This is a brief stroll through this year’s annual Tax Day Rally called “Keep 'Em Honest” in Lansing April 14, 2011, organized and sponsored by Scott Hagerstrom, the Michigan Director of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Hagerstrom got his 1.25 minutes of fame from a CPAC video that went politically viral on YouTube in which he stated that the goal of AFP and the Koch brothers was to “take the unions out at the knees” in Wisconsin and across the country.
At the “Tea Party” event there is very little day light between any of these organizations, pushing a national GOP strategy and prefabricated government state to state, and the mythical “citizen” engine behind it is starting to lose steam.
Progressives and the People on the March in Michigan
On April 13, 2011 (above), the day before this great dairy (by GypsyT) tells the story of thousands of protesters supporting Michigan labor and working families turning out, and providing a 10-to-1 contrast (by Eclectblog) to Scott’s right-wing friends the next day at their annual Tax Day on April 14, 2011 (below and throughout).
Tea Party losing Ground in Michigan?
In 2009, the turnout of the Michigan Tea Party masses was in the thousands, but not this year.
Yesterday, April 14, 2011 the ‘mad mob’ was just a ‘few hundred’ 400-500 according to reports, but still a force with (or without?) most of their teeth….
The same day in Marquette, MI the citizens and workers out protesting Snyder and GOP policies were double that of the Tea Party in Lansing.
Who did we see there…
… and what can this stroll through the opposition rally show teach us Progressives about the workings and relationships that demonstrate that the Michigan Tea Party membership is being duped, and has become just another arm of the same old cast of characters from the Mackinac Center, the Michigan GOP and the billionaire organizations pretending to be one of them like AFP. Just because a long-time Republican operative loses his/her tie and dons a pair of jeans, doesn’t seem to fool anyone, anymore.
More pictures, quick hits on the event, and comments below...