Anyone wondering just how far unionized public sector employees are willing to go to get their way can stop wondering. What is going on in Wisconsin is nothing less than an attempt to usurp the results of the 2010 election, using Democrat- and union-organized intimidation as the vehicle of choice. Yet when one cuts through all of the orchestrated outrage by union thugs and their co-conspirators in the media and Democrat party, one inarguable fact emerges: the progressive agenda was thumped on November 2, 2010 by the Wisconsin electorate. Not nipped. Hammered.
Progressive agenda was thumped on November 2, 2010 by the Wisconsin electorate. Not nipped. Hammered
Despite the fact that Barack Obama carried Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, the 2010 election was a bloodbath for Wisconsin Democrats. Scott Walker was elected Governor by with a 52% majority; the state Senate went from 18 Democrats to 14, and 15 Republicans to 19; the Assembly went from 50 Democrats to 38, Republicans, from 45 to 60.
In other words, the people switched sides, from Democrat to Republican, in no uncertain terms. One of the critical issues of the election? Democrat fiscal irresponsibility--driven in large part by unsustainable outlays for public sector workers. Now that they're a minority, what do Wisconsin's state Senate Democrats consider representative government? Running away and hiding in order to prevent a vote on something with which they disagree.
Does it get any more infantile and contemptuous than that?
Beyond Wisconsin, what do progressives in general think of representative government? The Democratic National committee has been brought in to organize the demonstrators, and the president himself has abandoned any pretense of neutrality: "Some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally seems like more of an assault on unions."
The fact that public service unions have been assaulting the taxpaying public for decades--to the point where virtually every state in the union is going broke? The president who promised to "heal" America is a complete fraud.
Though it ought to be unnecessary, I want to make it clear that I am not anti-union. I am anti-public sector union. I have no problem whatsoever with any group of workers in the private sector that wishes to organize in order to negotiate with management. The reason is simple: private enterprise have self-restraining mechanisms known as profit and/or bankruptcy. Workers can only demand so much before one of those two mechanisms restrain them: no business will remain open if it fails to make a profit, or if worker demands drive it into bankruptcy.
States which have kowtowed to public sector unions are either drowning in debt-fueled red ink
Public sector unions? As virtually every state budget around the country can attest, restraining mechanisms do not exist. States which have kowtowed to public sector unions are either drowning in debt-fueled red ink, hammering their residents with higher and more taxes--or both. Even worse, since states cannot legally declare bankruptcy, they look to the federal government for salvation. If the federal government bails out profligate states, that means every taxpayer in the nation, including those who live in fiscally responsible states, will be pick-pocketed to pay for such irresponsibility.
This begs a fundamental question: should the people of Florida or Indiana, e.g., be forced to underwrite public sector union demands in Wisconsin or New York?
Of course not. So why have the politicians been so timid? Union thuggery, plain and simple. Remember the calls for civility after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords? On pro-union posters carried by demonstrators in Wisconsin, Governor Walker has been referred to as "Hitler," the "midwest Mussolini, " "mini-Mubarak," "Hosni Walker," a "terrorist" and a "rapist" of public employees. Republican Senators have received phone calls threatening their homes and businesses, and union thugs have staged demonstrations outside both. Teachers have literally walked off the job for three days-and-counting in several districts, leaving the students they ostensibly "put first" without an education. A Democrat State Senator, Lena Taylor, not only tossed in a Hitler reference, she flat out lied. "In 1933 (Hitler) abolished unions and that is what our governor is doing today," she said.
No one's abolishing anything, Ms. Taylor. Republicans in Wisconsin are attempting to forestall massive union layoffs, and budget-busting collective bargaining by people long used to getting their way, even as the people who underwrite their demands are struggling to get by--on lower salaries and less benefits than their public sector counterparts.
How powerful are these unions?
How powerful are these unions? Across the country, they have not only closed down schools, they have crippled city transportation systems, refused to put out fires, refused to clear snow or pick up garbage, and employed a host of other strong-arm tactics whenever they have been dissatisfied with the conditions of their contracts. Furthermore, they have engaged in such thuggery even when they knew they were breaking the law.
The majority of Americans have had enough. They're sick to death of the arrogance, the whining and the utter disconnect from reality demonstrated by people who consider it an effrontery that they might be forced to contribute to their own health care and pensions, not get automatic pay raises, and not be able to hold cities and states hostage to their demands. They're sick of people who think that getting treated exactly like millions of their fellow Americans is beneath their dignity.
And once and for all, spare me the talk about hard-working public sector employees. While many of them do work hard, there aren't more than a handful of Americans who haven't come into contact with some punch-the-clock, it's not my job, arrogant no-account who couldn't work at a real job if his life depended on it.
It's not time to negotiate with public sector unions. It's time to abolish them
As far as this writer's concerned it's not time to negotiate with public sector unions. It's time to abolish them. I can think of no other entity (government unions), which can negotiate terms with another part of the same entity (government politicians), both of which can foist the results of that negotiation onto a third entity (the taxpayers) which has no place at the bargaining table.
“I've said all along the thousands of people who are storming the capitol have every right to be heard, but I'm not going to let them overshadow the voices of the millions of taxpayers in the state of Wisconsin who deserve to be heard, as well.”--Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
Here hoping what started in Wisconsin goes national. Despite all the obfuscation, this confrontation boils down to one reality: the people who pay the bills want their country back from those who would squander it away in an orgy of mindless spending. Public sector unions have been a large part of the problem. The 2010 election was a clear indication that Americans are demanding a solution. If Democrats and their public union constituents wish to defy that mandate, so be it.
2012 is less than two years away.
