So last night I watched the MSNBC pundits (Maddow, Schultz, and O’Donnell) desperately trying to defend the public employee’s union in Wisconsin. As always, they had the same talking points, one being that the “Wisconsin 14″ (the Democrat Wisconsin state senators who fled the state to keep a vote from happening by denying a quorum) are heroes. Not being in Wisconsin I don’t pretend to know all the issues or history of this bill, so I won’t comment on that … but I do know hypocrisy when I see it. And it was painfully apparent.
Back when the Republicans in the U.S. Senate were fighting Obamacare with a filibuster, the shared talking point of these pundits was that “the Senate is broken” because the minority Republicans are allowed to stop such a wonderful bill from going through. But now, when the minority Democrats flee a state (contrary to the oaths they took under the Wisconsin constitution to serve in their elected office) to keep elected representatives from voting on a bill, those Democrats are heroes, and it’s not a sign of a broken political process. Interesting, huh? And a little hypocritical, no?
Maybe Schultz and the rest don’t get it, but Obamacare is every bit as offensive and goes against the nature of the Republicans as ending collective bargaining (for limited issues, not including salaries) is to the Democrats.
The big question is … in a representative democracy, is it right for these minority senators to break their oaths to serve as senators to block the vote? Or should they fight it from within the system, and if it’s a bad law the correct solution is to mitigate it the best they can (as the Republicans did on Obamacare by keeping out a public option) and then hope their opponents get voted out in the next election? Which is, once again, exactly how the Senate Republicans did it.
Let’s face it, there’s little honor on the liberal side.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, though. With the national attention it’s getting, the battle in Wisconsin could change the entire direction of the next election. It could save Mr. Obama and his agenda or it could be the final nail in his coffin.
I tend to think the Republicans will win if they hold out, but I couldn’t call it. I know that as someone who works in the private industry, I’m really sick of the liberals saying that the public workers of Wisconsin (or anywhere — that’s another shared talking point) don’t deserve to have to pay for the mistakes and “corruption” of others. Now I agree with that as a standalone statement … but if you’ve been laid off by any company, did you deserve to suffer for mistakes made by others? Do I deserve to suffer a drop in pay because the bad economy created by others has caused corporations to buy less of my product? The simple answer is “hell no!”
Of COURSE none of us worker bees deserve to suffer from bad decisions made by others (and somebody made some bad decisions somewhere or we wouldn’t be where we are). But shouldn’t we all, as Americans, share the pain of a bad economy as we try and dig out, just as we have shared the past times of prosperity? The public unions wouldn’t have gotten such sweet deals if times hadn’t been good back when they were negotiated.
I’m not in a union, but in any case the people of my state aren’t going to come out in force if I’m laid off, forced to take a cut in pay, or even (horror of horrors!) denied the ability to negotiate collectively for my benefits with my coworkers. So while I don’t want to see anyone take a cut in pay or get laid off (both of those things have happened to me in my career and they do suck a lot) I don’t think public employees are magically protected from the pains of the rest of us. Particularly since their payroll checks are paid for by the rest of us who, ironically, are the ones LEAST protected from the corruption of others.
I think I might be correct that the Republicans are in the driver’s seat to win, as Mr. Obama has certainly made it a point to stand back a few steps from this situation. And whatever else he is … he is a smart politician. Hopefully the Wisconsin Republicans will be smart enough to make the right choices as well, either to cave in if that’s what it takes or stand strong (and I don’t even know what is best there). But one thing’s for sure … depending on the message the Public accepts, any outcome could serve either party. If the Republican’s win the vote, they may get praised for making tough decisions or damned for hurting the “poor union workers.”
Interesting times.
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