Truth to Power

Wisconsin, don’t back down

When you saw the masses crowding Tahir Square in Cario, what was your initial impression? Did you side with the people, or the power?

When you see the crowds standing up for their rights in Wisconsin, again, what was your initial impression? The people, or the power?

Republicans in Wisconsin said the collective bargaining rights for public employees needs to be limited so the state can avoid laying off workers due to a short-term budget gap of $137 million.

Now, this is simply nonsense. Bargaining in the future has no impact on a budget now, of course. The union has agreed to Scott Walker’s budgetary demands, making his tyrannical gesture plain. He has been hired- seemingly by the Koch brothers- to destroy unions. He lied about why it was necessary, and he’s continued to lie about the situation as his laughably buffoonish pranking by phone showed us all, and Fox News helped, by yet again lying about the facts.

Now, people can have legitimate disagreements about the role of unions in our society, fine. To me, anytime a group of people band together to conserve the rights of the individual, I’m all for it.

If every person has the right to defend – even by force – his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Bastiat

So I say to Wisconsin, don’t back down. Already your protests have scared off some folks:

Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida and Mitch Daniels of Indiana on Tuesday opted not to follow in Walker’s footsteps, and abandoned plans in their states to close their budget deficit by curtailing the rights of unions, which could signal a shift in momentum.

Now, Walker is going to lose this battle. Bad timing, for one thing. Try not to squash the rights of common folk while fattening the coffers of power with CNN still showing marchers in Cario, for starters. Secondly, don’t continue to lie about what you’re doing when you’re so easily contradicted. The only way Walker will win is by increased use of force to outlast the thousands surrounding the capital. Nice visual, that.

Of course the apologists for force, statists to the core redstate.com loathes the union, but then again, they always deflect to brute force and suck up to big money. They are republicans, after all.

I understand that people are upset that their unsustainable sweetheart deals are about to go belly-up. I do, truly. But they are sweetheart deals, and they are unsustainable, and the country can no longer afford to ignore the fact that government employee unions have been raiding the public treasury in exchange for tawdry partisan political patronage.</em>

It’s not the public unions that have been raiding the public treasury. It’s Wall Street. It’s Lockheed Martin. It’s the top 2% writing the laws that have kept middle class wages stagnant for 30 years. It is, as it always is, us vs. them.

And the question, as it always is, is this. What side are you on? Better yet…are you the 2%?

I think I already know the answer. Wisconsin, don’t back down.


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