Protesters Make Big Plans for Bush Inauguration

When President-elect George W. Bush called himself a “uniter,” this is probably not what he had in mind: The largest number of inaugural demonstrators since the Vietnam War protests at Richard Nixon’s 1973 swearing-in say they’ll converge on the nation’s capital.

Their causes and methods are diverse, but many have one thing in common: a mistrust of Bush.

“The Bush administration came to office as a result of racist disenfranchisement of voters, and we believe his Cabinet nominees show that Bush intends to carry out major reversals of the progressive social achievements of the civil rights and women’s movement,” Brian Becker, a director with the New York-based International Action Center, said Tuesday. He is organizing buses to bring people from around the country to the protests.

Some probable demonstrators are veterans of the violent 1999 protests in Seattle that shut down a global trade meeting amid clouds of tear gas. Others planning to be present were among 1,300 people arrested in Washington last April for three days of World Bank protests.

They are being joined by people galvanized by the contested election outcome and opposed to Bush and his policies.

Other activists with causes that vary from abortion to the death penalty had planned to demonstrate regardless of who won the election.

Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the incoming administration respects the protests as an American right.

“Even with the protests, President-elect Bush has said his job is to be president of all the people, and that’s what he intends to do,” Fleischer said. “We’ve been very respectful of them, and of course we expect they’ll be very respectful of the president-elect.”

But some demonstrators have a less cordial message for Bush.

The Justice Action Movement, a coalition of organizations including those who protested here in April, plans to have small groups scattered throughout the crowd at the swearing-in ceremony outside the Capitol with signs and banners. Some of those signs will question the legitimacy of Bush’s presidency with the words “Hail to the Thief,” said JAM member Adam Eidinger.