Wisconsin, a state that wasn’t in such bad shape…

…until Republican Scott Walker was elected Governor.

I asked Vic to tell me if he knew whether Governor Walker campaigned on a platform of repealing the collective bargaining rights of public employees. The answer seems to be not really or maybe just barely if you could read between the lines. Thanks for the link, Vic.

As I said in the recent post about the Middle East I believe people have a right to chart their own course in elections even stupid courses. It strikes me that in this case, candidate Walker was dishonest and didn’t give his voters the chance to choose the course he’s taking them on. Apparently he was so intent on winning an election he decided not to be honest about his plans. That’s strike one.

Strike two: What Walker is doing is attempting to bring about a fundamental change to the midwest’s political landscape by importing controversial “right to work” legislation from the states in the deep South where it has been largely confined. This is a Roe vs. Wade sort of surprise which is more power grab than anything else. Rahm Emmanuel famously said: “you never want to let a crises go to waste.” I believe the GOP was outraged when President Obama pushed his health care agenda under this theory – except that everyone knew that’s what Obama planned to do. The President didn’t deceive any voters.

Strike Three: Scott Walker is making things in Wisconsin incomporably worse to please the likes of jerks like Grover Norquist. I think these four comments from Wisconsinites disagreeing with Andrew Sullivan make a lot of sense.

By the way. I have a long standing respect for collective bargaining even as I often have little but contempt for the way it is conducted and the way some people (elected officials primarily) cave in to union demands.

BTW My Dad was on the public employee union side of the bargaining table. I was on the side of the elected officials meaning (I think) the side of the voters.

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