Posted on 03/13/2011 12:38:18 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Democracy could be found in Wisconsin this past week, but not among the screaming protesters running wild throughout the Wisconsin capitol. While Wisconsin's elected representatives -- minus 14 Democratic state senators who fled the state -- were working hard on the job the people sent them to do, thousands of screaming protesters provided America with a preview of the union mobocracy coming soon to a legislature, city council or school board near you. State, county and city governments across the country might well find themselves facing the same confrontational tactics that caused havoc in Wisconsin. The reason is that public employee unions have used collective bargaining to extract generous salaries, pensions and other benefits from taxpayers who can no longer afford to pay for them. The unfunded liabilities for public employee pensions and health care benefits are estimated at $3 trillion, according to Orin S. Kramer, chairman of New Jersey's State Investment Council. Voters are rebelling against public employee union demands that these inordinately lavish benefits be preserved by raising taxes, again, on the productive people in the economy, most of whom have far less lucrative benefits, if any at all. In Wisconsin, the projected deficit was $3.6 billion just for the next two years. That's why last November voters there elected Gov. Scott Walker and new Republican majorities in the state legislature. When Walker unveiled his proposed budget cuts and reforms last month, the public employee unions initially demanded higher taxes on "the rich" instead. When Walker refused to raise taxes, government labor leaders agreed to pay a little more toward their benefits, but they also shifted the debate to the governor's proposed reforms in the collective bargaining process that enabled the unions to expect overly generous benefits. Union leaders -- who receive an estimated $100 million annually in compulsory membership dues that are paid with tax dollars -- were especially aghast that Walker proposed making union membership and dues an elective rather than a required paycheck deduction. That's when the protests moved away from fervent political speech and toward the kinds of systematic confrontation and violence reminiscent of the Students for a Democratic Society-inspired campus demonstrations of the 1960s.
Things reached a fever pitch as the Wisconsin legislature approved Walker's collective bargaining reforms. Republican legislators were often surrounded and threatened by cursing demonstrators; protesters repeatedly disrupted the legislative process; and chanting, screaming, horn-blowing crowds took over the rotunda and other parts of the capitol. Outside agitators were shipped into the state by President Obama's Organizing for America, the SEIU and other national unions, and the organization formerly known as ACORN. As events reached a crescendo, demonstrators broke past security police, breaking windows and forcing doors open in mob actions clearly intended to bring Wisconsin government to a stop and to nullify the results of last November's elections. Worst of all, many credible death threats were received by Republican legislators and are now being investigated by Wisconsin law enforcement authorities. Union mobocracy is what we get with gangster government, whether it's practiced in Washington, D.C., a state capital, or the county where you live.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/03/union-mobocracy-drowns-out-democracy-wisconsin#ixzz1GVf1aQAc
Wisconsin ping
bttt
How can you praise pro-democracy protests in Egypt while praising anti-democracy protests in Wisconsin?
We are freemen, not surfs. Raise taxes too high and the wealthy are free to leave the state.
To hear the union thugs talk, this is a major violation of their rights. I received 2 emails over the weekend (which I’ve since deleted) — both asking for help for the “oppressed” workers. One characterized the Wisconsin dispute as a violation of human rights; the other referred to attrocities against the union workers. When I asked what human rights were violated and what attrocities were committed, I received no reply. Both emails appear to have come from college-age kids, who have never known real attrocities and violations of human rights. The propaganda is prepared for them by communist insurgents.
A government of the public unions, by the public unions and for the public unions...
Huh? I don't believe I did either...
I’m talking about the folks on the left who were full of praise for the Egyptian protesters specifically for their pro-democracy sentiments while praising the Wisconsin demonstrators for attempting to overturn the verdict of the ballot box.
OK. Just let it be on the record that I never praised either set of protestors. I favor law and order.
They blew it - we shouldn’t give them too much ink here either. Their rally of public union pigs trying to squeeze a few moew pennies out of the Wisconsin citizenry was largely drowned out by the Japanese nuclear meltdown.
The way this site works is that the person that posts an article gets a lot comments posted to his name that are not addressed to the poster himself. It happens to me very often when I post an article.
Let them rage agains’t the machine. The Bill is passed and signed. The deed is done.
Protestors climb outside walls of Capitol Building in Madison
Who are these middle aged women wearing hats that look like Badger tails?
I am hoping that the rest of the nations understands the dangerous nature of the public unions by the way they conducted themselves in Madison. Lucky no one was killed by their behavior. The face they left in my mind was a group living high on the hog from the public trough who will stop at no restraint to keep their economic privilege.
Gee, can’t wait ‘till this comes to California. Our slobs will dwarf Wisconsin’s. So too, the messes they’ll leave behind. This is where they’re taking America, and don’t forget who’s behind the wheel.
This is what democracy looks like?? Maybe in Greece... The bill has been passed and signed by the duly elected representatives and governor. Now go home and see what happens. If the economy doesn’t improve, then vote them out at the next election. Alot of people in these mobs may find that the higher pension and health benefit payments may be offset by the union dues not coming out of their paychecks automatically. That’s why the union organizers have been fighting so hard against this. Wonder what tactics they will come up with to use against those who decide they don’t want the automatic deduction anymore? Using recall to remove an elected representative only because you don’t like the way they voted on something is a misuse of that option.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.