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Childish unions won’t play by the rules in Wisconsin
boston herald ^ | 6/3/2012 | George F. Will

Posted on 06/03/2012 7:08:56 AM PDT by tobyhill

I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up.

No sir,

Not I,

Not me,

So there!

— “Peter Pan” the musical, 1954

This state, the first to let government employees unionize, was an incubator of progressivism and gave birth (in 1932 in Madison, the precursor of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) to its emblematic institution, the government employees union — government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself. But Wisconsin progressivism is in a dark Peter Pan phase; it is childish without being winsome.

Wisconsin has produced populists of the left (Robert La Follette) and right (Joe McCarthy). On Tuesday, in this year’s second-most important election, voters will judge the attempt by a populism of the privileged — white-collar labor unions whose members live comfortably above the American median — to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

In this Milwaukee suburb, a pro-Walker phone bank is conducting mobilization, not persuasion. Is any voter undecided? For 16 months, Wisconsin, normally a paragon of Midwestern neighborliness, has been riven by furious attempts to punish Walker- for keeping his campaign promise to change the state’s unsustainable fiscal- trajectory driven by the perquisites of government employees. His progressive adver-saries have, however, retreated from their original- pretext for attempting to overturn the election Walker won handily just 19 months ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: democrats; elections; liberalfascism; milwaukee; scottwalker; tombarrett; wisconsin
When Obama, the Democrats, MSM and the unions lose get ready for the temper-tantrums.
1 posted on 06/03/2012 7:09:03 AM PDT by tobyhill
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To: tobyhill
... progressivism ... its emblematic institution, the government employees union — government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself.

Good bit of analysis there.

2 posted on 06/03/2012 7:18:05 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Make sure you notice when I'm being subtly ironic!)
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To: tobyhill

I would enjoy that, especially for the unions, because it’s about time that the unions started getting serious cuts out of their money while the rest of us are losing jobs, second, it’s about time the words of our house speaker and presidential candidate get taken far more seriously than male whore slick willie and open pothead Barry. Third, since the Obama campaign considered the recall of Scott Walker a reflection of their victory in November, what would he say were that reversed? I would sure like to get some popcorn to watch what he would say now that the opposite happened.


3 posted on 06/03/2012 7:20:06 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: tobyhill; afraidfortherepublic; Diana in Wisconsin; P from Sheb; Shady; DonkeyBonker; ...

Wisconsin: George Will on the recall ping!


4 posted on 06/03/2012 7:25:50 AM PDT by Hunton Peck (See my FR homepage for a list of businesses that support WI Gov. Scott Walker)
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To: tobyhill
In the comments at the link I see ‘WillieGreen’ posting there. I'll bet it's former FReeper ‘Choo Choo WillieGreen’.

True to form, bashing conservatives.

5 posted on 06/03/2012 7:30:14 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: Beagle8U

Interesting.


6 posted on 06/03/2012 7:32:58 AM PDT by tobyhill (Conservatives are proud of themselves, Liberals lie about themselves)
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To: Hunton Peck

Outstanding!


7 posted on 06/03/2012 7:45:17 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: tobyhill
A large percentage of WI workers have made a loud statement by choosing to keep their union dues money in their own bank accounts instead of sending it off to the thugs.

Unions - money = no power.

8 posted on 06/03/2012 7:59:54 AM PDT by JPG (Don't just talk about it, make it happen.)
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To: tobyhill
When Obama, the Democrats, MSM and the unions lose get ready for the temper-tantrums.

The communists have a good track record. Look at what America has become. They will never stop because the majority of these so called Americans are literally insane. The are like the Nazis before WWII started.

9 posted on 06/03/2012 8:15:04 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: tobyhill
Willie was always pushing for government run rail systems, and that means gov unions.

Willie always was an obnoxious little liberal.

10 posted on 06/03/2012 8:26:20 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: tobyhill
When Obama, the Democrats, MSM and the unions lose get ready for the temper-tantrums.

In the form of more trumped up DOJ lawsuits...

11 posted on 06/03/2012 9:10:17 AM PDT by trebb ("If a man will not work, he should not eat" From 2 Thes 3)
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To: tobyhill

I heard a good one on a WI radio station. “Recall Santa ‘cuz I didn’t get what I wanted.”


12 posted on 06/03/2012 10:34:31 AM PDT by fishnuts2 (Liberals are anything except liberal.)
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To: tobyhill

Will goes a bridge too far, trying to make the case that recalls are justified “only when there’s criminal wrongdoing.”

Wrong. If a politician says he’ll do one thing when he’s elected, then turns around and does another, the electorate is perfectly justified in recalling him.

In fact, they should recall him. It’s an invaluable weapon the citizenry can use to protect themselves from liars in power or a government that simply ignores their wishes.


13 posted on 06/03/2012 10:44:14 AM PDT by Blue Ink
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To: Blue Ink

Yours is a recipe for constant unending politicking. The party that loses is always going to say that promises were not kept.

I’m here in wisconsin. It sucks. We’re spending 20 million for an election that will be repeated in two years. We’re having non-stop political ads saying the same thing over and over. There are technical difficulties in even conducting a state-wide recall election for example how do you verify 700,000 signatures?

We have elections every 4 years. In between we citizens are supposed to have some peace. The election is when you get rid of politicians that have not lived up to their promises, like we will Obama “the oceans will rise”.

BTW Walker has lived up to his promised program more than any politician I have ever seen (except Reagan). Even his restrictions on collective bargaining were discussed in the Mil Journal during the election.


14 posted on 06/03/2012 11:47:22 AM PDT by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: sgtyork

You can’t have self-government and take away the electorate’s ultimate weapon: to peacefully change “rulers.”

If you think it’s too easy to force a recall election, then make it harder. But the people’s right to change their minds is paramount.

We tossed out a terrible governor in California after he took office and promptly raised “fees” on every household by about five hundred bucks. Good example of a recall working.

In your case, I think Walker will stay in office. Again, the system works.


15 posted on 06/03/2012 12:36:23 PM PDT by Blue Ink
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To: Blue Ink

Well aware of the danger of not being able to peacefully change ‘rulers’. That’s what Wisconsin did in 2010 (Governor-House-Senate and US Senator — all went Republican) and the left won’t accept our democratic choice. As our former Senator Russ Feingold said “Its not over till we win”. This is a tactic of the left. If not stopped now, it will lead to bloodshed.

It will be made harder to recall no doubt about it. And your example of California doesn’t inspire any confidence, we are hoping to continue to exit from that kind of mal-governance.

‘The system works’ - not this time. 20 million in tax payer money that could have gone to schools, infrastructure is pissed away to prove to the left that they no longer run the state. They could have waited 28 months and come back with their plan, but its all been about subverting the last vote before Walker’s actions could be proven to have been effective. The recallwalker.org domain was purchased before election day in 2010. It was all about keeping those millions in union dues and continuing to coerce individuals into membership. It was a do-over because somehow the citizens of Wisconsin made a mistake in 2010.

Too bad for them, the numbers are proving that the plans that he campaigned on worked and we are fiscally sound. That they were lying that the schools would collapse. Too bad the media didn’t cover the extensive communist - world socialist participation in the occupation of the capital because Wisconsinites would have recoiled from that too.


16 posted on 06/03/2012 3:17:54 PM PDT by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: sgtyork

The intelligent, fair way to remedy the illegitimate abuse of a legitimate right cannot be to simply take away the right.

Because what happens when you’ve got a lousy, leftist, lying, tax-raising governor in office? You have sit down, shut up, and wait two years till the next election? Ridiculous.

And you talk as if EVERY election since time immemorial has been disputed in your state; it simply isn’t so.

You guys are doing absolutely the right thing. You’re supporting a legitimately elected governor who’s doing a great job. They’re not going to succeed with their recall effort.

You want to take everyone’s guns away after the rebellion has been put down. Why? Why disarm yourselves because some people misuse guns? Makes no sense.


17 posted on 06/03/2012 4:07:14 PM PDT by Blue Ink
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