Today's Protests

I made it to the protest in front of Boise's city hall, albeit belatedly, an hour late and just as it was winding down. There I counted some forty people; it's a given there were probably considerably more before I arrived, so I'm encouraged, I guess. Andrew Sullivan received an email from one of his readers in Greenville, South Carolina that described about 70 people in attendance, which sounds about right for a perpetually red state but is also about the same number had at a protest held when Bush came to Tamarack three years ago (that one was certainly inflated by Secret Service agents, though). Reaction from passing traffic was hard to gauge--I was busy sketching, and screw consistency: until I get a readership I'm not taking the time to scan my damned sketchbook--but there was a honk of approval probably at least once a minute, including a loud one from a food produce truck.

I was there for less than an hour, after about which the number of protesters had dwindled to about seven, but it might be worth noting that the parking garage my friend and I parked in had a line extending at least three levels high both when we parked and when we were leaving. It might mean something, it might not.

Liberal demonstrations in Idaho always leave me at a loss, because it looks and feels so anomalous. That these ideas have penetrated into the fringe, however, means there is a base from which these ideas, which have already taken hold in much of the rest of the country, can grow. Know hope, Andrew says. Today's modest display is better than no hope, I suppose.