Republican Liberty Caucus

The Ron Paul Revolution marched on DC this past weekend, bringing the message of peace, freedom and government conspiracies to the seats of power. Although I couldn’t be there, I’ve combed the internet for reports from those who did attend and offer this for those lovers of liberty who’d rather fight from their keyboards than in the streets.

By far the best and most balanced report is from David Weigel at Reason online. He’s got photos and videos and some appropriate wry comments based on his experience from other rallies. It’s what I hope I would have written had I been able to go.

There is some nice personal coverage from several writers at gather.com, which includes discussion of some of the speeches and of a smaller protest at the Federal Reserve building. They provide a link to the all revolution all the time podnet Revoluton Broadcasting which had live coverage of the march which is still available on their site.

Another informative report comes from Marc Gallagher of the Liberty Maven blog. He has some past experience with DC rallies and estimated the turnout at perhaps 2500 people, far less than the 10,000 attendees organizers anticipated. Low but enthusiastic turnout is probably not surprising after Paul’s withdrawal from the race when attentions have turned elsewhere and with Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr not in attendance.

The most amusing coverage is some more or less live blog coverage of Paultardpalooza from the left-leaning gossips at Wonkette (now featuring 100% less actual Wonkette), who apparently got their staff and some friends to show up and attend in a group by offering copious free alcohol and then let them run wild. Lots of fun snarky comments and the best photos by far of Paul supporters in costume and acting silly. The actual report is less funny than the buildup and seems to kind of peter out, perhaps from alcohol induced distraction.

In addition to all of these reports, there are plenty of videos from participants on YouTube, including a good video of Ron Paul’s speech right in front of the Capitol building.

Reports from participants seem to agree that the march was fun for all who attended, with more of the atmosphere of a post-campaign wrap party than a substantive political event. Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party stood out as a speaker and he and his supporters seem to have been particularly prominent. Although blog reports were fairly easy to find, coverage of the march was significantly absent from the mainstream media.