Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), the Senate's most right-wing member,
thinks conservative activists demanding a right-wing shift in government policy are just the regular ol' American mainstream.
"This is not some kind of radical right-wing group. I just hope the Congress, the Senate and the president recognize that people are afraid of what's going on."
I see. Confederate-flag waving conservatives, who think Democrats are Nazis, are just normal, middle-of-the-road Americans.
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As for what the overwhelmingly-white crowd had to say, I still think these protests could benefit from some focus. We learned today that right-wing activists don't like government spending (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers spent freely), don't like the size of government (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers increased the size of government), don't like deficits and debt (except when Bush and Republican lawmakers added trillions to the nation's tab), and don't like czars (except when Bush used dozens of them to implement his agenda).
They don't like health-care reform, though it's not clear why. They don't like gun control, though it's not clear why they think anyone's coming for their firearms. They also don't like taxes, immigration, abortion, Muslims, the U.N., and the idea of "socialism," though their understanding of the word is tenuous at best.
In other words, the point of today's rally was to let the country know there are a lot of right-wing activists with right-wing beliefs. We knew that before today, but I guess they wanted to remind us.