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East Ninth Street separated the two groups physically. Philosophically, they were a moon shot apart.
I’m talking about the rally and the counter-rally Tuesday on the west steps of the State Capitol.
At the top were union workers and supporters who were showing allegiance to the Wisconsin workers who’d protested their governor’s proposal to eliminate some of their collective bargaining rights. The police get a pass, according to this plan, but not because they endorsed him in the election.
Sue Dvorsky, chair of the state Democratic Party, was one of those supporters. Instead of eliminating some of the bargaining rights, she said, why doesn’t the Gov. Scott Walker simply send more capable negotiators to the bargaining table?
At the bottom of the steps were tea party types who agree with Walker. In other words, it wasn’t a day for making new best friends or listening patiently to the other side of the argument.
When a bus full of teachers or laborers or auto workers or other union members rolled in on East Ninth, the two sides sniped at one another.
The pro-Walker types wanted to know who paid for the union supporters’ buses. Who made their signs and their hot chocolate? Did they take a sick day to be there?
Keith West noticed the long hair and ponytails of the union guys, laughed and said, “I wonder how long before they’ll insist on tattoo benefits.”
West is a comedian and magician from Des Moines with his own entertainment business and some strong feelings about how Iowa’s teachers are failing the children. He held a sign that said, “I is self-taught. I went to public school.”
He called a GED, a “good enough diploma.”
West said he’s on the Bob & Tom radio show from time to time, and you can see how he’d be a hit with the right kind of audience.
“The public school system is a mess,” he said. “If the teachers cared about kids, a third wouldn’t drop out of high school. If a third of my jobs went south, I wouldn’t make a living. I have a problem with people working for the government who say I need more when they can’t even do their job now.”
West said labor unions and Barack Obama want to turn this into a Third World country with “stupid white people leading the charge.”
He said Wisconsin’s Walker “needs to pull a Ronald Reagan with the air traffic controllers.”
He said Wisconsin’s Walker “needs to pull a Ronald Reagan with the air traffic controllers.”
A few of the union types made comments about the foreign cars some of the America-first tea party people were driving.
As theater, the rally was entertaining in a “Jersey Shore” kind of way, but the interplay didn’t do much to advance the discussion, increase understanding or solve any problems.
At the top of the stairs one man held a sign with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s misspelled last name in crosshairs.
“They want crosshairs,” he said, “here they are.”
Jim Sutton, chairman of the Democratic platform committee, pointed to his friends and said, “The ones up there, they represent the people.”
Then he gestured the other way and said, “the people there represent property. It’s a race to the bottom.”
The outnumbered tea party types gave it their best shot, but the other side had more bodies, louder microphones, more noteworthy guest speakers. Forty minutes into the rally, the tea party delegation was down to about 30 or 40 stragglers. Above them, at least 800 union supporters were still going strong. They win, for now.
I also ran into a retired union man, Rick Kemp, who used to be in the golf course irrigation business.
“Those people up there need to be talking to those people down there,” Kemp said. “They need to meet in the middle and find some common ground.”
I nodded, told him he might be onto something and thought good luck with that.
