Legal Insurrection: Protests in support of Wisconsin public sector unions were organized by MoveOn.org and labor unions today.
Promoters, such as David Dayen at Firedoglake, were predicting a million-person turnout nationwide. But reports as of 7:00 E.S.T. today make clear that other than in Madison, Wisconsin, the crowds were sparse.
The turnout in Madison was sizable, with estimates ranging from 50-70,000, which included protesters bused in from other states. (Dayen is trying to pump the crowd estimate to over 100,000.) But elsewhere, the crowds numbered only in the hundreds or low thousands.
In Washington, D.C., only about 500 people showed up (go to link for good photos of crazy signs). (Note, WaPo says 1000.)
In Columbus, OH, where you would expect a big crowd given a similar controversy, only "several thousand" people protested.
Other head counts, based on news reports, include: Boston (1000), Portsmouth, N.H. (few hundred), Augusta, ME (small crowd), New York City ("several thousand"), Chicago (1000), Miami (100), Austin (several hundred), Chicago (1000); Lansing, MI (2000), Nashville (hundreds), Los Angeles (2000), Richmond, VA (300), Denver (1000); Frankfurt, KY (several hundred), Jefferson City, MO (several hundred), Harrisburg, PA (several hundred).
While I don't have a complete count, based on these numbers from some major cities and labor states, total protesters nationwide (excluding Madison) likely totaled under 100,000 combined. [MORE]
I am not surprised that the numbers failed to materialize. The reason why the left has trouble getting people to come out is because the left is comprised of grievance groups. There are minority groups, women's groups, gay groups, unions etc. Each group has their own grievance and it is hard to get them fired up over someone else's grievance (in this case unions). Despite the left's best efforts to paint union's grievances as the middle classes' grievances, it simply isn't true and everyone knows it.
The TEA Parties on the other hand have an over arching theme of reigning in government. Under that theme, you will find all sorts of other conservative groups, neocons, social conservative, pro-lifers, etc.
Unfortunately for the left, the over arching theme for all of their grievance groups would be "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" and that would be absolutely unsightly to display in public.
Below are some pictures from the protests in North Carolina sent to me by one of my readers. They include both the pro-union protesters and the TEA Party protesters (click to enlarge).
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Legal Insurrection
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2 comments:
In 2005, a Republican governor in California proposed several ballot initiatives:
Prop 73 would restrict political spending by public sector unions.
Prop 74 would make public school teachers work longer to achieve tenure.
Prop 75 would restrict the ability of public unions to raise money from members for political purposes.
Prop 76 would slow the growth of state spending by giving the governor emergency powers during fiscal crises.
Prop 77 would redraw legislative and congressional districts to eliminate the Democratic stranglehold over the legislature.
All the measures were defeated after massive direct and indirect funding by public sector unions in the state.
They criticized the Governator for the costs of the election which were $50 million. The total spending by the unions to oppose the measures was about $250 million.
In 2005, the budget gap was $7 billion. Now the budget gap is $25 billion.
So this "RINO" was six years ahead of all the Tea Partiers in recognizing the need to reign in public sector unions and get spending under control.
He could have benefited from a little more conservative support. We should have been battling the public sector unions relentlessly for decades.
Think not only about the influence they have over our politicians and our budgets, but of the political atmosphere with which they infect the political bureaucracies.
Can you believe that police officers, of all people, are strong Demon Rat supporters?
>Can you believe that police officers, of all people, are strong Demon Rat supporters?
I remember someone on the left once said, a lot of police always vote right on national issues, and left on welfare issues.
The whole limited government and respect of the law are GREAT, unless you are the government AND the law.
And nothing beats 30K per month of "over time. [in NYC]"
2nd Anony
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