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A man wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of President Donald Trump, right, argues with a counterprotester after being hit by a flying plastic bottle of water near a "Free Speech" rally staged by conservative activists, in Boston.

Image: AP/REX/Shutterstock

For an organization with an estimated 280,000 members, ACT for America's website feels a bit desperate.

"We are the NRA of national security," the site declares, a comparison that, of course, would not be necessary for an organization that felt it could stand on its own reputation.

The group had been trying to organize 67 pro-Trump (and anti-Muslim) rallies across the United States on Sept. 9, but they've exchanged that plan for a day of internet raging, claiming that they are too concerned for the safety of their attendees to carry out the plan.

"ACT [American Congress for Truth] for America is deeply saddened that in todays divisive climate, citizens cannot peacefully express their opinion without risk of physical harm from terror groups domestic and international," the group wrote in a statement to Breitbart. "In recent weeks, extremist and radical organizations in the United States and abroad have overrun peaceful events in order to advance their own agendas, and in many cases, violence has been the result. Given the security issues of organizing public events, the responsible decision is to deny this opportunity to Neo-Nazis, Antifa, the KKK, and ISIS inspired individuals and groups."

ACT for America, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is "far and away the largest grassroots anti-Muslim group in America." It's a group in which "national security" is a euphemism for "anti-Islam." The group pushes unnecessary anti-Sharia legislation, has tried to block Syrian refugees from resettling in the United States, and its founder has said that any practicing Muslim cannot be a "loyal citizen of the United States." As you can tell from statement given to Breitbart, the group isn't above equating anti-fascist activists with ISIS and the KKK. The statement is reminiscent President Donald Trump, who condemned "violence on many sides" of an Aug. 12 neo-Nazi riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a neo-Nazi allegedly killed a woman named Heather Heyer.

ACT says it's canceling for safety reasons, following the well-worn hate group tradition of proclaiming to be the Real Victims. But, as Gizmodo pointed out, it's unclear whether anyone was really going to attend to begin with

"The left organizes a march to D.C. and they show up in the tens of thousands," ACT founder Brigitte Gabriel says in the opening video on the site. "We need to act with the same passion and the same commitment."

Rousing, but evidently not that effective. A quick glance at Facebook pages for the planned rallies shows a range of 2-11 people who said they planned on going. The rally in Washington, D.C., had only three planned attendees and 10 "interested," which, if you know anything about how Facebook numbers translate to physical numbers, should tell you that the organizers would have been lucky if one guy shows up with his kid halfway through their mission to find a hot dog stand.

ACT says it will release more details about their planned internet activities at some point in the near future. When asked whether ACT called off the rallies because attendance was expected to be poor, David White, the group's communications director, wrote in an email that "attendance was not a factor in the decision."

Read the original here:
Dozens of pro-Trump rallies retreat to internet, insist it's not due to poor attendance - Mashable