I think Louis is hinting that we’re supposed to be reading NOM’s signs, paying attention to NOM’s message, and taking NOM seriously. Also, he’s clearly upset that the counter-protesters aren’t as uptight and boring as NOM is.

“This second man almost tripped over himself as he ran across the street and in front of oncoming traffic sideways.

Not only did he not look both ways before he crossed like I’m sure his mother taught him to as a child, but he purposely jumped out in front of moving traffic.

It’s not setting a good example for the kids that were at their protest. One of which they had yelling their twisted chants and holding thier [sic] signs.”

Those gay right supporters. They lack respect both for traditional marriage and for road-crossing etiquette.

I think it’s a dog-whistle; they’re actually reinforcing their message whether a lot of people show up or a tiny number of people show up. Think about it. If only 16 people show up and it was a “great” rally according to NOM, this can be read as, “only 16 people bravely stood up for their rights against a crowd of 200 gay supporters.” At an earlier rally, they’d actually said something like “we had a small turnout, but that was because everyone on the NOM side had jobs.” So a tiny NOM rally works in their favor: NOM is either David facing off against the Gay Goliath, or NOM is the engine keeping the economy running while gays are shiftless and lazy.

For NOM, “great” is not about the turnout; if nobody showed up to the rallies they’d say “that didn’t stop our brave organizers from holding the rally themselves!”

Gay marriage supporters aren’t going to make NOM see the light by protesting NOM rallies in greater and greater numbers.

Thankfully, it’s not the 16 people who showed up at the NOM rally we have to convince–it’s the other thousands who didn’t bother to show up, who are watching on TV and reading on the internet, that is our true audience.

NOM knows this too, and that’s why they’re continually promoting the heck out of these tiny events instead of being embarassed by them–they are feeding that “we’re embattled” message to the people sitting at home as a counterpoint to our message, so that people who want to see that NOM-as-David & Gays-as-Goliath metaphor can hardly un-see it.

But they’re scared: if they felt secure in their position, there’d be no need for rallies to defend it, because the culture would defend it itself. But the culture’s stopped defending their idea for them, so they themselves must start fighting.

That makes 17 people. So there.

Also Trail Tracker…. Ms. King is NOT a “Dr King”. The title should not be used in public life by those given an honorary doctorate (as a simple courtesy to both those who have actually earned their title and to those who may otherwise be mislead.)

The way they took a dig at equality demonstrators not having jobs. The way they are claiming it’s all a struggle, because they are such civil rights activists now.

It is enough to make me want to blow soup.

sad that MLK’s niece would turn up. that’s singularly disappointing.

good that they are otherwise fading into irrelevancy, though.

It seems strange that NOM urged people to stand for (actually against) marriage but gave them several handy reasons not to. It’s as if they wanted to fail. I wonder what their motivation for that might be. Surely they could have the pastors of large, conservative churches make announcements if they wanted larger crowds.

I know that, sadly, they’ve been misrepresenting their events by claiming that the counterprotesters are harassing them. They’ve even contrived a video to make it look like counterprotesters are intimidating them.

That’s very likely why they’re seeking small crowds – to try to stir up a reaction from the counterprotestors while seeming small and defenseless by comparison. But the quiet, prayerful counterprotest has frustrated their goal.