Posted on 02/23/2011 12:03:47 PM PST by bigbob
To make sense of what's going on in Wisconsin, it helps to understand that the left in America lives in an ideological fantasy world. The dispute between the state government and the unions representing its employees is "about power," Paul Krugman of the New York Times observes accurately, before going off the rails:
What [Gov. Scott] Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin--and eventually, America--less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that's why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators' side.
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones elaborates:
Unions are . . . the only large-scale movement left in America that persistently acts as a countervailing power against corporate power. They're the only large-scale movement left that persistently acts in the economic interests of the middle class. . . .
The decline of unions over the past few decades has left corporations and the rich with essentially no powerful opposition. No matter what doubts you might have about unions and their role in the economy, never forget that destroying them destroys the only real organized check on the power of the business community in America. If the last 30 years haven't made that clear, I don't know what will.
There are several problems with this line of thinking. First, to talk of America in terms of "class" is to speak a foreign language. Outside of university faculties and Marxist fringe groups (but we repeat our self), Americans do not divide ourselves up by class; rather, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . ."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Yes, they're disgusting.
/History of the World, Part I
Long before that, there was a comic called "The Wizard of Id," by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart. I had a compilation of their cartoons, in a paperback, back when I was in high school, maybe 1969. The name of the compilation was "The Peasants Are Revolting," and the cover showed The King (a little runty guy) being informed by an out-of-breath page "The peasants are revolting!" to which, in the next panel, The King calmly replies "you can say that again."
Yeah, but did the king of Id use peasants for skeet?
Wow, that’s amazing. I never thought I’d lay eyes on that again. Thanks.
Yes, the unions have successfully bankrupted and corrupted all the businesses, organizations and government functions that they have dominated in the past 50 years.
We've learned our lesson. We have to rid ourselves of this 50 years of corrosive, anti-Republic socialism as fast as possible.
I’m a fan and remembered the exact comic you mentioned (but the cover was easier to find).
I deduct that cartoonists of today belong to unions. They get paid more and more each year for the more and more dull material they produce.
It does not matter if people no longer follow their obsolete columns, because unions protect the obsolete.
They have to because unions are obsolete.
Free Republic is nice, isn't it.
Time and tide, my FRiend. Time and tide.
Oh, to look at that book once again, lying on my dresser, as I got ready for school, through 14-year-old eyes. The Righteous Brothers, The Buckinghams, Chicago, BS&T on the radio, Bonanza and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on TV, and all the confusion and worry of adulthood being quietly borne by my parents downstairs, at breakfast.
An argument with my parents, at around that time... they were both liberals. I don't remember what my mother was arguing, but I remember saying in reply, "well, if you think that should be OK, how about allowing men to marry other men?" to which both reacted, with shock, saying "that's ridiculous" and "if you're going to argue nonsense, let's just end the discussion."
1969, 1970. Charles Mansion was considered an outrage and a frightful menace to society. Bill Cosby was, in his moderate views, considered by most suburban young whites to be representative of the "typical" black person. You would never, ever hear a four-letter word on TV, or on the radio. The most extreme song on the radio was "For What It's Worth," by Buffalo Springfield, which was fairly rebellious in nature, but that rebelliousness was well hidden.
Long ago, and far away.
Bookmark.
No matter what doubts you might have about unions and their role in the economy, never forget that destroying them destroys the only real organized check on the power of the business community in America.
Or so they would have people believe, it tugs at the
heart strings, poor wittle unions.
NGOs have taken their place in the
halls of Washington. Environmentalism, anti-business,
AGW, it’s all about controlling capitalism.
Yes, and right now they have the upper hand. If we can spring America loose from these marxists we can turn the tables on the whole globe.
But we've got to get control of our own country first. That's the hard part.
It’s the reason they are kicking up such a fuss.
Note to Freepers: It’s only going to get worse,
the statists felt they had things under control
only a few more years and it would be total.
Not any more.
Hee hee heeeeee!
Some good excerpts:
...the Wisconsin dispute has nothing to do with corporations. The unions’ antagonist is the state government. “Industrial unions are organized against the might and greed of ownership,” writes Time’s Joe Klein, a liberal who understands the crucial distinction. “Public employees unions are organized against the might and greed . . . of the public?”
Collective bargaining in the public sector thus is less a negotiation than a conspiracy to steal money from taxpayers. The notion that this is “in the economic interests of the middle class” for government employees in Wisconsin and elsewhere to get above-market wages and extremely lavish benefits is just laughable. Sure, government employees are “middle class,” but so are the vast majority of taxpayers who don’t enjoy the special privileges that come from owning the means of coercion.
Like my favorite radio guy says, “You learn more here by accident than anywhere else on purpose.”
He is, of course, referring to radio. I find the same is true of FReep in print.
Check out Garage Logic with Mayor Joe Soucheray!!!
I remember an old guy whom was dying of cancer and he lived through the Good times of the 1920s. In 1929 when the stock market crashed and the ensuing years of the depression went on and on. The people who had little survived. he said the people whom had money had the hardest time adjusting to the depression, they believed because they had the most money they were entitled to the most. with rationing during the war, many of the wealthy were always asking the poor and others to give them more ration coupons so they could have more and more. The old guy said it was the greed that consumed wealthy. Lets face the teachers in Wisconsin have become the greedy. They are now being asked to contribute more towards their own pensions and medical benefits. So the greedy teachers will have less disposable income.
I work with people of all ages rich and poor. I can tell the rich people are the ones whom are most scared. They are the same ones whom are refusing to pay their bills to the city for water and television (cable). I work with elderly whom have gone through times of hardship and abundance, the elderly are making it. there are people whom have to pay their own medicare premiums. (medicare insurance requires the elderly and disabled to pay 106.00 a month for their medical insurance, and Medicare Part B and D have a cost to pay too.) the people whom have grown up with plenty many of the young and middle aged are having the greatest struggle, trying to reign in their ability to balance a budget is nearly impossible. Line of credits only last for so long, the the bank cuts them off if they get abused.
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