Operation American Spring Fizzles, Twitter Trolls Hold Major Mockfest
The protest known as Operation American Spring — estimated by organizers to number ten to 30 million angry Americans — is currently underway, as seen in the livestream above.
While Operation American Spring — inspired by the “Arab Spring” protests and Occupy Wall Street — was touted as a potentially huge turnout event, protesters appear to be light on the ground in Washington, DC.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, users held a major mockfest:
— Francis Terpening (@francis_terp) May 16, 2014
OMG, #OperationAmericanSpring has Chaos Tanks…..oh, I’m being told those are just names of morons. Whew. http://t.co/hYqSLGhbEp
— Shrouded Sciuridae (@ShroudSciuridae) May 16, 2014
#AmericanSpring couldn’t even oust their #patriots out of their double wide. #Murica
— IamSuz (@IamSuz) May 16, 2014
Hey everybody, I found #OperationAmericanSpring! No, wait, this is a family of five, tourists from Des Moines. Never mind! #AmericanSpring
— Jeff Tiedrich (@jefftiedrich) May 16, 2014
@happykarigirl Yes, you & your 3 friends having grand ole party in DC. #AmericanSpring @Cabamerican
— Patti Kimble (@PattiKimble) May 16, 2014
Others were a bit more pointed in their American Spring critique:
How about we give these folks ONE day to hold a Klan rally, burn crosses etc to get it out of their system so we move on? #americanspring
— Rashid Hussein Obama (@rashid7053) May 16, 2014
@mjarvi83 There is an actually live feed of it. It’s 6 guys in camo holding misspelled signs. #americanspring
— Notorious Wojo (@NotoriousWojo) May 16, 2014
Operation American Spring pic.twitter.com/xLKyAk4gPb
— Broberyn Martell (@InternetEh) May 16, 2014
It’s difficult to find the supporters of Operation American Spring, and on the livestream, some of the organizers seem angry and frustrated by the very low turnout.
One protester claims several would-be attendees are “trapped in the campgrounds” by “flooded entrances,” but it’s not clear whether adverse weather conditions have impeded attendance to any meaningful degree.
Small turnout has not discouraged supporters at home, one of whom tweeted:
30 million people expected for Operation American Spring http://t.co/B890cMwnBK — so where is the media coverage on any TV station?
— Paul Pannone (@PaulPannone) May 16, 2014
As of now, American Spring coverage has been limited to the livestream and Twitter organizing — with mentions of the planned protests minimal on mainstream media sites and stations.
The Operation American Spring livestream above is just one of at least three, current feeds and it isn’t clear how long protesters plan to stay in Washington to persist in their attempt to unseat the current federal government.