Giving Voice to The Tea Party in Wisconsin

The 15th April 2009 saw the Madison, Wisconsin Tax Day Tea Party Rally, with radio presenter (Upfront News/Talk show) Vicki McKenna as the main speaker.

"Citizens from around Wisconsin converge on the capitol in Madison to show their disdain and disgust for high taxes and excess spending. Fiscally irresponsible politicians, democrat or republican, we are watching you. Stop taking our money or start looking for another job!"

McKenna, a self proclaimed "converted conservative" has appeared on all major news networks and is a member of the NRA. She strongly supports the Second Amendment - The right to keep and bear arms. For more information on her see: http://www.vickimckenna.com/

The video below, found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBvPFgNTgrM is McKenna's full speech from the Tea Party Rally held in the Wisconsin Capital. It was posted by WisconsinTeaParty and all of their videos from the rally can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WisconsinTeaParty




There are a few quotes that I found of particular interest in her speech, all of which give voice to one of the key principles of the Tea Party, giving America back to the people.

• "Time to take back our government." (2.09)
  
• "Government is an entity to do for you." (4.08)
  
• "Should never need an appointment to talk to the people who claim to represent you." (5.09)

The main argument she raises is that certain acts have been hidden within the budget, so that the people do not notice them and therefore cannot make an informed decision.

1. Releasing felons ("Shouldn't the victims have a say?")
   
2. Raising auto taxes
3. Pushing for welfare entitlement programs. (This is repeated constantly.)
4. The Governor is driving away jobs to places like Michigan and Louisiana when they need them in Wisconsin.
   

Towards the end (7.17) McKenna says something that I find to be a little ironic: "We don't want Socialism." "We don't want the American promise, we want the American dream."

The reason I find it ironic can be found by looking at this image:

It is a campaign poster from the Presidential Election of 1912, where Emil Seidel who was the first Socialist mayor in the United States, ran alongside Eugene Debs.
In 1910, most of the seats on the Milwaukee city council and county board were actually won by Socialists and even though both of these men lost the race, another Socialist mayor was elected in 1916 (Daniel Hoen) and stayed in office until 1940.
1910 also saw Victor Berger as the first Socialist Congressman in Washington.
In addition, there was a third Socialist mayor, Frank. P. Zeidler who had 3 terms in office. (1948-1960)


The Tea Party seem to be perpetually looking back to how America used to be, but when it comes to this particular state when they look back, they will see a time when the people they oppose were in fact, in power. If socialism is tyrannical then how come they were around from 1892-1960 and why did Socialist mayors continue to be elected?

Although slightly off topic from the original point about giving voice to the tea party, see the video below from around 1.30 for more information regarding Socialist Milwaukee. It does show some interesting images that highlight the irony of Wisconsin being anti Socialism.



Other sources:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=9192&search_term=socialism
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-043/?action=more_essay
http://spwi.org/