My phone rang on a Sunday afternoon, and I never answer my phone on Sundays -- unless it's family, or if it was Andrew Breitbart; an exception that had little to do with the fact he was my employer.
"Hello."
"Did you see it?"
"Yeah, we watched the live feed online. It went off just a few seconds ago."
"Could you even hear us? The crowd was insane. I couldn't even hear myself."
"The feed was great. You could hear every word."
"Including me telling them to go to hell?"
It was April 17, 2011, a full two
months after Wisconsin state Senate Democrats fled the state and
exploded Republican Governor Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill into the
most important national political battle this country will have
in-between the '08 and '12 presidential elections.
Wisconsin is a state President Obama
won by 14 points, but just two years later it was hit by a Republican
tsunami. Among the casualties was Democrat Russ Feingold, a popular U.S.
Senator. But the real winner was Milwaukee County Executive Scott
Walker who was given Republican majorities to work with in the
legislature.
Wisconsin was in terrible economic
trouble and Walker acted quickly, drawing up a bill that would, among
other things, reform the public sector unions that were bleeding the
state dry thanks to benefits and pensions the rest of us -- the
taxpayers who pay their salaries -- can only dream of.
The idea was to --gasp! -- demand
public employees kick in more for their health and retirement benefits,
still less what those of us in the private sector pay, but enough to
make spoiled crybabies crybaby. Walker's most important reform, though,
was the end of collective bargaining
for all public unions not representing police and firemen. Walker's
bill would also liberate public employees from being forced into
unions. Though they would never say so, this is what most terrified (here's why) Democrats and the real motive behind the outrages that would follow.
The first 27 years of my life were
spent in Wisconsin. I grew up and got married there. Most of my family
is scattered throughout the state, and many of them are school teachers.
But it wasn't until Feb 17, 2011, that Wisconsin became my personal
crusade.
That was the day the Democrats fled the
state because that appalling and cowardly act was the only way they
could attempt to stop Walker from passing his reforms.
And so, as the dirty filthy hippies occupied the State Capitol, as the Journal-Sentinel
(the state's largest paper) practiced its bias, and the national media
lied about everything, and as I argued with family members I love who
were part of those Capitol protests -- I was outraged and obsessed by
what was happening and determined to do everything I could to ensure
those dirty filthy hippies and the crybaby public unions were dealt one
humiliating loss after another.
Feverishly, I covered and followed
every twist and turn of the drama on the Bigs. The fact that my home
state was involved had little to do with it. It was the injustice of
Democrats and liberal judges and union thugs and the corrupt media using
every nasty, deceitful trick in the book to overturn, stifle, and bully
democracy.
You can't begin to imagine how lonely
this fight was in the beginning. At the time it felt like it was just
me, a few Facebook friends, and Milwaukee's two talk radio giants, Mark
Belling and my friend Charlie Sykes. The media and the protesters had
seized the narrative, the state was under siege, and no one in the GOP
appeared to be lifting a finger. Essentially, what the union thugs,
backed by the White House, were doing was working. Everyone and anyone
who could help seemed intimidated…
…Except Andrew Breitbart.
I'm the editor of Big Hollywood, I
wasn't Andrew's political guy, but even though the Wisconsin battle was
eating up a lot of my time, Andrew supported everything I was doing. He
understood better than I did that was going on in Wisconsin, what it
meant for our country and the rule of law, and therefore he wanted in on
the fight. And my guess is that one of the reasons he wanted in was
also due to the fact that at the time we were completely outnumbered,
outgunned, and it all looked hopeless.
Andrew loved that kind of fight most.
"Including me telling them to go to hell?"
I don’t remember how I answered Andrew,
but I do remember how I felt when he told that mob exactly where they
needed to go -- and that was, for the first time, hope.
Andrew and Governor Sarah Palin walked
into the lion's den that afternoon -- straight into the state's Capitol;
ground zero. Surrounding them were the most dangerous people in the
world not sitting in a jail: spoiled union thugs addicted to getting
something for nothing. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them, and
their malevolent purpose that day was two-fold: To make sure the
opposition's message wasn't heard and to send a message of intimidation
to anyone else who might also consider speaking out.
Throughout the entire event, these
crybabies howled, screamed, banged drums, tooted horns, and acted like
the surly mob they were. And although they were only a few feet away
from, Andrew looked every single one of them in the eye and told them to
go to Hell.
The only reason I'm violating one of my
cardinal rules and inserting myself into this story is because I think I
represented the silent majority in Wisconsin -- the person who was
sitting at home watching my state being trashed and feeling as though
the media was right, that maybe I was in the minority of opinion on this
one. How can you possibly defeat so many people who are so energized,
organized, and angry?
Naturally, the corrupt media all but ignored Andrew and Palin's appearance (she also gave a brilliant speech which
is embedded below), even though they were among the first national
figures with the courage to step into the brawl. But it didn’t matter
because we no longer need the media to get our message out. "Go to hell"
went viral, and if you had to lay down a marker as to when things
started to turn around in Wisconsin, I would argue it was then.
Andrew's (and Governor Palin's)
fearlessness, their willingness to walk right up to the bully and pop
him in the mouth -- this was a grassroots game-changer. If some Jewish
guy from Southern California is willing to fight this fight, then by God we are going to fight this fight.
Since then there have been countless
court battles, a round of recall elections, a state Supreme Court
election, and any number of fights -- and the crybaby union bullies have
lost them all. Moreover, Walker's reforms are showing the kind of real
results that can no longer be denied.
But one cold, rainy, tension-filled day
last April, Andrew Breitbart planted the flag of his reputation and his
company into the battle for Wisconsin, a flag we have only risen at
every opportunity since his passing. That flag flies today and will fly
until the final battle is over, Tuesday's final recall election.
In the end, we may look back and wonder
if Andrew played fair. Because if you think about it, instead of
telling that mob to go to hell, Andrew probably should've told them they
were going to need more guys.
