Madison communists too lazy to walk to the Capitol Tea Party…

posted at 2:23 pm on April 15, 2009 by MadisonConservative
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…or else they slept in. Neither would surprise me, but I was more impressed by the way that corner swelled with people. During her speech, Madison Talk Radio Rock Star Vicki McKenna claimed more than five thousand were in attendance. I circled the crowd and block several times to get an idea of how many were actually there, and it looked closer to around four thousand, but that’s ballpark. So far, WKOW and WISC-TV are both reporting that there were “hundreds”. Note the lack of pictures accompanying those estimates when I assure you those reports are quite a bit off.

I drove with my father to Mifflin Street at about 9:30. Managed to find one parking spot in the four-level parking garage. I don’t know if that’s how filled they usually are, so I can’t be sure if the efforts by counter-protesters to fill up the garages were carried out. At a quarter to ten, there were between 500-1000 people already there with signs, as was McKenna, interviewing people that had arrived. I wasn’t listening to the radio, so I don’t know if McKenna’s broadcast was going out live. Anyone who wasn’t at the rally, please comment and let me know. I noticed a news van from a Green Bay station was there, as was a cameraman and reporter from WKOW 27. Channel 3000 (3 in our area) WISC was noticeably absent, which disappointed me, due to their being a pretty wide-range TV station in our area.

Overall, the atmosphere was friendly and energetic. The day was absolutely gorgeous, and the temps hovered around 60 degrees with a light breeze. Thankfully, there were no incidents, and the Capitol and downtown police were pretty much enjoying the nice day. I did catch one clapping during McKenna’s speech, and another officer put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. Maybe there is protocol about police on the job taking part in these things. Anyone know? Leading up to the speeches, they played clips of Governor Jim Doyle stating, much to everyone’s chagrin, that he would promise never to raise taxes, and that government spending is out of control. I guess he was making it clear that the latter was an attitude he agreed with. They also played Twister Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore”, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”, and, um…Canadian Celine Dion’s rendition of “God Bless America”.

The speakers were a mixed bag. Mark Block, the state director for Americans for Prosperity, was the organizer of the event, and segued between speeches. There were a few speakers whose names I did not catch. A combination of underpowered speakers and construction going on across the street made for some poor listening conditions, along with a debate I got into with someone over the Obama BC kerfluffle. Someone from the Wisconsin Family Action committee gave a fairly rousing oratory, primarily a call for relief for the families of Wisconsin. Green Bay radio host Jerry Bader also took to the podium, though he appeared to be afraid of the microphone and was barely audible.

Of particular note was, of course, Rep. Paul Ryan. He basically carved out the speech that would be repeated by the rest in terms of message, involving conservative principles of independence, self-determination, and self-reliance. The largest banner at the rally read “BAILOUT – Chains you can believe in.” The word bailout was conspicuously absent from both his speech, as well as the speech of the head of the Wisconsin GOP, Reince Priebus. Can you guess why? Of the two, Ryan is a conservative, despite the missteps he’s made, and he carefully kept party names out of what he had to say. He pushes the good ideas, it’s just a matter of ensuring he’ll follow through on them, and we’ll be keeping an eye on him. Priebus, on the other hand, was a Republican demagogue putting all blame on the Democrats, and was a bad choice for the event, in my opinion. Again, these events aren’t about partisan politics, they’re about American ideals of leaders representing us. Bad enough to have party talking heads speaking at these occasions, much less in heavily liberal areas like Madison.

The real gem of the occasion turned out to be a student from Madison Area High school, Melika Willoughby. 17 years old, and she whipped that crowd up something fierce. Like Ryan, she avoided political labels and simply focused in on Congress, and particularly on Doyle. She was vivacious and inspiring, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for her in Wisconsin politics in coming years.

Now, here’s the thing. I took pictures. On my phone. I don’t own a camera and am in the most amateur ranks of photographers. I haven’t looked them over yet, and I can’t promise they’re worth a damn. If they aren’t, I’ll describe them as best I can. I took a lot of pictures of people’s signs, and some general pictures of the crowd between 11 and Noon, when we were close to peaking. If they’re any good, I’ll make a separate post with them. If not, I’ll just update this post with some of the signs I managed to see.

To my view, the event was a great success. A lot of concerned, patriotic Americans came together to voice their opposition to taxation without representation on a beautiful day, listened to some great speakers, and hopefully will walk away with a heightened sense of responsibility. The only things that were missing was brat and beer vendors. Maybe next year!

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