The Wisconsin Protests Are a Battle in a Larger GOP War on Working Americans

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitchell-bard/the-wisconsin-protests-ar_b_825121.html

The Wisconsin Protests Are a Battle in a Larger GOP War on Working Americans
Mitchell Bard

...Upon reaching the Capitol, I was shocked to see that the crowd was nothing like I had imagined. For starters, the Square was packed like I've never seen it before (even on the most beautiful summer day for the weekly Saturday farmers' market). The idea that I would be able to find my colleagues became instantly laughable (and, in fact, I never ran into a single person I knew). There were clearly students sprinkled throughout the crowd, but the vast majority seemed to be working-class and middle-class people: taxi drivers, construction workers, maintenance workers, prison guards etc. Honestly, they looked like the kind of people that, in my mind, probably supported Walker in November. Then I saw members of the police union marching around the Square, and, later, a seemingly endless parade of firefighters went by, all expressing solidarity with the workers at the Capitol even though their collective bargaining rights were not at risk. When the crowd applauded, I got chills. It was the appearance of the firefighters, in their matching shirts, that really triggered something in my head. This protest was way bigger than I had imagined...

Walker's "budget repair bill" isn't about deficits in Wisconsin. In fact, a nonpartisan commission found that the deficits are not severe and do not require any kind of austerity action. And what is the main cause of the current budget shortfall? Walker's own tax cuts. In other words, the new governor created this "problem," and now, conveniently, he is offering a solution. Only, his solution has nothing to do with the alleged problem. Instead, it's an attack on state employee unions. Walker is using the concocted budget issue as a smokescreen to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of unions, a long-time item on the right-wing wish list. He is trying to eliminate five decades of collective bargaining rights in one week.

And it's not just liberals like me who are upset. According to a recent poll, less than 32 percent of Wisconsin respondents support Walker's union-busting, with more than two-thirds saying he has overreached. So the battle going on in Wisconsin is part of a larger war. It is about Republicans across the country trying to use voter anger at the economy to institute out-of-the-mainstream, far-right policies by pretending they are related to jobs or deficits (like the insane argument that tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of Americans will somehow translate to significant job growth). The battle may be in Madison now, but I hope it serves as a wake-up call to Americans around the country to see what the Republicans are trying to do, namely using the pain of the nation's workers to justify policies that hurt most Americans but please the party's true constituents, big corporations and the wealthy. Taking away the collective bargaining rights of teachers and nurses doesn't help the average citizen, but it sure does make CEOs happy.

I played only a tiny role in the protests. Two hours after reaching the Capitol, my growing flu symptoms got the best of me, and I headed back to campus. I have been in bed trying to recover ever since, leaving the harder fights in the Capitol -- the all-night vigils, the marathon public hearings, the sit-ins, etc. -- to my committed and steadfast colleagues, to whom I am eternally grateful and for whom I have unmatched respect and admiration. What has gone on in Madison the last week has been truly inspiring, as people from all walks of life have made personal sacrifices to exercise their democratic rights to oppose capricious actions by the governor that are not in the best interests of the state. And I take pride in knowing that their fight isn't just for the UW, Madison or Wisconsin. In the end, they're fighting a local battle in a national war the Republican party is waging against the average American. I hope that history notes the protests in Madison as a turning point, the moment American citizens began pushing back against right-wing attacks.

Thanks & Rec.

All the talk from pukes like Walker about government over reaching and what do they do?