Just how important, and big, was the Glenn Beck–inspired “9/12” march in Washington?
“The weirdness of the Wingnut summer isn’t over,” said John Avlon in The Daily Beast, at least if Saturday’s Glenn Beck–inspired “9/12” march of “angry white people” on Washington is any sign. The protest channeled very real “pent-up frustration” at federal overspending, mixed with a “spicy dash of paranoia,” that poses a very real danger for the Democrats. But Republicans may soon regret stirring this “crazy pot”—they can’t “contain or moderate” it. That’s the classic way to “marginalize a significant protest” you don’t agree with, said Matt Welch in the New York Post. First you “dismiss participants as deranged and possibly dangerous kooks,” when in this case it was “a huge gathering of mostly white, mostly right-of-center Americans” passionately unhappy with big-government policies. Then you “lowball” the attendance numbers. On the other hand, “if you don’t want to be discredited,” don’t inflate the numbers, said Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight. ABC News, citing the fire department,
