Who would have ever thought that Wisconsin, the Midwestern bastion of liberal thought, could have become the site for a successful assault on organized labor?
There have probably been millions of words written about the recent folly in Madison. The events of the past few weeks once again verify the old adage, that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
If you ever told me that at some point the chambers of state government would be packed with protesters, or that more than a dozen Democratic state senators would flee the state to avoid a vote on an abominable bill, or that lawmakers would have to climb through windows to get back into government buildings, I would have labeled you crazy, in the vernacular of the street.
Yet it is all true.
I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be the last: Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s emasculation of collective bargaining laws for state workers is not just a bid for fiscal soundness. It is a blow directly aimed at one of the strongest allies of the Democratic Party in this nation: organized labor.
Politics rather conveniently meshed with the supposed good of the public in the Badger State.
But as, according to legend, Yogi Berri once said, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
Gov. Walker and his fellow Republicans may have overplayed their hand.
The New York Times had a Page One story Friday with the headline, “Wisconsin Curbs Public Unions, But Democrats Predict Backlash.” In it Mike Tate, head of the state’s Democratic Party, postulates that politically, Walker and his GOP cronies have handed Democrats a “gift.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/us/11wisconsin.html?pagewanted=1&sq=wisconsin%20unions&st=cse&scp=1
Needless to say, Tate is hardly a neutral observer. But he is not the only one to think that the shenanigans in Madison will prompt liberals and labor to rally, leading to recalls and other actions. For example, in a 24-hour period alone the state Democratic party had received $360,000 in donations.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did a story Saturday about the 14 Democratic Wisconsin senators who just came back to the state after leaving in a bid to prevent a vote on the Gov. Walker’s collective-bargaining bill. The article, which got more than 2,600 comments online, told how the “unbowed” and “unrepentant” senators were cheered by a huge crowd in the Capitol.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117862214.html
These Democrats vowed state workers will get their collective bargaining rights back. And they may be right, if Wisconsin residents are as angry about Gov. Walker as Susan Shirey of Wauwatosa, Wis.
In a letter to The Times Friday, Shirey wrote, “I have lived in Wisconsin for more than 20 years. Most people here are considerate, open-minded and civil. But today my own civility is gone. I am furious at the Republican legislators and the sneaky way they found to bypass the Democratic senators to pass legislation curtailing public employees’ collective bargaining rights.”
And she ended her letter with this warning, “My family members and I are not public employees, nor do we belong to a union. If I can be roused to such fury, imagine the reaction of those more directly affected. The Republican politicians have now almost ensured their own recall.”
Can you hear her, Gov. Walker?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/opinion/l12wisconsin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22WIsconsin%22%20and%20%22backlash%22&st=cse
