By Robert Reich - March 10, 2011, 2:48PM
"Governor Scott Walker and his Wisconsin senate Republicans have laid bare the motives for their coup d'etat. By severing the financial part of the bill (which couldn't be passed without absent Democrats) from the part eliminating the collective bargaining rights of public employees (which could be), and then doing the latter, Wisconsin Republicans have made it crystal clear that their goal has had nothing whatever to do with the state budget. It's been to bust the unions.
That's no surprise to most people who have watched this conflict from the start, but like any coup its ultimate outcome will depend on the public. If most citizens of Wisconsin are now convinced that Walker and his cohorts are extremists willing to go to any lengths for their big-business patrons (including the billionaire Koch brothers), those citizens will recall enough Republican senators to right this wrong.
But it's critically important at this stage that Walker's opponents maintain the self-discipline they have shown until this critical point. Walker would like nothing better than disorder to break out in Madison. Like the leader of any coup d'etat, he wants to show the public his strong-arm methods are made necessary by adversaries whose behavior can be characterized on the media as even more extreme.
Be measured. Stay cool. Know that we are a nation of laws, and those laws will prevail. The People's Party is growing across America -- and the actions of Scott Walker and his Republican colleagues are giving it even greater momentum. So are the actions of congressional Republicans who are using the threat of a government shutdown to strong-arm their way in Washington.
The American public may be divided over many things but we stand united behind our democratic process and the rule of law. And we reject coups in whatever form they occur."
I too characterized Walker's strong-arm maneuver as a "coup d'etat" in someone's comment section the other day. And here's one definition of that phrase:
"Linguistically, coup d'état denotes a "stroke of state" (French: coup [stroke] d' [of] État [state]).[5] Analogously, the looser, quotidian usage means “gaining advantage on a rival."
But what Walker has done to Wisconsin's public sector unions is NOT about budgetary problems as Wisconsin's State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald revealed in this candid statement:
In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), one of Walker’s closest allies in the legislature, confirmed the true political motive of Walker’s anti-union push. Fitzgerald explained that “this battle” is about eliminating unions so that “the money is not there” for the labor movement. Specifically, he said that the destruction of unions will make it “much more difficult” for President Obama to win reelection in Wisconsin:
FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions. If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.
Governor Scott Walker is a liar:
POLITIFACT GOES INTO GREAT DETAIL ON THIS SUBJECT AND DETERMINES THAT THE ABOVE STATEMENT BY WALKER IS FALSE.
Walker contends he clearly "campaigned on" his union bargaining plan.
But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either.
While Walker often talked about employees paying more for pensions and health care, in his budget-repair bill he connected it to collective bargaining changes that were far different from his campaign rhetoric in terms of how far his plan goes and the way it would be accomplished.
We rate his statement False.
A coup d'etat by Governor Walker who lied to the people of Wisconsin about his plans to bust unions.
All things are subject to interpretation..... whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of POWER and not TRUTH.
ReplyDeleteFriedrich Nietzsche
It makes it easy to question what the Republicans in Wisconsin tell you
No, of course the budget problems are an excuse. It's the emergency, real or invented that enables democracy and justice to be brought to heel. Financial crises have a way of being a sales agent for the far right and history has more previous examples of this than a fruit cake has those nasty green things.
ReplyDeleteAs to public distaste for the coup -- I hope so -- but it's hard to keep from thinking about it. Mr. Walker, as my old friend Paine said " may accomplish by craft and subtility [sic]in the long run, what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one." Not that he's being all that subtle. "The taking up of arms, merely to enforce the repeal of a pecuniary law seems as unwarrantable by the divine law, and as repugnant to human feelings as the taking up of arms to enforce obedience to threats."
Of course a little anger could help Democrats overcome that ennui and lethargy that seems indigenous to our tribe. What's done really can be undone.
The selfish unmitigated gall of these efforts to bring down the unions to further the political ambitions of the GOP in the 2012 presidential election should galvanize not only progressives but any working class American.
ReplyDeleteHey, the 12 hour day and 6 day work week made this a great country ( for some)
ReplyDeletePensions, vacations, sick days - that just makes America weak!
We are fighting, not only great wealth and a fait accompli, but also the lassitude that has swept this country in the last couple of decades, an unwillingn¬ess to share in the political institutio¬ns or to even bother to learn about the situation. We have stagnated and it is time to fight back with the only tools we have: our enthusiasm and our votes.
ReplyDelete