Before we get started today, I found it amazing that Rachel Maddow's segment 'The GoP: Bakes sales v. Billionaires' mirrored my connect the dots article in a surprisingly tight fashion. It was reassuring to find that I wasn't the only one who saw the connection between Citizens United and the moves by Governor Walker to crush Wisconsin public labor. I've linked that show segment in the margin if you want to see her take on the idea that what's happening here in Wisconsin is really an effort to let Republican sweep the table in upcoming elections. Whether your conservative or liberal, I'd give it a look.
I was at the protests on the capital last night and again was amazed at the determined front presented by public servants. Fire fighters, already exempt from the bill's dismantling of negotiation rights, stood in full uniform with us and marched together through the capital. But it wasn't just unions that showed up. Signs hung from the central banisters inside the capitol building as men and women from other states came to show their support: “Michigan is with you.” “Illinois stands by Wisconsin”. “Ohio stands with you.” On and on. I saw probably ten banners hanging near people who had arrived to show solidarity with those fighting for these rights.
Again I was struck at how thin the excuse that this is a budget concern was starting to sound. Here we were closing out the first full week of protests with conservatively fifteen thousand people showing up day after day sometimes swelling to twice that at peak times mostly enraged over the loss of rights.
Not the pay cuts.
Not the request to be a part of the solution.
But because without warning or conversation, without time to reflect or consider or discuss, and without much explanation as to how it was going to help, Governor Walker had railroaded a bill to kill 50 years of worker secured negotiation rights in 5 days. If this were about the money, it seems the moment the outrage flooded into the streets the first thing Walker would have done would be to grant the concession on those rights in order to get the damn thing passed and move on. But instead we saw silence. A silence that started to speak volumes about the fundamental purpose of the bill.
Then something completely unexpected happened. 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators disappeared. They went for lunch and didn't come back. Twitter went wild, and all over the network there were gasps, cheers, and the outraged dropping of jaws. The jaw that hit the table hardest appears to be Scott Walker's.
Without the democrats there, the senate lacked a quorum – a necessary majority of senators present to pass certain important legislation including all financial measures. A quorum is in place to prevent midnight deals between legislative officers passing laws with just a few people present in the wee hours and effectively hijacking the legislature. The protection of a quorum came with another pitfall which was that if enough of the minority party in a legislative group didn't show up, laws couldn't be passed. The deliberate move to do just that is called a 'vanishing minority'. This is a predecessor to the filibuster, and is the reason the filibuster was added to the national legislature: It used to happen all the time in federal politics and eventually they decided they'd rather give them the ability to talk it to death than spend weeks trying to find rogue senators.
Wisconsin doesn't have the filibuster. However Wisconsin's democrats are larger in number that would be required to reduce the senate attendance below quorum levels. Faced with a bill they vehemently opposed and with 100% certain loss, they filibustered the old fashioned way.
They vanished.
And the crowds went wild.
Without the ability to vote, the senate ground to a halt, the bill hung out for all to see and the silence dragged on. The longer this goes on the less believable the idea it is for money becomes. The whole thing starts to reek of its real identity, the spines and warts of a thinly disguised attack on organized labor peeking through the sheep's clothing of fiscal responsibility.
Rumor has it that Walker or his supporters are planning to mount a counter demonstration in the next day or so by busing in supporters from all over the state. Not a move I would have made. Nothing energizes a protest like having a vocal, present, and visible opponent. At the end of the day, the current protesters have a personal stake in the fight whereas the counter protesters don't. Stamina will lend itself to necessity as it always does.
Life is interesting in Wisconsin right now. It is unfortunate that it's the anxiety creating nervous interesting that comes from watching my government betray it's people, but it is an interesting time to be here. Time will tell if this protest and outrage is symbolic on the heels of societal regression or if Wisconsin will once again be able to stand up as the champion of labor rights as it did years ago.
I was at the protests on the capital last night and again was amazed at the determined front presented by public servants. Fire fighters, already exempt from the bill's dismantling of negotiation rights, stood in full uniform with us and marched together through the capital. But it wasn't just unions that showed up. Signs hung from the central banisters inside the capitol building as men and women from other states came to show their support: “Michigan is with you.” “Illinois stands by Wisconsin”. “Ohio stands with you.” On and on. I saw probably ten banners hanging near people who had arrived to show solidarity with those fighting for these rights.
Again I was struck at how thin the excuse that this is a budget concern was starting to sound. Here we were closing out the first full week of protests with conservatively fifteen thousand people showing up day after day sometimes swelling to twice that at peak times mostly enraged over the loss of rights.
Not the pay cuts.
Not the request to be a part of the solution.
But because without warning or conversation, without time to reflect or consider or discuss, and without much explanation as to how it was going to help, Governor Walker had railroaded a bill to kill 50 years of worker secured negotiation rights in 5 days. If this were about the money, it seems the moment the outrage flooded into the streets the first thing Walker would have done would be to grant the concession on those rights in order to get the damn thing passed and move on. But instead we saw silence. A silence that started to speak volumes about the fundamental purpose of the bill.
Then something completely unexpected happened. 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators disappeared. They went for lunch and didn't come back. Twitter went wild, and all over the network there were gasps, cheers, and the outraged dropping of jaws. The jaw that hit the table hardest appears to be Scott Walker's.
Without the democrats there, the senate lacked a quorum – a necessary majority of senators present to pass certain important legislation including all financial measures. A quorum is in place to prevent midnight deals between legislative officers passing laws with just a few people present in the wee hours and effectively hijacking the legislature. The protection of a quorum came with another pitfall which was that if enough of the minority party in a legislative group didn't show up, laws couldn't be passed. The deliberate move to do just that is called a 'vanishing minority'. This is a predecessor to the filibuster, and is the reason the filibuster was added to the national legislature: It used to happen all the time in federal politics and eventually they decided they'd rather give them the ability to talk it to death than spend weeks trying to find rogue senators.
Wisconsin doesn't have the filibuster. However Wisconsin's democrats are larger in number that would be required to reduce the senate attendance below quorum levels. Faced with a bill they vehemently opposed and with 100% certain loss, they filibustered the old fashioned way.
They vanished.
And the crowds went wild.
Without the ability to vote, the senate ground to a halt, the bill hung out for all to see and the silence dragged on. The longer this goes on the less believable the idea it is for money becomes. The whole thing starts to reek of its real identity, the spines and warts of a thinly disguised attack on organized labor peeking through the sheep's clothing of fiscal responsibility.
Rumor has it that Walker or his supporters are planning to mount a counter demonstration in the next day or so by busing in supporters from all over the state. Not a move I would have made. Nothing energizes a protest like having a vocal, present, and visible opponent. At the end of the day, the current protesters have a personal stake in the fight whereas the counter protesters don't. Stamina will lend itself to necessity as it always does.
Life is interesting in Wisconsin right now. It is unfortunate that it's the anxiety creating nervous interesting that comes from watching my government betray it's people, but it is an interesting time to be here. Time will tell if this protest and outrage is symbolic on the heels of societal regression or if Wisconsin will once again be able to stand up as the champion of labor rights as it did years ago.
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