on some of the sophistication about the nature of politics which has not been passed on. (More on that in the second installment of this Special Report.)
EDITORIAL NOTEBOOK: As reported on our cover in the last edition, I was asked by a member of the Green Party to join a small Green contingent from Connecticut that would be taking part in the inaugural protests. It seemed fitting, as publisher of a magazine whose very name spoke to the vision of the 21st Century, that we be represented. Though our focus is international, and thus we tend to cover stories from abroad, it's impossible to ignore the important stories out of the United States which have international implications in an increasingly globalized world. More significantly, as a publication dedicated to political and social dissidence against multinational corporate dominance --- which this US election seemed to validate in the most heinous and roughshod manner --- it was our duty to report the "on the ground" view of the story.
ABOUT MY COMPANIONS: I received the call Thursday evening. Diamond D, my friend and contact in Connecticut's Green Party, was taking a small group to the inaugural protests and asked if I would come along. Though it was last minute, I said yes. Our plan was that they pick me up in Baltimore at 3 p.m. Friday, we'd check into a hotel in Virginia and take the Metro into Washington. Diamond and I spoke on Thursday evening to confirm.Friday morning, I was having second thoughts. I had watched weather forecasts predicting rain, sleet and then snow by the afternoon. "I'm too old for this crap!" I thought. At 8:30 a.m. I placed a call to Connecticut, hoping to bail out as gracefully as possible. I received an answering machine. I left a message anyway.
When no call had come by 11:30 a.m., I resigned myself to making the trip and began packing.
Forty-five minutes later I received a call. Diamond had thrown a party the night before and was just getting ready for the journey. He would call me later with a new ETA.
Reader's Digest Fast-Forward: Between additonal mishaps and bad weather, the arrival time in Baltimore was advanced to 9 p.m.
My party arrived at 11:30 p.m. There was Diamond D, 23 years of age, who I know, and Ethan, Kierstan and Dave, all of whom must have been wondering why this old guy was coming with them. Dave appeared to be the senior person in our group after myself; he was probably all of 25 years old.
We arrived at our hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, and had settled in and began planning for the inaugural at 2 in the morning. (I discovered here that we would all crash-out in the same hotel suite. Something I hadn't done --- well, in a very long time.) We were all tired, but determined. The Plan was to get up at 6:30 a.m., eat breakfast and then take the Metro into Washington from the Vienna, Virginia, station. We would go to the Justice Action Movement's (JAM) Welcome Center, on 12th, to a coordinating meeting and decide which demonstrations and actions to attend.
Let's just say we didn't all get it together to leave Chantilly by 7 a.m. Let's just say that the party at Diamond's didn't end, on the previous night, before 3 in the morning. Let's just say, especially after sleeping on a floor in a hotel room (for about three hours,) I wasn't at the top of my form.
In Part 2 of this report on Tuesday, I'll share conservations I had with these new activists, impressions and insights.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS: This was one of the physically toughest stories I've had to work on in a while. The tough weather conditions only underscored my advancing years. Even my comrades, in their twenties, complained about the bad weather conditions we endured. Rain, cold, long hours of waiting for events to unfold, frozen feet, standing in puddles, rude crowd members crushed in like sardines in a can along the parade route, exhaustion and frustration.
This is not an old man's business. I brought an umbrella. I was slow to keep up with my group. My feet hurt, my back hurt, I was ready to bail out when the Bush procession had not arrived at our location by 3 in the afternoon, cold, wet and miserable as I was. I had little patience with people trying to nooge their way into a vantage point many of us had stood in for long, wet, cold hours in order to participate in the unfolding event.
MOST people are basically good, I believe. There were demonstrations of that here. Two stand out for me:
- When a tall, hefty, (probably) 60-something Bush supporter loudly complained about his view of the parade route being blocked by a protestor holding a sign up in his field of vision, Diamond D said to the guy, "Yeah, and I could probably see too if you hadn't pushed your way in front of me and blocked mine!" The guy immediately stepped aside and allowed Diamond D into his spot ... AND with a smile.
- Shortly before 3 p.m., at the 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue corner of the route, a heavy downpour started. A group of middle school teachers from Virginia who had brought their students out, as a Civics lesson I presumed, to view the inaugural had had enough. They had begged the police for an hour to let them take their students out of the throng but, because of security, they had met steadfast resistance. When the newest onslaught of rains came, the police and Secret Service relented. The children -- now antsy, soaked and miserable -- were allowed to leave the crowd and return to their hotel.
Some people, of course, were resentful and created a momentary bottleneck. But ultimately the police and teachers prevailed. "We can watch it on TV," one of the lead teachers commented, showing incredible fortitude and patience. I couldn't help but admire this lady.
RELATED LINKS:
ON TUESDAY in Part 2: The view from the street; comments from Diamond D, Kierstan, Ethan and Dave; comments from other people at the inaugural; an editorial perspective.