April 26, 2004, 9:48 a.m.
“Wax Bush”
The Democratic convention comes early.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — "We love you Howard!" a crowd of college agers screamed as they swarmed former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., this past weekend.

Women, men, children, and others (in what category would you put transgenders and transvestites?) gathered on the national Mall with one real message: Anybody But Bush this election.

But wasn't this a pro-abortion march? Well, yes — sorta. The word "abortion" was barely mentioned all weekend or in the run-up publicity to the march. But the march was sponsored by abortion-advocacy groups: the National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Black Women's Health Imperative, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

Still, walking around the Mall and browsing through the convention setup the night before, the bigger picture was clear: CodePink, Answer, the socialist newspaper The Militant. Acorn (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was stationed on the Mall registering people to vote. "Women for Kerry" and just plain "Kerry for President" buttons and stickers and signs were everywhere.

Marlene Archer from Boston, there as a birthday present to her teenage daughter, told me, "I'm more anti-Bush than pro-Kerry." As Howard Dean soaked in the adulation, recovering Deaniacs one after another recalled nostalgically how much they had once loved Dean. But they were all dealing with their new man, in the hope of "redefeating Bush" (i.e., because the Supreme Court appointed him in 2000, remember?). Author Richard North Patterson even chastised Ralph Nader from the stage, reminding Nader what he wrought last time around. Archer, too, expressed hostility to Nader, blaming him for making the tyranny that is the Bush administration possible.

Aside from the regular people and celebs on the Mall on Sunday, there were kids marching near the Capitol who clearly stood out in the sea of Planned Parenthood/NARAL/Ms. t-shirts and stickers and buttons galore — the unofficial uniform of the march. Dressed in ski masks and head coverings, oozing militant, they may very well have been in town to protest the International Monetary Fund meetings this week. But IMF, Planned Parenthood — what's the difference? The point, anyway, is Anybody But Bush.

I don't draw such conclusions out of thin air, by the way. Prior to the march, antiglobalization protesters were encouraged to make use of their protest talents and add to the numbers of the Sunday march. As the Washington Post reported earlier in the month, "Anti-globalization protesters said that they are having a contingent at the women's march as well as joining a feeder march but are not holding a separate IMF demonstration that day." What's another protest between strangers with the same general inspirations? It's all about Bush hatred.

In short, the March for Women's Lives was not some new, third-wave women's rights/human rights walk on Washington in the tradition of the suffragettes (who were pro-life, but that's for another day). The March for Women's Lives was one large Kerry-for-President rally.