April 18, 2011

WATCH: Andrew Breitbart to Wisconsin Labor Activists: “Go to Hell”

Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5450295200/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Gage Skidmore</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Saturday, right-wing luminaries Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart headlined a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, attended by “hundreds” of tea partiers and conservatives that was billed as a push-back against the months of progressive, pro-labor demonstrations at Wisconsin’s State Capitol. Bundled up against the wind and snow, Palin defended Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker and his anti-union legislation. “He’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions!” she said. “Your governor did the right thing and you won!”

But it was right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart, you could argue, who stole the show. At one point, Breitbart called the tea party “the most peaceful, law-abiding, clean-up-after-themselves group in the history of American protest,” a statement met with cheers from supporters and boos from the labor activists who’d surrounded the crowd of tea party faithful. Then Breitbart pointed to those labor folks and condemned them as uncivil, verbally abusive, and liars.

Breitbart’s message to them, he went on, was simple: “Go to hell. No serious. Go to hell. Go to hell.”

Here’s the video:

Because, of course, there’s nothing hypocritical about describing a movement as uncivil and then blithely telling it to go to hell.

Apart from the vitriol, Saturday’s rally made little splash on the national stage, unlike the massive pro-labor protests, attended by more than 100,000, which gripped the country for nearly a month this winter as unions and progressive groups defended the rights of public workers in the Badger State.

For the time being, the fight over the fate of public-sector unions in Wisconsin remains undecided. Walker’s anti-union “budget repair” is in legal limbo, after being successfully challenged by a county district attorney. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to decide the bill’s fate in the coming weeks.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate