The local newspaper ran an advertisement thinly disguised as a story for an upcoming Tea Party rally on the front page yesterday.
We’re told the themes of the Tea Party rally are taxes and government accountability. The ad goes on to announce the date and time, and the GOP County commissioner who is the contact person.
We’re organizing what I’m thinking of as a “counter-rally”. If my past experience with this newspaper is any guide, we’ll be refused free front-page advertising for our protest, so we’ll have to rely on phone calls and emails. I’m fairly confident that we can equal or exceed any Tea Party numbers despite this disadvantage. I’ll be sure and let you know how we do.
What should the counter-rally look like? How do we respond to the Tea Party theme, specifically? I don’t know anyone who is opposed to “government accountability”, as listed in the newspaper ad. What do we do with that? Do we stand in one place at the courthouse square or walk the square? What should any signs say?
On the other hand, we’re currently collecting signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to defeat the union-busting law former Fox News personality and Ohio Governor John Kasich put in place. We will collect signatures and promote that repeal referendum at any gathering we hold,and there was a huge rally at the Ohio statehouse yesterday on repeal of Kasich’s union-busting law.
With chants of “We are Ohio,” an estimated 11,000 union supporters rallied at the Statehouse yesterday to launch the effort to overturn the law that would weaken public workers’ bargaining power. The crowd was the largest since the debate over Senate Bill 5 began in February. Many also signed up to help collect the 231,000 signatures needed to get a referendum on the November ballot.
As an alternative to a “counter-rally” or protest, should we just stick to the repeal issue, ignore the Tea Party blather going on across the square, and hold a repeal rally modeled on the huge repeal rally held yesterday at the statehouse, on the same day and time as the Tea Party rally?
I’m leaning that way. It would be wonderful to flip this, and use the Tea Party event to direct attention to Kasich’s union-busting activities.
arguingwithsignposts
I’d vote against giant puppet heads, whatever you do.
joe from Lowell
Make your rally a pro-union rally, not an anti-tea party rally. Otherwise, you’re playing defense on ground the teabaggers chose.
arguingwithsignposts
How about make it a “We’re all in this together” rally? That’s positive, right? United we stand, divided we fall. government is best that governs for all.
kay
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ll cross those off my list, although I think they’re interesting and attractive. I sort of want one, for the office “decor”:)
kay
@joe from Lowell:
Thanks. I generally lean toward “positive” and the Tea Party theme is so ridiculously vague I don’t know what to with it anyway.
Vicki
Accountability to all.
Signs with people’s faces: Government is accountable to me (picture of different races, gender, ages, professions)- different picture on each sign.
Signs with government is accountable to (a different set of words for each): union members, the elderly, children, women, all races
Joey Maloney
I suggest sending some people over to the Teatard rally to copy this guy’s strategy from back during the Schiavo protests.
Twinky P
My favorite sign from WI was “America is a Union!”
kay
@Twinky P:
The chant yesterday was “we are Ohio”
Chuck Butcher
Fooling with the tea party is just silly, their audience won’t go along with you – period; and people who might aren’t interested in the teabaggers. Figure out who it is that you are trying to speak to (no, it is not the internet crowd) and aim there. Pro-union works with the union members and active sympathizers but misses the larger audience. I’d say your theme in general should be that you’re about all of us, not just a handful.
Slogans aren’t my game.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@kay: Make some pro-choice signs. That will drive them into a frenzy.
Like, prevention not procreation. and Jesus used birth control.
kay
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
See? This is why we lose. You can’t do 15 things at once, or I can’t. That’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid.
Dennis SGMM
@kay:
Sounds good to me. Trying to counter a tea party protest is futile. It’s like trying to talk to our town crazy guy while he’s standing on the street corner yelling at cars.
arguingwithsignposts
@kay: m_c can’t do one thing at once, kay. stick with a unified theme. i like the “the U.S. IS a union” idea.
ppcli
@Chuck Butcher: Agreed with the general trend here: make it a pro-something rally, not an anti-teabagger one. Pro-union is a good idea, but I would cast it as “pro-working people”, or (as already suggested) “We are Ohio” or something like that. Take steps to reassert that fighting for unions is fighting for all workers.
kay
@Dennis SGMM:
Thanks. Now I have to get three counties to go along with one theme.
We actually have an active union member sort of “base” in this town (Steelworkers and Teamsters) although it’s small, and they generally show up.
The UAW were running buses to Columbus yesterday one town over, and they’ve been regular no-shows here in the past, so maybe they’re waking up.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@kay: Your instincts are good ones. I’d keep on the SB5 repeal referendum issue and let the contrast in attendance and comportment speak for itself. Get some video and upload it, then send it to some good blogs and also to Josh to see if anyone wants to feature it.
In the never ending clown car that is OH GOP, the Hamilton County GOP plans to appeal the 6th Circuit decision affirming Judge Dlott’s order requiring them to count all the ballots in the juvenile court election. The fact that the D candidate is kind of temperamentally and perhaps even intellectually unsuited for the job (based on my professional exposure to her earlier in her career) is immaterial. All the bloody votes should be counted. And whoever actually got the most wins.
kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I’m horrible at that. I don’t even take family photos. I think they should all have to rely on their memories of our family scenes :)
We have a person who is a DJ, and I think he is good at those sorts of things.
This is a stretch for people here. It’s a majority GOP county and they’re (sometimes) reluctant to appear publicly. Understandably, I always think. I don’t know if they’ll risk it.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@kay: Oh, I see that point. So forget my helpful suggestion on the video. But you’re smart to keep it focused.
Wilson Heath
My instant response sloganeering would be “We need Good Jobs, not Weak Tea.” Then again, I remember Van Jones at the DC solidarity rally for WI — some of the Tea Partiers are with us, they just don’t it yet. Pick something that only a sociopath could oppose, don’t draw sectarian lines, and let them tie their own noose if they are so disposed.
kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I have to go, but I saw this on the OSU election law site. I started a post on it, but it’s so freaking complicated it’s going to be wordy, to say the least.
I’m interested in the Bush v Gore angle. The election law folks think it is going to be huge if it gets to the SCOTUS.
urbanmeemaw
Random comments – 1) my local “news” (affiliate owned by GE/Comcast)bottom of screen scroll this morning said “hundreds rally in Columbus”. Of course I translated this corpcubine speak into thousands. Thanks for clearing that up, Kay. 2) A month ago I attended an anti SB5 rally on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati which had 3500 people present. My local GOP Talking Point Memo (The Cincinnati Stink-Wire) didn’t cover it. Not one word. This rally was, oh, 4-5 blocks away from their offices but “they didn’t know about it”. Somehow the mayor, 3 city council members, and a county commissioner managed to know about it. They did, however, manage to cover a Tea Party rally in Mason about 20 miles from downtown which included “dozens” of “protesters”. I heard a pro-union rally in St. Louis suffered the same fate. So ignoring these rallies seems to be the norm for local GOP Copy/Paste outlets regardless of population size. 3) I needed to rant. Regarding Kay’s question, I agree with commentors who suggested Tea Party should not be the focal point of rally. I think the message needs to be Republicans are responsible for consequences of this bill, which should be 3-4 succinct bullet points. I think the biggest problem with messaging for Democrats/left whatever is 1) even those who consider their beliefs to be more “liberal” or “progressive” and listen to NPR, etc., still have no clue at all what Rethuglican agenda really is. They labor under the illusion that “there is no difference” between Democrats and Republicans. In a long discussion last evening I asked a friend of mine if she was aware of the draconian anti abortion laws proposed/passed in state legislatures, the proposals to repeal child labor laws, the proposal in Michigan that allows corporations to take over cities and remove elected officials, and the initiatives (as in Ohio) to sell infrasructure to corporations. She was shocked. Her comment was, “I thought the media would be all over this”. Which leads me to 2) Not only do we need to carefully and cogently connect the dots for people since media are not, we need to determine a way to get the message out, that message being specific information about what Republicans are doing. I don’t think the vast majority of people really know. They may not care either. But I would suggest rally messaging should be focused on the “are you aware that”. Just my two cents.
Allan
Focus like a laser on the SB5 referendum. That’s your organizing principle.
There’s your “accountability” right there.
Let the people vote.
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect UNION.
Ignore the TeePee except to steal their thunder and become the bigger story when you outnumber them.
Have people with clipboards wearing T-shirts that say “Repeal SB5” working the crowds and at tables around the rally.
Handouts that explain in simple, clear language what’s wrong with SB5.
Napoleon
Kay,
What paper is that? Have you complained or asked for a story on your protest?
johnsmith1882
The tea party has nothing to do with government accountability or taxes. It’s the same old-same old ass end of the Republican party, repackaged so as to put 8 years of mindlessly supporting W Bush down the memory hole. I’ve said this a thousand times, but it bears repeating, “if the tea party is about government accountability and deficit busting, where were they for 8 years while Bush crapped all over himself?” The tea party amazingly found their voice two months after the black guy put his hand on the bible, and decided they were fed up already! They want their country back! Bullshit. Ignore those fuckers. Hold your rally as if theirs doesn’t even exist, because really, the tea party is all a figment of the media’s imagination anyway. Show Ohio what real protesters look like, protesting with a real cause.
Bruce S
“The tea party has nothing to do with government accountability”
Conservative economist and recovering Reaganite Bruce Bartlett has made the GOP agenda crystal clear: “The GOP doesn’t care about deficits…”
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/04/quote-of-day.html
We have to hang the essence – the fundamental truth of “even the conservative” Bartlett’s truth-telling – on these “Starve the Beast” lunatics, throw it in their face. If Obama can’t do it, we need to start at the next level down and keep it up until the narrative sticks. I have no idea why the Beltway Dems are so lousy at taking aim…
kay
@Napoleon:
It’s the local paper. It’s family-owned. I have this ridiculous complicated history with them because I started this counter-productive email debate with their wingnut reporter, over his coverage of the health care bill, which he took personally, although I thought I was fairly mild.
He’s defensive and combative with me, and I honestly don’t have the time or energy to deal with his feelings.
If anyone attempts to deal with them, it won’t be me. I’d be a bad pick for that.
Ziggy
A lot of good ideas above. I’ve done some organizing in the past vs. the Tea Party and if I could make one logistical suggestion it would be the following:
-Set your rally time for 30 minutes before the Tea Party rally. If you do this, the bulk of your people will have arrived as the Tea Partiers just start straggling in. This will be very discouraging and confusing for them (some might even leave) and also allows you to claim the most prime real estate at the location.
OzoneR
The people you need to reach out to are those independents and moderate Democrats who voted for Kasich because of “deficits” and “debts” and Obama being liberal or whatever.
I do have to say, not directly at you, that I think the issue is a lot of people on the left don’t see a reason to do what you’re doing. Why? People already agree with us, why do we need to rally?
They agree with us in theory, not in practice, it’s sorta like saying “Yes, I agree we should have chocolate cake for dessert, but I’m on a diet.”
Omnes Omnibus
Go with a positive theme. Do not frame it as a counter-protest. In Madison, the difference in demeanor between pro-union and the few tea people hwo have showed up has been stark. If you can present your group as positive and working for something, I think it really helps.
Shorter me: What everyone else already said.
demz taters
The graph from this article says it pretty clearly.
Citizen_X
@Allan:
Amen. I would also suggest THE UNION FOREVER. Illustrate w/Civil War soldiers if you like.
Might not work down here in the south, though.
spark
“THEY TOOK MY MEDICARE TO PAY FOR KOCH TAX CUTS”
dsc
Have a “coffee break” instead of a Tea Party. Get a local coffee place to help, bring out a cart or something. Maybe doughnuts or a bake sale.
Make you signs about what unions have done over the years.
“Love the 40 hour week? thank a union”
“Like your paid medical benefits? thank a union”
“Like your pension? thank a union”
make it all about how working people get screwed. Get some BIG posters of those income distribution charts (have markers available so that folks can put a dot where they fall on the chart), tax burdens by income, and, if you can get an interactive sign, that shows how much the wars are STILL costing by the minute.
put a big poster for people to tick off whether they Employed/Unemployed, Medical/no insurance, etc.
good luck!
Tyro
I’m horrible at that. I don’t even take family photos
That’s not an excuse. When theres something you’re not good at, especially something that everyone else seems to handle pretty well, what you do is get good at it.
Hungry Joe
Our local paper did exactly the same thing a few months ago. That rag had dropped a lot of straws over the years, but this was the last one: We canceled our subscription and told the unimpressed circulation manager in Bangladore why.
Xecky Gilchrist
Bring signs with slogans copied from Tea Party signs from two years ago and pretend to be a supporter who’s just a bit confused. Every single one of those older signs will be not only irrelevant but a liability.
– I kid. I agree with the others who say be positive and polite and focused, and for God’s sake no giant puppet heads or Cat-in-the-Hat hats.
patrick II
I tend to be pretty cliched, but you asked.
Signs:
Repeal SB5
America is a union
United We Stand, with perhaps some graphics of logos of various groups (union, teachers, small farmers?) linked together.
Are you having a mic and speakers?
if so:
songs:
United We Stand
This land is your land
Have someone give a speech. Here’s a great example of a regular person giving a speech in Wisconsin.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×563138
Suzan
I love the “We are Ohio” theme and the chart demz taters linked to, maybe make it into a sign. And yes, ignore the TP.
Exurban Mom
If I’m right, the local Tea Party event will be held on Tax Day, April 15th (they are doing the same thing in my neck of the woods in middle Ohio). I liked these signs from the Jon Stewart rally: “I pay taxes because I’m a grown-up and it’s part of the deal.” “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the tears of morons.” “I have no problem paying taxes because roads don’t pave themselves.” “War isn’t free. Pay your taxes, teabaggers.”
Person of Choler
Exurban Mom sparked some further thoughts:
”Kasich is Hitler” with a swastika on the signs will show you have a fresh and creative view on solving problems. You might be able to save some trees by recycling some of your old GW Bush posters for this purpose. “Pay Up, Suckas” will elicit a knowing laugh from your supporters. Make caricatures of Sarah Palin with red eyes and vampire teeth. Scribble some naughty puns on the name “Koch” and be sure to work in “Faux News” and “For The Children”.
KS in MA
May I suggest some American flags? And maybe a marching band if you can get one? I think I remember seeing a police bagpipes band on video from Madison– it was awesome.
Yutsano
@Exurban Mom:
This still makes me giggle. They can’t even get Tax Day right this year. Due to a quirk of a DC holiday, Tax Day is the 18th. Trust me the Post Office got the memo.
Suck It Up!
Go as the Tea Party and carry signs that really show what they are asking for because they have no idea what they are asking for. Carry signs that say “Take Away My Medicare Please” or “I Deserve To Work For Minimum Wage” or “Its My Right To Have Sewage In My Water”, etc….
WaterGirl
@Vicki: Vicki’s idea of different kinds of faces and different words on each sign would be very effective. Taking a cue from something on one of the other threads this morning, I would suggest words like:
War on the Old
War on Women
War on the Unions
Stealing our Retirement
etc.
Then I would have a few BIG SIGNS, with the overarching theme:
“We are Ohio”
“The GOP is hurting all of us.”
“Why has the GOP declared war on us?”
Ruckus
Kay
My take is not to answer/follow the teapartiers. Lead the liberals. Take the offensive. We as liberals have been on the defensive for most of the last 40-60yrs. We never take the offensive. And for the most part we lose. Instead of convincing people that health care is good for them and will cost less we fight tooth and nail about raising taxes to pay for… something that might be better. Mistermix’s post about car sales is really a telling one. Conservatives have been selling by misdirection for ever. We have to sell by information and facts. We have to do it better. Otherwise we are them.
debbie
Do it all, not either-or. The labor activists I’m reading in Ohio are focusing on the same, tired crap that stopped working decades ago: strikes.
Multitask: Rally for workers’ rights and collect signatures, and at the same time, loudly proclaim what real accountability is all about.
kideni
I agree with what many have said: don’t respond to the teaparty, do present a clear, positive message of your own. What I’ve been impressed with here in Wisconsin is how the ralliers generally stay on message, and the message shifts as circumstances dictate a change (initially it was kill the bill; when they rammed through the bill, it was recall whoever could be recalled and try to elect Kloppenburg; in the wake of judicial election, it’s still recalls with an added message of recounts and ending corporate control of elections). I don’t think it would do any good to have an anti-teaparty message, because you’ll never change their minds. I think insulting signs can have their place if they’re clever and to the point (yes, Hitler went after the unions, but it gets you nowhere to put it on a sign), but the media tend to glom onto those and would especially do so if the teapartiers were the reason the media are covering the event to begin with. It seems as though the referendum push is all about government accountability, so your group should be able to make that case as a complement to whatever the teaparty is rallying about. I also think it’s good to have a spirited, peaceful rally of your own alongside the teapartiers so that people see with their own eyes that you’re not a bunch of smelly thugs. American flags and Ohio state flags are also good to have.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@kay: we lose because of demographics.
but you are right.
I was snake pok-ing.
;)
VidaLoca
Kay,
Ignore it — or at least, don’t address it directly. Remember the old quote about mud-wrestling with a pig. I don’t know of anyone who’s opposed to “government accountability” either; problem is, no two people define it in the same way. It’s essentially an empty slogan. w/r/t taxes, see below.
Unless you’ve got a really huge crowd or a really tiny courthouse square, probably best to stay in one place :) .
If the repeal bill is your central strategic focus you’d probably want to make it the centerpiece of the event but I’d quibble with your “just” modifier. Repeal of collective bargaining has huge ramifications for both organized and un-organized working people; problem is, the ramifications for the un-organized are less direct. The right wing sees this and tries to play the two off against each other, promising the latter lower taxes in return for their support for the attacks on the living standards of the former (this has been the game for decades — what’s new in the current period is the deficit/debt “crisis” arising from the financial meltdown). So what we have to stand for is defense of the living standards of all working people — which likely gets you into broader and more general issues of the state budget rather than just repeal of the law against collective bargaining.
As an organizing theme for all of this I like “class warfare” myself — but I gather you live in a fairly rural and conservative area so YMMV. It seems to me that we should be saying that the rich caused this problem, let the rich pay for it, and that’s our position on the question of taxes.
Lendme50
I believe the axiom, “Telling isn’t selling” and if you want to get your message out your signs should be questions. “Why do the republicans hate the middle class?” “Why do the republicans hate the Unions?”
jwb
@urbanmeemaw: You know the rules of wingnut math: all tea party protests are multiplied by at least 1000. All progressive protests are divided by at least 1000.
jwb
I agree with everyone else. Go with positive, don’t bill it as a counter protest.
Niques
Agree with all of the above, but particularly like “Why is the GOP waging war on US?
Let “us” be misread as “U.S.”
ETA: Maybe “Why does the GOP hate US?”
Niques
Support Unions. The folks who gave us WEEKENDS.