100’s throng Wauwatosa town hall meeting. Sensenbrenner & Vukmir deliver massive FAIL in response.

In this video,  you see the standing-room only crowd and hear Vukmir lie about the fundamentals of collective bargaining to the shock of those assembled. She woodenly describes how much money an Oshkosh school district could save with the Governor’s proposed changes, and finally, you see Sensenbrenner adjourn the meeting to shouts of “Shame!”

Reporting on a raucous meeting is a lot like reporting on sports – easy to get caught up and forget to put down a word.  Thus I’m particularly impressed that “badscience” captured good play-by-play at last night’s wild Wauwatosa town hall meeting. One day we will be able to look back on this recorded moment of failure fondly, recounting how the deluded Vukmir and blustering Sensenbrenner dug their own graves and interred their political careers.

The scene is a little messy. But under the Walker regime, this is what Democracy looks like.

Hundreds rallied outside the building and 100’s packed the meeting room to bursting. The crowd’s anger against Sensenbrenner and Vukmir was already boiling. When the GOPers repeated canned talking points without responding to questions, the scene got hotter yet. Sensenbrenner periodically scolded the crowd. Finally, all order was lost. The words of badscience follow:

“After about 4 or 5 more questions, we were hearing the same old talking points, dishonesty and glad-handing of the issues. I don’t think anyone expected honest answers or even a conversation, but Poppa Jim anticipated the room’s anger, and made it his job to be the authoritarian and shut down any dialog or rebuttal. As Vukmir mouthed another talking chestnut such as “It is precisely because we care about our children and grandchildren that we have to do the heavy-lifting in order to get this deficit under control now…” one man, under his breath (but close to Poppa Jim) said, “why not just raise taxes?”

Poppa Jim, quite stern and authoritarian shouted, “Who said that?” as he looked towards the man. “I did!” the man shouted back. Poppa Jim, putting on his best baseball umpire voice, yelled “You’re outta here!” The man shouted back, as he was leaving, “This is a DEMOCRACY, and we are sick of the way you people are conducting yourselves…” He was very articulate, and very, very angry. No one was using their library voice.

More questions were asked, more and more audible responses were aimed at the same old talking points, the needle dropping into the worn groove of a well-rehearsed script. Outside, the chants continued. Poppa Jim kept pounding his gavel like a mad carpenter, saying repeatedly “If I have to pound this gavel again, it will be to adjourn the meeting!”.

He had to pound it at least a dozen more times, and finally did adjourn the meeting amidst cries of anger. Everyone jumped up and the room erupted in the “SHAME, SHAME, SHAME” chant.  One man stepped up to the mic and began saying “see, this is what our democracy is coming to, this is the respect they have for the people…” and a tense and ropy wingnut commando ran up and pushed the man away, turning off the mic. A slight wrestling match ensued, though it fortunately didn’t escalate beyond stupidity.

Poppa Jim and Leah Vukmir quickly and silently slipped from the room and left under police security. An impromptu rush to sign “recall Vukmir” database lists on sheets hastily torn from a legal pad began in the Library lobby. Her constituents were truly disgusted by her sing-song smily-faced dishonesty. The inside crowd joined the outside rally. Chants and honking horns rose into the night in our little Tosa Village City Hall and Public Library.

We went home strangely unsettled, feeling witness to the tense and intense immersive theatrics of performed discourse at these town hall meetings.  In our post-Walker world, however, the politics of division which he has seeded have amplified the palpable anger of a waking and massive movement.”

Sensenbrenner:  Republican U.S. Representative Jim Sensenbrenner’s Web Site

Sensenbrenner serves the 5th Congressional District. The map is HERE.

Vukmir: Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir’s web site.

Leah Vukmir is a Wisconsin State Senator elected to the 5th District last fall. She was formerly an Assemblywoman serving the 14th district from 2002-2011. Vukmir’s wikipedia page.

Expressmilwaukee.com calls Lea Vukmir an ultraconservative.

Politifact catches Vukmir in a lie.

Jim Sensenbrenner: In his political office since 1979.