Several far-right groups tried to use the 9/11 anniversary to raise their profiles and influence Congress this week.
In every instance, they FAILed.
As ericlewis0 noted, the Justice for Benghazi rally Wednesday attracted fewer than 100 people to the Capitol.
A Tea Party Patriots rally Tuesday attracted just a few hundred to listen to Congressional wingnut stars like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul rail against expanding affordable health insurance, aka Obamacare.
And the 9/11 National Day of Prayer and Repentance, allegedly a nationwide event promoted by Obama-deranged birther grifter Joseph Farah at his World Nut Daily, barely happened, according to Farah's own site.
Details, below.
According to the Think Progress report linked to by ericlewis0, the Benghazi rally promoters had told the press they expected 5,000 people to show up.
Not. Even. Close.
There are probably not 5,000 people in the world who buy into the absurd Benghazi conspiracy theories on offer at the rally.
Tea Party Patriots allegedly represents "thousands of community-based tea party groups" and "millions of regular Americans just like you, who believe there is a better way forward for America."
Its chief grifter is Jenny Beth Martin, a GOP activist in Georgia who helped set up the 2009-10 tea party wave with the daily help of Fox "News" and talk radio, and then found a way to profit from it.
She spoke at the rally, I heard some of that on NPR -- the usual scary lies, and evidently has enough pull on Capitol Hill to attract the likes of Cruz, Paul, Mike Lee, Steve King, Michele Bachmann, etc., as nauseam, to yell at a few hundred people about their hopeless plan to defund Obamacare.
The World Nut Daily story is really special, no numbers and lots of vague BS about churches being open today so people can pray, for example:
In Murphy, N.C. (ed. -- population 1,627), a 9/11 prayer gathering is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Konehete Park. The organizers invite “all churches, fellowships and believers in Jesus Christ” to come together for a time of repentance.
snip
Jim George of New York City suburb Maplewood, N.J., spread the call to about 50 churches within a five-mile radius in a dozen communities.
snip
In St. Petersburg, Fla., Virginia Beale has been going through the local phone book urging churches to participate.
Meanwhile, Susan Jones of Whitefish, Mont., has been asking pastors in her area in face-to-face meetings to take part.
Again, there is little evidence that this 9/11 National Day of Prayer and Repentance, regularly promoted for months at WND, even happened.
According to Farah's site, the petition for his 9/11 event had 21,861 supporters. To put that in some perspective, Anthony Weiner got 31,874 votes in Tuesday's Democratic primary for NYC mayor, finishing fifth with 4.9 percent of the vote.
Far-right groups cannot turn out people for their events because there are just not that many of them, and lots of those are too mobility-impaired and/or income-limited to travel to DC for another meaningless rally.
Sure, enough tea party extremists vote in low-turnout Republican primaries to occasionally affect the result.
And there are enough of them to provide comfortable livings for the likes of Farah and Martin.
But they remain a micro-minority whose recent attempts to turn out for potentially high-profile events reflect that.