Sunday, August 31, 2008

Ron Paul Supporters March To Federal Reserve (No, Not The Fed Buildng Which Is Now A Strip Club)

Photo by John Hoff

Approximately 75 supporters of Ron Paul, a couple police officers and a handful of media were spotted marching down University Ave. SE in the general direction of downtown Minneapolis. Some of the supporters said they were marching to the Federal Reserve and I couldn't resist pointing out...

...the historic Federal Reserve Building in Minneapolis has been converted to an upscale strip club called Shiek's Palace Royale. That's not the one they were marching to, was it? They said it wasn't. They were from out of town and this was news to them.

The front of the march paid homage to the famous "Spirit of '76" painting, with an older man in a tri-corner cap leading the march, flags waving, at least one drum. A common t-shirt in the crowd of Libertarians said "The Evolution of the Revolution." The crowd was split in half, sometimes, as the Paul-ites paused for stop lights in the manner of rather inexperienced demonstrators/marchers.

The rally paused for a moment at the site of the I-35W bridge collapse and reconstruction. I halfway expected some kind of discussion about how purist Libertarians would manage to have a nation with infrastructure like roads and bridges (through corporations? Private toll roads? A return to 1776-era transport methods?) but there appeared to be no discussion, just a moment or two to gaze at the bridge-in-progress and then turn, again, toward their goal of the Federal Reserve.

I suggested to one marcher that if they wanted to find some Republicans to protest, they should indeed stand outside Shieks Palace Royale. He laughed and agreed.

Blocks later, some stragglers with Ron Paul signs ran in the direction of the march.

"They went that-a-way," I offered, helpfully.

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