by Kerry Thomas
April 12, 2009
On April 15, people across America will be gathering in mass
protests of our government’s reckless and irresponsible spending. These gatherings are being called Tea
Parties, in honor of the Boston Tea Party held December
16, 1773.
American colonists threw 342
crates of tea from the East India Trading Company ships Dartmouth, Eleanor,
and Beaver into Boston Harbor to protest taxes on
tea imposed on the American colonies by the British Parliament and the King of
England.
Unlike the original Boston Tea Party, the April 15 Tea
Parties won’t feature any unlawful acts against the Crown. They’re being organized merely to protest
Washington’s out-of-control spending of Taxpayer money.
Here in Wisconsin, the big Tea Party is being planned at the
State Capitol in Madison, along King Street, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
They’re going to have guest speakers, cheerleaders, music,
anything to keep the assembled crowd excited and agitated.
It’s all for show.
Nothing they do April 15 will make one bit of difference in our
governance.
When given the opportunity to actually vote to change the
entrenched system in Wisconsin, on April 7, when given the opportunity to do
something concrete, when Wisconsin voters were asked to voice their
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with current Wisconsin government statewide,
only 21% of the people eligible to vote bothered to show up at the polls.
The Census Bureau estimates Wisconsin’s current
population at 5,627,967 people. Of those, it is estimated that 4,245,265 are
of
voting age (18+). As of
December 1, 2008 there were 3,688,195 people registered
to vote in Wisconsin.
792,758 people voted in Wisconsin’s
Supreme Court race, where 30-year incumbent Shirley
Abrahamson beat conservative challenger Randy Koschnick by a 60% to 40% margin. 18.7% of eligible voters picked your Supreme
Court Justice.
766,632 people voted in the race for Wisconsin’s Superintendent
of Public Instruction. In that
race, Tony Evers, a WEAC-backed candidate with 30 years experience as a career
bureaucrat, beat conservative Rose Fernandez by a 57% to 43% margin. 18% of eligible voters decided who’ll be in
charge of your kids’ schools.
The only protests that count are those expressed one by one
in the voting booth. Remember that
November 2, 2010.