Ellen Bravo Op-ed Exposes Walker and Wealthy Corporate Backer’s Trickery
Stop Walker’s sleight of hand
By Ellen Bravo Feb. 23, 2011 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Op-ed
My older son did magic shows as a kid. He learned early on that the key to fooling the audience was a steady stream of patter and something to draw their attention so that they wouldn’t notice the trick unfolding before their eyes.
I was reminded of his sleight-of-hand routine when a small group of tea party supporters approached me in Madison on Saturday, the sixth day of protests at the Capitol. They pointed to my sign: “Stop the Attack on Wisconsin Families.”
“Are you one of those freeloaders?” one guy asked. The others started chanting: “Freeloader, Freeloader.” They were filled with rage.
I hastened to assure them that I’d never been an executive at Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers or any of those Wall Street firms that crashed the economy and then took TARP money to pay big bonuses. “I never lobbied the government to get rid of regulations on financial institutions,” I said.
Turns out that wasn’t what they were angry about. They were up in arms (not, I was glad to see, literally) about public employees.