Shiny, Happy People

My hotel in Denver is a block away from the 16th Street Mall--a ruler-straight stretch of Starbucks, Sunglasses Huts and Western-themed souvenir shops selling ceramic bald eagles paralyzed in mid-flight. At one end the state capitol building; at the other Union Station, near where the Big Tent will host bloggers throughout the week--in between, the Champs Elysees of middle America. It's a fitting temporary home, since my impression so far of the DNC is that every huckster is here peddling something. Most obvious, the street venders hawking Obama t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and key chains next to their usual wares--Jesus is My Designated Driver and World's Greatest Grandma fashions. The answer to the question--who buys this shit?--is everyone.

Or at least, Denver teems now with political tourists--delegates and Democratic Party volunteers corsaged with nine different kinds of Obama jewelry and bearing wide, relentless smiles. For these folks, the DNC is the culmination of a long year of work and worry, and they are here not so much to convene but to vacation. They have cameras, guidebooks and kids in tow. They wear Bermuda shorts, "athletic" sandals and floral print shirts. And they partake liberally, of the non-stop public lectures and free drinks in return for which they play an easy audience, primed at the pump to laugh heartily at even the lamest of McCain jokes thrice told.

I walked into one lecture during a wave of cheers, and it was only after a moment that I realized the speaker was rattling off a list of the Bush Administration's worst crimes: torture (applause), gutting the Constitution (applause), voter suppression (loudest applause)! An uninitiated watcher would think he'd stumbled onto an honest meeting of Cheney fans (huzzah for executive secrecy!), but so overwhelming is the spirit of optimism here that even outrage finds its release in ovation. More than anything, this "transformation" may be Obama's greatest accomplishment and his best weapon against McCain; it certainly was against Clinton and Edwards, who said more or less the same thing as Obama, but in a grimmer voice.

More discrete but equally present are the lobbyists who are here merchandising their own crass goods. Everything is sponsored by a raft of corporations too numerous to name. All you need to know is that the schwag bag given to delegates contained bottles of a noxious tonic called "Joint Juice" and an "AT&T Trivia Challenge" daring you to "guess the correct answers to these AT&T fun facts!" (#4, Where does AT&T rank among the ‘Most Military-Friendly Employers' by G.I. Jobs Magazine? A) Top 250; B) Top 100; c) Top 50) Ah, good times, good times.

Buried in the midst of all this splendor are the dissenters--the antiwar protesters, Code Pinkers, anarchists, queers and Naderites. Despite fears that Denver 2008 would recreate Chicago 1968, yesterday's demonstration was a gigantic bust. CNN reported a thousand protesters; the local Denver press counted the number in the hundreds (Recreate '68 had projected as many as 50,000). Perhaps more numerous were the cops--in dark navy and tan--not just from Denver, but from Aurora and other towns nearby. They flanked the marchers on either side, in riot gear and on horseback, an entirely unnecessary show of force to curtail a clash that never was, and, in retrospect, never could be.

I caught up with a trickle of marchers as they left the main protest route and headed into the 16th Street Mall, where they picketed up and down while visitors and locals strolled. The Denver Daily News, the free commuter daily, reported that "major downtown streets were completely blocked by protesters"--but in reality the streets were already blocked, by shoppers and gawkers. From a distance, the protesters were indistinguishable from the DNC mobs and Sunday consumers, same flecks of color adorning their shirts, same wide grins. Even the anarcho kids looked like their less militant peers, there, across the street outside the record store, wearing their Ramones t-shirts and talking trash. I asked one young woman wearing a "No war for oil" shirt why she was here--to say no to war in Iraq! she said, somewhat redundantly, but with good spirit. And then, she left, breaking from the march momentarily to look over the Obama buttons for sale.

Comments (19)

1. Again, this makes me optimistic...

   the fact that it is NOT "1968 redux" or "Woodstock in the Rockies" means less footage and fodder for the Republicans.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 11:59am

2. there are so many issues being overlooked; obama has a smart growth plan with much more investment in rail, "alternative" i.e. non fossil fuels as well as drilling; mccain does not;

   Other issues, john mccain and GOP advocated for unchecked gas drilling here in NY, and pressure state envir protection agency to NOT regulate it, look it up!!!!!

   EPA under pressure from bush lowered the value of each of our lives by a million dollars so he won't have to protect us from pollution, etc!!!! look it up!!!!

   GOP would like to have unlimited power to control our lives, monitor our private lives, even give forced immunizations to our children to protect against very unlikely things while at the same time causing autism, retard mental growth etc....this is not some abstract thing!!!! THIS IS OUR CHILDREN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!

   HILLARY SUPPORTERS, get with the program mccain is an evil, scary person with a quest for power based on lies and deception...YOU ARE NOT FEMINISTS if you don't care about your own families, clean water, your kid's lives, etc.....I guess you will be happy all states now let you give away your kids til age 19 so when the state screws them up you can just get rid of them....making us a 100% disposable society....congratulations hillary supporters...personally I was sick of hearing about her here in NY where she came here campaigning to central NY and has since DONE NOTHING FOR US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!once again, congrats!!!!!bravo!!!!!!where will mcsame send you?????for ruining dem's chances, you get your choice of duty station when drafted by mcbush!!!!!

   Posted by jrs112 at 08/25/2008 @ 12:14pm

3. It only means that they are keeping the protestors "out of sight and mind"--this is the most expensive conventiotn , in the history of the world_EVER! Being bought out by AT&T (esp. after the FISA vote), Pepsi, and the like--it NOT a way to look lke the "party of the people". The NEW, IM<PROVED "voter caging" is the last straw for alot of people. Better to let it happen here, i say, than to wait for election day.

   Posted by kdelphi95 at 08/25/2008 @ 12:16pm

4. Saw march on CNN. Cnn reported 200. Camera at first focused on whole march, which was out of picture, so then it focussed on front of march. Much more than 200, I'd add a zero. What was Kim's estimate? "Our" reporter? He has none. Or the march organizers?

   Posted by ElyDog at 08/25/2008 @ 12:49pm

5. Posted by ElyDog at 08/25/2008 @ 12:49pm

   So you think Richard Kim...of "THE NATION"...is deliberately "low-balling" a liberal activist group's protest??!?!?!

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 1:06pm

6. Nope. Just want a number from an objective observer. Journalistic details, details.

   Posted by ElyDog at 08/25/2008 @ 1:25pm

7. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 1:25pm

   FRANK, if Obama "returns to the Senate"...I'll make you a promise.

   I will devote as much time and energy as you did to getting McCain elected...making sure that every time you (or anybody on a thread you are on) uses the term "McCain" or "President McCain"...

   I'll quickly follow up with "(who was helped to be elected by Hillary's supporters)".

   I want to give YOU ...and HER...all the credit you deserve for getting McCain elected.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 2:17pm

8. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 2:28pm

   Why, FRANK, I'm shocked.

   Here I am willing to assuage that monumental ego of yours and let you know (if McCain wins) that I will PRAISE you and give you credit for your brilliant strategy...as often as I can.

   And make sure that as many people as possible know that what YOU said was true...and those Hillary supporters are what put McCain over the top....

   in fact, make sure that the terms "President McCain" and "Hillary supporter" (just like you) get intractabley LINKED for the next four years....

   and you attack me for my generosity?!??!?!

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 2:32pm

9. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 2:39pm

   Well, then I'll just do my best, FRANK...

   to see to it that you get ALL THE CREDIT you deserve and that Hillary supporters like you, who help elect John McCain if he wins, are rewarded for all your hard work and effort...

   and again the term "President McCain" and "HILLARY supporter" gets linked as you would like it to be....right upto 2012.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 2:52pm

10. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 3:03pm

    Noooooo, FRANK. I'm going to try my hardest that they TAKE YOU AT YOUR WORD...every word you've been posting the last few months.

    That it was "enough HILLARY supporters" who helped elect McCain.

    I want to make sure you don't miss getting the CREDIT you deserve. If what you say is true...and COMES TRUE...

    then we need to make sure that you (and those like you) are sufficiently acknowledge....for ATLEAST the entire four years of a McCain 1st term.

    "HILLARY supporter" and "President McCain"....has a nice ring to it? (to again quote YOU!)

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 3:40pm

11. i just walked the 16th street mall to get lunch b/c i work in downtown denver. here is what i saw: cops (and lots of them), tourists, press, conventioneers, various sign-holders, dozens of paraphernalia peddlers and nary a protester, except that Recreate 68er in Walgreens. apparently there is an organized protest down near Republic Plaza, but i never got that far. overall, a yawner on a hot day in Denver. perhaps day 2 will yield more excitement.

    Posted by sirhcus at 08/25/2008 @ 4:13pm

12. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 3:50pm

    Well, not just that, FRANK...this too-

    "Her pleas of support for Obama will fall on deaf ears. We will bide our time util November when we will avenge her."---Posted by frankgrits at 06/3/2008

    And everything ELSE you've said about how "enough" of you HILLARY supporters will help elect McCain.

    I intend to make sure if that happens, you and they get ALL the credit...re-post a few of your posts from the past few months and upto November too.

    Just to show how "HILLARY supporters" like you....gave us that most excellent leader "Presidnt McCain"!

    You'll deserve it!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 4:15pm

13. Shiny, happy people indeed. I wrote satirically elsewhere today of the "Beautiful People" in Denver. And this silly, happy piece just adds to the irony. Thank goodness that these folks do not have to look at the hundreds of thousands of dead bodies in Iraq as a result of the war funding that shiny, happy Obama and Biden voted for. This piece is sick - almost a joke. This is what Katrina's rag has descended to - a joke they do not even get. john walsh

    Posted by jvwalshmd at 08/25/2008 @ 5:12pm

14. Posted by jvwalshmd at 08/25/2008 @ 5:12pm

    There would be more dead people if they didn't vote to continue to fund it. Bush would not have pulled out and our troops wouldn't have had the funding to put up a good fight. Once the war was going Congress couldn't help but continue to vote for funding just to keep our troops alive.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 08/25/2008 @ 6:28pm

15. Posted by frankgrits at 08/25/2008 @ 5:55pm

    NP, hope (if McCain wins) by 2012...it becomes common knowledge how "HILLARY supporters" helped elect him....

    right upto the '12 Dem primaries.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 08/25/2008 @ 8:13pm

16. I guess the protestors are opposed to the rule of law, a return to Constitutional Government, an end to the (endless) War in Iraq, a sane energy policy, enforcement of environmental laws, fair elections (and accurately counting the vote), an end to torture & rendition, freedom from unreasonable search & seizure, separation of powers, a non-partisan Justice Department, and "liberty and justice for all". If they were in favor of those things, they'd be protesting at the OTHER convention.

    Posted by MacMcFadden at 08/25/2008 @ 9:00pm

17. "I guess the protestors are opposed to the rule of law" and a host of other good things, mused "MacMcFadden."

    In the case of the anarchists, you're probably right about the rule of law. But in the case of the other protesters, your guess is wrong. These are mobilized skeptics, "Mac." The simply don't BELIEVE that the Democratic Party will actually do what is expected of them.

    The only gap in these skeptics' otherwise impressively strong doubt is in their estimation of their own power and influence. In this regard, they are actually rather credulous and naïve.

    In regard to Ralph Nader, it suddenly occurs to me that this man's quixotic behavior is motivated by something that was once his strongest virtue: his commitment to nonpartisanship. This is what compels him to attack Democrats at least as often as he attacks Republicans: His recent reputation is that of a radical leftist, and this pains him, because he's really the same pro-consumer crusader he always was. The two main parties have simply slipped to the right! Nader truly considers himself to be as nonpartisan today as he always was, and with ample justification. However, his refusal to be partisan renders him completely incapable of playing the game of politics according to the rules of the duopoly that, sadly, we must all obey.

    Really, some Democrat has to appoint Nader to public office. (I suggest that he lead the Environmental Protection Agency.) This is the only way his nonpartisanship will become once again a well-placed rather than a misplaced virtue.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 08/26/2008 @ 09:08am

18. Dear John Walsh- >Shiny, happy people indeed.

    You wrote "satirically" which needs to be changed to "cynically" and Obama voted for the war? I don't believe he did. The reason anyone voted at all for the war was because they were lied to as well as all of us were! Unfortunately, there isn't a law against LIE 'ing or we wouldn't be in the position we are in right now! The soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere don't care how they got there but how to get out of there! And the soldiers we lost DESERVE OUR RESPECT. Shiny, happy people indeed, Mr. Walsh

    Posted by psahome at 08/26/2008 @ 3:14pm

19. "Mobilised skeptics"?

    More like "mobilised masochists" who would rather return Bush for a third term (oops, I mean elect McCain; same thing) than give anyone who doesn't agree with their agenda 100% a chance to set us back on the correct path.

    Even if I didn't "BELIEVE that the Democratic Party will actually do what is expected of them", I already KNOW what the Republicans/Neo-cons will continue to do.

    In November, we will have two choices. We already know that one of those choices (McCain) leads over the edge into the Abyss. Yet these "protestors" (or Republican agents provacateur?) choose to warn us of POSSIBLE dangers down the other path.

    To paraphrase the wise words of The Great Bunny (Bugs): "What a bunch of maroons!"

    Posted by MacMcFadden at 08/26/2008 @ 10:20pm