In contrast to the verbal thuggery of the communist protestors, the Beck rally attendees passing by greeted the insults with smiles, laughs and lusty choruses of 'U-S-A!'

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Though Glenn Beck’s August 28 “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, D.C. was decidedly not political, that didn’t stop attendees from expressing their own views about President Barack Obama’s agenda. 

Mark, a middle-aged native of Russia who emigrated to America in the 1970s, came to Beck’s rally because he’s heard President Barack Obama’s shtick before.  “When I was growing up in the Soviet Union, going to school, I heard the same rhetoric, saw the same policies.  I lived in a socialist country; I know how bad it is for people.  That’s why I came here as soon as I could.” 

Listening to then-candidate Obama on the campaign trail, Mark knew immediately the kind of change in store for Americans.  “I tried to warn people, but it wasn’t enough.  Obama is definitely a socialist.  He says and does the same things I experienced in the Soviet Union.  He wants to control everything.”  Asked if he could remember another time when he felt this strongly about America being on the wrong track, Mark didn’t hesitate: “Never.  In 35 years of living here, I’ve never seen the country turning so fast away from freedom.  I hope we can reverse it.” 

Marion agrees.  When she visited East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell, Marion saw the disastrous effects of imposing government control on people.  “It was terrible.  You wouldn’t believe how much it damages a person to live under socialism.  The society was so far behind in everything.”  A businesswoman with offices in Washington, D.C., Austria and Germany, Marion says she’s shocked to hear so many people fail to understand Obama’s socialist agenda.  “He’s so open about it, but people don’t understand.  Maybe they don’t want to.” 

One person who’s ready for Obama to govern with the courage of her convictions is Cathy, a public health worker in Washington, D.C. and a registered member of the Communist Party since the late 1960s.  “I went to college thinking I was a liberal.  I worked on (Eugene) McCarthy’s campaign.  But I got disappointed.  Democrats are just like Republicans; they’re politicians who lie to get power.  I met some friends who were communists and what they said made a lot of sense.  Eventually, I came to believe that only the people can be trusted with power.” 

Told that the Tea Party movement also believes in the “power of the people” Cathy quickly said she couldn’t support any group that wanted to limit government.  “I could tell you lots of stories about people who are dying every day in my hospital because of limited government.  Lack of services kills people.” 

Two of Cathy’s cohorts in the communist protest against the Beck rally were even farther away from finding common ground with the rally’s attendees.  Unable to disconnect themselves from their bullhorns for interviews, each repeated chants of “the Tea Party is racist” at the hundreds of thousands of people walking onto the National Mall.  Another favorite refrain was “Brown, Yellow, Black, White – Workers of the World Unite!”  In contrast to the verbal thuggery of the communist protestors, the Beck rally attendees passing by greeted the insults with smiles, laughs and lusty choruses of “U-S-A!” 

Eventually, the communists packed up and left, with Cathy presumably returning to the lifestyle and standard of living available to a mid-level public health worker in Washington, D.C.  One assumes that she chooses to stay in America because she likes the benefits afforded to her here; benefits like freedom of speech and association; the freedom to live where she wants, doing the work she is passionate about.   Those freedoms must make living in America worthwhile for Cathy, even if she thinks her life would be ideal under a pure communist regime. 

Too bad she didn’t talk to Mark and Marion.