It’s beginning to become a bit of trend here in Michigan: tea partiers have a rally that is dwarfed by a liberal/Democratic/labor rally. This week was no exception.
Yesterday, the biggest protest rally yet by union members on the steps of the State Capitol building drew an estimated 4,500 attendees.
Thousands rally at Capitol against Michigan budget, cuts to education, pension taxesThousands of protesters angry at Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget converged on the state Capitol lawn Wednesday to send a message to legislators.
The rally, estimated to be the biggest one of the year, drew approximately 4,500 people, many of them union members. They demonstrated against proposed cuts to education, the elimination of the earned income tax credit and the introduction of pension taxes – actions they say unfairly target lower- and middle-income people in the state.
NOTE: Several folks I have been in contact with who were actually there report upwards of 10,000 or more people throughout the day. I was unable to attend but several sources report this. The newspaper reports may well be “snapshots” taken at the peak of the rally.
Today it was the tea partiers’ turn. They drew “hundreds”. Clunk.
Hundreds protest federal debt at Capitol rallyAbout 400 people were gathered outside the Capitol today as part of a tea party rally to voice their displeasure with government.
Rally attendees came to the event from throughout lower Michigan to hear several speakers, including Attorney General Bill Schuette, talk about the challenges facing Michigan.
The rally was smaller than several of the pro-union rallies at the Capitol in recent weeks that have protested a proposed pension tax and labor-related bills favored by state Republicans.
“Smaller than several of the pro-union rallies at the Capitol in recent weeks”. Wow, that journalist is a master of the understatement. Let’s call it what it was: a certified Michigan pwning of the tea party. Period.
And it’s not the first time.
A little over a year ago, during the battle for the Affordable Care Act, tea partiers held a protest outside the offices of MI-07 Democratic Congressman Mark Schauer. Democratic supporters outnumbered tea partiers FIVE to ONE.
Earlier this year, during another labor protest rally at the Capitol, tea partiers tried to hold a competing protest protest rally. That time they got their asses totally handed to them and were outnumbered FIFTY to ONE.
Today’s rally was sponsored by the Koch Brothers-funded astroturf group Americans for Prosperity. All that money and they simply couldn’t get more than 400 people there to protest. Planned Parenthood’s recent rally in Ann Arbor drew that more than that and it wasn’t even at the Capitol.
The tea party, at least in Michigan, is becoming increasingly irrelevant. They are against the tax increases Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s budget proposal but are loathe to team up with their arch enemies: union members. This leaves them alone since no other groups would be caught dead partnering with them. So they are relegated to relatively puny showings when compared to the power displayed by unions and their coalition partners. Their voices are nearly silent in the political discourse happening in our state, a far cry from the screamfests they had only a year or two ago.
I have said before that “as goes Michigan, so goes the rest of the country” and I’m convinced that this trend we’re seeing with the tea party is another example of that.
I’m just sayin’…
