Posted on 06/06/2012 7:00:18 AM PDT by pickrell
Last election cycle, voters in both Wisconsin and Ohio elected conservative governors committed to breaking the death-grip that unions held over state finances.
In the case of Wisconsin, the backlash took the form of a recall vote, which "backlashed" badly against the backlashers. Us Tea Party types got to spend last evening pleasantly musing as to exactly how the liberal media was going to spin this one.
However... lest we forget, in Ohio, John Kasich did about the same thing, putting his political fortunes on the line to break the Ohio union machine. The only difference was that he did not exempt the Ohio safety forces.
Our backlash consisted of an issue on the ballot to reverse his work. It passed. Many of us wondered how pointless it was to elect a reformer, and then to roll back his reforms.
What lessons can be learned? Perhaps Walker noted where the most effective opposition came from in Ohio, and then tailored his moves, benefiting from the results of Kasich's experience.
Or perhaps the Wisconsin voters are just a measure smarter than us Ohioans.
And maybe in the long, drawn out battle to defeat the forces which have raped both states, we need to carefully fine-tune our walk-back, and realize that this is going to be a nasty protracted war, that in George Bush's words, "...may not be over in our lifetimes."
In neither state do voters wish to harm safety workers. What is needed, are techniques to cut away the cancer of the unions, which wrap themselves around the sinews of our fine police and fire forces, using them as human shields to maintain their power, much as the teachers unions have the children of America as their useful hostages.
This knowledge that it can be done, must be tempered with the willingness to support governors who do what they say after they are elected.
If we vote them in, watch them do the gutsy things, and then allow ourselves to fall victim to the propaganda of the opposition, voting against the very things they agreed to undertake for us... who would you say bears the blame?
The easy answer, and in large measure the accurate answer, is of course us, the voters.
But it is also important that we do not sit back after victories and convince ourselves that the job is done. Using what we have learned in each case, the next steps to reverse the incremental destruction wrought by the progressives, must be relentless, carefully thought out messages to bolster the resolve of voters in the future. And if it must also be somewhat incremental, then so be it.
Incremental doesn't mean final. This we have learned the hard way from the opposition.
There are 49 more states to go.
And Ohio is one of them.
Ich bin ein Käse Kopf.
Um... Wisconsinites!
As important as WI was, let’s not forget that ther were also elections in CA,NJ,SD,MT,NM yesterday.
People don't give two s***s about pencil pushing bureaucrats in the BMV and actually take mild pleasure in the thought of clipping their wings. They maybe give one for teachers. But put a fireman or a cop in a political ad and they start feeling guilty. Of all three categories only the latter are seen as genuinely underpaid for the risks they take.
Pueblo= People Gobierno=Government
Great graphic!
The average fire fighter in the City of Cleveland makes over 70K a year for seven days a month of work. THAT IS IF THEY ACTUALLY SHOW UP FOR WORK! Meanwhile they ALL have full time jobs on the side making even more money!
Agreed. But in politics perception counts. I’m pretty sure they’re amply compensated in Wisconsin too but I thought Walker was cleverly cautious in exempting the safety forces. For one thing it divides what would otherwise be a unified front by all the public employee unions. But I do not disagree at all with your point. Teachers, and ESPECIALLY the administrators who should be the first to go in budget cut backs, are the same.
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