RICE LAKE, Wis. (WJMC) — Protesters converged on the State Capitol in Madison, and locally, on Monday.
Organized by the 50-50-1 Movement, the protests around the nation came in response to what organizers describe as the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration. The protests follow a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump and actions led by billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE agency.
While not affiliated with the 50-50-1 Movement, a dozen local residents gathered in downtown Rice Lake, with the same goals. Rice Lake resident Jamie Voelker disagreed with the mass firings of federal employees like wildland firefighters and those in the National Park Service.
“What they [Trump and Musk] are saying is we’re going to blow this all up and then we are going to start all over again. It doesn’t work that way,” Voelker said. “These people have experience and that is valuable stuff, when it comes to fire containment, protecting our resources. We need to make sure our parks stay in place and are not exploited for mining.”
Voelker was also concerned about Musk and inexperienced, young adults running DOGE.
“We have a person who has access to the Treasury right now who was not elected, is unvetted,” she said. “We’d have to be blind to not see there is a conflict of interest for somebody who is making multi-billion dollar contracts in our government and has a hold of our Treasury right now.”
Voelker said an economic blackout protest day was planned for February 28, encouraging people to boycott all purchases that day.