What I Learned at the Taxpayer Rally

So I went to this taxpayer rally in Madison last week.

Depending on which estimate you saw, anywhere from 100 to 500 fine Americans came to Madison from all over Wisconsin, to rally for lower – or at least no higher - taxes. Also depending on the estimate, some two to three times that number of counter-protesters – government employees, mostly – tried (but failed) to shout the rally down.

The post-rally spin has taken two tacks: conservatives have focused on the boorish, rude, pubescent behavior of the union pro-taxers. Liberals have smeared the pro-taxpayers as pawns of “big oil.”

One side remarks on what actually happened. The other side uses a vague connection to smear private citizens.

But that’s beside the point.

What exactly was accomplished by holding a “taxpayer rally?” Sure, we got a chance to rant and rave and rah, rah, rah. Got a little press for the cause. The crowd was small, but enthusiastic. It was fun.

Did it matter? Did it change any minds?

Maybe not. Probably not, but that’s not necessarily the point, either.

For several weeks AFSCME, the government employees’ union, has held small but almost daily “protests” in the State Capitol. Protests against Republican efforts to stick to Republican principles.

See, no matter how tight your own budget might be, no matter how many trade-offs you and your family have to make, you’d better pony up when government employees want more. If you don’t, you’re the jerk.

Did they change any minds? Well, no, probably not. But no man is an island: “man,” in this case, meaning anybody marginally interested and informed about politics. People have to know that they’re not alone.

That’s one reason the taxpayer rally was important. We want people statewide to know: they’re not alone, and others who share their opinions are willing to make a spectacle to support them.

And more importantly, to make sure those who have a vested interest in higher taxes aren’t the only ones being heard.

But AFSCME has more in mind than just being heard. Inside the Capitol, they marched with sarcastic (and sometimes nasty) depictions of Republicans and Republican symbols on their signs. They defaced pictures of Republican leaders.

At the rally, the Greenshirts stopped just short of thuggishness. They were rude, often obscene, and did their best to intimidate the ralliers, nearly closing off the exit to force face-to-face confrontations.

Was that going to change minds? Win adherents? Teach conservatives the error of their ways?

No. Not even close. In fact, if their tactics were more widely known, I think they’d have the opposite effect.

So why use them?

I can think of a few reasons. Maybe they were, in fact, trying to intimidate their fellow Americans into shutting the hell up. Maybe they were purposely trying to create an incident.

Maybe they were just trying to make themselves feel better. Or maybe they had no purpose at all. They were just being themselves.

I won’t try to guess. Now that it’s all said and done, their bad behavior netted them exactly nothing.

Which isn’t the same as saying it had no effect at all. It did.

The sun even shines on a dog’s butt every once in a while. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Sooner or later, I’ll find myself on the same side of an issue as AFSCME, just because sooner or later, everybody shares the same blankets.

Other than by chance, though, there’s simply no way I’ll ever – ever – support the unions. After last week, why would I?

Now, I’m just a guy. Regular. A minor blogger. No more important than any of the other million people in the state who pay attention to politics. So what I’ll support or not isn’t keeping anybody up nights.

But if I feel this way, so do others. And we wouldn’t feel this way, if the union had simply used different tactics. If they’d simply shown us some good old-fashioned American-style agree-to-disagree adversarial politics. If they’d resisted their urges to thuggery just a little bit more.

They didn’t. And instead of support, they won themselves some highly dedicated opponents.

Huh. Maybe they changed minds, after all.