Bully Politicians Attack Teachers, Public Workers And Single Mothers

 Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels

There seems to be something new that has replaced bullies at school and that is the bully politician. The bully politician seems to be pushing around teachers, firefighters, government workers in general and single mothers.

Governor Scott Walker is kicking workers in public unions even after they have agreed to financial concessions to deal with the state of Wisconsin budget issues. In other corners teachers seem suddenly to be scapegoats for our poor education system results. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee decided to take a round house punch at single mothers.

Is this a new trend to beat up on soft targets? An article titled “Mike Huckabee’s Portman slam marks a week of controversial comments” by Holly Bailey March 4, 2011 and published in Yahoo News goes into some of Governor Huckabee’s controversial comments. The former Presidential candidate made a reference to Oscar winner Natalie Portman as possibly glamorizing unwed motherhood. Single mother have one of the toughest jobs in the country and to get a slap like that was uncalled for.

Governor Scott Walker and others involved in a head-on assault on public labor unions have manage to gain supporters that are somehow painting public employees as a privileged class in society. An article titled “Mitch Daniels on Monday: ‘The elite in American society, really, are government unions’” by Jim Geraghty February 23, 2011 and published in the National Review details how Indiana Governor Jim Daniels stated that government union are the new elite in society. He stated that their pay and benefits are much higher than the public they serve.

Consider the situation and what is missing from the story. Many public workers such as teachers have college degrees as a requirement as do workers in other areas of government service. A word force that contains a large degree of college degree holding individual should have a decent average wage level, but to call public workers elite because they have decent pay, benefits and job security is a stretch. There was a time when decent pay, benefits and job security was a good thing.

Ask public employees about their job security with state and local budget shortfall and looming layoffs. An article titled “Unemployment falls below 9%, government cuts 30,000 jobs” by Steve Chiotakis March 4, 2011 and published on the public radio.org website examines how the overall unemployment rate for February 2011 went below 9% while at the same time 30,000 government workers were laid off. It seems that the tag of elitist is misplaced and maybe it belongs on the people throwing the term around.

Mike Huckabee’s Hypocrisy, Criticizes Natalie Portman Skips Bristol Palin, Baby Mama Drama

Why did Mike Huckabee have to go all the way to Hollywood to find an unwed mother to pick on? The potential Presidential candidate could have just looked at his Fox News coworker, Sarah Palin and asked her if it was ok for him to pick on her daughter Bristol. For some reason Huckabee is working overtime to embed himself like an Arkansas tick into the minds of the far right wing as their guy when it comes to hot button social issues.

Huckabee criticized Portman for glorifying being pregnant and unwed with comments she made in her acceptance speech. What about Bristol Palin, who has built her notoriety largely on the fact that she was an unwed mother and daughter of her famous mother, Sarah Palin. Natalie Portman just won the Academy award for best actress, the fact that she is unwed and pregnant really does not factor into her fame.

If not for the fact that Bristol Palin was a pregnant, unwed teenager during her mother’s campaign for Vice President, she would have just been another one of Sarah Palin’s children, but her pregnancy was her notoriety. Bristol has used her unwed condition to become wealthy and famous. Sarah Palin’s daughter has been on one of the most popular shows on television, Dancing With The Stars die to her rise to fame.

Governor Huckabee you picked on the wrong unwed mother. It is much harder to become an Oscar winning actress with enormous talent that happens to be pregnant than to be a pregnant high school dropout and then rise to fame. It seems that your coworker’s daughter has sent a far more damaging message. You chose to select your baby mama drama by thinking you can double down by bundling a social issue with Hollywood elitism and get in deep with the far right fringe.