This what you get when you put Republicans in charge of government. First they cut taxes to put the state budget in the red. Then they try to outlaw labor unions so it's easier to balance the budget.
Make no mistake: what happened in Wisconsin this week was the first shot in a war on American workers. The protesters gathering in the state capital are not there to whine about pensions or healthcare costs.
They've come to fight for their professional lives. If the governor has his way, public labor unions will go the way of the dinosaur, ushering in a new age of freedom and prosperity for...oh I'm sorry. I was freebasing one of Scott Walker's press releases.
If Governor Scott Walker has his way, teachers, social workers and other professionals working for the state of Wisconsin will loss their rights to bargain collectively for anything BUT their salaries. And with that, you can kiss professionalism goodbye. Teachers will be office workers taking their orders from corporate.
Beyond my obviously self-interested desire to protect the professionalism and dignity of teachers, I am outraged by the Republican mission to reduce all of us non-millionaires (and that includes you, Joe-the-Plumber) to subservient lackeys struggling just to survive.
If Walker succeeds in Wisconsin, union-busting fever is going to spread to Ohio, Indiana and New Jersey. Let's face it: the right-wingers of this country want the United States to become one giant Alabama, land of the stupid and home of the resentful, where they manufacture killer Toyotas in non-unionized factories.
That's why I've made my first political donation (ever!) to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin: to lend my small bit of encouragement to those state senators who are blocking the vote on the union-busting budget bill. I don't believe in magic, but I do believe in making things more trouble than they're worth. If the protesters in Madison can't convince the governor that it's not worth the trouble to directly attack the rights of union workers, you're going to have a lot of Republicans wondering just how far they can go. Workplace safety laws? Minimum wage? Child labor? It'll all be in play. Wisconsin is either the beginning of the end of the American Dream or the birthplace of a new dream, an America as rich in community as it is in dollars.
It can be this:
or this:
The choice is ours. But not for much longer.
Wow, pretty intense Mr. Fishbane. Very good writing and very good outlook. I'm thinking the same about the same situation. America is under attack by its own politicians. Soon, more will realize this simple fact and the revolution will begin. If not that, the tailgate parties.
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