Page 182 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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correlationbetweenmarchparticipationandsocioeconomicstatus. 141 As
a general rule, participants in contemporary marches tend to be strongly
ideologically committed to the cause and knowledgeable about it, as well
asdeeplyembeddedincommunityorganizationsandnetworks.Marches
as a form of political expression have lost their taint of radicalism and
alienation.
They still tend to be polarizing events, however. Moderates and the
uncommitted do not attend marches. By drawing from and activating
citizens who tend to be knowledgeable and strongly committed ideo-
logically, they typically contribute toward the strengthening of opposing
positions on policy. 142 Also, leaders of national marches typically have
experienceinsubnationalpoliticalorganizing.Theyarepoliticalveterans
with access to material and organizational resources, and they draw on
their networks of activists and their political experience to rally the most
committed citizens. This means that most marches draw heavily from the
memberships of established groups. 143 To a substantial degree, the mod-
ern political march is a manifestation of established civic and political
organizational structure.
The Million Mom March did not fit this pattern. Not only did it oc-
cur outside the memberships and boundaries of the traditional pro–
and anti–gun control groups, it was organized by people inexperienced
in political marches and it made moderate, centrist appeals to action
for citizens not otherwise engaged in the politics of guns. The Mil-
lion Mom March was intended precisely as a protest of moderates and
centrists.
It originated in efforts of a single political entrepreneur, Donna Dees-
Thomases. According to her own public statements, Dees-Thomases was
moved to political action in August of 1999 by two events: televised news
coverage of a shooting of children at the North Valley Jewish Commu-
nity Center in Granada Hills, California, and an encounter on the Long
Island Railroad with a menacing man wearing a swastika tattoo. She re-
ports having formulated the idea on the train that gun control was an
issue of salience to mothers, and resolved to attempt to mobilize other

141
Rory McVeigh and Christian Smith, “Who Protests in America: An Analysis of Three
Political Alternatives – Inaction, Institutionalized Politics, or Protest,” Sociological
Forum 14, no. 4 (1999): 685–702; Raymond Arthur Smith, “Overcoming the Collec-
tiveActionDilemma:PoliticalParticipationinLesbian-Gay-BisexualPrideMarches,”
Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1999.
142
Gilbert, “The Mass Protest Phenomenon.”
143
Barber, “Marches on Washington.”
165