Rightwing fanatics have done a lot of damage over the course of their nine-month reign in Wisconsin. In addition to eliminating all meaningful collective bargaining for public employees, they’ve privatized and/or gutted most public assistance programs, repealed progressive legislation protecting the rights of minorities, passed a draconian budget that includes unprecedented cuts to public education, and redrawn congressional and state legislative electoral boundaries to ensure Republican majority strongholds for the next ten years.

But Scott Walker, the brothers Fitzgerald, and the powers behind them have achieved something else as well. They’ve mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in the state to learn about and stand up for the fundamental rights of a democratic citizenry.

The historic mobilizations this spring inspired hope that working people could organize to defeat the worst of the rightwing agenda. For many reasons, we were unable to pull this off, and heinous legislation has continued to be signed into law at breakneck speed. However, the three-week occupation of the Capitol, the interstate flight of the Democratic senators, and the mass mobilizations that at their height brought nearly 200,000 people into the streets of Madison were object lessons demonstrating how a pissed off, disenfranchised group of spontaneously organized people could show our power.

As an anthropologist, I have a fascination with the minute details of how people are making these political decisions and subsequently justifying them to the public. Because of this admittedly morbid obsession, I have willingly exposed myself to more than my fair share of rightwing ideological speech. It seems that, even more than the specific acts of legislation, their victory lies in the complete hijacking of public discourse about governance and all things related to the public sector.

A radical, progressive, and these days even a Democrat literally can’t get a word in edgewise. Over the course of the past several decades, rightwing corporate media and their masters have slowly dominated our language and the terms of policy speak to blacklist concepts of imperialism, exploitation, and even the term “working class.” The AFL- CIO itself, an organization of workers, edited material for events last spring to replace “working class” with “middle class,” arguing that the former term was too militant!

The biggest mistake of reasonable, well-meaning people has been to go along with their slippery language, hoping that logical debate and well-researched positions would bring the fanatics to their senses, or at least hold sway with the electorate and win some elections. But there were things we didn’t count on that are now being rapidly, painfully laid bare. Foremost among these is the rightwing’s undying commitment to their own political and economic ascendancy at the cost of democratic process and fair elections, the health of our communities, and the wellbeing of the planet that is the sine qua non of our very existence.

The lessons of this spring have been steeping amidst the awakening populace. Through coordinated actions and campaigns over the past 6 months, we are building solidarity and with it a language of resistance. This Labor Day, the South Central Federation of Labor’s annual Labor Fest saw at least double the attendance of prior years. Norm Stockwell, Operations Coordinator of Madison’s community-owned and –managed radio station, WORT, commented, “this crowd is even bigger than those who came out during the Bush years!”

The crisp, late summer sunshine added an ebullient air to the already festive occasion. Live performances from local bands got folks from two to eighty-two up and dancing. With the blows that organized labor has taken this year, the chance for union folk and union sympathizers to relax with other battle-weary people and enjoy each other’s company was a simple, sublime pleasure. I couldn’t turn around or walk more than 5 feet without stopping to talk to a person I’ve worked or protested with since the beginning of the year. I began to count the multiple dozens of people I consider brothers- and sisters-in-arms whom I didn’t know before February of this year. We’re all still here, and we’re making plans.

In the evening, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer and Tim McIlrath graced the stage of the Barrymore Theatre on their Justice Tour. In an act of musical solidarity, Morello and Kramer braved the February weather to perform in Madison during the height of the protests last spring and vowed to come back. The three self-proclaimed counter-culture guitarists from different generations played separately and together, climaxing in a shred-fest between Morello and Kramer on Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Madison’s fighting spirit was alive and well at the Barrymore. Silences between acts were filled with the signature chants of cheeseheads everywhere: “Recall Walker” and “2, 4, 6, 8, Walker Sucks!” In the middle of his solo set, Morello had some words of advice for the crowd: “The next time you have 150,000 people in the street and anarchists and cops occupying the Capitol together, get your hands on the motherfucking wheel of history and turn it in the direction you want it to go!”

Rebecca Kemble is an Anthropologist who studied decolonization in Kenya. She serves on the Board of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and as the President of the Dane County TimeBank.