5 Reasons Why Labor Has Already Lost the Wisconsin Recall Election
Labor unions have a lot riding on the outcome of the Scott Walker recall election. They have poured millions of dollars and sent hundreds of volunteers to Wisconsin to assist Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, the Democratic candidate, in his efforts. Local unions have rallied to Barrett’s standard and have initiated a massive get-out-the-vote drive to bring their supporters to the polls on election day.
But all the money and all that effort has gone to waste. Labor unions have already lost the recall election regardless of how the vote turns out. Here are five reasons why:
1. Voters have moved on from the controversy over collective bargaining reform, which was the cause of the recall effort .
When Act 10, the bill to reform the collective bargaining process in Wisconsin, was being considered, labor unions tried their utmost to see it defeated. Tens of thousands of teachers, public employees, and other union members poured into Madison to physically try to intimidate lawmakers into voting against the measure. Democratic state senators took flight and left the state in order to deny the GOP majority a quorum to pass the bill. The anger was real, and union leaders were heartened to think that this kind of enthusiasm could translate into votes. So despite their failure to stop the measure from passing (a mammoth defeat that was followed up by another huge loss when most of the law was upheld in the state Supreme Court), they believed they had the momentum to overturn the 2010 election and recall several of the Republican senators who voted for the measure. Once in the majority, the senators would repeal the law and all would be made right.
Their efforts fell short — another defeat — when four of the six GOP senators won their recall elections, denying Democrats a majority by one seat. Then, late last year, a petition drive got underway to get the state board of elections to schedule a recall of Governor Walker. They managed this with relative ease, and the recall vote was scheduled for June 5.
But something funny happened on the way to the governor’s mansion for unions and their Democratic allies: the Wisconsin voter moved on from the controversy over Act 10. The white-hot anger expressed by public employee unions that inspired much of the public to support their cause has retreated, and voters now see jobs and the Wisconsin economy as far more important factors in the race than collective bargaining reform.
In a recent Marquette Law School poll, 46 percent of the registered voters polled listed job creation as the most important issue in the recall election. On the other hand, 12 percent of Democrats likely to vote said restoring collective bargaining was the most important issue.
Even if Barrett wins, his victory will not be due to the controversy over the collective bargaining issue, but to the fact that Wisconsin’s job creation has been sub-par over the last year. The unions will no doubt try to spin any such victory as a response to Walker’s efforts to “take away” their collective bargaining rights. But the fact is, the public has tired of the controversy and moved on to more pressing matters.
2. The public supports Walker’s efforts to reform public employee collective bargaining.
This from the Marquette poll:
Collective bargaining continues to divide the electorate by single digits. Voters prefer to keep the current collective bargaining law rather than return to what it was prior to last year, by a 50-43 percentage point margin. Restoring collective bargaining is supported by 78 percent of Democrats and opposed by 81 percent of Republicans. Among independents, 53 percent want to keep the current law while 38 percent want to return to the previous law. In the April poll, 49 percent said they favored limiting collective bargaining for most public employees, while 45 percent opposed such limits. In the January poll, using different wording, the public was more evenly split, with 48 percent favoring limiting public employee bargaining over benefits and non-wage issues, while 47 percent were opposed.
Last week, a study came out showing that Walker’s reforms had already saved Wisconsin taxpayers $1 billion, as local school districts have been able to renegotiate health and pension contracts. Despite a demonization campaign against Governor Walker, a majority of voters do not see collective bargaining reform the same way that unions do.
“Where’s Obama?” Simple: his handlers realized that sending him into a losing battle in Wisconsin could only further tarnish his reputation for campaigning excellence and electoral inevitability, hastening his transition from The One into The Once.
Agree absolutely, Akatsukmi. Speaking of campaigning excellence, can’t the Romney campaign hire some folks that know how to spell?
Excuse me for misspelling your screen name, Akatsukami. In a comment about spelling? Wow!
And now we must ask WHAT is the REAL Agenda – the Reason the Unions have dumped so much $$$ – SIMPLE it is an approx LOSS from say $57 MILLION in Dues to $27 MILLION IN DUES with a near 50% drop out rate of union members. Those HONEST Union Leader now have FEWER Millions to STEAL from the Members – YES it is POWER and MONEY they are interested in and DUMB union zombies dont see it
The executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME )Council 24 SEPAC, made $161,847 in 2008 according to the organization’s Form 990. That’s considerably more than the $144,423 a year Scott Walker makes as Wisconsin’s Governor.
http://www.evilconservativeonline.com/2011/02/wisconsin-union-operatives-salaries.html
With dwindling revenues, the union leadership will be the last to see a wage cut.
During the early 80′s in rural Oregon, the union of the main employer in town, a lumber company, urged it members to strike because there was no higher wages and a provision for a higher Dental deductible in the new contract. Mind you, this was in the early 80s, and there was NO WORK in the entire region. So they went on strike. The union paid a paltry $200 a month for members to sit on the picket line, whilst union leadership still raked in over $50K a year. Many of the hard-working men who believed in the union ended up living in the street, stayed with friend or froze to death in their cars because they couldn’t afford to pay bills or put food on the table.
After a year of this bul****t, most people went back to work without a contract, lower wages and fewer benifits than the original offer.
Gotta love unions the stick it to their surfs, while they rake in the $$.
“Their ideas are outmoded and unsuitable for a modern society with problems relating to an aging population and shrinking work force to support them. This final reason for their defeat might do them in entirely unless the unions wake up and work with state and local governments to pull back from the abyss and find reasonable common ground to save what can be saved from this fiscal nightmare.”
I’ve been wondering about that for a long time. It almost seems that they are deliberately leaping off the edge of the cliff. The union leadership, and now the rank and file, know there is no money to support all this. If the unions were to restructure themselves and adapt to current economic and employment realities, they could still do good work for those they claim to represent. It’s almost as if they want to be shut down. The Democratic Party, like all political parties, is in it for the long haul. They supported the unions as long as that support made sense for them politically. If they think union support is suicidal, they will back away. “There are none so blind as they who will not see.”
This is the inevitable conclusion to Communist regimes. As you spend up all the hard-earned capital, the system starts shrinking into itself, like a star that’s burned up all its fuel and is now on its way to becoming a black hole.
The only way to keep the system going is to try to rob more and more from other sources (like a black hole that begins to drain the mass from a stellar twin). That’s why the Nazis and Fascists went to war with their neighbors. There’ve been plenty of well written papers on the process.
The extreme left leadership of many public sector unions ultimately desire the collapse of the US economy so that it can be remade in the image of their savior: Karl Marx. So their unwillingness to negotiate on pensions while forcing governments to the brink of insolvency is part and parcel of their long-term strategy.
The point too many conservatives and independents don’t grasp regarding Marxists is that ideology trumps all considerations. That’s why they can accept incrementalism and the multi-decade march toward their goals. In contrast, conservatives (especially) forget the power of incrementalism in politics and too often want their cake and to eat it tomorrow. Until conservatives learn to be more savvy political tacticians and stop their parade of ideological litmus tests, the left will continue to erode our freedoms and march our country ever leftward.
I find it interesting that the Germans and French with their heavily unionized nations are the hope of saving European and possibly the US economy from a second recession.
The little pink rose on top of the cake baked by supply side economics was a brief article in CNNMoney June 4, 2012 “Number of millionaires see a decline in wealth”. Check it out: http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/01/news/economy/american-millionaires/index.htm
I’m from the UK and am curious about Bill Clinton’s appearance in Wisconsin. Is it normal for ex presidents to continue to be politically active?
I read a lot a American blogs, political and non political, and I can’t remember this happening before. Is it rare, or is it just because Bill Clinton is for me a memorable president and managed to catch my eye?
no tom, it is unprecedented…but boy clinton is a lowlife attention hog, so he will never ‘go away’…
and ps…200 ‘paid to be there’ union members is not a “large crowd”. benefit reps…safety reps…committee men…stewards…all these union men have to show up for these events or else they “go back on the line”…thats how the union forces attendance. [i'm a member of the uaw and the afl]
scott walker drew 20 times that in a city with 15% of the population of milwaukee on the very same day. no one at walkers speech was paid to be there.
Reminds me of Newt and Santorum pulling in 100s of people on the same day Ron Paul had a rally in Madison with 5000 people at it. And then the next day Romney had a rally with like 500 people at it.
Tom,
In a word: No. The traditional understanding between Presidents, is that former Presidents basically retire from public life and keep quiet. Think of George H. W. Bush and his son. They’ve been pretty quiet and not involved in partisan politics. The same with Ford before he passed away. Reagan was infirmed, but even so, he would have had the class to not involve himself in partisanship.
Jimmy Carter–at one time–adhered nicely to this ‘gentleman’s understanding’ of staying out of politics once out of 1600 Pennsylvania. He started up a wonderful charity project called Habitat for Humanity. Then Nixon passed away, and he witnessed the heartfelt eulogies for Tricky Dick, and realized he didn’t really have anything to show for his own Presidency…and then began his foray into blatant, naked partisanship in a pitiful attempt to make a name for himself out of office. And it was all downhill from there.
Clinton is another story: a man in love with not only himself, but with the spotlight and adoring crowds.
I have a sneaking feeling that Obama will be an utter nightmare out of office.
Nope.
HFH was founded by Millard Fuller in 1976. Carter jumped on the bandwagon in 1984, 12 years after it was started. He’s done fundraising and basically been a promoter, but he’s not involved in running it.
Not as much as he is in office.
But, agreed. He’ll make Clinton & Carter look like gentlemen.
I think the only way he WON’T be a nightmare is if he’s in prison.
Oh, happy thought!
@Mark V
I think the only way he WON’T be a nightmare is if he’s in prison.
Oh, happy thought!
You have made my day… Thank you for this wonderful thought!!!
Somehow I can envision him becoming the next Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. His style is different – he’s not a rabble-rouser. But I can see him getting the call from the networks any time something “racial” hits the news. Disappear? Not likely.
Obama in Prison….sounds plausible…
After all, even HE said if he had a son, he’d look just like that violent criminal thug Treyvon.
Peas, meet Pod, while the sun rises where it usually does….
Bubba makes a ridiculous amount of money, no less than 6-digits per appearance. Not speech, Tom. Appearance.
Bubba spends 98 +% of the time ‘On the road’. Where he was recently photographed with some porn stars.
The alternative’s tolerating the pantsuit.
Bill Clinton made an appearance at the arena/auditorium in my current city of residence a couple of years back. The event was well-advertized and there were two classes of seats: regular and elite. I think regular seats were $100. Elite seats were $2000 each!! I don’t know how many of each kind of seat were filled but it seemed a lot of money to pay for an appearance that was apparently less than an hour.
What I found remarkable about it was that he was appearing at all. You see, I’m in Canada, not the United States.
Something else I found interesting was a recent news item about a big fundraiser that Obama is giving in New York City. Obama, of course, is the headliner but (Bill) Clinton is also making an appearance as are several internationally known musicians. Strangely enough, tickets are only $500. Given that apparently some Canadians were willing to pay $2000 to see an American president that had been out of office for over a decade, it seems odd that seeing the SITTING President, PLUS Bill Clinton, PLUS several big-name musicians playing in the biggest city in the US is only going to cost $500. Something tells me that Obama is not worth nearly as much as his Propaganda Department in the MSM would have us believe….
This is pretty rare… but the democrats are in a tight spot right now. They don’t really have anyone with national stature. The republican “bench”– potential national contenders– is pretty strong at the moment. There’s a bevy of Republican governors: Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley and (thanks to the democrats) Scott Walker, who are credible national figures. Plus Senators like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul command national attention, or prominent House members like Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Alan West.
The democrats basically have the Clintons and that’s about it. John Kerry has faded into the background, and John Edwards is a laughingstock. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are loathed to the point that moderate Democrats who were otherwise popular in 2010 were defeated solely on the argument that they were supporting Pelosi and Reid. Debbie Wasserman-Shultz is similarly radioactive… but as a party leader this is the role she’s supposed to be playing and isn’t supposed to appeal to moderates.
Jimmy Carter is the only democrat with national standing, and his presidency was short-lived and disastrous. Republicans work hard to remind voters of the Carter years. He’d largely rehabilitated himself until making some very anti-Israel remarks (my understanding of the British polity is that it would have the same effect as making unreservedly pro-Israel remarks in Britain).
Obama himself is a symptom of the Democrats’ weakness nationally– a man with only four years in high office– two of which he spent running for President, and a thin career prior to that.
So Clinton’s their only option as a credible voice who can push national policies and promote local politicians. And even he has been carefully half-hearted about Obama himself.
Obama’s staying away for several reason. First, he’s only popular with hard-core democrats likely to vote against Walker already. Second, Obama doesn’t want to be associated with yet another defeat (as he was with Chris Christie and Scott Brown). So the movement doesn’t want Obama and he doesn’t want the movement.
Rick’s wrong: a victory today would be a very big win for the public employee unions and the democrats in general. The fact that they’ve disowned the union issue is immaterial… it’ll be resurrected and spun as a mandate on the Walker policies if it wins. Barrett himself will immediately repeal the union rule. But that looks extremely unlikely.
“Barrett himself will immediately repeal the union rule.”
Fortunately, I don’t think he’ll have that power, even in the worst case where the Republicans lose the governor, assistant governor and the Senate in this recall.
The reforms were a statute, not a rule, so they carry the force of law. Barrett couldn’t just repeal the law; that would have to be done by a majority vote of both houses, and the Republicans will still hold a substantial majority in the lower chamber. He could try to fight it in court, but the Attorney General is a Republican.
This is the same problem the Republicans will have repealing ObamaCare if the Obama is re-elected. If they retake the Senate, they would still need a 2/3 majority in both chambers to override a presidential veto. At this point, no one is predicting that the R’s will have 67 Senators after November. That’s one reason, out of so very many, that Obama needs to be sent packing in November.
Yep. This article sounds very much like whistling past the graveyard.
If Walker goes down, the Dems will howl about it from here to November. It will be on every talk show and “news” program every day for WEEKS, and won’t completely go away EVER. There will be no end to the “important news coverage” of this “repudiation of the Republican agenda”.
Hmmmm. Why is it the Democrats never have an “agenda”? (I digress…)
Awas,
Very well said. I completely agree with you, Rick is wrong..it will be a very big deal either way.
You forgot about Al Gore, unless you meant he was the laughingstock, with Edwards somewhat below that. Doesn’t change this aspect of your analysis.
No, Tom, it isn’t “normal” nor customary. If you’ll notice, Republican former Presidents retire quietly and leave the running of the country to whoever has been newly elected. The last 2 Democratic Presidents have refused to do so. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are both publicity hogs. Both would have preferred the Marxist style of government where one is elected President for life. They refuse to go away. And Obama will be the same.
Let’s extend the analysis further back:
LBJ didn’t even run for reelection, left office a broken man and died 4 years later.
JFK of course was assassinated in office.
Truman kept a reasonable profile.
FDR died in office.
Wilson was disabled by a stroke in office one and half years before he formally left it.
Between the Civil War and Wilson, Grover Cleveland in two non-consecutive terms at the end of the 19th Century was the only Democratic president (the Civil War and Wilson’s domestic WWI excesses made the party highly toxic at the national level prior to the Great Depression).
So we haven’t had much recent opportunity for ex-Democratic Presidents to act badly … and the last two have, and we’re sure they’ll be followed by Obama….
In addition to the other anti-Clinton “publicity hog” comments, which I heartily agree with as the most important factor, and the international groupie factor that goes with it, I don’t think Bill has given up on the idea of getting back in the White House through his “wife” Hillary, either on the ticket this year or in 2016. I remember my dad telling me that almost to a religious certainty, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were never in Washington at the same time, the Pantsuit and the Hound never occupy the same city at the same time either. But that does not seem to stop the scheming. Seems unlikely, but as bad as the Clintons are, for dishonesty if for nothing else, Bill (I can’t say Hillary) seem alot more savvy and politically effective than Obama will ever be. Historically he will be on a level with Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan and Warren Harding, and maybe below them. It does not get any worse than that. (Nixon got impeached, for something far less egregious than what Clinton did, but for opening up China and for winning Vietnam in 1973 before the Dems handed the victory back in 1975, and for his prior anti-Communist services, historically Nixon will always have alot more going for him than Obama and the others.
Carter has been active too. When they leave office disgraced, they seem to want to do something for their legacy.
Billy*s wife is running for PREZ in 2016. He has to kiss A++ to keep in good with the LIBZ. But watch him close and he undercuts OBUMMER on a regular basis. She would not fare well following this fool.
“Even at the brink of bankruptcy, public unions balk at taking the necessary medicine.”
Ain’t that the truth. The unions, especially in states like New York, California, and Illinois, would rather see the entire state go in the toilet rather than help out with an affordable union contract. How does that make the rest of the people in that state feel, the ones that are NOT union members? They are the ones who have to suck it up and bear the financial burdens while the union members get their fat contracts. I’m just surprised that non-union people have not revolted before now. Perhaps if Walker wins this election, unions and union members will have to start understanding that they are PART of the state, and not privileged workers. They need to understand that there are limits to what a state can pay and that their jobs and benefits should be the same as the jobs and benefits the rest of the citizens in that state get from their employers. Sure, like that will ever happen.
Police, Firemen, Teachers and Public Defenders have for generations been the heroes of all types of media paeans from which generations since the 1960s have got their educations — it not being made available to them by Dewey and Rousseau indoctrinated “teachers”. What schooling our little wildings ever got was from digitized dissolutes who, if actual persons and not animations, are sybaritic high school dropouts.
The sub-par adolescents who settle for a teaching degree don’t even have to study the subjects they are supposed to teach. They take our children and produce Aldous Huxley’s “Gamma” citizens, compliant automatons who expect to do well but never win, to get along but never get there, to think they know without knowing, and like their teachers, stay frozen in adolescence until their aging bodies no more support the wrack of constant self-indulgence, when they in UNION turn to vindictive spite against the public that tolerated them.
Think I’m wrong? Just recall the images of the harridans screaming and bitching and jogging their pre-printed signs at the Wisconsin State House. Now it’s police and firemen.
The list of “responders”, as the media tells us to call them today, should include lawyers, politicians and doctors. They also had starred as roll models in the patchwork media imagery that has raised our children in the absence of real teachers. These so-called professionals know little more than the strictly average-or-under IQ “teachers” — but not bloody much more!
“The fault, dear Horatio, is in our stars . . .”, the stars of the only educative faculty left in America: MEDIA of all stripes.
It’s over. Run. Go Galt.
I love “harridan” posts.
I agree with Rick Moran’s premise. But I’d still LOVE a sweeping GOP victory today! A strong message has to be sent about what is necessary to achieve reform in this country. If it can happen in Wisconsin then it can happen anywhere.
“I’m from the UK and am curious about Bill Clinton’s appearance in Wisconsin. Is it normal for ex presidents to continue to be politically active?”
Only the Democratic ones, it seems. I was born in 1974, and Reagan is the first President I remember. However, Nixon (R), Ford (R), Carter (D), Reagan (R), Bush I (R), Clinton (D), and Bush II (R) were all still alive at various points of my life. Of those, the only ones I can remember staying in the political limelight have been Carter and Clinton.
If Obama is bounced in November and leaves office in January, I have a feeling we won’t see him slink away. And, as a relatively young guy, and exhibiting the traits of a narcissist, there isn’t any way he will keep out of the spotlight. He’s always going to be waving his arms shouting “look at me! look at me! I was a President of the United States! I’m an important person!”.
Public sector unions need to go the way of the dodo – and I’m saying this as a public sector employee. Somewhat fitting that the state that first extended collective bargaining rights to the public sector is now the first state to eliminate some of those rights.
I think you’re being way too optimistic.
We’re basically in the same exact boat as Europe – do you seem them actually spending less money, cutting pensions, and so forth? No, they jack up taxes, cut the growth of spending, “call it austerity”, say it doesn’t work and are still in the same mess.
The same thing is going to happen here. Spending will never go down, at any level. New taxes will be created, eventually we will end up with a VAT.
Oh sure, eventually we will collapse, but until then nothing is going to happen. And what will emerge?
I can see something like what happened to the USSR – breaking up into regions, with one big one (probably the North-East) trying to dominate the rest. Don’t forget, they had a common culture and language too.
When, exactly, did the entire USSR have a common culture?
Actually the USSR did have sort of a common culture. It was called communism, and produced the new communist man. It was inculcated into the citizens constantly, and was a facet of everyday life. The only problem was it was a totally failed culture, and as soon as the people of the former USSR had a chance to choose, they repudiated that culture.
I am retired from the Fed. Govt. and think that unions have no place in the gov. workplace. Employees are very well paid and while many are hard workers, many others are not and the bad ones are almost impossible to fire – it just isn’t worth a manager’s time. Civil service rules (before unions and after) have extensive protection for employees. But federal employees cannot bargain over wages and benefits. Fed. unions usually just fight over working conditions and personnel decisions. But they can make life very difficult for managers. I am kind of ashamed of the way Federal grade creep has made non-professional workers very highly paid. In my part of the Gov., the average pay for journeymen was probably $85,000 with very generous benefits. We hired from industry and almost always the potential pay was higher. Still, local and state government is worse. The reason I feel ashamed is that many of my friends and family with about the same education and skills, are struggling just making to make ends meet and they have no job security unlike the gov. workers. And I believe we need a strong government.
Super limosine socialist FDR vetoed a fed worker collective bargaining bill with a statement the the effect that, ‘governance will be impossible if government workers are allowed to unionize’.
Thanks Lil Tex…for noticing! This huge gov’t vs private sector salary/benefits discrepancy has been going on for YEARS! It started when the president (JFK ?) allowed gov’t employees to unionize.
Ever see a gov’t employee work 14 hour days like we frequently work? How about those “21 days w/o a day off” that we work in order to accomplish every job expectation…every time? Can you imagine leaving work w/o answering ALL phone calls received that day????? (Stay late in order to return calls? WE do it!)
And there’s NO urgency displayed by gov’t workers. Why bother when your bloated salary is based on seniority rather than accountability????
I could accept the poor performance of a large percentage of gov’t workers (as it is now) IF their salaries & benefits were lower…MUCH MUCH lower! Their salary packages need to start reflecting what they actually accomplish!!!!!
Why can’t gov’t (federal, state, & local) understand that????? We hard-working taxpayers are sick & tired of paying for such obvious underachievement!!!!
“….and ps…200 ‘paid to be there’ union members is not a “large crowd”. benefit reps…safety reps…committee men…stewards…all these union men have to show up for these events or else they “go back on the line”…thats how the union forces attendance. [i'm a member of the uaw and the afl]
scott walker drew 20 times that in a city with 15% of the population of milwaukee on the very same day. no one at walkers speech was paid to be there…”
S’okay to point out the obvious mistatements/errors in Moran’s writings. He’s still angling for a DC position and can’t been seen as too far from the RINO POV. Get a real job, RINO-Rick!
#6. It’s for the Children
The rallying cry for Public Sector Unions is always “Do it for the Children!” which is really the veiled threat of “Do it or the kid gets it”. Parents will normally comply because their kids’ future is important to them but most do wonder “If kids are our most precious resource and we’re spending massive piles of money on them, then why can’t we measure the results of all that spending?”. Walker’s reforms highlighted the truth about unions – they only care about themselves. They don’t care about the workers, the company, the city, the state or anything except the power of the union. It’s been the same story from the coal miners to the NFL players, the union cares about the union and the workers get the shaft. You’ll recall that the NFL Players got a worse deal after the lock-out/strike than they were offered prior but it was all a power play by the NFLPA.
The message to parents is really pretty clear – if you want your child to have a future then you must crush the public and private sector unions. Unions are about limiting opportunity and they’re antithetical in the “Land of Opportunity”.
ChrisS …
How many teachers abandoned their jobs and their students to go to Madison?
How many protected their jobs by getting falsified excuses from their Doctors?
How many actually care about their students’ education?
Yeah, I thought so too. “It’s all about the children.” No, it’s all about their benefits package and pay being kept from review. They have better benefits and pay than the people that pay the taxes funding their jobs. They must be “special” to get such treatment. not.
tom
Any of you Wisconsin conservatives, who don’t go vote today, will be responsible for more than just losing Scott Walker. Get out there and vote! Keep your eyes on the union hacks who will be patrolling the polling places and trying to vote in multiple precincts. This election is too important to all of us for you to allow any union shenanigans to change the outcome. Scott Walker does not win unless all of you vote. ABO2012
Big Labor can’t be allowed to win this, the outcome DOES matter. If they’re allowed to keep letting recall elections happen, no newly elected officials anywhere will be able to get anything done because they’re trying to fend off yet more recall demands. It’s an abuse of the system and the Wisconsin governor recall election needs to be held up as an example of this.
BARACK OBAMA, RONALD REAGAN AND WISCONSIN’S RECALL VOTE
In the final hours before the Wisconsin recall vote Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, who’s striving to keep Mitt Romney from becoming President 45, has boldly and bravely reaffirmed over Twitter his staunch support for Tom Barrett in his quest to end 44 year old Scott Walker’s career as Wisconsin’s 45th governor. And as this is a contest between a Conservative governor and Liberal mayor, and a microcosm of the nation’s political divide, the vote is strangely taking place on the 8th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s death.
So what if the Wisconsin recall vote is taking place on the anniversary of Reagan’s death? Every day is the anniversary of many significant events. Here’s all the stuff that happened on June 5, according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_5
I’m very concerned about what Holder and his goon squad might be able to accomplish in Wisconsin. Obviously, they’re there in a desperate attempt to facilitate voter fraud. What form will it take? Does anyone know how many goons are on the ground and what they’re up to?
Regarding DOJ AG Holder’s thuggish implied threat to interfere with the Wisconsin recall election, of course only if Walker wins, I hope he is stupid enough to try it.
I got up this morning wondering how long it would take to see something like this:
http://elections.wispolitics.com/2012/06/dems-cry-foul-early-into-election-day.html
The dems are so predictable…
I’m not as sanguine.
But then, my opinion if fueled by the conviction that marxists are running the unions as well as most of the institutions that are currently at the heart of the progressive “movement”. In my mind, marxist and criminal are synonymns.
They won’t be persuaded by a setback or two.
The fundamental problem will remain, even if Wisconsin is a great victory for freedom. Free people, by their very nature, are busy managing their lives, and engage to the extant that they are currently engaged in Wisconsin only in rare moments of extreme danger.
But the criminals never sleep. Dominating your life is the thing they live for.
Taking care of your family is your mission in life. Taking everything you own for themselves is their mission.
I was a union member the last 20 years of my working life – and a union steward for the last 8 years. As a steward I got a good look into the inner workings of the union – and the company I worked for. I didn’t much care for what I saw in both directions. Not much love for the common worker from either direction. I was often the buffer from both sides for some people.
From the union I was constantly reminded of who to vote for – didn’t matter whether it was a national election or a union election – and always a democrat when it wasn’t a union election – and always for those in power for a union election. Unions hate elections as much as many politicians do – and often refer to the masses as ‘too stupid to know who they’re best off electing. If it weren’t for union elections the local president – the reps and their buddies would all be getting much better pay than they do – which then was about 1/2 more than the highest paid members. So similar to congress/senate eh? No surprise there!
Union politics is set up and ran just as you would expect a dictatorial system to work. Its no wonder why the unions and democrats identify with each other.
This very important election should never have occurred. It is a vendetta against the legal decisions of a validly elected official. Recall elections must only be used for illicit conduct, not policy differences. The real ballot issue is the power of unions, particularly in public employment.
Collective bargaining, across the table, from elected officials whose primary constituent is the union, is an insider’s game. The tax payer’s representative is not even in the room. When the officials give away money, retirement fundings, which they do not include in the budget, and stand for election on that hard fact, they simply lied to their voters. In these hard times, we have seen this conduct exposed from Rhode Island to California, an ocean of debt, due to the retirement of boomers, is overwhelming state budgets. It is simply unsustainable; the private sector worker will become the slave of the state employee.
Moreover, the fundamental relationship of employee – employer has changed. Millions of union jobs are now done in China. Why? Because the Asian employee cost is a fraction of the US pay scale. This unit cost has two parts one of which the union ignores, government mandated costs, primarily regulatory costs. (The other fraction is employee pay.) When the government denies a pipeline permit, due to green concerns, it also cancels thousands of jobs. Union men sent their sons to oil land by voting into power those who shut down US heavy industry. In this conflict, the US employer and US employee should be sitting on the same side of the table, but union bosses will not fight for their people. They prefer access to the White House.
Unions came from an era in which workers were killed, maimed, and fired arbitrarily by US employers. America once killed one coal miner per day for a century, until the government forced changes in safety issues. But those days are gone. Today, if twin brothers graduate from high school, one goes into a union, and the other goes to engineering school, the union man will make more money for decades, or perhaps his entire career. This too is unsustainable.
Tens of thousands of union members will vote for Walker today. Tomorrow will begin a new era in US worker – boss relationships. Both can go broke together; this reality is what is new.
I’ve spent a lot of time lately, praying for our country, especially over the last 3 years. And I think that this vote in Wisconsin is truly where God can help us. Obviously I don’t expect him to send hosts of angels but if he can keep evil from fraudulently taking the day, then He will have done what we ask of Him. All we ask is for is a fair shot, untainted by fraud or bullying or out and out theft. And I am convinced that – given a fair shot – our side will prevail.
Pray that it be so.
This reminds me of an old girlfriend I ran into several years ago. She had ‘found God’. Somewhere about that time she realized she hadn’t kept very good care of herself – especially her teeth. She prayed and prayed real hard about her teeth – and subsequently began brushing and flossing – round the clock to hear her tell it. Her teeth looked good – what she had left. So did the hard praying or the hard work save her teeth?
Pray if you want – and I will too – but I’ll also get out there with my local Tea Party doing what I can to get good candidates in office.
God helps those who help themselves.
A couple more points. When given the opportunity to leave the union, over half of the public sector union members did so. And then, keep in mind the recent election results. First, there was Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas (a $10 million debacle for the unions). Then Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin (think the unions might have opposed that?). We have the Wisconsin Supreme Court election (unions lost), the Wisconsin Senate recalls (unions lost), the recall Democratic primary (unions lost), and now the actual recall election (unions look to lose).
I truly hope that Walker keeps his job in Wisconsin. If he looses because of union thuggery, it does not bode well for the rest of the country. There is a part of me that is also very concerned what will happen if(when) obama is not reelected. I think we will find that the opponents to American freedom and liberty will not go quietly into the night but make no mistake, I am ready and willing to take that chance.
I think more of us are concerned with what happens if Obama is re-elected.
There were predictions in 2008 of massive riots whether Obama won OR lost. They didn’t happen.
I think our police are capable of handing anything that might happen if Obama loses in November. After all they can call in the National Guard and even the Army if necessary to bring things back under control.
this is why the republican party is delusional and why they will lose the presidential election in november.
it is also why we will have another four years of the imbecile in the white house and holder, the reverse ku kluxer masquerading as head of the department of justice.
you all stink.
however, at least working people who comprise most of the electorate, do not have to listen to the spewing of hatred from the mouths of those who would like to go back to a 7-day work week, if you don’t come in sunday don’t come in monday, filthy, unsafe working conditions, arbitrary firings, and of course, having one person do the work of three. this last, has made quite the comeback.
and, we all love it. you can be sure we will cast our votes for the party who brings us poorhouses and debtor’s prisons.
you all stink.
And you all don’t write well. No doubt a product of one of our union controlled public schools.
Why don’t you just crawl back into your time-machine and go back to Dickensian England – which is where you sound like you came from.
Romney will lose in November because the GOP is pushing a big-government fake conservative as their nominee and outright changing and breaking their own rules when it comes to the other Republican candidate still in the race. (see Athens, GA and St. Charles, MO for two examples. Heck, look what happened in Louisiana recently with the voted-out Chair somehow getting off-duty police to arrest the properly-appointed Chair, and then breaking some fingers and hips.)
Walker is different than Romney, and a state race is different than a national race.
Having to work for a living is getting you down, isn’t it, Judy?
Since the democrats message is clearly anti-work, it leaves only one explanation for Judy’s virulent obama hatred.
Judy in NYC
You have romantic nooo yawk liberal ideals about unions, its time to buy a clue. …
use the funds from the brilliant soda tax Idea to finance the purchase of some reality.
Unions are 95% lazy useless overpaid government workers, not last century coal miners struggling in dangerous work conditions. Get real.
Elementary School teachers in my district get 100K. The “School Nurse”, who dispenses NO medicines, and who’s “Nursing” duties are limited to the following:
1) calling 911.
2) calling your parents.
3) re-filling the condom bowl for 6th graders.
She gets 95k.
Following up the rear is the Elementary School Librarian who’s toughest and most dangerous duties are finding “thomas the train?” verses “snow white” while managing an occasional and “SHHHH!”, she gets 90K.
All have full lifetime pensions after just 10 years of service, INCLUDING lifetime Cadilac unobtainium health plans with ZERO out of pocket contributions…and can receive a TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR YEARLY “bonus” if they get on their spouses heath plan and off the schools insurance.
Oh, yes, and did I mention they are going on STRIKE…
For the SECOND TIME this year?
They work a whopping 183 days a year, and are home by 3:30 PM every day.
A crushing, dangerous, horrible burden for anyone to to endure, for a mere six figure income, and zero leadership, decision making or management responsibilities.
The Horrors they face!
Get it straight:
Public Employee Unions Suck.
They are CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES.
They need to be destroyed, with blood, if we are ever to be free again.
Hey “judy” in nyc,
There’s this key marked SHIFT with an up arrow on both sides of the keyboard. Try using it if you’re going to try to talk with the grown ups.
Ever see a gov’t employee work 14 hour days like we frequently work? How about those “21 days w/o a day off” that we work in order to accomplish every job expectation…every time?
Why yes, I have. They are called Federal Wildland Firefighters.
A
Well gee whiz, golly gee and slap my knee. You’ve made an old roob like me see the light Beth. I take back everything I ever thought about overpaid, over-indulged government workers with an attitude. Good riposte there. You betcha.
All she did was to point out a very real exception to the rule – people who literally put their lives on the line under conditions that most of us would refuse.
Why do you take that so personally?
You’re probably right Mark and I’m inclined to walk my sarcasm back a little. The reason I seemed to have taken it ‘personally’ is because of the tenor of the overall conversation, e.g., the power of the unions and their overall pernicious effect and how in my opinion the comment was a distraction from that tenor. Any of us can no doubt find examples of brave policemen and firefighters but those examples are distractors from the fact that government unions are for all intents and purposes a criminal activity. A governmentally sanctioned shakedown of the taxpayer.
And I distinguish government unions from private ones. While I have no love for them, the private union arrangement has some balance to it. Balance in that, if the union becomes unreasonable the ownership has a nuclear option – simmilar to the MAD Doctrine in the Cold War, if you will. That is, they can shut the doors and move elsewhere. That option, I argue, has a calming effect on the union’s demands.
This balance does not exist in the government union model. The union collects dues – our tax dollars – thru the hand of government and then spends much of it on politicians who will then give them what they want. And the true ‘owners’ – us taxpayers – aren’t at the negotiating table at all. It’s the ultimate self licking ice cream cone and a scam. Paid for by all of us, whether we like it or not. And I call that a shakedown.
That’s why I got hot.
Ever see a US Marine go on Strike?
Two can play that game sweetie
“The pendulum swings, and having swung, swings back”
Like every reform movement ‘labor’ has gone too far and will retreat a bit, advance a bit and so on until it reaches equilibrium.
LGOPs-
Understand your frustration, but I would like to point out that not all fedgov employees are the enemy-as I know from personal experience.
PJ Media blogger J. Christian Adams is the former fedgov employee who let the cat out of the bag about the so called Justice Department.
The current federal workplace environment is highly politically correct and extremely punitive, and that muzzles the dissidents a bit.
It’s good strategy to foster allies within the system.
Point taken. Peace, Beth.
If BHO actually showed up in Wisconsin with an aggressive show of support for Barrett it would have been perceived by the people of Wisconsin as yet another “outsider” interfering in their election. Already big labor brought in the big guns, most of the protesters were all out of state people. People are tired of the BS and decided to go vote. If BHO showed up and made a big show of it; there would have been an even larger landslide loss for Barrett. It would also have tainted BHO publicly across the entire country. Polls don’t matter, they are almost always inaccurate and controversial.