Did Scott Walker And Wisconsin Republicans Just Reelect President Obama In 2012

President Barack Obama

Did the hard line and some would say union busting actions by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in Madison, Wisconsin just reelect President Barack Obama in 2012?

What President Obama and the Democrats failed to do may have happened in slow motion in front of everyone. The old saying of give a dog enough rope and he will hang himself just occurred in real time. Walker made a miscalculation on how fast he could ram through his union stripping measure. He thought the majority he had in the Wisconsin state senate would allow him to hammer the stripping of public union collective bargaining rights though under the cover of needed budget cuts. What walker did not count on was the walkout of 14 Democrats in the state Senate that would not allow the vote on the budget bill to take place due to rules that required a quorum.

The 14 Democrats went to Illinois and did a 4 corner slowdown that allowed the facts to emerge to the public that the budget reduction had been agreed to and that Walker still kept saying that ending collective bargaining rights of public union was a budget matter. It became clear that Walker’s desire to strip the bargaining rights of public unions was a separate desire unrelated to state budget issues. Then came the fake Koch brother phone call where Wisconsin Governor Rick Scott appeared to be in league with other Republicans in a plan to bust public unions across the country for reasons unrelated to fiscal issues. Scott Walker continued to forcefully repeat the same line even after it was clear that the union had already agreed to financial concessions.

Then the Republicans maneuvered to vote on a separate bill to strip union bargaining rights that had nothing to do with the Wisconsin state budget because it could be passed without the 14 Democrats present. The measure stripping public union bargaining rights passed and then the emperor had no clothes, but he will be informed that he is naked later. The appearance of a Governor and Republicans pitting themselves against teachers and other middle class workers to side with corporate interests left a bad taste in the mouths of many and served to wake up a battered, but groggy middle class. Now the reality of what is important to the wave of Republicans that were swept in was made clear and many in the public feel it must be stopped.

Is The State Of Wisconsin The Last Stand For Labor Unions

                             Wisconsin State Flag

The government worker standoff in the state of Wisconsin is like something rarely seen in the United States, true civil protest against a system that workers feel is meant to strip them of dignity and bargaining power. The tone from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is an old one filled with pre-union age code words wrapped in modern vernacular.

A statement from the Governor says that managers must have the ability to manage is his rational for stripping bargaining rights from the public unions although they have agreed to fiscal concession to deal with state budget issues. That statement translates into I make the rules, you have no say, so shut up and take it. This same theme has been echoed in other states, although the delay caused by the protests and Democrats leaving the state of Wisconsin has allowed the light of day to shine on the real issue, which is not the budget, but breaking the union.

In this strange time we live in public employees have somehow become the bad guys. Teachers, firemen and other civil servants are no being painted as spoiled elites. This must stop. Fire fighters were the heroes after the  September 11 attacks on the Wold Trade Center and now they are being branded as part of the problem. Some regular Americans are buying into this line of thinking and some politicians know that hard times are the ideal field to sow seeds of division.