It’s been a week since conservatives overpowered the public sector unions in Wisconsin and gave the taxpayers of that state a decisive victory in the battle to rein in government spending. The win gave the American majority hope that they can retake their government from union forces that have burdened most of us with seemingly insurmountable debt. As Wisconsin’s lessons for the conservative movement become clear, no message can be clearer than the viability of a sustainable fiscally conservative human infrastructure to counter the left. Exploring how that infrastructure came together in Wisconsin gives us a blueprint for success in other states buckling under progressive overreach.
To that end, it’s important to note that the Wisconsin battle didn’t begin in 2012, or 2011 for that matter. Our own work in Wisconsin began in the fall of 2010 with the launch of American Majority and Media Trackers in the state. Full-time American Majority staff in Wisconsin conducted more than 30 training sessions across the state since the spring 2011, and last year as the budget battle heated up American Majority was able to leverage the local infrastructure it helped develop into a potent voice in favor of Gov. Scott Walker’s reforms. When 10,000 people turned out for the Tea Party and American Majority rally on the capitol steps in Madison on February 20, 2011, we knew that the taxpayer wasn’t going to be bullied by the state’s protected ruling class of unionized bureaucrats. The fight was on.
We also launched at the time a new and potent force for accountability and transparency: Media Trackers. Started in Wisconsin as the conservative answer to the liberal Media Matters, but on a local scale, Media Trackers with two full-time staff, has, over the last fifteen months, relentlessly exposed public corruption, incompetence, media bias, and the fleecing of the taxpayer. Since February of 2011, Media Trackers has compiled more than 750 articles to drive a message of change, all about Wisconsin issues.
