A few photos tell the story:
One supposes that if you asked the sign carrier what he/she (can you tell?) meant by the Confederate flag, he/she (no, really, can you?) would say it means "state's rights," and that the "people" in the sign are "real Americans." Sometimes, the code is pretty damn easy to break. Good thing there weren't any black people there to see it.
The NRA gun festishists gathered there probably would also say that the threat of a tarring and feathering, a horribly violent act, is more metaphorical than actual. Just like the tea party doesn't actually involve the drinking of tea. (Tip o' the hat to rude reader Mark in Fairfax for the photo.)
And that rowdy, fat, old man protesting government-run health care is riding around on a scooter that was more than likely 80% paid for by Medicare. Probably that cane he's holding, too. The lesson? Irony is to the anti-health care protesters as calculus is to a gerbil.
The entire 9/12 march and rally was like the Special Olympics of protests. You wanted to say, "Good for you," and give them all certificates of participation. Actually, that's unfair. Considering the level of intellect and empathy at work in DC this weekend, a roomful of Downs Syndrome kids would have more compassion and genuine feeling than all of the 50,000 or so right-wing zealots, racists, idiots, and liars scootering and shuffling around the Capitol combined.
If, say, the entire gathering had been nerve gassed, the I.Q. of the United States would have gone up by ten points. Is that wrong to say? You know, though, considering how many people there were holding Obama-as-Hitler signs and saying, as one guy did on CNN, that the Obama administration is engaged in "Gestapo" tactics, perhaps it's good to offer a remark about what real Nazi thinking is.
Gassing a part of the population in order to purify the nation? That's Nazi. A government-operated health insurance program as part of a pool of options for those who can't afford private insurance? That's not so Nazi.