Sarah Palin was among the speakers at a rally of the Tea Party and other conservative political groups throughout Wisconsin. Also present were protesters of the Scott Walker and the budget repair bill, chanting the usual “shame” and “recall Walker.”
While Gov. Scott Walker’s contentious collective bargaining bill that ignited weeks of demonstrations remains stuck in the courts, Tea Partiers and counter-protesters gathered on Capitol Square Saturday to renew the fiscal battle that has been polarizing the state.
The third annual Tea Party tax day event, hosted by Americans for Prosperity, gave a platform to conservative talk show hosts, columnists, pundits and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the east side of the Capitol, while opposition protesters spoke out simultaneously from the State Street entrance.
AFP-Wisconsin Director Matt Seaholm praised the turn-out, estimated by Capitol Police to be over 6,500, and said the annual event is about the voters and the taxpayers.
“Whether on opposite sides of the Capitol or opposite sides of the problem, the recurring theme is we are all taxpayers and we are all in this together, no matter who you voted for governor,” said Autonomous Solidarity Organization Chair Bill Fetty, who organized the counter-rally.
The co-mingling of Tea Partiers and anti-Walker demonstrators made it nearly impossible to tell how evenly represented the groups were, as large numbers of counter-protesters chose to surround the Tea Partiers with chants of “Recall Walker!” rather than listen to their own speakers.
Tension between the two crowds prompted conservative blogger Andrew Brietbart at the microphone to retaliate, yelling, “Go to hell! You’re trying to divide America!”
Then Sarah Palin stepped onto the stage.
Unaffected by the screaming opposition and the April snowfall, Palin took shots at the Democratic senators and union “thugs” while defending Walker and praising the fortitude and integrity of the conservative movement.
“Hey folks, he’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions,” she shouted over the clamor of the counter-protesters.
Palin praised the Tea Partiers and the Republican legislators for standing strong in the face of death threats and “thug tactics” and blasted union leaders for their loyalty to power, not to their members.
Palin also harshly criticized President Obama and the federal budget battle. The $352 million in “real” cuts being made in the federal budget is more than what the government will spend over the duration of the two-and-a-half hour rally, she said.
Palin also had some choice words for the Republican establishment in Washington D.C.
“We didn’t elect you to just rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic,” Palin said of the GOP leaders in Washington. “We didn’t elect you to just sit back and watch Obama redistribute those deck chairs.”
However, one Republican in the nation’s capital was doing his job, Palin said.
The loudest cheers of the rally came when Palin praised Rep. Paul Ryan, a Janesville Republican, for what she called his fiscally responsible budget proposal, approved by the House of Representatives Friday.
The message from Palin was that Wisconsin is the battleground for the 2012 election, accusing Obama of ignoring the will of the American people and with it, his mandate to adhere to the consent of the governed.
“We will fight for America,” said Palin, “and it starts here, in Madison, Wisconsin.”
The rallies successfully united Palin and national activists with local conservatives like Tiger Heberling, a small business owner from Union Grove who said union leaders targeted his business when he refused to display support for their cause.
The rally also drew attention from freshman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who expressed support for the mobilization of the Tea Party in an email to The Badger Herald.
“The only way to end the out-of-control spending and debt is to let current elected officials know they have support for making the hard choices to restore fiscal sanity,” said Johnson, who started to make a name for himself at the 2010 Tea Party protest in Madison, and then went on to defeat longtime Senate liberal Russ Feingold.
Despite the impassioned dialogue between sides, both rallies were respectful of the different opinions represented and all different segments of the population were represented, Fetty said.
The majority of the protesters remained calm, with only one individual being arrested by Capitol Police for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
