Conservatives use divide and conquer rhetoric in Wisconsin union protests

[ProSense]

Conservatives use divide and conquer rhetoric in Wisconsin union protests

by Susan Gardner

How Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker divvies up the world:

“We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.”

News flash: Public employees are taxpayers.

How the headline writers at the Wall Street Journal divvy up the world:

What's at Stake in Wisconsin's Budget Battle
Who's in charge of our political system—voters or unions?

News flash: Union members are voters.

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There was also this bizarre commentary by Clive Crook at The Atlantic: Backing Unions Against Taxpayers

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I can see that the Democratic party base will love it, obviously, but in the battle for centrist opinion, does it make sense to align with unions against governors struggling to balance their books--that is, to align with unions against taxpayers? I doubt it.

Nothing obliged Obama to take this position. He could have recused himself, as he has on, say, budget policy. And it is one thing to offer comment in support of the unions, quite another to get his staff working in "close co-ordination" with the protesters. A shame he cannot be as forthright about long-term fiscal discipline as he is about the rights of public-sector unions.

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[w8liftinglady]

2. excellent points.. I'll remember them when this is discussed in MY area..

[ProSense]

4. To the point in the DKos piece,

no one ever claims that teabaggers are not citizens or taxpayers. Now even media outlets are trying to frame union members as non-taxpayers.

[howaboutme]

3. This is about the "Powers That Be" that divide and then play us as fools

The decline of the USA could be attributed to the following:

1- Loss of private sector union power. These union employees kept the "corporations gone wild agenda" in check as long as they could. CEOs couldn't make 50 million a year when there were unions and contracts. Corporations couldn't outsource their jobs away when they could still do damage and strike in America.

2- Loss of private sector unions meant loss of Democratic Party interest in protecting American labor and the interests of average Americans, and instead many in the Party gravitated towards Wall St.

3- Free trade which is a core catalyst of middle class wealth destruction in the USA, and the gains by the Wall St bankers and CEOs is an issue that some Democrats vacillate on because of donations from Wall St.. It reduced middle class government tax revenue needed to support a viable and fairly compensated public sector

4- While there are very important issues in common between private and public sector unions, there are also differing priorities. Public sector did not have the same enthusiasm for defending American jobs in America and limiting CEO and banker compensation as did the private unions. To some extent the politicians had been playing the same card as the Egyptian dictator by giving raises and buying support.

5- Influence of foreign lobbyists, and those who pushed costly unneeded wars, and our politicians who refuse to examine the causes of and what is behind the WOT and such as entangling alliances, supporting corrupt despotic dictators, and sticking our butt in all over the world .


Added on edit: We need to take the USA back from the PTB and make a nation for Americans and not a nation where wealth is so disparate and where the elite and banksters and CEOs and others have it all times a million. Much of the anger in the USA can be directly attributed to the fact that we were pillaged by Wall St, and then we were pillaged again, and nothing happened to hold them accountable. Now they are coming for our social security and other cuts.

[ProSense]

5. "Loss of private sector union power. "

Wonder how much of an impact the decline in manufacturing jobs had to with this? The manufacturing sector has gone from nearly 30 percent of the workforce to only 9 percent. Looking at a drop of private-sector union membership to about 7 percent, can a correlation be drawn? Can this decline be reversed by more jobs in the manfucturing sector and in infrastructure jobs?

[butterfly77]

6. Kicked&Recommended...