In the Wisconsin rotunda, high school students chant "We're with Walker" and drown out the anti-Walker "Solidarity Singers."

I missed this one. It happened last Thursday. I guess I'm not covering the "Wisconsin protests" story with sufficient vigilance! Blah! It never ends. Anyway, tons of teenagers were in Madison for the big high school basketball tournament. They came from all over the state, drastically tipping the political balance. As Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op reports it (and I'm getting to this belatedly, via Prof. Jacobson, via Instapundit):

On Thursday March 15, 2012 the afternoon Solidarity Sing Along was taken over by a large group of supporters from Lutheran High School in Sheboygan...

Shouts of “LHS” and “Stand with Walker” thundered through the rotunda and was met with wide approval from the LHS supporters. One student entered the circle to mock and taunt the singers with dance moves.

Taunting with dance moves! There's video, but it doesn't include the dance-taunt, which I can only imagine. What would it be, some basketball-madness-Walker-loving hula?



Ha ha. I love the way Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op — with its ability to detect dance mockery — fails to notice the students singing along with "Solidarity Forever" and making it horribly off key. Maybe the Co-op thinks the Solidarity Singers are always that badly out of tune. That's so sad for the folks who so diligently gather day after day to sing with their clenched fists thrust aloft.

The Solidarity Sing Along remained calm and peaceful throughout the ordeal and eventually moved outside to continue singing while the rotunda erupted in approval.

That's written as if the singers have a prior claim on the public space. It's speaking as if the singers were giving a planned performance to an assembled audience that wants to listen. For example, when Sarah Palin spoke at the Capitol last April, there was an assembled crowd eager to hear her, and the anti-Walker protesters did everything they could to boo and shout and frustrate everybody who wanted to hear:



At 4:40, my edited video, shows, among those who are actively booing, John Nichols — of The Nation and author of "Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street" — and John “Sly” Sylvester. (Sly is the radio host who has "outrageously accused GOP lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch of performing 'fellatio on all the talk-show hosts in Milwaukee' and sneered that she had 'pulled a train.'")

Andrew Breitbart was there that day too:

As I took to the stage, the shouting from those trying to disrupt the Tea Party intensified. Inarticulate shouting becomes their last weapon as their policies crumble.

Also shouted down that day — a 14-year-old girl: "One of the chants during her speech is 'Go home! Go home! Go home!'"

At the Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op blog post, there's some good discussion in the comments. Someone called Sam says:

Why do you think it’s alright for the protesters to give their opinion, but not alright for any other opinion to be given? I didn’t hear any mocking or taunting, only the two chants.

Tyler says:

It is SUCH a crime to celebrate a victory from the first time LHS has ever been at state. We had a right to be there just as much as the singers were. How do you think some of us feel when we try to live our lives and are being pestered by “Recall Walker” activists? You can’t walk down the block in Madison without being talked to by someone. We weren’t there to be political or anything, we were there to celebrate our team. The singers just happened to be there at the same time.

Josh says:

We were taunting and harrassing? I was called a facist, told my savior was a homosexual, and called ignorant and stupid, all within like, 15 minutes. And we were harrassing and taunting? By saying LHS, and showing our support for our governor? Really?

RanDomino replies:

Who put them up to it?

Also, Jesus was gay, and fuck Scott Walker.

Kay says:

Let me just tell you that the people from LHS were invited there and indeed got a permit to be there. They never said anything wrong. They just said “stand with walker” and “LHS” to celebrate their basketball team on their state victory. I never heard ANYTHING bad thing come out of one of their mouths. They also did nothing to harass any of the protesters. It’s funny because Scott Walker did more for everyone than the protesters are nagging about. Please get some jobs. It’s not going to do anything for you guys if you stand in the middle of the Capitol building singing songs. And also, if you aren’t happy about our governor or the way we run our state, please leave. We don’t need any more hate in this world.

God bless you all!

And God bless Sheboygan Lutheran High School, which won the state championship, with a brilliant 3-pointer by Sam Dekker, who's coming to the University of Wisconsin, where he is already one of our very favorite individuals!

Back to the Co-op comments. James says:

I love how these protesters flatter themselves by thinking that the students were there to cheer or taunt them, when really the students and LHS crowd had no idea the solidarity singers were going to be there. And if these singers can sing their opinion, it is certainly fair that other people can come to the capitol and voice their support for our governor as well.

Tell me about it. Last time I ventured among the protesters, I was taunted and harassed, as I walked, ostensibly alone. I was asked where my husband was and "Who's going to save you when you get attacked?" And a year ago, of course, I received notice that the city of Madison was "OCCUPIED" by people who "have the numbers" and have "revoked" my "city of Madison privileges":

Did you really think this could go on forever? That you could sit on the steps of our house, walk the streets of our city, lie about us to strangers, tell gun-toting rednecks from out of state and the Northwoods how depraved and deserving of punishment we are all while maintaining plausible deniability for any of the consequences that your actions might cause?

I was told "WE WILL FUCK YOU UP" by people who were going to come to my home to harass me, and given a list of shops and restaurants where these people supposedly worked, and I was no longer permitted to go:

We will Walker you straight out of the place whenever you show up. We are at every coffee shop on State, open to close, all the time. We will hang up wanted posters of you everywhere you like to go. We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving shit out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk's Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? Fuck the Capitol, we are the CITY.

But folks from the Northwoods and elsewhere in the state were in town last week. It was all about basketball and wholesome fun in the capital city, where everyone in the state belongs. Especially Sam Dekker — whatever his politics. From what I've seen, the University of Wisconsin is a huge place, full of people who care more about sports than politics. So don't hesitate to come here, sports fans, Walker fans, and everybody else. We need you! We need more air in this musty old cocoon.