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'No Nookie for the GOP!' Sentiment Speeds Up in Daytona Soars for Clinton & Against Impeachment |
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By Jack Nichols
Next, a black woman led throngs singing The National Anthem. Then there was The Pledge of Allegiance, said with a visceral somberness not even evident in the Senate's "impartial" theatric-rituals. Also, on Saturday, while Daytona's pro-Clinton rally was in full swing, the White House itself announced its own forthcoming "Vigorous Defense".
Opposed to the Clinton supporters were approximately 30 members of the Christian Reich, eager, it appeared, to behold "a stoning." Among the opposition's signs were "Only Perverts support Clinton" and "Treason is the Issue but we'll settle for Perjury." An airplane banner asked, "Bill why do you teach Our Children to Lie?" The "Family Values" activists chanted incessantly throughout Clinton-support speeches. But the numbers of those who, at one point, cheered the word "Liberal", drowned out their detractors time and again. The detractors were, most of the time, ignored, inasmuch as the disparity between the sizes of the two groups rendered the larger confident of its future. Confident or no, the Democratic forces knew that it was time to forget petty differences to do battle with an opposition which many say is "dangerous" and "evil." One speaker reminded the audience of traditional Democratic divisions, but directed his remarks to Republicans, saying, "You have united us in a common purpose." As the audience rose up in a massive shout of defiance, his point was well taken. In one circle Larry Flint was referred to as a "responsible outer," a journalist-activist exposing hypocrisy in sexual closets. Long-time Florida activist Bob Kunst, his "Impeach the GOP" bumper stickers and buttons selling in a frenzy at his Oral Majority table, held two large signs: "Impeach the GOP" and "Don't Sleep with the Enemy: No Nookie for the GOP!"
"It just like a 1960s Anti-War rally and a Love-In," beamed Kunst, "Its swell! These people are really feeling empowered to fight these GOP Nazis. They're not only after Clinton's blood with this coup de tat but ours too. They're destroying the U.S. Constitution in this Culture War. Next step for them is David Duke's race war. We've already caught Trent Lott and Bob Barr flirting with Nazi Klan-heads."
"Lott," says Kunst, "admits that any unity beneath the initial bi-partisanism shown in the Senate's closed-door session at the trial's beginning is "all last-minute primping." He said that "only in the final 15 minutes" of a 3-hour meeting did the "two parties crawl into the same hypocritical closet together." As citizens eagerly bought up "Impeach the GOP" buttons and stickers, the liberals were clearly in a fighting mood. They carried signs attacking Central Florida's GOP Congressmen: Canady, Mica, and McCollum, all of whom voted for the President's impeachment. One bumper sticker read: "Nuck Fewt." Another said: "God Save Us from Your Followers." "There is a collective ESP going on here," said Kunst, "These people know that they can't wait until 2000 to fight back. They have to get the ball rolling now. And that means, for one thing, getting candidates to oppose any GOPer who supported impeachment and going on the offense to create a highly visible uprising against these 'goose-stepping' Reich types." At the table next to Kunst's were voter registration agents taking Democratic Party affiliation newcomers and GOP switchers. Nearby there was brisk sales of Clinton-Gore bumper stickers and posters saved from the 1996 campaign. From the stage, Democratic strategist Glassman thanked Bob Kunst for having driven from Miami to Daytona to take part in the rally. He introduced the crowd to Kunst's "Impeach the GOP" effort and announced that his Oral Majority would rally next Saturday in front of The White House.
Kunst's "Impeach the GOP" campaign is also scheduled to participate in a pro-Clinton rally in Sarasota, Florida (Library, today, 5 p.m.) Oral Majority has organized a Miami rally January 14, 6 p.m. at the Federal Building to coincide with the beginning of what Kunst calls "the re-invention of the Inquisition."
NBC News, Orlando's Channel 2, ran coverage of the rally, seemingly unprepared—in Central Florida-- for such a public outcry. The station's coverage was short and failed to capture the full fury that moved through crowds angered by Republican demonstrators. Saturday night polls indicated that 66% approve of Clinton's job performance and 62% say "No Removal." Kunst noted that the President's Arkansas birthplace, Hope, has placed blue ribbons around trees. In a 1979 crisis Americans had protested hostage-taking with yellow ribbons. "Today," says Kunst, "we are being held hostage by Republican hate-mongers, sex witch-hunters, gay-bashers and law-breakers. In case you didn't realize this fact—the Nazi Party in Germany calls itself The Republican Party." If Hope is decorous in blue ribbons, the Reverend Jesse Jackson brings his signature statement "Keep Hope Alive" to Washington at a January 17 rally at the Capitol. "I'd like to see everybody in the country start wearing those blue ribbons that found their way to Hope," says Kunst. |
