But if there was anything “overwhelming” about the protest it was the percentage—which I would place well above 90—of signage and conversation specifically referring to government spending, economic policy, and creeping federal interference into various areas of life. I saw nothing about affirmative action, nothing about welfare, nothing about illegal immigration, almost nothing about hot-button social conservative issues, and very little on foreign policy. If race played a central role, 100,000 people did a good job of hiding it.

Yes, there were many, many placards hyperbolically comparing Obama’s policies with those of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, proving once again that Americans of all stripes continue to despise the two worst totalitarian (and murderously racist) systems yet attempted. And the protest’s single biggest celebrity endorser (see Greg Beato’s “Glenn Beck’s Experimental Melodrama,” page 14), did create a stir earlier this year with an asinine comment that Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people.” But even that sentiment was not visible to my naked eye on September 12.