I’m sure by now many have been waiting to hear my account of what happened last night in Boston, while Bush was holding a fundraiser.
As you might know, I live near Boston, and when I found out Bush was going to be in the city, I was very excited. I had planned with a few friends of mine (most of them I met through Free Republic) to go down to show our support for President Bush.
I had a wooden stick with some Bush-Cheney ‘04 rally signs secured to it, and an “I Blog For Bush” sign with a “Massachusetts is Bush Country” sign on the reverse side.
My brother Aaron and I arrived at the intersection of Arlington and Boylston Streets around 5:15pm. The anti-Bush crowd was out in full force. They weren’t necessarily Kerry fans, but they included environmental activists, union workers, anti-war protesters, and plenty of other interesting types.
Aaron and I joined up with our group of friends who were already there. There was about nine of us. Now, keep in mind, we were not the only Bush supporters there – there was in fact a sizeable number of College Republicans there, who we had been with but got separated from, as Tyler from Pardon My English, who was part of my group notes:
The local group of FReepers got separated from the main group of Bush supporters. The main group included about 45-60 College Republicans (hailing from Emerson, Emmanuel, Tuft’s, Harvard (I was shocked, too), Boston University, and Boston College). The FReepers, all 9 of us, were on the other side of a wall of union members. The union members let their true colors shine when they started making gay jokes. Yes…the people who are protesting Bush, who opposes gay marriage, were making gay jokes. It didn’t end with gay jokes, they also tossed out the incest, Oedipal incest, and pedophilic jokes. They were classy people.
I started out close to the barricades completely surrounded by union workers and other anti-Bush protesters who were clearly not thrilled by my presence. I am not exaggerating when I tell you, at times, it did not feel safe. Between anti-Bush protesters who were attacking us verbally, to those who made many attempts to block or steal my sign, they did everything they could to make us feel unwelcome.
My response was consistent throughout the night. When someone tried to grab at my sign, or tell me to leave, I would tell them “I support your freedom of speech, please support mine.” The usual response involved a barrage of profanities and threats of physical violence. But we gave our chants and were not deterred.
Fellow FReeper, known as Little Bill, had this to say (edited for clarity):
At first things went well chants of “Four More Years” met by “No More Years”, the usual stuff. That is until a group of Iron Workers, Local 7, infiltrated the crowd and started pushing the pro Bush people away from the barrier blocking the street.
As we were standing further back, an Iron Workers Union member began taunting us. He had perched himself up on the rails of the entrance to the train stop. He stood several feet above us, looking down and screaming. Just about any insult in the book was thrown our way. I said to him, “Why don’t you stop yelling at us and come down here so we can have a conversation?”
Perhaps it wasn’t wise to engage him, but I knew he was not interested in having a discussion. He just wanted to be hateful, rude, and uncivil. I challenged him a few times to come down, but he rebuffed the offer.
My group stood together as we cheered for President Bush and took on the verbal abuse from the union workers who were surrounding us.
It was around this time that the “brawl” (which one commenter on Blogs For Bush has dubbed “The Margolis Incident”) occurred:
Here is Tyler’s telling of the brawl:
The scuffle started when union members, specifically the steelworkers, jumped down from the ledge they were standing on and attacked members of the pro-Bush crowd. Those members of the pro-Bush crowd that got the brunt of the attack were Aaron, Matt, and FReeper James; but everyone in the immediate area got a bit of it. The tentative list of injuries includes a bruised knee, sprained (or at least hurt) wrist, scrapes to the face, broken glasses, and a scraped hand (ok, that last one isn’t as impressive) – we’ll have to see what shows up in the morning.
It all happened very fast – but at the same time, seemed to happen in slow motion. I remember being with everyone cheering for Bush, and the union worker had been engaging us, and Aaron had also exchanged some words with him, then the guy just jumped down and charged at Aaron. He took a swing at him (missing his face by a hair – knocking off his glasses) and then everything just exploded. I went right for that guy and jumped at him, getting a few punches in before I got tackled (presumably by another union worker), and got thrown to the ground. I ended up getting my face slammed down and held to the ground. I believe someone got him off of me and I got back up as the altercation was broken up.
We were not broken up by the Boston Police Department. However, after being consulted with medics and being accosted by members of the Lawyers’ Guild, the police did show up and from that point on we had their protection.
In the end, James got his glasses smashed; Aaron took a punch or two, I got a scrape on my face and my knee – we all got roughed up a bit. In the end, it got broken up before anyone got really hurt. So to clear things up – I was not “beat up,” we are all okay and we stood our ground after things calmed down. We did not retreat, we responded with stronger chants in support of Bush. All in all, I had a great time.
I will postpone my account of the rest of the evening – Tyler covered it pretty well in his post, and I’m sure this weekend I’ll be able to get into the evening as a whole on my personal blog. I will tell you now that the arguments of the Left were nothing more than constant cursing, personal attacks, and accusations against us of being a rich trust-fund babies, amongst other things.
I would like to say that I think it is horribly sad that anyone would resort to violence because they disagree with someone. I came to the event as a Bush supporter wanting to express that support. It is horrifically un-American to threaten, intimidate and assault another person because of who or what they support. I will always stand up for what I believe in – if I risk getting hurt then so be it. I wholeheartedly believe that George W. Bush is the only choice for leading this country down the right path.
I did fear for my safety – but I can’t understand why I should have felt that way. It is clear that the mindset of the anti-Bush crowd is not one of tolerance, diversity, peace or non-violence.
I go into the city of Boston often, and I wear my Bush-Cheney ‘04 button proudly. I will continue to do so. The intolerance of others only reaffirms my beliefs. I learned a lot from this experience, and it’s helped me refocus my goals – and I understand now more than ever just how important it is for Bush to be reelected. After I post this, I will donate $104 to the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign. I urge anyone else who can donate to the campaign to do so as well.
MEDIA:
- The Boston Herald was the first newspaper to report on the brawl. Read the story here.
- Yes, the story was linked on Drudge.
- And yes, many of you found out about this on The Rush Limbaugh Show. Here is the audio of Rush acknowledging the brawl.
- On Rush’s website, read about it
- Here’s a thread on Free Republic about the brawl.
_________________
Cross posted at Blogs for Bush.
My point is that republicans believe that tax cuts to the rich will allow them to spend more thus stimilating the economy. This is obviously not true. The rich do not spend money on low level products that would help out communities. They buy shit like jewels and expensive cars!!
All the jobs that bush promised did not exactly come to light by a looong shot. Almost all of my class that graduated from college did not have a job a year later.
Bush isn’t your daddy. And job creation is up to business, not government. All Bush can do is propose incentives, such as tax cuts, for businesses to hire – he can’t snap his fingers and make the jobs suddenly appear.
And neither can John F’n KetchupA$$, if you must know. His “10 million jobs in four years” line is pure bullshit.
The situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are not exactly peaceful and are far from being resolved.
We never declared the war to be over, if you’ve noticed. Just the major combat ops – and (surprise, surprise!!!) I disagreed with Bush doing that. What we should be doing right now is carpet-bombing those terrorist mini-bases from whence they’re launching these RPG attacks and such. The fight’s not over until the enemy has either surrendered or died, period.
The rest of your points were meaningless insults.
Yeah, listen to you whine. You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, is that what you’re saying?
Lord Fatass won’t show up here anymore. Once i come in he runs away because ive kicked his ass 1000s of times on other threads. i love unions! im a union person myself. i think i will give extra union dues this year since unions beat up facists in boston!
did you hear franken hell kick rushs fatass! hell double rushs ratings by friday!
The rich do not spend money on low level products that would help out communities. They buy shit like jewels and expensive cars!!
Thus providing jobs for the jewelry and luxury car industry, thus money to spend on housing, groceries, fuel for vehicles, thus providing jobs for those industries…who the Hell™ taught you economics? Tell me so I can avoid that moron.
i think i will give extra union dues this year since unions beat up facists in boston
While you yourself are too chickenshit to come face me – right, Shitcliffe?
I would rather see incentives for the middle class to start businesses. Since bush gives breaks to places like Walmart though I don’t think that will happen.
Although, ultimately, you will need to make up your own mind about Lord Spatula, I have a number of things to say that you may find useful. First off, unlike Spatula, when I make a mistake I’m willing to admit it. Consequently, if — and I’m bending over backwards to maintain the illusion of “innocent until proven guilty” — he were not actually responsible for trying to bamboozle people into believing that clericalism can quell the hatred and disorder in our society, then I’d stop saying that Spatula is indeed up to something. I don’t know exactly what, but he keeps saying that his complaints epitomize wholesome family entertainment. Isn’t that claim getting a little shopworn? I mean, even his hatchet men are afraid that he will destabilize society within a short period of time. I have seen their fear manifested over and over again, and it is further evidence that Spatula has certainly never given evidence of thinking extensively. Or at all, for that matter. If Spatula wants to ignore compromise and focus solely on his personal agenda, let him wear the opprobrium of that decision. Assume for a moment that he masterminded last year’s now-infamous attempt to descend to character assassination and name calling. It therefore follows that either he has no real conception of the sweep of history, or he is merely intent on winning some debating pin by trying to pierce a hole in my logic with “facts” that are taken out of context. If Spatula is going to make an emotional appeal, then he should also include a rational argument. My point may be made clearer by use of an allegorical tale. Suppose a hypothetical group of three people is standing in a room. One of those people realizes that Spatula’s claim of fairness is demonstrably false. Another goes on and on about Spatula’s headstrong zingers. But the third can’t understand why Spatula’s silly, militant Ponzi schemes may have serious repercussions, even beyond the issue of snobbism. In this hypothetical situation, it should be obvious that I once overheard Spatula say something quite astonishing. Are you strapped in? Spatula said that his off-the-cuff comments enhance performance standards, productivity, and competitiveness. Can you believe that? At least his statement made me realize that his policies are an icon for the deterioration of the city, for its slow slide into crime, malaise, and filth. Lord Spatula is a scion of self-righteous prigs. That’s all I have to say. Thank you for reading this letter.
Unions are the backbone of this country! the first two letter of unions are UN! even with kerry destroying shrub and the dems retaking congress i think the un should be the principal rule heer and the world!
If Spatula wants to ignore compromise and focus solely on his personal agenda, let him wear the opprobrium of that decision. Assume for a moment that he
Y’know Lord Fuckface, I’ve an idea. Why don’t you just drop the long-winded, nonsensical bullshit and just admit that you’re a coward?
Be a lot easier, y’know.
Y’know it’s motherfuckers like you that make me feel so goddamn fucking stupid sometimes. Why don’t you speak in a language that I can understand idiot.
Im still waiting for you to come down here so I can beat your ass.
Why does every fucking yankee have to use such big words.
I would rather see incentives for the middle class to start businesses.
Why can’t we do both? Why does it have to be “either/or”?
And if you want to encourage the middle-class to start their own businesses – which, I might point out, already account for 99% of all businesses and 60% of all American workers according to this cite – then how about giving them a break and holding the minimum wage where it is, or maybe even dropping it some so that more workers can be hired? Wages represents one of the, if not the biggest expenses for small business today – could they not even have a break on that? Is it possible that people don’t open their own businesses because they’re afraid that paying high forced wages would bankrupt them?
Since bush gives breaks to places like Walmart though I don’t think that will happen.
Walmart employs people, too – a good many of them. But for those tax breaks, they might not employ so many.
Why does every fucking yankee have to use such big words.
Well, well, well. Lookit the coward posting in my name. Sucks to be him, so he wants to be me. Awwwwwwww, isn’t that sweet…?
Matt, I think you know what to do with the little chickenshit…
Friends, countrymen, people who hate Lord Spatula, lend me your ears; I come to bury Spatula, not to praise him. In the first place, I feel that writing this letter is like celestial navigation. Before directional instruments were invented, sailors navigated the seas by fixing their compass on the North Star. But if I withheld my feelings on this matter, I’d be no less ignorant than Spatula. Even if avaricious hatemongers join his band with the best of intentions, they will still meddle in everyone else’s affairs sooner or later. Not all, I hasten to add, do join with the best of intentions. Spatula is the type of person that turns up his nose at people like you and me. I guess that’s because we haven’t the faintest notion about the things that really matter, such as why it would be good for him to produce nothing but filth. Last summer, I attempted what I knew would be a hopeless task. I tried to convince Spatula that the underlying reasons and causes for his amateurish orations must be defined, examined, and resolved, or they’ll never cease. As I expected, Spatula was unconvinced. The only way out of Lord Spatula’s rat maze is to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable in our society — the sick, the old, the disabled, the unemployed, and our youth — all of whose lives are made miserable by Lord Spatula. It’s that simple.
Friends, countrymen, people who hate Lord Spatula, lend me your ears
Well, at least I post original thought, unlike Mr. Cut-and-Paste Fuckface here…
All the jobs that bush promised did not exactly come to light by a looong shot. Almost all of my class that graduated from college did not have a job a year later.
Er, what kind of jobs were they looking for? Were they expecting to make the big bucks right off the bat and not willing to “work up the ladder”?
I would rather see incentives for the middle class to start businesses.
My husband’s boss IS a middle class small business owner.
To whoever the loon is who stated “rich people” shouldn’t buy expensive stuff like “jewelery and expensive cars”–I fell out of my chair laughing at that one. If you saw the shop my hubby works at, it’s not exactly “upper class”. His evil, KKKapitalist boss would just rather spend the $$$ on giving his employees great wages. (out of his own free will)
Look at this! The moonbat chimps have come to play! Let’s see we got a Mr. fatass and Dum Yeah the sandwich monkey. I’ll scroll through the bloviating and get up to speed.
Quite a little catfight we got here. I got a few things to say:
1. If the left really wants to settle this in the streets, there’s plenty of folks on the right who’d be willing to settle this in the streets. So the idjit who said, “Sometimes violence is the only way to show people how devastatingly bad their ideas are,” may discover while that’s not such a good idea, you know, here in civilization.
2. Lord Fatass I says: “The only way out of Lord Spatula’s rat maze is to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable in our society – the sick, the old, the disabled, the unemployed, and our youth – all of whose lives are made miserable by Lord Spatula. It’s that simple.” Spatula, I want you to immediately stop making miserable the sick, the disabled, the unemployed and our youth. I had no idea what you were up to in your spare time, but it’s time to stop.
Spatula, I want you to immediately stop making miserable the sick, the disabled, the unemployed and our youth. I had no idea what you were up to in your spare time, but it’s time to stop.
Aw, maaaaaaaannnnnnnnn!!! Killjoy!!!
Spatula are you being mean again?!?!
The same people, who rage against the removal of dictators, and stand up for violence (as long as they say its ok) cry foul when someone is mean to them on a web site. Irony anyone?
Lord Fatass; I believe your logic is as poor as your understanding of navigation. Mariners did not “fix their compasses to the north star”; the strength of Polaris’ magnetic field is not measurable on Earth.Rather, the south magnetic pole of the compass is attracted to Earth’s magnetic north.
Considering your poor navigational skills, it’s no wonder you couldn’t escape Lord Spat’s maze.
It should be pretty obvious MiLord Spatula has no interest in making all those people miserable. He onle wants to make you miserable.
This has gotten way off topic…
Oh come on, Matt!
We’re having too much fun!
you’ve filled us geeks with rage and hate and one day we’re gonna retaliate
My point is that republicans believe that tax cuts to the rich will allow them to spend more thus stimilating the economy. This is obviously not true. The rich do not spend money on low level products that would help out communities. They buy shit like jewels and expensive cars!!
And my point is that you’re a fucking idiot who’s knowlege of economics is squat! Who do you think cuts those jewels, you stupid shit? Who do you think sells those jewels, you asswipe? Who do you think runs the stores that those jewels are sold in, you fucking dolt? Who cleans the store that sells those jewels, you mindless sack of shit? Do you have even the slightest comprehension of the number of jobs tied in to selling “expensive cars”? No, you’re a brainless bloviating fucknozzle who would rather drink the kool-aid and whine about mean conservatives than actually get off your fat ignorant ass and do something for yourself. Jeebus, you’re a fucking idiot! If you want to argue, why don’t you finish the 3rd grade before you come here and expose the fact that you’re nothing but a brainless bitch!
Yeessh… a lot of energy here…
Hey matt its Mason, remember me? I dont like you and I know you dont like me, but i just wanted to let you know that i’m not as “liberal” as you think…… The main thing that alienates me from the liberal crowd is abortion…. I’m opposed to it, except in 3 circumstances in cases of rape, incest, or if thereis a health risk to the mother and/or fetus…… In every other possible circumstance i find abortion both unethical, and find the pro -”choice” crowd to be cretins, primarily because having sex is itself a choice . those who say that they are for reproductive choice fail to realize that for those women who seek abortions the choice s already made and now they must deal with it….
i meant to say that i find it both unethical and immoral….
Don’t you just love the lefties who preach peace and then come here and say Matt got what he deserved. You can cut the hypocisy with a knife.
I’m just pissed they didn’t kick your ass into a coma then the web would be less polluted with garbage
can i be you, because you’re so cooooool.
Ohhh, that liberal media
So, Kerry is visiting Washington State over the weekend. Yesterday, he was north of Seattle in the city of Everett. Today he will be in the south Puget Sound in Tacoma. Here is the Seattle Times story of yesterday’s event. About halfway down the page …
Wow comparing Al Gores speech yrsterday to any of George Bush’s speech’s is like comparing a college graduate (Gore) to a intelligently challenged third grader talk (Bush)
One spoke the truth (Gore) The other just baables more & more lies each time he opens his smirking mouth!
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!