I heard what sounded like political wisdom last night on the Lawrence O'Donnell show. I'll share that in a moment, but first an update on the protests.
The Wisconsin protests are striking their long stride at this point. While the sheer numbers of people showing up at the capitol have started to ease, the determination of those present has if anything grown deeper. I was at the capitol for about three hours last night and got a chance to talk to a lot of people. The icy damp air had pushed most of the protesters into the capitol building which was still crowded and loud, but the streets and walkways around the capitol were still moving with signs and chants.
The diversity of people I talked to was impressive. Of course they included teachers, firefighters, and other public union members but they also included private sector non union employees. I talked to an electrician of 23 years who had moved to Madison from a 'right to work' state and had told union friends 'never let that happen to you. Never.' I also talked to a former Republican who was outraged at how the conservative press was portraying the protesters. This conversation struck me because he was genuinely hurt. He wasn't liberal, he felt betrayed by his party and was left without faith that he had representation at all, something I've talked about in the past.
As these protests stretch towards their second full week, I've had the chance to debate and discuss the issues with liberals, moderates, conservatives and libertarians. What I've found is that those on the left are outraged at what they see as public workers being unilaterally and arbitrarily punished for the loss of state revenue caused by the severe unemployment of the Wall Street fueled sub prime economic crisis. Conservatives tend to focus on the issue of the deficit and the inflexibility left to the state created by large pension and benefits overhead. Is this regard, they tend to support what Walker's doing.
But when you factor in the unilateral destruction of union bargaining rights, or the fiscally questionable permission for the State to sell or lease power plants without taking bids, or the fact that Walker passed a law yesterday increasing the required majority to 2/3rds for any tax increases making it harder for the State to raise revenue, a lot of what this governor is doing starts to sound fiscally inauthentic no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. The fiscal inconsistency and irrelevancy, when pointed out, gets very little support from conservatives who seem almost perplexed at what Walker's game plan really is much like the rest of us on the left.
Last night, I got a chance to hear Lawrence O'donnell interview Newark, New Jersey's Mayor Corey Booker. The interview struck me as being both honest and realistic about these issues. He doesn't attempt to walk the liberal party line as one might expect from a Democrat, in fact his stance sounds quite conservative – but rings of a certain practical truth. The kind of truth that I think is missing in Walker's approach and in the Liberal rhetoric as well. I've linked it in the right margin. I'd be interested in what people think.
The Wisconsin protests are striking their long stride at this point. While the sheer numbers of people showing up at the capitol have started to ease, the determination of those present has if anything grown deeper. I was at the capitol for about three hours last night and got a chance to talk to a lot of people. The icy damp air had pushed most of the protesters into the capitol building which was still crowded and loud, but the streets and walkways around the capitol were still moving with signs and chants.
The diversity of people I talked to was impressive. Of course they included teachers, firefighters, and other public union members but they also included private sector non union employees. I talked to an electrician of 23 years who had moved to Madison from a 'right to work' state and had told union friends 'never let that happen to you. Never.' I also talked to a former Republican who was outraged at how the conservative press was portraying the protesters. This conversation struck me because he was genuinely hurt. He wasn't liberal, he felt betrayed by his party and was left without faith that he had representation at all, something I've talked about in the past.
As these protests stretch towards their second full week, I've had the chance to debate and discuss the issues with liberals, moderates, conservatives and libertarians. What I've found is that those on the left are outraged at what they see as public workers being unilaterally and arbitrarily punished for the loss of state revenue caused by the severe unemployment of the Wall Street fueled sub prime economic crisis. Conservatives tend to focus on the issue of the deficit and the inflexibility left to the state created by large pension and benefits overhead. Is this regard, they tend to support what Walker's doing.
But when you factor in the unilateral destruction of union bargaining rights, or the fiscally questionable permission for the State to sell or lease power plants without taking bids, or the fact that Walker passed a law yesterday increasing the required majority to 2/3rds for any tax increases making it harder for the State to raise revenue, a lot of what this governor is doing starts to sound fiscally inauthentic no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. The fiscal inconsistency and irrelevancy, when pointed out, gets very little support from conservatives who seem almost perplexed at what Walker's game plan really is much like the rest of us on the left.
Last night, I got a chance to hear Lawrence O'donnell interview Newark, New Jersey's Mayor Corey Booker. The interview struck me as being both honest and realistic about these issues. He doesn't attempt to walk the liberal party line as one might expect from a Democrat, in fact his stance sounds quite conservative – but rings of a certain practical truth. The kind of truth that I think is missing in Walker's approach and in the Liberal rhetoric as well. I've linked it in the right margin. I'd be interested in what people think.
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