It all began during the pandemic, starting with Defeat the Mandates, an idea that brought together the world’s leading COVID-19 dissidents. Then, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it was Rage Against the War Machine. Now it has become Rescue the Republic: Join the Resistance.
It was an overcast day on Sept. 29, but that could not dim the determination, hope, and pride of those assembled between the World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument in DC. A rebel alliance of right, left, and center brought together artists, comedians, politicians, and activists bent on preserving free speech, removing corrupt government officials, and ending endless wars by the military-industrial complex. The venue was plastered with signs promoting Trump-Vance and MAHA (Make America Healthy Again).
The rock band Skillet warmed up the crowd. Then came the national anthem, sung a cappella by the rapper Struggle Jennings, and patriotism filled the air. Rob Schneider – comedian, film actor, and Saturday Night Live veteran – was part-host and -comic, going old school with a notepad for talking points. He introduced Bishop Juan Carlos Mendez, who led those gathered in an invocation that began: “For all of you standing here today, you are going to Heaven.” Commenting that Americans were rising and coming together to rescue the nation, he added, “If it is Your will, we will continue to fight to rescue the republic.”
These few minutes created a patriotic unity within the audience that lasted another six hours or more.
Rebels With a Cause
Schneider switched gears and turned to the subject of academia. He bluntly stated that “academia has been captured” by an ideology of “illiberalism.” “Woke: Marxism dressed up as manners,” Schneider said and introduced “the sexiest biologist alive,” Bret Weinstein, PhD. His plan is simple: “Right the ship of state. An objective spelled out but not fully achieved by our founders.”
Some readers may remember the name from the day at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, when the professor stood up to a tradition of separating white students from black students. Academia attempted to cancel Weinstein, but he prevailed and now hosts the DarkHorse, a podcast about dismantling the brainwashed education system and protecting free speech.
“It has become fashionable, especially [among] those born into privilege, to now regard Patriotism as unenlightened, primal, dangerous.” The professor spoke of people who were afraid to gather and speak at the event because they believed they were putting their freedom and lives at risk. “If millions of Americans were afraid to exercise their most fundamental right in front of their own Capitol, that implies the Capitol is held by a force that is hostile to her people.”
Dr. Jordan Peterson showed up, sporting a fashionable suit jacket half red and half blue, and continued a barrage of condemnation directed at the educational system. “Stories matter,” Peterson barked. “[W]e’re trying to get them straight.” The message appeared to be well received by MAGA-hat wearers as well as the Crocs crowd.
The Main Event
The Eight Pillars of the event were well outlined and presented: banish state-run media; war is the last resort; enact a national border policy; end lawfare; secure monetary freedom; restore family sovereignty; return to truth seeking; and sanctify informed consent.
Economist Chris Martenson wielded the microphone to remind everyone that it took 220 years for this nation to accumulate $11 trillion in debt but only four years to add the next $11 trillion. Decorated veterans called for the end of all wars, doctors pushed for our nation’s health, and then Tulsi burst on the stage, rocking a white pantsuit, which made Schneider nearly drool. “Our government exists only by the consent of the governed.”
Gabbard targeted the immigration crisis on the border after a recent visit, saying, “What I saw was a well-oiled machine, driven by the cartels and the so-called immigration industrial complex working with them and profiting off this well-oiled machine. Enabled by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.” She said she saw people flooding through, knowing exactly where they were going, not evading but trying to find Border Patrol agents. Immigrants waited patiently to be loaded into the vans, and she called US Border Patrol essentially “Uber drivers for the cartel.”
The former congresswoman also said bluntly:
“Dick Cheney is standing proudly with Kamala Harris. Dick Cheney is the architect of all the disasters that we are seeing play out in the Middle East today. The architect of the law of the weapons of mass destruction: That is the Dick Cheney who Harris is honored to have his support. A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney, the neocon warmongers, the military-industrial complex. A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for nuclear war.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was the darling of the speakers. He iterated that his power within the Trump aura will help to get Americans healthy again. Kennedy began with, “Don’t you want a president to make America healthy again? Don’t you want a president who is going to protect our freedom?”
Kennedy explained how the three legs of the First Amendment were disregarded by a “bureaucrat who had been there 50 years” and dismantled at will – free speech, freedom to worship, and freedom of assembly. “There were no safeguards to our democracy.” RFK Jr. went on to describe a blatant attack on the rights of Americans, closing 3.3 million businesses in the nation. “They closed the churches but left liquor stores open, closed the little stores and left Walmart open, and the big tech companies were the ones profiting from the pandemic.” And don’t get him started on track and trace or the possibility of Harris adding a censorship clause to the First Amendment.
Kennedy was resolved: “No one ever complied their way out of totalitarianism. So, get Donald Trump and me into Washington, DC.”
Rescue the Republic
More than 100,000 people – from Alaska and California to the plains and coastal regions – turned out to listen and be inspired not by “weird, fringy, crazies” as described by the Democratic Party and corporate-owned media but by like-minded folks with a common goal: Rescue the Republic.
Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, Del Bigtree of The Highwire, rapper Zuby, country artist Tennessee Jet, and Matt Taibbi all turned out to encourage others to use their voices for the resistance. An energetic vibe infected the crowd, aided by DPAK – a one-man solo act sometimes described as “if Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Prince had an Indian baby together, and that baby happened to play the violin.”
The event, as a stand-alone, might be considered revolutionary.
As the hours-long proceedings wound down in the misty DC evening, those on hand seemed steeped with the message: America’s political future is uncertain, but the voices of its people are no longer silent and contained.
