Wisconsin and Learning from Our Mistakes

By
Marion
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244
48

Five hours ahead and one day behind, I went to bed last night, having  just watched Rachel Maddow begin her Tuesday broadcast by roundly proclaiming that the people of Wisconsin had won the battle of wills against their governor’s intransigence.

Now I wake up this morning to find that, despite Rachel’s joyous declaration that the people of Wisconsin had won, that the shifty-eyed corporate tool, who happens to be the duly elected Governor of Wisconsin, had budged, the Governor’s party had, in fact, managed to rewrite the odious bill in question, in such a manner that it could be rammed through the legislature and in one fell swoop, a basic right of working people with a fifty-year pedigree had been consigned to the dustbins of history. Dead as a dod. Kaput. No refunds, no returns.

Let’s be brutally honest, people. This was never about fiscal responsibility. It was never about balancing a budget and job creation, two of the major subjects the Republican party whined and groaned about throughout the fall campaign of 2010, two of the major accusations of failure levied at their Democratic opponents.

It was all about, it was ever about busting union power, bringing those organisations formed by working people, of working people and for working people, to their proverbial knees. It was about quashing the little man. It was about keeping the peasants in their place.

We have it on record. Scott Walker said as much – in fact, he bragged about it – in his oleaginous twenty-minute telephone conversation with faux David Koch.

The demise of the union and the quelling of their remaining power is a major objective, not only of the Republican Party, but also of their corporate puppetmasters, primarily the shady woodwork-dwelling Kochroaches.  It’s also worth mentioning that part and parcel of Walker’s landmark legislation colludes the sale of public utilities to private corporate entities, and we all know who’ll benefit from that. It’s so not rocket science, that even dummies understand it:-

As amusing as the dummies’ take on this situation may be, the bitter irony is, simply, that it is the people of Wisconsin, and – by extension –  the working people and the working poor of our country, who end up being royally rogered up the backside by David Koch and his ilk, via any representative we elect from the Republican party.

I grew up in a union home, in the South. If that sounds like an anomaly today, there actually was a time, in what’s traditionally been known as the Upper South, where unions were visably present and part of everyday working life, and even if they weren’t as strident as they were in the Northern industrial parts of the country, they certainly improved upon the lives of their members and their members’ families.

My dad worked in a textile mill, a huge entity which provided employment for men and women in four predominantly rural counties on the cusp of that monster which grew to become known today as Northern Virginia. Most of the fathers of kids who went to my high school worked there.  The mother of Joe Bageant, author of Deer-Hunting with Jesus and one of the most strident practical Progressive voices of the South, worked there.

In the era before clean air technology became a given, on certain days when the wind was right, you could smell the rotten-egg stench from the factory, certainly, where I lived and sometimes thirty miles south to the town where I attended high school. My dad brought it home on his clothes, and it saturated the interior of his car. But that union-backed stench provided him with fully comprehensive health insurance, which made it possible for me to get my teeth straightened. It paid the hospital bill for my younger cousin, whose appendix ruptured and who had to spend six weeks recovering at the University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville. It paid for all my mother’s chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and it topped up my father’s Medicare until the day he died sixteen years ago.

That union-backed stench gave us a living wage, and when I was in college in the mid-Seventies, and the union called its workers out on strike for six weeks, I opened an envelope one day at college, to find a check from the AFL-CIO for the princely sum of $100, as help toward paying for my textbooks, as my dad had been on strike for an overly-long period.

Like the people being targeted inWisconsin, I began my professional life, after taking my degree, in the public sector as a teacher. Virginia, being one of those states who embraced Taft-Hartley and who fervently worshipped at the altar of “right-to-work”, had made it impossible for state employees to unionise. We had to make do with pithy “Education Associations”, professional organisations which were unions in name only, with no collective bargaining allowed. I recall the one time we pushed our weight and even threatened to strike, we were summarily told that, were we to do so, they had enough applications for employment on file, that they’d have the classrooms staffed within two days.

Keith Olbermann, blogging on his new website, FOKNews, reckons the Wisconsin governor and his cronies, by coming out of the thugs’ closet, have effectively signalled the incipient suicide of the Republican Party. Nate Silver reckons this action will do more than anything else to galvanise the base of the Democratic Party.

I wish I could be so hopeful, because we certainly are in need of some adhesive to bind the gaping wounds rent asunder by our own self-destructive tendencies.

Rachel’s all-too-preciptous cry of triumph two nights ago makes me think of the way everyone from the media to the grassroots declared themselves openly Leftist enough in November 2008 to predict that the Republican Party was dead in the water, only to find that by March the following year, the Right had taken a leaf from Saul Alinsky’s book and had organised themselves into a movement that was, at once, strident, vociferous and very ugly. It received its battlecry in the early morning rant of a CNBC business commentator and its backing from the omnipresent Koch machine. It’s field lieutenants were the willfully ignorant Vice Presidential candidate from the losing ticket and an ex-rodeo clown, who was also a recovering alcoholic. They fed their base on fear – fear of a seminal President, like no other we’d had before in our history. Their object was to demonise the Democrats and de-legitimise the first African-American President.

But it was never about race.

Forty years ago, in the wake of the VietNam fiasco, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the violent shambles of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the Democratic party reformed itself, removing its base from the rural Midwest of agricultural cooperatives, Southern working poor, Rust Belt industrial workers, and unions. Didn’t you hear? Like the Don McLean song, the Democrats took the last train to the Coast (Left Coast or Northeastern) and developed attitude.

That attitude basically gave a shrug and a disdainful nod to the old base, turning its back on the old union organisers. The Midwestern farmers were rubes, the Southerners all racist and people like George Meany, many of whom barely had grade school academic credentials, didn’t fit into the cosmopolitan, city-centred, elitist mindset of the newly-minted Democrats. They would lead and the old base would follow. After all, what else were they going to do? Vote Republican?

Fast forward ten years to 1980, the year all this shitstorm we’re suffering now started in earnest with the election of Ronald Reagan, and that’s exactly what they did. The unions endorsed Reagan and he busted their asses. The Reagan Democrats were formed, and the South and rural Midwest bled red. The Republicans communicated with these people on their level, in language they understood, and with operatives with whom these people were familiar.  Like the seasoned conmen they became, they built trust. With the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, the culture war battles began in earnest on the airwaves. With the advent of Karl Rove, heir apparent of that king ratfucker, Donald Segretti, the die was cast.

The aim was an unbroken hegemony of Republican rule, appealing to the basic instincts of their uneducated and undereducated base – play up religion, emphasize family values, and use every occasion to keep them scared and compliant. Walk into any remaining factory or warehouse in certain parts of the country today and you’ll see people at work, their minds being indoctrinated over loudspeakers by Rightwing talk radio stations, screaming Rush, Beck or Michael Savage. It’s mind control by osmosis.

And from 2009, we, ourselves, on the Left, became our own worst enemies. Lulled into a false sense of security and faux wealth since the Gipper’s regime, and fed on a diet of instant gratification, whilst nurturing a total ignorance about the way our government functions, instead of actually listening to the President, we chose to have various and sundry celebrity talking heads, so-called scions of the Left, corporately paid, analyse and interpret every word spoken or unspoken, every action completed or contemplated and every thought assumed by the President, not for the way we saw or heard ourselves, but the way they thought we should respond.

They told us so much they confused people who were already confused.

They endowed the President with so many powers of government that, had he chosen to use a fraction of those which they deemed he had, he’d have been successfully impeached. As much as the Right pushed the big lies of death panels, socialism, soft cell terrorism, and phony birth certificates, the Left heard their own tell them that Obama was weak, he was a pussy, he hated Progressives, he wasn’t enough like Bush, he was too much like Bush, he was a coward, he caved, he just wasn’t into the all-pervading Middle Class (which, somehow, seemed to have pushed the working class and working poor into some limbo located between irrelevance and non-existence). One progressive talking head went so far as to issue a clarion cry for all Progressives to boycott voting in the Midterms in order to teach the President a lesson. And the LGBT community was so convinced of the President’s concealed homophobia because he hadn’t whipped out an Executive Order repealing DADT (he couldn’t), that 30% of LGBTs who voted in the Midterms, voted Republican.

Well, that worked out nicely, didn’t it? Especially since, not two weeks ago, that selfsame talking head was screaming into the cameras that the President had better get his ass to Wisconsin and get on the picket lines or risk being a one-term President.

I’m wondering who voted for Scott Walker, because they were sold a bill of sale. Were they people who’d previously voted for the President in 2008 or who’d kept Russ Feingold in the Senate in previous years? Were they decent people who’d been scared shitless by the Tea Party’s virulent warnings about the plug being pulled on Grandma or the myth that the President was really a Manchurian candidate? Or was Walker elected as much by those so-called Progressive sulkers and pouters who stayed at home to make a point? Because as much as the people who voted for this dangerous dolt, the people who didn’t vote enabled him.

Now, like a cancer, we’re seeing this union busting legislatively spread across the Rust Belt and heartland of the industrial Midwest. We’re seeing a South Carolina governor employ an education advisor who’s openly stated that he hates the idea of public schools. We’re watching a redux of Joseph McCarthy sit in the House of Representatives and target a group of American people for having a particular religious belief that labels them, in his eyes, terrorists, whilst it’s actually the Congressman in question, Peter King, who’s not only palled around with real terrorists, the IRA, he’s danced, sung and contributed to their cause.

Maybe Keith and Nate will be right. Maybe this will be our carpe diem moment, and maybe the Democrats genuinely are having an epiphany and remembering that they were, ever and always, the party for working people and not the intellectual idealogues who ponder what might be in a Utopian future over a skinny latte and some New World merlot, the sorts who, even know, are contemplating a great white Progressive hope who’ll primary the President, thereby insuring that Karl Rove’s vision of one-party Republican rule becomes a reality.

It’s important to remember that all roads now in the Republican party are leading to the Koch brothers, who not only had real Nazi relatives, they actually had real Nazi associations. It’s important to remember that the first thing that nice Adolf Hitler – the one who made the downtrodden and conquered German people feel good about themselves – did upon assuming office as Chancellor, was outlaw all the trades unions.

This is starving the beast that is the Democratic party, considering that a very large proportion of its major contributors are unions.

History repeating itself? Well, those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it, so they say. A culture war has been raging in the United States for the past thirty years, with the Republicans presenting themselves and their operatives as guardians of God and fetuses, whilst leaving the women and children to fester and fend for themselves. The wanton destruction of the unions will be the tinder which starts a conflagration.

And the issues at hand for the 2012 election won’t be the deficit or jobs or healthcare reform or Afghanistan, although they’ll be cleverly disguised as such. The main issue will be cultural. And the deciding factor will determine how we define America.

Caveat emporium.

244 COMMENTS

  2. Somewhere between 85,000 and 100,000 people showed up.
    [img]http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/MadisonProtest2.jpg[/img]

    Compare this to the much-ballyhooed September 12th rally where Tea-Partiers gathered to hear Glenn Beck speak. The FOX news network promoted this thing non-stop for weeks beforehand, and they were joined by the rest of the Rightwing media machine. That machine chugged along 24/7, giving it all the energy it could muster, making sure that EVERYONE on the Right heard about it, and encouraging as many people to come as possible. It was an all-out effort.

    And yet, they only managed 60-70,000.
    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protest-crowd-size-estimate-falsely-attributed-abc-news/story?id=8558055

    I don’t feel that I have to point out that the Wisconsin rally had nothing like that kind of media support; there IS no giant messaging machine for progressives like the kind the Right enjoys.

    And yet, the protestors in Wisconsin drew greater numbers. This is encouraging.

  4. Why don’t people vote?

    Allow me to answer this question in the traditional tribal method of transmitting information, by storytelling.

    In the tiny Midwestern town of Apple Meadow there was a small mom and pop restaurant Named Ma’s Diner. The people of the town ate there often and enjoyed the healthy fare they served.

    One day a new Corporate Chain restaurant called McKoch’s moved into town and opened it’s doors. The folks running Ma’s diner soon noticed that thier business had fallen off 10%, as one in ten folks would eat the Crappy McKoch burgers and drink the Mcunionbuster flavored ice milk shakes.

    These folks didn’t really care for the noxious fare they just were taken in by the glitzy box’s it was served in and the little plastic Karl Rove action figures that goose steps around the table when you put a nickel in their ass.

    The folks at Ma’s diner decided that in order to win these customers back they must change their business to be more like McKoch’s. They felt this was their duty as without the healthy fare served at Ma’s the folks would have no where to get a decent meal.

    They changed a few items on their menu and removed others substituting greasy Freedom Fries for salads and McKochburgers in shiny wrappers for grilled Salmon. Ma’s business still seemed to be dropping off although not as abruptly so the owners of Ma’s decided it would be in their best interest to become even more like McKoch’s.

    As the two business became more and more alike the crowd of every day diners that used to frequent MA’s was reduced to a small number of loyal diners. Many of the departed felt that the type of healthy fare they enjoyed was no longer available at Ma’s and the menu was much the same as McKoch’s

    The loyal diners tried to get their friends who used to join them at Ma’s Diner daily to enjoy a meal to return, explaining that there was a difference Ma’s diner served their McKochburgers with a pickle and slice of lettuce and 20% of the grease was allowed to drip from their Freedom Fries before they were put in the shiny box.

    Business continued to fall of until one sad day Ma’s Diner closed it’s door for the final time…

    A few moons later Fred Mertz the former co-owner of Ma’s diner stood patiently in line waiting for his Mckoch brothers meal. The fellow in line behind said in a conversational tone: “I wish there was somewhere besides Mckoch’s to get a meal around here.” Fred Mertz replied: “Don’t look at me, there was another place to eat but it’s not my fault people didn’t support it.”

  6. WI Firefighters Spark “Move Your Money” Moment

    On the day that the bill passed the Wisconsin Assembly effectively ending 50 years of collective bargaining in Wisconsin and eviscerating the ability of public unions to raise money through dues, a new front opened in the battle for the future of Wisconsin families.

    Bagpipes blaring, hundreds of firefighters walked across the street from the Wisconsin Capitol building, stood outside the Marshall and Ilsley Bank (M&I Bank) and played a few tunes — loudly. Later, a group of firefighter and consumers stopped back in at the bank to make a few transactions. One by one they closed their accounts and withdrew their life savings, totaling approximately $190,000. See a video clip. After the last customer left, the bank quickly closed its doors, just in case the spontaneous “Move Your Money” moment caught fire.

    The sedate, old fashioned M&I Bank on the Capitol Square has gained some notoriety in recent weeks. Oddly, a tunnel in the M&I parking garage links to the capitol basement. Dubbed the “rat hole” to the Walker palace, the tunnel was used by Governor Scott Walker to ferry lobbyists into the capitol building to hear his budget address during a time when the capitol was in a virtual lock down in defiance of a court order and after Sherriffs has quit the building refusing to be a “palace guard.”

    Now the bank is getting caught up in the controversy again. Word is beginning to spread that M&I is one of Walker’s biggest backers. Top executives at M&I Bank have long been boosters of Walker. M&I Chief Executive Dennis Kuester and his wife gave $20,000 to Walker in recent years. When you package individual and PAC contributions by employers, M&I is number one — at $57,000 dollars. The firm apparently uses a conduit to bundle much of its money to Walker. Flyers, webpages, and Facebook sites have popped up encouraging WI consumers to boycott Walker campaign contributors and “Pull the Plug on M&I Bank.” Other banks whose employees have donated large sums to Walker, such as Associated Bank and North Shore Bank may also be seeing their customers soon.

    [img]http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/Shame200pxW_0.jpg[/img]

    http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/03/10341/wi-firefighters-spark-move-your-money-moment

    • I don’t understand that attitude. If you can’t find something worth voting for at a moment when hundreds of thousands are fighting for our democracy against the most dangerous and plutocratic Reich wing Repubs, than as far as I am concerned, you are a BIG part of the problem.

      That kind of purist elitism is exactly why this nightmare is happening. The disgruntalists stayed home and instead of pushing for MORE change said, “keep the change.” Thanks.

        • First, I am very relieved to know you vote. Second, was responding to your video (“Give me something to vote for”)which sends the opposite message of voting. I missed your previous comments stating that you voted and that you feel (as I do) that not voting is a serious problem. And third, I was not “yelling” at you. If disagreement is considered yelling, we can’t discuss much. The use of the pronoun “you” is also problematic. I meant it as “one”–as in, “if ONE can’t find something…”

          • I find the lack of a plural “you” in English very frustrating.

            I believe the blue collar folks of the northeast and Midwest have come up with a solution: youze. Never have seen it used incorrectly. In the South it’s
            y’all. It is the only way to be inclusive and NOT personal.

            I embrace it and suggest youze/y’all do the same for clarity’s sake?

            • C’Lady, the only problem with y’all and youze (and I use the first pretty frequently) is that it still includes the person to whom I am addressing the comment. And that’s not necessarily what I want to do. Hmmm.

              How about “peeps”? As in, “If peeps can’t find something to vote for…?” Or maybe the more homey “some folks?” {sigh}

            • Cher – yes, if the person is NOT included, peeps will work. It’s the third person plural I believe? That works well. It’s the ambiguity of the “you” – me, all of us? Him but not me? – that needs the most work though. Do like peeps for the collective entity though. Has a ring to it!

          • C’Lady, I have been listening to the rally all day and Wow, just WOW. I don’t know how many people have to be in the streets to get attention from the media, but this and the rallies in WI,IN,OH,FL these last few weeks has been fantastic. I feel there may be a movement afoot. People want a voice not a government directed by the large multi national corporations. I’m sure you remember our “Jobs with Justice” rallies years ago. I could have only dreamed of a turn out to one of those a quarter of the size of some of these rallies.
            There are more people in Madison today than there has been and after what, 20+ days?
            http://theuptake.org/2011/03/12/wi-rallies-against-gov-walkers-budget/

            • I know bito – it’s the tipping point. I had feared it might not happen. I have people in OH who thought they would stand alone (and some who still are not involved even as public employees they’re getting smashed by Kasich) but without missing a BEAT, out came the UAW, USW, and on and on. They came as allies to the NEA which is not even IN the AFL-CIO. They came from all kinds of backgrounds even NON union folks, and the ground the lies into the mud about “overpaid” public workers.

              We are gathered together once again. IMHO the one weak spot is Calfornia where I fear ego and competition for scarce resources will keep us apart, where snotty disregard will drive wedges, where catty backbiting will prevail. My money is on the labor folks as the real leaders followed by those fighting for really disaffected groups – racial equity, immigration rights, women’s rights, etc. They have the REAL fire in the belly! There are just too many others who would leave all these folks OUT while they hobnobbed with Hollywood types and sipped French wine. So keep your eyes on the REAL movement – today’s and right on along the line. That’s where the reality of change really lies. And my money is on them – including YOU, bito – now and forever. All you heirs to the labor movement, progressive change and politics from the 1890s on, and Midwestern good sense – you ROCK! We will work to have CA catch up – there is a GREAT start here at the Planet!

          • Winds of change CLady?
            Could it be? could it be my cynicism is going to be proven wrong? Is my lost faith in humankind going to be restored?
            These days i pray to be wrong…Please prove me wrong world…!

    • Good for Grayson! I spent years documenting labor sites, know the “Pinkerton Landing” which has been preserved at Homestead and is used to remind people what it was like “in the good old days” when Pinkertons shot you in the back. The quest to return America to the age of the Robber Barons NEEDS pushback from working people, and this time most of the police are on our side. That’s not to say they always have choices, but they express clear loyalty to us, not to the bosses.

      We’ve been through this before. This time we build on solid union strength, and we need to keep the momentum. Chaz noted my optimism last night – I am. Not because of just Obama but because of the energies of men and women – and even kids – who are speaking out for justice and fair treatment. We’ve allowed the politics of RW “divide and conquer” to keep us apart too long. That is changing. Not everywhere since I still see snotty elitism over at the Dark Side {spit} but in reality across the nation.

      There IS a reason to court the Middle Class – people who do not have unions, or roots in collective bargaining, or are people in white collar jobs. They need to understand quickly that their fortunes come from improvements to the lower echelons, NOT to the top. We won’t win them all, but we can talk about fair play, about decency, about what makes us strong as a nation when equitable treatment of all gives us stability. And STABILITY is huge. We can begin with small businesses because they have been hit doubly hard – our lack of buying power hurts their income AND they get taxed to sustain their own competition unfairly. Small business and well paid working people are a strength we need to celebrate not disdain.

      I cannot be sure how far the bosses are willing to go, but it is my profound hope that the lessons of Homestead, of Haymarket, of the Memorial Day massacre will prevent violence against working people. Even Kent State figures into our collective memory about things that could have been prevented. Today as tractors roll into Madison in support of working people, it’s a thing to celebrate! We need to build coalitions wherever we can because we do have more in common than we have separation.

      For everyone who believes this administration sold out by not transforming the nation overnight, we need also to be realistic. You cannot undo 40 years of history in 2 years. Or 4 or 8. But there are new laws and processes – not perfect but better – to begin curtailing the power of what, yes, COULD become fascism where the government exists entirely in sync with major corporate interests. That is, without hype, what we need to tell smaller businesses and middle class white people – we are your best partners, not Koch.

      But at the end of the day, we need to have the courage of Homestead. Anyone near Pittsburgh who has not been there, you will find it sad – but that one building, the Pump House where the Pinkertons came up off the river and were defeated in 1892, survives the shut down/tear down of one of the most productive plants ever built. It’s a lonely but stark reminder that we CAN fight for our rights. Ultimately we CAN win. Never give up.

  13. EVERYBODY who has been following the WI union busting has born witness to FASCISM American style…there is no longer any reason to be afraid of using the correct term FASCISM

    FASCISM does not mean gas chambers, FASCISM is predatory capitalism as we have seen in the USA starting with reagan, yes folks reagan was a true blue, dyed in the wool FASCIST. WW2 was planned by IG Farben, the very same petro-chemical cartel that built Auschwitz.

    Fascism has been presented to us historically as the savage and murderous plague of antisemitism that it truly was, but what has been conveniently ignored by history are the capitalist who paid to have hitler established in power.

    WHY?

    as long as the republicans do not murder people they have been able to destroy the middle class and subisidies the corporations who fund them, when reagan destroyed union power in the 1980’s, democrats started taking corporate money too.

    we have ONE political party, fascist, corporately controlled and antilabor just like hitler, mussolini, and even stalin was a fascist who was in every way worse than hitler.

    Walker is doing the bidding of the koch boys, whose family made their money from stalin. As long as walker does not set up concentration camps he will succeed…propaganda is the only thing in the media, there is no truth…

    • phred – no, we don’t. We do have a powerful ruling class in sync with PART of the national governmental structure, but this administration is slowly picking that apart. Don’t go over the top in emotion or rhetoric. It’s critical to KNOW what is being done and not assume from the superficial media analyses that all power is being sustained for the ruling class. It is NOT.

      Take health care reform. I keep reading what a ‘sell out’ it is. Well, those sentiments come from people who have not read the bill or understand it. Is it Romney’s? No. Not in the least. There are elements in terms of affordability for real human beings that were taken directly from the funding part of California’s single payer legislation. Does it capitulate to Pharma? No. It gives them some space – but by 2014 there are huge controls on pharmaceuticals. Do the insurance companies love it because of the mandate? No – they are strongly controlled even now since they have to cover everyone with pre-existing conditions, provide a large number of prevention measures and tests without huge co-pays. It revises all the ills of both the Romney and Schwarzenegger plans – no outrageous deductibles and out-of-pocket costs (that in those two plans were $15K per person per year).

      I’ve read all those bills, cross checked them, and stand firmly on the side of the Affordable Care Act as a great start – just as Medicare and Social Security were. Single payer nationally was unattainable – it had 85 co-authors and that was the limit of votes. But ACA moves us toward that – and two weeks ago Obama and Bernie Sanders formed an agreement that states could devise their OWN plans so that the three working on single payer – VT, MD, CA and maybe PA – could do that with no reservations.

      When you reduce everything to gross generalizations as we did in 1980 with Carter and Reagan, you miss the incredibly important differences. We are NOT a fascist nation, we DO have oppositional voices, and we need to build on that powerful base to make resistance to the fascism that IS desired by some parts of corporate America. Even that is not universal, witness Soros, Buffet, Silicon Valley and manufacturing sector in the main. They are not overwhelmingly liberal, but they GET the importance of well paid working people and a functioning democracy.

      By ignoring those differences, we lose some of our better allies. Yes, we can have allies, even in a radical agenda, within corporate America.

      It is simply too mushy-minded to lump everything and everyone into the same pot and declare we’re fascist. No. We are not. And it’s to PREVENT that that we must act. ORGANIZE!

    • CLady is a very rational intelligent humorous soul here sharing the planet (on line and world) I have become fond of her…But i side with phread on one point the present corporate world IS a fascist entity..we may NOT be A fascist country (yet) but corporate America is leaning way towards a fascist mentality and psychology…Your correct CL its not ALL..but i would argue a vast majority of the major players in Banking and finance are full out embracing the ideology of fascism. They Lobby and bribe governments to side with them almost predominantly against the people.. the erosion is apparent, has happened and is a problem…There is a push back and a ground swell against this as you rightfully point out but you have to admit we are alarmed becasue why? they are gaining ground over us. The reality IS that we are being pushed further and further into some new age corporate fascism..the media backs it.. the pundits back it. politicians vacillate all over the place backing and then backing off confused as to what to do…as they are also succumbed to the corruption of the money system and its power..
      I have to agree in the terminology on the one hand to admit is to admit defeat but to admit the problem and or danger of the problem has its usefulness to brake complacency..
      I think we are all trying to find ways to fight this gigantic entity known as Corporate fascism that is rearing its head to take us all under its control…

  14. When they took the Vote in the WI Senate to bust the Unions, they said they could legally do it because it wasn’t fiscal after Governor Walker claimed it had to be done for fiscal reasons, then what is this in the bill? Are they not fiscal? Legal bill? Does this take a legal whiz to figure this out?

    Between Wisconsin Senate and Assembly Vote, Power Plant Sales Reappear

    Thursday, the fiscal bureau was forced to correct its memo describing the bill, after unearthing some more buried treasure. Seems there were a few things the original memo forgot to mention:

    There are two items in the LFB’s March 10 document that are not reflected in the March 9 document.

    1. The March 10 document includes a provision of the substitute amendment on the Earned Income Tax Credit (page 3, #1).

    2. The March 10 document includes a provision of the substitute amendment on the Sale and Contractual Operation of State-Owned Power Plants (page 20, #1)

    http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/between-wisconsin-senate-and-assembly-vote-

        • I sure hope you’re right!
          Was on the IndyStar comment thread tonight, 800+ anti-union rants; Incredible..
          IN was union for many, many years- now all you hear is the TP whine.. makes me embarassed I was born there.
          🙁

          • Just remember that most of the bozos who do that sort of ranting are everywhere the same, and a small group at that. I think they go from paper to paper since I keep seeing the same lingo on may of these sites. I look at it this way – if they’re spending that much time getting their rocks off on blogs, they don’t have time to be DOING anything that in ANY way causes greater harm. It’s the relief valve for us! Best practice – don’t read ’em, don’t answer ’em, don’t mind them.

            • BTW – in the rare moments I feel the need to deal with the TP folks, I adopt a persona of sympathizing with them, then restating their covert messages overtly. It provides amazing amusement when I pretend to agree and then put it over the top. It’s a pathetic sort of fun, but it’s my own.

    • I have not seen anything in WI about EITC, bito – can you explain this to me? Are they trying to stop low income working people from GETTING it? Or, more likely, are they trying to TAX it more – you know, in the interest of “shared sacrifice”. I don’t understand.

  15. Too Funny if this proves true. Wonder if he gets his family value tips from Newt?
    WI GOP Sen. Randy Hopper’s Wife Tells Protesters Hopper Living with 25-year-old mistress in Madison

    [P]rotesters outside the Hopper house this week in Fond du Lac were met by his wife who reportedly came out and told them: Hopper no longer lives there, but with his 25-year-old mistress in Madison. […]

    Two sources in Fond du Lac close to the recall effort say the Hopper maid has signed the legal-sized recall sheet. The maid reportedly said it’s likely Hopper’s soon-to-be-ex wife will also sign the recall petition.

    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/03/11/wi-gop-sen-randy-hoppers-wife-tells-protesters-hopper-living-with-25-year-old-mistress-in-madison/

  16. Re Supreme Court & “Citizen’s United”:

    It’s almost St. Paddy’s day, and my sister Nancy and I have been Limericking, and thought this might please PlanetPov readers:

    Oh, There once was a very Supreme Court

    Whose goas was to cut all our throats

    After a terrible Babble

    Down went the Gavel

    Now We the Sheeple

    are left with No Hope

    • Hey back atcha, bito! Good infotoon (did I make that up or pinch it? Oh, well) The war against working families goes on with hype and justifications. We have to push back.

      If you don’t know George Lakoff’s work, you’d find it helpful. The reason the right is so good is that first, they don’t CARE if they lie (This is not a fiscal issue but it is a fiscal issue but it’s not if I don’t want it to be but is when I’m blaming you.) More to the point, they have advertising agents at hand to frame quick, to-the-point messages: Death Panels! Tax “Relief”! Death taxes! We turn in 41-page footnoted position papers. God forbid someone should say “You lie!” to us!

      Lakoff notes that they land on huge value squares that they parlay into slogans. We can’t find a shared value under a high-powered searchlight. He recommends we start our arguments with VALUES – and we will find middle America – the good but totally confused people – will be surprised but happy to know they share them with us. I recommend “Don’t Think of an Elephant”, Lakoff’s simpler book written right after the 2004 Kerry loss to start you all off.

      For understanding “what the HELL happened” I can’t find anything more clear than David Cay Johnston’s “Free Lunch” and Jacob Hacker’s “The Big Risk Shift”. Then to go back a few years to see how this happened to the steel workers, a novel of extraordinary depth, K.C. Constantine’s “Grievance” – it’s multi-layered title has meaning for union folks and will be explained to those without. The dirty details of finance capital are intrinsic to the plot.

      The more we can put forward catchy infotoons, YouTube explanations, great songs, faces and voices of ordinary people being screwed over to fund giant corporations and Fat Cats, the better. Larry the Loophole is a HUGE start. Thanks, bito – you’re the best!

    • Christmas Eve I chanced to share a wonderful dinner with a man who’d headed the San Francisco Labor Council. OK – it was Christmas Eve, but several of us ended the dinner with “You Can’t Scare Me, I’m Stickin’ to the Union.” It was wonderful. These clips are marvelous! I’m over the moon there are new songs and this energy is BACK! Thanks BDM for the great clips!

  21. More thoughts on “President Obama putting on his comfy shoes and hitting the picket lines”

    This is strongest as a Bi-Partisan movement.
    It is not just democrats marching on those lines, or in the capital building,
    those protesters are independents and republicans too.

    I saw the same thing last year with our school district, CUSD California.
    My area is rather conservative and we had huge numbers of
    independents and republicans MARCHING on the picket lines with our teachers.
    That is how we won and got the two toxic school board members recalled!

    • Exactly! This is suddenly uniting people who did not realize – feared – that their ship was sinking, too. They are finding denial is not working. Defending the status quo is not protecting them. That they DO NOT MATTER, and the idea that they can “bargain on my own” is a lie. Yeah – you CAN. See where it gets you.

      Until you find that invisible line between cannon fodder and irreplaceable talent – that dollar value we all know exists but not where it is – until then, and until you’ve crossed it, you’re on your own unless you join with others and have one another’s backs.

  22. I disagree with you somewhat. Race had a lot to do with the southerns switching to the republican party. How dare the government force us to drink out of the same water fountains, with “coloreds”. They were willing participants because they believed that the republicans felt their pain, and was willing to sell their souls, just to stay within “the club”. The strategy started with Nixon, was exacerbated by Reagan, and drove them off the cliff with GWB. I say, GOOD!

    • BEST strategy if you cannot legally strike – work to rule. The managers think workers are idiots. They DEPEND on our flexibility and making things work when the rules are so stupid, but they give no credit to working people’s creativity and good sense. Work to rule and everything will grind to a halt or at least move like molasses. But have the rule book in hand when you do…

      • OH C’Lady, I have been thinking of that since yesterday. We called it “wobbling”! Amazing how one can turn a 5 minute job into a 30+ minute job. We had no strike clauses but never saw a “no wobble” clause and we still got payed. Usually never lasted more than 4 hours before a new and unfair rule was rescinded.

        • Oh very cool – does it come from IWW? I’ve not heard the term before.

          Working to rule – THEIR rules – is the cruelest thing you can do to a manager and capital. They set up rules to control you. They’re too ignorant to realize – YOU control the work. Work to their rules, and the places locks up tighter than a banker’s heart.

  27. Marion – very good thoughts from a long way away! I am not as pessimistic as you though – I am SO energized by the rising up of previously silent people that I don’t know how to sit still!!! Across the nation I’m seeing major movements of activity for justice and for justice for OTHER people, not just ourselves, and it’s incredibly exciting! Nothing will get fixed overnight, but we have come to the tipping point – the observable historic moment when things tolerated no longer CAN be. Once that happens, there is no going back.

    I DO want to stress that focusing on ONLY the Kochs is a strategic error since there are many players behind these actions. Boycotting Koch products is a serious break with unions – many of Koch’s workers belong to the US Steelworkers, and boycotting Georgi-Pacific products puts us directly at odds with that union that has been GREAT on linking the private sector union folks to this movement and ENDING the meme that public workers rip off laid off steelworkers. DON’T DO THIS BOYCOTT PLEASE!

    SECOND -remember the Kochs were the SECOND largest Walker funder and by no means the only one. There are strategies we need to take on about how to target corporations, one of which (keeping the Kochs in mind) is to look at what boards THEY sit on, such as AT&T etc. and put pressure there. But we need a much broader evaluation of who’s behind these politicos. The Kochs are funders of the teabaggers – but don’t turn your back or take your eyes off all the other corporations that are standing there looking innocent while we target just the one.

    Whatever we do, we need to be strategic, not just angry. So let’s think about a group focusing on corporate power research, links to campaign donations, etc. so we have our focus before we advocate actions? Anyone up for some research? Let’s think about it all very quickly?

    • CL,

      So should I be canceling my “long term” relationship with AT&T?

      Research? Yes…what can I do?

      ***EDIT*** I agree with what you’re saying about the Kochs. However, one must consider how long they’ve flown under the radar, undetected. Discovering the true Koch-agenda became a light-bulb-moment for thousands of people. Thus explaining why the focus has been on the brothers and not other faux “people-corporations.”

      • boomer – I will suggest to AdLib that we have off list contact. I can walk you through research steps and we can put together a list of who’s who and where they are. Our targets need to be strategic, not harmful.

        I have NO problem outing the Kochs whose money is behind the Astroturf (and where are THEY now? Are they realizing THEY are getting screwed over? We had a “teaparty” gathering at our rally – 10 paid homeless people and about 5 very uncomfortable ‘baggers who really did NOT want to be standing with “them” even to show disdain for public workers! It was soooo funny!)

        Yes if you cancel your long term relationship with AT&T – tell them it’s because Charles Koch is on their board and you have waaaay too much principle to keep a phone service that would keep him! It won’t hurt CWA the way a targeted boycott of Koch products will – CWA is much larger a force nationally than is the US Steelworkers just at Koch. But we will have to keep an eye on this to make sure that remains true.

  29. I am looking at this as just a part of the
    greater game and we have lots of innings left.
    Just look at these folks!
    They are not backing down and letting themselves get demoralized.
    They are getting right back in there and fighting hard!

    A run on M & I Bank ~ from twitter

    CONFIRMED The Capitol Square/Madison branch of M&I has been CLOSED FOR THE DAY! Goto other branches to get your money back!

    Madison — Teachers, firefighters and police officers said they would begin a boycott of M&I Bank if the bank does not begin publicly opposing Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to curtail collective bargaining for public workers.

    Unions representing those groups said they would start other boycotts of businesses that backed Walker in his campaign.

    The letter to M&I President Tom Ellis said the boycott would begin March 17 if the bank hasn’t opposed Walker’s efforts by then.

    “In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining, please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the goods and services provided by your company,” the letter says. “However, if you join us, we will do everything in our power to publicly celebrate your partnership in the fight to preserve the right of public employees to be heard at the bargaining table.”

    The letter was sent by the heads of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 311, Madison Teachers Inc., Green Bay Education Association, Dane County Deputy Sheriffs Assocation and the Madison Professional Police Officers Association.

    http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/117756068.html

    http://eyeonmandi.com/handouts/

    http://www.dane101.com/current/2011/03/10/firefighters_target_mi_bank_for_executive_support_of_walker

  30. I think the entire working class in America should go on strike, for one week. Just one week without all that, we the people contribute to keep the gears turning and the paperwork flowing.
    This idea is not a new one, and not my own, but if, we the people, could pull it off, I think it would have a huge impact.
    The only way the middle class and working poor have any chance of remaining afloat is by well coordinated efforts by the people.
    The GOP is far too slow and far too underhanded for political solutions.
    They don’t even want solutions, at least none that will benefit and strengthen the middle class.
    We are living in drastic times, and that calls for drastic solutions. I think of the words of the late, great John Lennon, “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

    • KT– like this:

      France 1968–from Wiki.

      The May 1968 protest refers to a particular period in French history. During this time, the country saw the largest general strike, resulting in the economy coming to a virtual standstill, commencing with a series of student occupation protests. The strike involved eleven million workers for a continuous two weeks, and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of President Charles de Gaulle’s government.

      In staging wildcat strikes, the movement contrasted with the labor unions and the French Communist Party, which began to side with the de Gaulle government. Groups revolted against modern consumer and technical society and embraced left-wing positions that were critical of authoritarianism and Western capitalism.

      AND HERE’S WHAT WE NEED TO REMEMBER:

      May 1968 was a political failure for the protesters, but it had an enormous social impact. In France, it is considered to be the watershed moment when a conservative moral ideal (religion, patriotism, respect for authority) shifted towards a more liberal moral ideal (sexual liberation) that today better describes French society, in theory if not in practice. Although this change did not take place solely in this one month, the term mai 68 is used to refer to this general shift in principles, especially when referring to its most idealistic aspects.

      We have to keep at it!

      • That accounts for their internment and systematic deportation of Romanian gypsies today, then, does it? The French government, I mean. It’s one of the most popular actions enforced by Sarko and co. They rejected the Socialist candidate, you know. And the riots – because French demonstrations most generally end in riots and violence, such as when striking French farmers burned a sheep alive a few years ago – against upping the retirement age and lowering the pension level accomplished nothing. The reforms were rammed through Parlement.

        There’s a theory making the rounds on the internet at the moment, that a lot of what these governors are doing is deliberately provocative – meaning that they want to see some sort of violent action from the protesters, which would validate the further demonisation of the Left.

        We played right into their hands before. We’ve got to tread carefully, but effectively now.

        • I ascribe to the theory that these things have cycles and the pendulum swings–we are at the tail end (I hope) of the extreme swing to the Right in the West. Sarc, Cameron, Merkel–they are the last for a while perhaps. The important thing is where they had to start from on that swing right. They had to start from a leftist place of the spectrum. As we will have to start swinging from a much further right place from this point on.

          And about that internet theory–I wholly support it.

          • Hang on a minute. Have you SEEN the Labour leader? He makes Cameron look like a normal guy, to the man in the street. If EVER there were a walking advertisement for the effete, privileged, elitist radical chic, Ed-Lightweight-Miliband is the prototype. He is TOTALLY out of touch with anyone ordinary in Britain today. It is HE who is the idealogue. Were he American, he’d be Talking Points Boy on the blogs, ad homining everyone else as Obamabots. He got caught on his uppers by an ordinary woman at a townhall, asking him – quite rightly -what the hell he knew about problems in the state schools when he’d never been inside one in his life. In fact, ALL of the Labour leadership are products of wealthy homes and private education.

            Cameron’s an old Etonian, yes; but his children go to state schools, he uses public transport and bikes and he uses what’s left of the NHS. As much as I hate to admit it, he has the commons touch and – George Osborne aside – his cabinet is almost exclusively from working class and state school roots – William Hague and Michael Gove, in particular.

            Little Miss Le Pen, could very well snake a victory from Sarko next year, and she’s BFF with David Dukes; and Berlusconi’s nominated successor is an open Fascist.

            Americans don’t understand one thing, Right and Left: Leftwing Europe is dead in the water. I live here. I know.

        • Walker is the complete provocateur,
          he leaked the emails that made is seem a deal was in the air,
          only to pull the fast one at the last minute and all the better,
          break the law doing it.
          Today he had riot gear police of some sort
          showing up at the capital with huge amounts
          of nasty ass gear. (thanks honey badger)
          They looked like they were ready for major war.
          They made sure to have that filmed.
          They would love to put some sort of bad behavior
          of the protesters in a Ad campaign.
          Don’t give them any footage!
          I hope that they see thru all this chicanery.
          They can out smart him if they keep up with the
          peaceful protest.
          Maybe show up with giant peace signs and such.

      • Well I freaking want more out of it than sexual liberation – had that already. We need to have this focus on economic justice and contributions people make to a sustainable economy providing relative self sufficiency for all. We need to reassert altruism, compassion, unity, and cooperation as core values. No more snobbery from the Left (non-existent at the Planet). No more theft from the Right. If the Left is going to get on with this, we have to do it ALL together.

        • Oh, you know that was just a part of the whole shift. And as I think it through, sexual liberation changes more than sleeping habits. It undercuts a lot of rigidities. The French are hardly paragons–nope, not at all. But I would be happy to start the changes from their place on the Left/Right spectrum than from where we in the US today.

          • Won’t disagree with you there! I keep finding Eisenhower quotations that are so RADICAL and then remember – they did not used to be, and he wasn’t.

            Yikes. How the mighty have fallen. I would take crazed and demented French politics ANY day of the week – though I have to say the folks here are AWESOME, and I think we represent a pretty broad spectrum of different ways of life. We tend to disagree over SMALL things – and are in agreement on the big stuff, and given our diversity, that’s pretty amazing. We are’t so out of line with the rest of America.

    • Stop talking about the middle class for starters and talk about the working class. Working poor is another demographic altogether. If you have to work to live, you’re working class – doesn’t matter if you’re a dean or a dustman. The middle class is a myth foisted on everyone by Reagan to make us feel better. The OLD middle class referred to professional positions which, if vacated, required similar or exact qualifications to fill them.

      We stopped losing touch with our identity as Democrats when our elected leaders started referring to us as “middle class” and when we started thinking of ourselves as such.

      Once again: if you have to work to live, you’re working class.

    • That is being suggested. I think US Uncut is one of the proponents. They started about a month ago and have swept the nation. It’s SUCH a sensible idea they have, and if they call a national strike, I think the unions will agree. Don’t know for sure, but think so.

      That is how the religious right began it’s political toehold – the General Strike of 1934. It pissed off Abraham Veriedes, a Norwegian immigrant who thought only the elites should rule, workers were to be submissive. He created “The Fellowship” aka The Family aka C Street and enlisted top level business interests including those that had attempted the coup against FDR outed by Smedley Butler (the avatar and screen name of one of our own now, thank you!) From the git-go they were in favor of Hitler, et al. – loved the idea of elite rule on all levels.

      So having another General Strike and knowing who they are, where they are (Walker IS a Dominionist Christian) makes it more likely we can out them and WIN. Americans do NOT want a theocracy or plutocracy, even if they aren’t too smitten with labor. That sort of elitism sticks in our craw.

      You know it’s one thing to be in awe of the rich and famous, but they lose their glitter when they act like bullies against working people. They have definitely overstepped, and we need to sieze the moment. They were much more dangerous when they were just corporate capital and the Trilateralists – these guys are stupid thugs and buffoons and character WILL out!

        • I love this idea and I know there are a lot of unemployed people looking for jobs but I’ve been a business owner and manager long enough to appreciate how difficult and expensive it is to train new people. I don’t believe people would lose their jobs over this, but I think there would be some fear of that in this market.

  31. This is what Walker said in his speech today:

    “We followed the law, and yet it allows us to move forward with these reforms — which are indeed fiscal,” said Walker. “They’re not in conflict with that requirement for a quorum, but they are indeed fiscal. They give a fiscal benefit to the state……

    If the bill is “fiscal” (impacting the budget) then a quorum was needed. What am I not understanding here?

  32. You’ve captured this very well. Within your premise I have a developing thought that I haven’t been able to explain well but it’s something like this:

    The GOP creates news, illusions, mistruths, accusations and false calamities by standing up and shouting them from the roof tops. Their people dutifully rise to the bait. I f they are supposed to bring guns, they do. If there aren’t enough people Dick Armey organizes the buses, signs, etc. On our side the people have to do everything on their own and maybe if the NEWS picks it up, then the Dem leadership will have a cautious comment. We have to organize ourselves, find our own voice, our own cause, our own signs, blankets, food. Our Democratic leaders (with the exception of brave state Senators of Madison, WI and a few other state level officials) do not speak, do not lead, do not help until the crowd in front of them is too big to ignore.

    Well, that’s my disappoint speaking and they have done more good than not and the GO hasn’t done any. I also do not thing this is Obama’s to do at this stage: this is about state employees and state officials.

  33. Great observations. However I still see “liberal” bloggers and pundits having the idiocy to trash the President, i.e. “PO hasn’t been to WI.” Do any of us truly believe this issue isn’t uppermost on PO’s mind? Dems are exhibiting suicidal behavior every time they trash PO. They haven’t learned a thing in the last few days least of all that the Cons have an agenda that is a 180 degree turn from the Dems. If Dems stay home from the next election or vote for some prog that doesn’t have a chance of winning, they are undermining their own progress – sort of like we accuse others that they are voting against their own best interests. Somehow we need to educate left leaning voters that if they don’t get out there and vote, we are going to be the indentured servants of the Cons.
    Now I do not agree with everything PO or the Dems do in D.C., but I am realistic enough to know that I must vote for the Dem at least for a while.

    • It’s more than that lynettema. This is a state employee issue, not a federal employee issue. This is about state elections and state congressional votes. People, Dems especially, have to stop the knee-jerk, simplistic formula that Obama can fix everything.

      Not one of our lives is so simple that we can charge out and fix something just because we want to and the problems he faces are far more complicated with many countries and many egos, many opportunities and many dangers.

      And, rhetorically, where the hell is Feingold?! What has he to lose if he became visible in his home state fight as a progressive!

    • Lynettema,

      I have a major problem with the
      “President Obama needs to get his comfortable shoes on and get here to Wisconsin” crowd.
      Just when did he say that?
      Wasn’t that a time when we all had hope?
      I thought that, although the republicans would be
      vigorous opponents to President Obama’s polices,
      they would maintain a level of respect for the office.
      You know, kinda how they are about “Support the Troops”.
      Surely they had to be somewhat respectful of a President
      with such a powerful and clear victory.
      Look at how we were all supposed to be so respectful and supportive
      of the “appointed” Bush, even after 9/11.

      The hate and vitriol that has been aimed at our
      President is like no other in History.
      OK so maybe he did not PLAN on the
      RW hate machine being this toxic and this scary.
      Can you blame him if he had hope?
      I don’t think he is afraid, I think he knows he HAS to be careful.
      Is anyone remembering that our President
      has two precious little girls and a beautiful wife?
      He is a family man and great family man at that.
      The last thing this country needs is a tragedy.

      The voices and faces of the People of Wisconsin,
      Ohio, Michigan, Florida and the other states with
      RW machines attacking, are the most effective.
      They have the passion, the story,
      they are winning over the independents and republicans.

      • I like this a great deal, Patsy – I just want to opine that if we would not expect FDR on the lines, why Obama? There WAS one earlier president this hated and reviled – Lincoln. And you know how THAT turned out. I fear the meme – get on your sneaks and hit the lines – has within it a fundamental disrespect for both the man and the office. Part of it comes from Bush’s personal decadence, but does it not embody the same covert racism that all of Maher’s rants do? The “Progressive” racism of being ‘brave enough’ to call out the president for not doing what presidents don’t do? And didn’t Maher sneer originally at organized labor and say, along with Arinanna, that nobody CARES about them?

        Scary that we still have that TV shouter pretending to be a progressive or even liberal, but now the leadership of progressive America is back in the hands of real people. It’s not even in OUR hands, we who aren’t directly engaged, it’s those who are. But the people on the lines fighting these forces don’t give a damn about Maher, the poseur, the fake, the phony. They care about the authentic present people – Moore and others who’ve been there through thick and thin.

        It’s honor time. You count only if you actually have something to add, not if all you want is to blow off your ego steam in public. You count only if you have something that helps, not if all you want to do is criticize others. I’ve walked far too many picket lines to take crap off anyone about coulda-shoulda-woulda. If you’re not willing to freeze or swelter in the name of justice for labor, then don’t be pointing fingers at others, especially if you would not demand of FDR what you’re demanding of BHO.

        Bill Maher and his ilk need a new “religion” – WWFDRD?

        If it won’t stand that test, don’t bother uttering your rant.

        The rest of us have work to do.

      • Very well said patsy. All too often and for far too long, the everyday people of America forget that WE ARE the government.
        The opponents to progress and a strong middle class is roughly one half of our nation’s government, at both the state and federal levels.
        The GOP has too many dirty tricks up their collective sleeves for government to work as it was meant to work. It is up to the people to take action. Drastic action. Because if the GOP gets what it wants, all hope will be lost. As it is now, hope is flailing and staggering to stay on it’s feet. And hope alone is not enough.

    • I suggest that these people read the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, in order to differentiate between state and federal laws and powers and which supersedes which. Obama was right to intervene judicially in Arizona’s situation because their immigration law superseded federal law. I daresay the Right is wetting themselves at the prospect of Presidential intervention, and hoping the naive Left push him to do just that. There are sometimes when the lowest common denominator of Progressive needs to learn a bit of tact and common sense, and spend his quiet time boning up on some civics before he shoots his mouth off or allows a corporately funded talking head to think for him and mimic him.

  34. Any good thief knows that your best friends are stealth, darkness, and speed. Like all of the ultra-righ­t wing government­s to come before them, the coordinate­d rise of the right can only take place in times of great economic and/or social upheaval.

    Since there are no prosperous 1st world countries run by their ultra-righ­t wing, history also shows us that ultra-righ­t governments also pass on quickly. Sometimes at the ballot box, sometimes on the battlefiel­d.

    The corporate kleptocrat­ic GOP and its masters know that the window for looting and destructio­n is small and fleeting. Speed is of the essence.

    They only have to stay in power just long enough to steal it all, and then change the rules to make sure they never have to give it back.

    It’s nothing personal to sharks. They don’t even care if you call them a predator if they get to eat your arm anyway.

  35. Excellent piece Marion save for one logical inconsistency. It’s always identity politics with Republicans. It’s always the white males club versus everyone else. That’s what the Southern Strategy you described was all about. It’s always about race with them beginning in the 60’s. They use to use code words to put a veil on this strategy but even before Obama was president and was only a contender they have become overtly racist. It’s just the fact that race fits in nicely with keeping their real constituents Koch brothers et al in power.

    I have to say we all have to understand how keeping power works. The left are suckers every midterm election. The GOP loves to put the Democratic president on the ticket because they know after fecking up the country when they are in power there is no way to fix it in two years.

    The biggest thing lost during the healthcare battle Marion is that the law specifically favors the poor and working classes like no other law since Medicaid and Medicare. That’s why so many progress elites were “kill the bill” types and working people were for it. The expansion of Medicaid and the generous subsidies will help millions of working Americans. A family of 4 making $50K per year gets an almost $11K per year tax credit. Which means they only pay a premium of about $3,300 per year. But you’ll see if ACA sticks in 10 years and if Dems want to expand healthcare coverage teabaggers will be saying no guvment takeover of healthcare and don’t touch my healthcare subsidies.

    Dems need to keep politics local and should have voted, especially since Obama was NEVER on the ticket. Sitting on your hands only helps us lose people like progressives Feingold, Grayson and Sestak. Of course the rationalization on the left will blame Obama for their loses as well.

    • Wow KQ – I honestly never thought of the opposition to HCR being a class issues within the progressive/liberal constituencies. I think you’re absolutely correct – I’m shocked I laid it to purity of ideology, not to that. You are totally correct – you REALLY opened my eyes on this!

      • I put out a specific example this time but we both talked about how most elite progressive did not have skin in the game on the HC issue. Most elites progressive would seek gold plated healthcare benefits in their contracts or at least buy their own supplemental gold plated insurance to pay for their healthcare to make sure they had the very best for themselves and their family’s if we had a PO or even single payer. Being the pragmatic type I would too if I had the money. But you see where this could be utter hypocrisy with elite progressives who say things like single payer or bust.

  36. Marion, I agree with most of your points and enjoyed your quick overview of recent history. However, I think you maybe took Rachel too literally—she never claimed the bill wouldn’t pass, but rather that Walker might win the battle but lose the war. All signs are pointing to that being the case. The polls, the recall efforts. The mobilization of, and accidental coalition, of workers.

    And then you write:

    “I wish I could be so hopeful, because we certainly are in need of some adhesive to bind the gaping wounds rent asunder by our own self-destructive tendencies.”

    If you fail to find hope in the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been in the streets this past month, you either aren’t paying any attention or dyspepsia has overtaken your good sense.

    And here’s something I don’t understand:
    “Their object was to demonise the Democrats and de-legitimise the first African-American President.
    But it was never about race.”

    And you say that with such authority. Seriously? You are simply wrong. I have seen the racist signs, the emails to RW donors. The Mau Mau discussions. The fear mongering. I agree it is not MERELY about race but to deny that factor is to be completely out of touch with the American psyche. However, if you meant that the Repubs are only using race as a means to discredit the Dems, sure. Rove doesn’t care about race—he just knows how many Americans DO. Far more than those who care about policy.

    • Indeed correct. The enormity of the racism of the Tea Party and its adherents is unquestionable. They try at times to hide it behind thin partitions of some nebulous ‘conservative’ ideology, but the racism is palpable: The caricatures and cartoon figures of the president are almost always tinged with racism or overtly racist, and the posters and signs that attack Hispanics, Muslims, as well as African Americans are despicable. And they are ALWAYS on display at the Tea Party rallies for example.[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sn8rHLP3qU8/THQBgJR_kjI/AAAAAAAACqM/W4kUSEhGp9I/s1600/tea+party+racist+signs.jpg[/img]

      • Let me just say this, to set the cat amongst the pigeons: there is racism on the Left as much as there is on the Right. It’s just more subtle and comes in the form of patronising comments from various pundits aimed toward the President and about the President.

        Granted, the Right can’t abide the thought of a black man in the White House, who isn’t serving coffee; but there are certain parts of the Left who cannot abide the fact that there’s a black man in the White House, who’s smarter than everyone else and who isn’t doing what they say to do.

        The only place I’ve EVER heard the President referred to as the “Affirmative Action President” or “the house n*gger” has been from so-called Progressive voices on the Internet, and that wasn’t sarcasm.

        • That ‘demon seed’ is indeed alive and well on both sides of the political spectrum; we certainly haven’t erased our long racist history from the whole of the political discourse.
          I too have heard the hurtful slurs come from many who see themselves as progressives, often born of frustration (not an excuse, but an explanation) when a progressive policy is watered down or lost.
          On the other hand, the sheer volume of right wing hate and bigotry often arises from a virulent fear of loss: The loss of some vision of America they have constructed which has little grounded in reality; the fear of change in a myriad number of ways of the political social, and moral landscape they have been nurtured to embrace and which, as they see it, is slipping away.
          In short, they are firmly on the wrong side of history; they cling to an America which never was; and their virulent struggle to maintain the status quo which has so benefited them makes it necessary to be ever vigilant in the struggle to make this a country where everyone has a chance to succeed in every way.

        • Again one can speak only from personal experience but there is more racism on the right no doubt.

          I think the way racism shows on the left is the old notion of white man’s burden. I really think the left saw much more of a left wing extremist in Obama. They also thought he wasn’t his own man so they could tell him what to do and he would do it.

          I just don’t recall during the nineties the left telling Clinton what he had to do at every turn.

          • KQ – that is an astute observation of the differences between attitudes towards Clinton who caved to the right on all issues and Obama who has NOT. It is the embedded belief in too many white liberals that we are the Messiahs saving Black people from bondage and themselves. When they don’t defer to us, we get pissy and the racism surfaces in contempt for the ignorant person who does not kowtow to our better knowledge.

            Good, committed people say: How can I help? Tell me what to do.

            Racist/elitist people say: Here’s what you have to do. I have all the answers.

            In the latter case – they don’t even know the QUESTIONS.

          • KQ, I don’t think it is racism on the left that motivates many to tell Obama what to do. I think it is more factual to say that many, many people on the left saw Obama as a progressive candidate, when in fact, he wasn’t. He was pretty much centrist. His platform was almost identical with Hillary’s.
            Because Obama was selling hope, something that we all were desperate to have after 8 years of bush/cheney, many progressives mistook Obama as being one of them and were disappointed to find out that he was more centrist than they had hoped.

            • KT– not to disagree with you, but I found myself guilty of a kind of reverse racism when it came to the first black President.

              I am ashamed to admit this, but I thought that BECAUSE he was black–and taking into account his personal history– he would be much more Left than his words and actions before the election would indicate. He is more of a centrist than I expected but I still believe that comes form his brain (as a pragmatist) and not form his heart (which I feel must be more progressive.)

              In fact, he had promoted more progress than his pragmatism would suggest. I think his STYLE makes it easy for us to forget that. He actually doesn’t talk the talk but he does walk the walk, if you know what I mean.

            • cher, I stand by my comment. My point was that many progressives were so desperate for hope and change that they mistakenly saw Obama as one of them.
              I am not talking about moderate liberals, but people who call themselves progressive as somehow meaning, more than liberal.
              These are the people that have shown disappointment in Obama. They labored under a mistaken perception.
              Yes, Obama has achieved some progress, remarkably considering what he’s been up against.
              But I was talking about Obama the candidate, not Obama the president.
              Many progressives are mistakenly disappointed because they think Obama betrayed them, when in fact, he did no such thing.

            • cher, thanks for the reply. I have asked a particular question, many times on, “that other site.”
              {{spit}}
              I asked what the difference between progressive and liberal is.
              I am an old school liberal, and believe that liberalism, by it’s very nature IS progressive.
              I think the usage of the term progressive, instead of liberal, sometimes causes confusion among those of us on the left.
              I am interested in your take on this.

            • Killgore, As you know, when the right successfully demonized the word Liberal, the Left felt it had become so tarnished it became burdensome. People react to these memes and sometimes you can’t fight it.

              Personally, I could have stuck with liberal, but I can see how the know-nothing Center could read “Liberal” as “hand-outs” “free stuff” “Anything goes.” “Unbridled excess.” That sort of rot.

              “Progressive” on the other hand is more descriptive, so I like it. And it also clarifies those of us who are for progress and let’s us label the opposition as throwbacks. But I find myself interchanging them as I see them as identical.

            • Cher, that’s pretty much my take on it as well. I just think abandoning the classic term, “liberal,” is somewhat of a cop out. It means, to me, that the right won it’s word war.
              I am proud to say that I am a liberal. I guess I’m somewhat like Carlin in the respect that I don’t like any words that cloud or attempt to change the meaning of existing words.

        • I don’t know if there is as much racism on the left as there is on the right. However, I will agree with you that on progressive sites, such as Alternet, racist terms are used to describe the President. I ripped them a new one at that site and never returned. Quiet as it’s kept black folks KNOW that racism exist on both the left and the right. However, black folks also know that we benefit from a Party who is at least interested in legislating for the middle class and the poor. Many of us are not under any illusions about the reality of politics.

        • Marion – I agree about “left” racism. It’s grounded in snobbery and elitism. One of the larger and well funded activist groups here in CA won’t work with us, a mainline faith group because they HATE the faith community, but they are partnered with the SCLC-LA. Why? Because they believe Black people aren’t smart enough or well enough educated to be equally dismissive of faith issues.

          Lefties who use the racially charged words think they have a “pass” since, of course, THEY would never discriminate. Except they do, over and over and over. It’s grounded in narcissism, of course, but it’s made manifest in a sneering disregard of Black people’s humanity. They also manage to find ways to adopt and confirm racism against other groups as well. I find it entirely creepy. My friend who lives in hiding due to having infiltrated white supremacy groups (she is bi racial but looks white) says she prefers the “good” KKK family near her who are actually kind people (long story, don’t ask) to the dismissive elites who pretend to understand and object to racism but who make racist assumptions about absolutely everything. She can disagree openly with the KKK family and have them ponder what she says and then come to AGREE with her. White liberals? NEVER. I agree with her observations.

      • And as usual the racism is exploited by people that are smart enough to prey on these things from the mass’s..
        Its hidden behind by the manipulators.. It obfuscates the real goals and is a perfect tool for the purpose.

        This is what Hitler did…but Hitlers goal as is the koch’s is to eliminate a threat to its power..does not matter if your Jew polish anyone that is a threat and cant be brain washed to obey .Hitler knew the Jews would NEVER accept his rule…he had NO way to convert them SO demonize and eliminate. The Aryan superiority was an invention to this end just as Obamas birth place or color of his skin is used as a means to an end…demonize to discredit is the number one tactic of people that manipulate others to con them out of life liberty and property.. And the neocons are at the core of it…Its the new Nazis and the Corporate world is the new Aryans to be worshiped as superior.

        • In toto, I agree with much of what you say. The wholly corporate-owned Republicans have mastered Big Lie politics as well as any Nazi or fascist group in the past has done, and their manipulation of large segments of the masses is unquestionable: Their leadership, both corporate and political, channel fear, hate, racism and greed superbly in order to achieve their ends….the enrichment of their corporate masters as well as themselves, and the maintaining of the status quo as long as possible.

    • Cherny…I kinda agree with Marion about race and heres why i see it this way…Race was USED by the people manipulating the rights base.
      They preyed on the just below the surface racism that does exist but the GOAL hear by the people like the Koch’s and others is the dismantlement of the democratic party.
      When i travel out of LA across country the majority of stations are tuned to right wing talk every where i go and the one thing that is prominent is the demonetization of liberals and progressives…they have effectively made association and parallel with everything evil being “liberal” they have made the word a dirty word to people across this country.. i have arguments with my own family that have fallen for it hook line and sinker…Its madning but there it is systematic purposefully indoctrinating the country to SHUN and despise progressives and liberals and you know what? they are winning and they know it..
      The protests are hopefully for sure..i was shocked and pleased..BUT look at the outcome. did not change a thing did not stop the corporatist at all they just side stepped and did what they did and it will only become more blatant as the power is consolidated and they strip our rights away bit by bit…WE have made little to NO progress.. we are loosing more then we gain each day.. that is the cold hard truth of it and i fear we are on a trajectory that has a momentum that i do not see stopping any time soon.. maybe when Americans really start to suffer they may wake up.. But this is the perfect Zeitgeist by the Koch’s and all the other Elites and Cartels pushing the neocon agenda…

      I wish i had more hope but i am a dead ass realist first.

      • Chaz– I did acknowledge that to the Repub insider puppetmasters, race is inconsequential, and that the goal is about Dems in general.

        But I disagree with you in what seems like your determined pessimism. I mean, I feel as though you expect to immediately win every single battle or else you say “nothing works!”.

        Do you think the repubs give up when they lost in ’08?? When all the progressive legislation was passed in the 60’s? It sounds to me–and I really don’t want to sound as harsh as I know this will come across–that if things don’t turn around fast enough, you just decide to throw in the towel. Well, the other side NEVER relents, never gets apathetic–they are determined and that’s why they continue to push back on us.

        Wisconson is a watershed moment and if you think that because the bill was signed (and nobody ever thought that 14 Dems could stop it)it means we “lost” than I am sorry–you don’t seem to be able to see the bigger picture: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS have taken to the streets for Pete’s sake, and all you can say is that nothing has changed? Really? Things don’t happen like in the movies–all tidy and quick. Maybe an overview of the union movement–the defeats, the beatings by US Marshalls!, the failed strikes, would give you some perspective. I really think you need it, my friend.

        • I kinda resent some of your comments.
          But you don’t know me so ill let that go.
          I don’t like being talked to like i just crawled out from under some rock or i am some kind of know nothing sheltered individual living in small town America.
          all assumptions that are false but reflected in your post.
          I don’t just draw conclusions based on some whimsical ideas as seems eluded to by your criticism.
          I am good at what i do for a living becasue of my skill of seeing large complex systems as a whole as well as the finite and have the ability to troubleshoot those systems..
          I can see the interactions of many small influences and how they effect the workings of the system..
          I have observed politics and human psychology long enough to see the trends and predict the outcomes..
          And accusing me of thinking things are like the movies as in fantasy nonsense thinking is deeply unfair and just dead wrong.
          I feel i have been insulted..But its your opinion and opinions are like Assholes everyone has one.

          Time will tell.

          • I really am sorry, Chaz. I don’t know you and only see what you write. I was reacting to your comments over time, not to you as a person. I hate when I upset people, but I don’t know how to get my disagreeing opinions across in a better way. I don’t want to have to silence myself though and will try to figure out how to dissent more diplomatically.

            • I would not want to silence anyone.. And i do not like being silenced either.. and i did feel a bit shut down hard. I think my pessimism is hard to take for some..But i think the method to my madness is to get people to face the worst as a means of gaining some urgency as to what to do. Before its all too late.
              And my opinion on this whole thing is that the racism is a perfect block to getting to the real bottom of the systematic takeover of the Corporate government power consolidation that BOTH sides R or D are hell bent on pulling off…Not all Dems but far too many for my taste.

              Anyway…I except the apology and say its all in the heat of the moment…Agree to disagree..
              Friends?

            • Chaz– absolutely friends! In fact. I forgot to write that I appreciate when someone tells me how they feel about my comment so that I can fully take a second look–and not let things fester.

              Now that you elaborated I feel much better about your original comment.

              But let me say that I sincerely think that your goal (“But i think the method to my madness is to get people to face the worst as a means of gaining some urgency as to what to do. Before its all too late.”) to motivate people to act is not helped by demoralizing them. I am not saying that one must be a Pollyanna–and I positively see how pointing out the urgent problems is motivating.

              I just think that when one says that nothing will change, in the face of all these protests, it has the opposite effect of what you are trying to do. Instead of getting people out on the streets, I think it actually de-motivates them. Maybe they will think, “Oh what’s the use?” But I could be wrong. Maybe we need both a dose of optimism AND a recognition of how uphill it is.

              But definitely friends!

            • I agree and i am taking stock of what you said….
              I DO have a habit of being too negative sometimes..something i need to work on…
              And i do get that positive encouragement has a lot of power to it as well..

              Definitely friends…

          • chaz, you can tell me to butt out here, but I’ve read Cher’s comments (have been reading her writing for quite a while now) and I don’t sense anything there that implies that she thinks you’re ignorant at all.

            I think she senses faltering hope and a certain amount of impatience. And what she’s urging is: don’t give up; stay in the game, and be patient and persistent, even when things look grim.

            To me, that doesn’t seem insulting, just a view from a bit of a different angle.

            • I can see that…A bit teach by punishment, but OK … It was the chastising that irked me. its a bad habit of Americans to snark…i have been guilty myself..

              But i can see that the staying positive has its usefulness as well…
              I may be insulted but i never miss an opportunity to learn.

          • chaz– I see you added several sentences to your original comment. It would help if you write EDIT upon making the changes so that people reading these comments understand that I was replying only to your pre-edited comments. Thanks.

        • I never said they did not enjoy it…
          I think i am trying to point out that focusing on the race issue as it is so HOT BED distracts from what i see as the real enemy and the real threat and the real manipulations that are going on..
          As Cherny pointed out i am “dismally pessimistic”
          But what i really want is for people to SEE whats going on and give less attention to the HOT button issue that is being used to obfuscate the manipulations and manipulators..

      • Chazz – we progressives have to go back to the Long View. We are so freaking impatient, and that’s where we fall apart. The Right built this over nearly half a century – 1964 on. We want it fixed in two years. Come ON – we now have the movement going, and it’s the START, not the END. This is not TV or a film where we patch it all up in 60-200 minutes! We have tons of things upon which to build – there are calls for a general strike, US Uncut has weekly actions. It’s time to move, do whatever you can to make alliances with working people, family farmers, unions, faith people, activist for those in need.

        I have a great button someone gave me – it’s stuck on my office wall: Don’t Whine. ORGANIZE!

        (I am NOT saying you’re whining. That’s what Bill Maher does. Not you.)

    • Dems need to start spotlighting what they have done for workers as well. Like HC subsidies, expanding SCHIP, closing the drug benefit donut hole, extending healthcare benefits, saving GM and thousands of union jobs and people already forget states avoided the worst budget crisis for two years because of the stimulus.