David Glove Cox is an unemployed socialist from Minneapolis. Darla Lilliey is a Ron Paul supporting lawyer from Texas. But last night, at the “Occupy D.C.” protest a couple blocks from the White House, they were just two people upset with the federal government, opposed to the wars and hungry for some pizza.
I caught up with both of them seated on a patch of grass in Freedom Plaza as a poet read an anti-war song on the stage, a drum circle in full swing nearby. Regardless of whether Democrats try to get on board with the movement, the mix of disaffected Democrats coupled with libertarians might not want them.
Lilliey, wearing a pink bandana and matching anti-war shirt, told me she didn’t know about Paul until she got upset over President Barack Obama’s action in Libya. She represents veterans in their disability claims and said she couldn’t stand to see another generation of military members be sent into an unnecessary war.
“I personally believe Bush was part and parcel of 9/11, or he allowed it to happen,” Lilliey said, adding that she considered herself a liberal on a lot of issues. “If it wasn’t for the war and the federal reserve, I’d stand for everything that the people here stand for.”
Asked whether she agreed with Paul’s stand against Social Security, Lilliey blamed her lack of knowledge on the topic on being “dumbed down and declawed because of public education.”
“There’s a lot of things about Paul I don’t agree with,” Lilliey said. “But we aren’t going to have any options [in the presidential race] because of the corrupt mainstream media.”
Cox said he lost his job in the industrial parts industry after 25 years without missing a paycheck and lost his house shortly thereafter. He advocated for lowering the age of Social Security to 62 to get older workers out of the job market.
“Young people could get those jobs,” he said. “Right now the young people have to compete with the old.”
For a sense of what the protest was like, check out this video I shot last night:
