The Occupy Madison protest took to the Capitol rotunda today.

I counted 56 or 57 participants — including children — arriving on the Capitol Square at noon. They marched half a block to the law enforcement monument, where they ambled around chanting "We are the 99%." Then a man started a chant that's very familiar from last winter's protests: "Whose house?"/"Our house!" And the group filed up to the Capitol and reassembled in the rotunda for some more chanting and speechmaking.





One of the chants in the rotunda was "How do we fix the deficit?"/"Tax! Tax! Tax the rich!" And I love the hanging banner: "All shared sacrifice is equal, but some must share the sacrifice more than others." It's an allusion to George Orwell's "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." You're not really supposed to be proud of sounding Orwellian... but there you have it.

I have video, which I'll put up soon, as well as more photographs. Generally, I'd say that Occupy Madison was a small affair. And yet they're claiming to represent 99% of Americans.

It reminded me a bit of the Silent Majority Walk last June. Those folks got quite a few catcalls about the disparity between their name and their number. Of course, the Silent Majority Walk consisted of conservatives, and the Occupy Madison people give off a strongly left-wing vibe. But I keep thinking there's a bridge between these groups. The main point is that they are upset about economic problems. Whether any of them are right about how to solve these problems... who knows?