A number of conservative blogs have posted a lot of thoughtful commentary on the legislation Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker introduced to reform his state’s relationship with its public employees and the angry reaction of said employees and their allies in the Democratic Party.
As many have noted, their protests hardly represent a grassroots uprising, with union officials instructing their members to take off work and come to the state capitol to protest, including missives to unionized government workers in other states to come to Madison to “show solidarity with Wisconsin workers”. So, while ABC News’s Devin Dwyer contends that these rallies “bear some similarities to grassroots displays by Tea Party members who voiced deep dissatisfaction with lawmakers ahead of the 2010 elections”, in reality, they’re far different.
Unlike those rallies, he reports
. . . the latest are being fomented by the national political establishment — including President Obama and the Democratic National Committee — who have directly interjected themselves into the state-level debates.
Organizing for America, Obama’s campaign arm now under the umbrella of the DNC, has been mobilizing union members and supporters to rally against a proposed Wisconsin budget measure that would strip workers of collective bargaining rights and force them to contribute more for benefits. . . .
DNC Chairman Tim Kaine also reportedly spoke with Wisconsin union leaders and state legislators ahead of the protests, the Huffington Post reported, signaling his direct involvement in coordinating the effort.
Emphasis added. Kudos to ABC News for reporting that these efforts are being ginned up by national Democrats. Fascinating how they would intrude so aggressively in state issues. Does seem that this time the word is getting out that these rallies are anything but grassroots. I think Nancy Pelosi had a word for what they are.
And that’s not the way these rallies resemble the left-wing take on the Tea Parties. As Stacy McCain observes, in his must-read analysis of the situation:
The Walker-Mubarak comparison made frequently by the protesters, as well as comparisons of the Republican governor to Hitler, inspired University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse to muse: “After all those efforts to paint Tea Partiers as using violent images and rhetoric, these pictures from Madison have got to hurt.” Quin Hillyer’s observations about the Obama-led “thugocracy” illustrate the yawning chasm between the intimidation tactics of the Left and all the prattling about “civility” liberals dished out last month.
Read the whole thing. Vis Instapundit.
Astroturf? Rallies organized by public employee unions and the Democratic National Committee? Angry rhetoric? Replace “public employee unions” with “corporate interests” and “Democratic” with “Republican” and, well, it’s what we’ve been hearing about the Tea Parties from our friends on the left and in the mainstream media.
UPDATE: Via Glenn Reynolds comes the title, albeit a tad long I was looking for this post, “It’s quite striking the way almost every lie the left ever told about the Tea Party has turned out to be true of the government unionists in Wisconsin and their supporters.”
Here it is in shortened version, The lies liberals told about the Tea Party better apply to Union and DNC-backed protests in WI.
Wonder if it’s not too late to change it.
The unions, on cue, are going to create chaos as the means of shutting down the argument. If teachers go out on strike, the government has to decide how to get the kiddies back to the learning trough. If the cops and or the firemen join the strike, embattled “representatives” of the people have to keep the public focused on who is causing the problems.
The theory of chaos is that the general public tires quickly of the chaos and wants the representatives to make it go away. That is the purpose of the chaos. If you have not read Alinsky, you do not understand how easily orchestrated and implemented this procedure is.
Tyrants win and keep control by orchestrating chaos. They know when to use it and when to shut it down. Union chaos is hollow. The people are paid to revolt and told when to stand down. The do so like so many puppets.
If it were possible to fire the teachers wholesale and advertise for replacements, I am fairly certain that the school would be up and running within a month. Under such pressure, any number of reliable people able to teach would respond “for the children.” Unfortunately for present day teachers, the home schooling organizations are super strong and enormously successful. Nothing would prevent implementing an organized curriculum on a class room basis.
If I were in Wisconsin, I would be organizing churches to start up a “home school” operation right now. You would be surprised at how many parents and neighbors will work for “free” when the need is great.
Politics being what it is, we are sure to hear all sorts of doomsday rhetoric at the thought of cutbacks in government spending. The poor teachers will be starving in the streets, to hear the politicians and the media tell it.
Letting armies of government employees retire in their fifties, to live for decades on pensions larger than they were making when they were working, is tantamount to robbing the taxpayer blind.
Wisconsin Republicans are saying, “We just don’t have the money anymore.” Democrats in the state say, “Give the taxpayers a little rhetoric, a little smoke and mirror with the book keeping… and we can keep the party rolling.”
As Glenn Reynolds pointed out (Instapundit), the Wisconsin ralliy is “overwhelmingly white.” Let’s see how long it takes for THAT criticism to surface in the Lammestream Media!
Wonder what role Tim Kaine’s eyebrows played.
Question nobody’s asking: Who’s paying the hotel bill for the fugitive liberals?
I have a suggestion;
1) Fire the teachers en-mass.
2) Open the ranks of teachers to those men and women who have retired honorably from the US military after 20 or 30-years service waiving the requirement for a “teaching degree”. Anyone, especially former NCOs, who can thrive for several decades in the Military understands both “learning” and how to deal with young people and teenagers.
This would both provide meaninful public-service jobs for those retiring with still many useful and productive years in front of them. AND provide positive male and female role models for students.
Plus the advantage of what bratty student is going to mouth-off or assault a teacher who can break him in-half like a twig? Or drop him like a sack from a free-standing position at 50-yds?
Last year at this time during the Tea Party protests the left was so outraged that there were signs with the swastika and Obama with ahitler like moustache. One would think that when the leftists protest they´ll take the high road. In Madison the left is doing the same and more. Shame on them!