Around 6,300 Tea Party supporters marched to support the conservative cause and Republican recall targets at the Tax Day Rally at the Capitol Saturday.
Speakers, including Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who faces a recall election June 5, addressed issues including the size of government, decreasing government spending, maintaining a low unemployment rate and lowering taxes.
After the lyrics “They will not control us, we will be victorious” from the Muse song “Uprising” energized the crowd, conservative radio talk show host and master of ceremonies James T. Harris called the recall effort against Gov. Scott Walker, Kleefisch and four state Senators a “weapon of mass destruction.”
Kleefisch said Wisconsin is ground zero for the national debate over the fight for the political and ideological future of the country.
“America’s eyes are focused right here today,” Kleefisch said. “We have a choice right now of moving backward or forward.”
The role of women and women’s rights in the Tea Party movement was also a central theme.
Kim Simac, founder of the conservative group Northwoods Patriots, encouraged the crowd to ignore Democratic claims that the GOP has waged a “war on women” this past legislative session.
During the session, Republicans passed bills promoting abstinence-centered sex education in high schools and providing penalties to doctors who fail to ensure a woman’s abortion is consensual, among others.
“I spent the best years of my life doing what I believe is the most admirable and significant job a woman can do,” said Simac. “I was a stay-at-home mom. That’s the job that I believe God created me to do… This is something that the media and all of our know-it-all feminists can’t take away from me.”
A relatively small but vocal counter-protest of about 100 anti-Walker demonstrators circled Capitol Square, interrupting the rally with chants, boos and air horns.
