Krauthammer: Wisconsin vote a turning point

Ventura County Star ^ | 6/8/2012 | Chas. Krauthammer

[SMARTY]

That a recall was demanded and went ahead was a ‘turning point’.

[bjc]

I wish I could write half as clearly and half as powerfully as CK. He is one smart dude.

[luvbach1]

I wish I could write half as clearly and half as powerfully as CK. He is one smart dude.

I was thinking the same thing.He probably was dictating it off the top of his head to Dragon software, being that he's paralyzed.He writes like he talks.

[RoseofTexas]

Marked for later read

[Elle Bee]

well his powerful writing skills and opinion didn't do much when he was writing speaches for Walter Mondale

Now he casts himself as a conservative by posing amongst liberals

.

[Oldexpat]

WI and IN are small fry. It won’t be as easy in CA,IL and NY.
The PEU and the parasites are a majority and won’t give up easily. Getting a couple of Props approved in San Diego and San Jose are not the entire state and was done during primary elections..not general elections where more of the parasites show up to vote RAT.
I am overjoyed we made this little progress,but it is a long way to go to Nov and even further to fiscal responsibility.

[rottndog]

Without the thumb of the state tilting the scale by coerced collection, union membership became truly voluntary. Result? Newly freed members rushed for the exits. In less than one year, AFSCME, the second largest public-sector union in Wisconsin, has lost more than 50 percent of its membership.

It was predictable. In Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels instituted by executive order a similar reform seven years ago, government-worker unions have since lost 91 percent of their dues-paying membership.


That's the real crux of the matter. Unions can't exist without thuggery and intimidation. Take away the money that's essentially stolen from people forced to be in the unions, and you take away their ability to fund their socialist political agenda. Of course funding left wing politics is the only purpose of today's unions.

[bjc]

I would rather have him on our side than the side of the PEUs!

[Salvavida]

One of the real challenges for the Tea Party and other state conservative groups is CURRICULUM. At some point, this entire subject has to be concisely and accurately presented in texts, so that we can produce conservative thought in our students. Aristotelian logic should be the champion in the humanities: we’ve sat back and allowed institutions to produce an ideology that is at odds with classic American thought. This is way more important than the tactical battles won.

[oldbrowser]

There are big pendulums and small pendulums.
Hopefully this is a big pendulum that will swing all of the government unions out of business for decades to come.

[MissMagnolia]

All that was missing was a political leader willing to risk his career to make it stop.

Scott Walker, American hero.

[thethirddegree]

I suspect that the next shoe to drop in Wisconsin will be the revelation that the public section pension funds are seriously underfunded.

[traderrob6]

Excellent analysis

[RavenATB]

You're point is spot-on.

However, the people of California have the opportunity to watch Wisconsin and Indiana recover from a financial crisis similar, obviously on a smaller scale, than Californians are facing right now. As these two states take the smart and conservative route, and the result is increasing prosperity, the people of California can watch and learn. If they're smart they'll swallow their pride and admit they were wrong in time to recover (if that's possible).

If not, they will find themselves in a horrifying collapse with no one to turn to for help. The federal government is approaching the “cliff.” Regardless who sits in the White House there is good reason to doubt that the US government would be able to help California even if Congress and POTUS wanted to.

Perhaps it's time for California's neighboring states to invest in a lot of fencing...

[Defiant]

The abject failure of the unions to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — the first such failure in U.S. history —

That may be true, but prior recalls were occasioned by Governors who did terrible things that caused their constituents to want them gone early. Gray Davis, for example. Walker was elected and then did exactly what he said he would do. The only thing that had changed was that the unions wanted a do-over on the election that they lost, not that Walker had done anything to turn off the electorate. In such circumstances, a recall is not warranted, as it turns every election into a second election (when Democrats lose). It is therefore not surprising that Walker won, and it is a great thing that this recall abuse was defeated.

[The Wizard]

"...the real threat behind all this was that the new law ended automatic government collection of union dues."

Please allow me to reflect on the leadership of posters here at FR:

When all this started in February I pointed out that the real issue was exactly that because it would cripple the unions........

"...the real threat behind all this was that the new law ended automatic government collection of union dues."

[sand88]

I wish I could write half as clearly and half as powerfully as CK. He is one smart dude.

At his very core lies a Statist. CK is an arrogant elitist who believes that the "englightened" should rule over the masses.

The sum of his writings indicate a man who does not believe in true Liberty. He has a problem with the Capitalism of Milton Friedman and von Mises. He doesn't respect the creative messiness of capitalism.

Smart though he is, he still can't acknowledge or recognize the utter evil that is most government undertakings. [I have read him for years and that is what I conclude]

[itsahoot]

[I have read him for years and that is what I conclude]

You are absolutely correct, sand. In the end people that live on the "right" side of the tracks are always loath to let the "wrong" side residents move to the right side, what ever that is.

[bjc]

A reference or two would help me reassess.