No Madness In This March
What I saw in the crowd around the State Capitol Saturday: 100,000 organizers - - calm, collected and focused now on the recall of Republicans Senators who used the power of the state to take away employment rights, and who will find that abuse of power has consequences.
Even if only a tenth of the people in this stunning crowd shot from Isthmus take up clipboards and petition forms, some incumbents are going to be voted out and will have only themslves, and Scott Walker to blame.
If we were translating the political situation to an NCAA basketball tournament bracket, I'd say Republican State Senators Alberta Darling and Randy Hopper (he of the 200-vote winning margin only) have drawn #16 seeds and are headed for first-round elimination.
And from this media report, it seems as if Bob Cowles doesn't like his positioning, either.
5 comments:
I do not believe that crowd was 100,000. Don't know if the 70,000 estimate of the last protest I attended was correct, but this seemed 2-3 times as large, and would have filled Camp Randall stadium at least a couple of times.
There's a good picture up on the Isthmus website taken from the capitol. http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32745 I came in through this corner and the crowd going down State Street was dense. It took a long time to get onto the square.
Good friendly crowd and a lot of witty, correctly spelled signs. I hope the energy stays high through the recall process.
Jim
Police estimated the crowd at 85,000-100,000 in the text that accompanies the photo you mention, so I have added a link to the story and photo. And as we know, fresh numbers walked up to the Square all day...
Took ten minutes to walk 30 feet at corner of Carroll and Mifflin.
Kapanke is hurtin too.
I had heard the figure 200,000 mentioned on a live feed. But am looking reference that with other sources, day-long crowd dyanamics, etc.
new fave sign: "Revolt! The Beginning is Near!"
I don't know: I don't think Cowles gets it yet. From the article:
"The senators were initially quiet as protesters yelled at them outside the bus, but grew chatty and jovial - at times laughing boisterously - as they headed away from the Capitol.
A little over a mile into the trip, Cowles asked if he could get off the bus at the Avenue Bar. Tubbs initially arranged to drop Cowles off there, but then told him that the bus was being followed. It was unclear if those following the bus were protesters, staff to the senators or others.
"There are people following us? Forget it then," Cowles said."
See, I just think he realized he can't get a beer at The Avenue before he gets in his car and heads home. Doesn't sound bothered at all.
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