March 05, 2017 11:01 AM UTC

Did Russiagate Kill The Denver Pro-Trump Rally?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Last Monday, a pro-President Donald Trump “Spirit of America” rally was held on the steps of the Colorado state capitol building–the first of two such long-planned and widely-publicized pro-Trump gatherings, intended to answer over a month of huge protests against the new President.

As and we could have predicted, Trump’s rally in the middle of a busy weekday failed to thrive.

After a decidedly lackluster turnout for Monday’s event, we were told to expect a far greater crowd the following Saturday (yesterday), when the silent majority of Trump supporters who presumably had to work or were otherwise unavailable Monday would be able to turn out in droves. Surely Saturday, March 4th, a weekend day of absolutely perfect shirt-sleeve weather, would be the day that Trump’s America showed themselves triumphantly to the world.

But as you can see above and Denver7’s Oscar Contreras reports, not so much!

Billed as the “Spirit of America” rally, demonstrators – many wearing the iconic “Make America Great Again” red cap — gathered at the west steps of the State Capitol at around 10 a.m.

Holding U.S. flags and dressed in patriotic attire, demonstrators brought out signs – both small and large — supporting the embattled president…

The local rally, which saw between 300 to 500 supporters — according to estimates provided by the Colorado State Patrol — was just one of many happening across the nation. [Pols emphasis]

So if Monday’s rally was attended by an estimated 100-200 people, there’s just no way that 300-500 people showing up on a perfect Saturday can be considered anything other than a massive failure for local Republicans. It is in fact a considerably worse showing than we expected for yesterday’s event, given what they produced on Monday versus what could be legitimately expected on a weekend. After some 200,000 marched against Trump in Denver on the day after his inauguration, and numerous subsequent events against both Trump and high-ranking Colorado Republicans like Sen. Cory Gardner that have drawn thousands of people, these pitiful pro-Trump rallies have done more harm than good for the GOP’s public image.

Of course, there’s an immediate reaction from GOP sympathizers to claim some kind of cultural difference between conservatives and liberals that makes conservatives less likely to turn out to protest events. But that wasn’t the case in 2009, when Tea Party activists besieged Democrats across America in advance of an historic “GOP wave” election in 2010. And it certainly wasn’t the case when Trump was drawing his famously massive crowds to campaign rallies coast to coast last year.

It’s not easy to explain the embarrassing lack of public support for Trump evidenced at yesterday’s little rally, even in a place like Colorado that voted to elect his opponent. Given the bounce everyone rushed to give Trump after his address to Congress last Tuesday, there was at least momentary reason for organizers to be hopeful. But by Friday, with the headlines already back on the Trump administration’s ballooning crisis over Russian influence in the 2016 election, it was as if Trump’s lavishly-praised speech Tuesday never even happened.

Maybe it’s time to, you know, stop pretending.