The second weekend after the elections saw a dramatic fall-off in participations at today's "Trust The People" rally in Westwood. During the first hour of the rally approximately 100 Bush demonstrators easily outnumbered the 50 or so "Trust the People" protesters--a dramatic increase from the proverbial handful of Bush supporters last week.

The turnout, crowds and messages were fairly reflective of the campaigns themselves. Both sides were overwhelmingly white, and apparently middle-class. Standard "Bush-Cheney" campaign signs were by far the most common sight among the pro-Bush crowd, reflecting traditional Republican top-down organizing. There were also quite a few mass-produced "Sore Loserman" signs as well as a number of hand-made signs that picked up the same theme.

Among the "Trust the People" crowd the most common sign (3 identical, plus at least one variation) was "Every Vote Counts," while signs calling for a revote were far less visible than last week. The vast majority of signs appeared to be one-of-kind or nearly so.

The sharp decline in turnout seemed to once again reflect the Democrats' general desire to distance themselves from their most loyal base. There were no signs of any organized Democrats, labor unions or civil rights organizations present.

hi there.

knowing well that it is not great to admit cowardice.....

i went to the rally today but was thwarted by the anger of the bushpeople. they were hostile. signs like 'liar liar liar'. *everyone* was white.

last week, w/ the votecounters, people honked & waved. i saw little car collusion w/ the bushfolk.

were they harassing the marchers? it was hard to tell.

i tried 3 times. it looked like by 2:30 they were going away. having had a horrible day anyhow i didnt feel like compounding it w/ crazy republican encounters. methinks that several, if not a lot of, other potential protestors felt the same.

i find it funny that as their candidate usurps the election, so do his supporters the demonstration. i guess that is why they do not understand which way the theft is blowing.

yr friend,

+edi+

sparky ramone

www.sparkysfunkhouse.com >> 2 b