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Wisconsin Still Laboratory of Democracy
On my dad’s side, my ancestors came to Wisconsin in 1823 to mine lead near Mineral Point. My mom’s people arrived a decade later, settling in Wyoming Valley.
I was raised with an outsized regard for Wisconsin, by a mother who made sure we never passed a Wisconsin historical marker without stopping.
So when I say that I have never been prouder of my state than I was last week, when workers rose up to challenge Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to strip unions of their collective bargaining rights, it is in that context.
I have always argued that Wisconsin leads the nation: We do better, ask little and give much. Our ancestors fought to end slavery, break up the trusts and make our state what Teddy Roosevelt called America’s “laboratory of democracy.”
A week ago, it seemed as if the laboratory was producing something toxic -- an assault on public servants that would quickly spread from Madison to other state capitols where Republican politicians want to use fiscal challenges as an excuse to score political points against unions.
But then Wisconsin pushed backed. Two thousand people rallied Monday. By Tuesday it was 12,000 or more. By Wednesday, 30,000 people surrounded the Capitol. And the demonstrations spread across Wisconsin, from Superior to Kenosha, from Shullsburg to Sturgeon Bay. On Thursday, Democratic state senators made real the promise of representative democracy by refusing to allow the enactment of legislation proposed just six days earlier and that the people clearly opposed.
As David Vines, a UW student who joined the protests, said: “This is what the founders intended.”
He’s right. The people spoke. And the powerful listened -- well, at least some of the powerful.
The struggle is far from finished. But Wisconsin has led once more, and in the right way -- by pushing back against a political power play.
So how will Wisconsin continue to lead? By continuing to employ the rights outlined in the Constitution to assemble freely and petition for the redress of grievances. That’s not just an immediate response to this bill. It needs to be continual -- in the tradition of Robert M. La Follette’s charge that “democracy is a life.” What La Follette meant is that democracy does not end on election day. Democracy begins on election day, as we demand that our representatives respond to the demands of the people.
Two Madison-based groups, Liberty Tree and the Center for Media and Democracy, both of which I’ve supported over the years, have proposed a “Wisconsin Wave” of democratic resistance to attempts to balance budgets on the backs of working people.
“To the giant corporate interests that currently dominate our state, we say that we will not stand by and watch you destroy Wisconsin’s democracy, Wisconsin’s economy, Wisconsin’s schools, and Wisconsin’s communities. We will not pay for your crisis. We will organize. We will march. We will nonviolently resist your policies and overcome your agenda,” reads the call, which can be found online at wisconsinwave.org. We’ll publish the whole call in Wednesday’s Capital Times, just as we’ll continue to cover the story of the democratic struggle to defend our public services and public schools, and the people who make them great.
35 Comments so far
Show AllI still don't understand how Wisconsin elected such a right wing nut-bar like Walker in the first place?
It's because of 2 things: conformism + dumbness. Most americans have low living standards. Food, cars and shelter are not high living standards. To have high living standards people have to have great health and basic bachelors 4 year college degrees. But the oligarchic neoliberal economic system in America bans the majority of americans from health services and having university degrees. So even though they know that Republican Party and Tea Party are neoliberal privatist, the US voters keep voting for the free market neoliberal Republicans and T Baggers.
So it's conformism and ignorance the real cause of why most americans support capitalism a system that only produces poverty and misery
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Conformism and ignorance are no more on display then they are from those speaking from some lofty perch explaining to all of us what is wrong with the rabble.
The general public does not support Capitalism, they have no choice in the matter. It is imposed on them. Voting Democratic, or Green, is supportive of Capitalism every bit as much as voting Republican is.
No more people are voting Republican now than before. Fewer people are voting Democratic, and one of the main reasons for that is in rejection of the hypocrisy and arrogance displayed by your "everyone should have a bachelor's degree" and "dumbness" ideas. You cannot be a "Marxist" and have the contempt for the working class people that you continually express.
Two America: You are totally wrong, most US workers are right-wingers, and are real brainwashed and dumbed down by TV, and most labor unions of USA are right-wingers and fascists. And you are just like Alexander Cockburn, Noam Chomsky and most left-gatekeepers, fake-leftists funded by The Ford Foundation and George Soros.
You are like them because of your anti-democratic way of debating with others. You see a democratically way of debating is to listen to others, to respect the ideas and opinions of others. Because most of us do not have a monopoly of absolute truth on politics and the real world.
You think that you have the absolute truth of US politics, just like Alexander Cockburn, Chomsky, Chris Hedges and Michael Parenti and the bourgeoise progressive liberals who think that they are Che Guevara Supermen, just because they have a lot of money, write books, give beautiful speeches and seminars.
You must be a bourgeoise reformist, progressive rich liberal. How wrong most liberal reformist college-leftists are, and how disconnected from reality because of narcissism and selfishness blocks them from connecting with poor americans.
What we need is humble leftists, feeling the pain and hunger of the homeless, extreme poors and illegal workers
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I haven't expressed any opinions at all to you, so I don't know what you are basing your analysis on. All I am doing is questioning what you are up to here.
I think you picked up most of the rhetoric you are using here from other CD posters, and are just throwing it around willy nilly. It is clear that you do not understand the things you are saying.
MarxistMan: Are you on special steriods designed to enhance name-calling? I haven't seen a post so full of ad hominem attack in a long time. In any case, you're likely a troll here intent on disrupting debate.
"Continual", should be the watchword. The Republicans will not compromise, they too are men of conviction. I predict that they will outlast the renegade Democrats in the Senate and pass the bill they have advocated. After that Dems will have to work to recall these Republican Senators who have supported it and prevail in what I guess are fiscally conservative Republican and Independent districts. In a year they will have to go after the governor who I predict will fold if a recall looks likely. Only then can we talk about victory. I think it will be a long and costly fight. Is our side prepared for it?
The reason that Walker was elected is that too may Democrats stayed home on election day. They stayed home because they were disillusioned by getting a Republican president in 2008 when they thought they were electing a Democrat.
I think that Obama was secretly delighted that the Republicans regained control of the House. Instead of using the veto pen to stop the shredding of the social safety net that the right wing wants, he will be most accommodating by signing "bi-partisan" legislation that will accomplish the conservative wet dream of reducing taxes for the rich and defunding the programs that make this fascist nightmare of a country barely livable. I like his tepid response to the Wisconsin situation. Typical Obama..
Eagle: thanks for your comment. I think you are 100% correct. That may be the reason of why capitalist ultra-right wingers won the last mid-term elections in many states, not only in Wisconsin. Because they voted for a populist anti-war reformist, but what we got was really a black-Bush, a capitalist far-right winger warmonger
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Eagle Bill, I agree with you that the "outted" Obama demoralized the base of voters that would have prevented Scott Walker from winning the election but only in combination with the absolutely uninspiring Tom Barrett as the "loyal opposition". Six one way, half dozen the other.
Your watching Governor Walker's 2012 presidential campaign.
This guy is dangerous, he's slick, articulate and stone cold rational. He makes Sarah Palin look like the rank amateur she is. He's a straight talking, no non-sense, suit and tie kinda guy you can wrap a flag around to create the “All America Brand”. A “Change You Can Fear” candidate.
If he pulls this off I wouldn't be surprised to see him resign the Governorship and step on to a much bigger stage, where he'll have mass appeal.
1) zappaunit 17, love the name.
2) the state that spawned McCarthy and Walker, has also upchucked Paul Ryan, newly minted Congress critter. I wouldn't be surprised both these guys have "plumbers committees" to knock the other one out of the primary bids for 2012.
I cried the day Zappa died...
Not just about his art ending, but about his astute political insight. He wrote about torture coming to America. I thought at the time, “Lighten up Frank, that just can't happen here...”
He had the ability to analyze our political environment and project it into the future.
And now here we are..
I miss him terribly...
Looks like the Koch Brothers have bought a real contender this time...
What's the name of the song about torture in America?
"When the Lie's So Big" on the album "Broadway the Hard Way"
His pal Chris Christie is another scary sort. Like Walker, he is a poser acting as a populist looking to protect the working class against those evil slackers, the public-sector workers.
At some point these two Koch- brothers shills will be on the national scene--perhaps as presidental and or vice presidential candidates representing the most backward people in AmeriKKKa.
“democracy is a life.” What La Follette meant is that democracy does not end on election day. Democracy begins on election day, as we demand that our representatives respond to the demands of the people.
I am a huge fan of John Nichols, a huge fan. I am not criticizing the lack of anything in his article.
But to those you us who read his article and remember the concepts of La Follette, we have to amend La Follette to include that democracy and representation “of the people” begins “before the election”.
Both Scott Walker and Fitzgerald are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). To those of you who are unaware of this group it is an organization that brings together far right wing corporations and select legislators from across the country. One of their purposes is to write legislation. To date, select legislators and corporate representatives, from companies such as WalMart and Koch Industries, have sat in the same room and penned “Model Legislation”. They have co-written over 1,000 bills and at least 20% of them have been enacted. ALEC commended Scott Walker for legislation that he passed in January 2011.
When you have a situation such as this, where the private sector is influencing what is brought before our legislatures, our representatives are no longer responsive to the demands of the people – but acting as marionettes to the demands of the private sector.
It is only through the concerted and on-going efforts and actions of the citizenry (as we are currently seeing in Madison) that we can ever hope to maintain democracy and it must begin with a closer vetting of candidates and their affiliations, before you vote for them.
One state in revolt is just a stepping stone like one seed of grass to other states in despair. Lets hope this spreads to the other states within this so called UNION and get this grass roots of revolution a moving. It is surprising that people only react when they have been hard done by MONEY only. Where are the moral issues, such as freedom of speech, liberty, and classes of their own societies and that of others too? None it seems motivates them with an ounce of passion other than egotistic selfish concerns regarding their own security, then, what do you expect from people who have been fed 24/7 by the corrupt media, and enforced via the education system to conform to enrich oneself such grained greed stuck to one's psyche ?
Sad, I wished they had some moral guts, rather than this greedy image of money, jobs, and prestige of class to propel themselves out of this rut. In comparison, even in an ant's world, these insects seem to have some solidarity particularly in work issues, plus also in defence of other ants when threatened., thus appropriately called; WORKER ANTS. Why can't humans break this hypnotic spell and be transformed to a real human being, for at least some part, in their miserable 90 year life span/cycle ? WHY WHY WHY
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As a "Marxist," you of course understand materialism, and know that politics is about the struggle for access to resources, and not about beliefs and quasi-religious moral reformation. Don't you? Your blathering here about morality and ideals, on the other hand, is the ruling class narrative.
Fight back by the working class is not "egotistic selfish concerns regarding their own security."
If you are going to pose as a "Marxist" for the purpose of trashing the Left, you need to study up a little more. This charade is ludicrously transparent.
WATCH THIS VIDEO OF POLITICAL SCIENTIST PROFESSOR WEBSTER TARPLEY ON HOW THE USA IS HEADED TOWARD A REVOLUTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZvv6x5Z-BA
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Webster Tarpley? Of the Lyndon Larouche organization fame? The anti-semite? That Webster Tarpley?
The world according to LaRouche is a centuries-old conspiracy of "parasites" who have "powerful, Anglo- American financier-oligarchical patrons," and the result of their secret conspiracy is the "accelerating descent of humanity into a new dark age." Recent LaRouchite publications rail about neoconservatives, who include a number of high profile Jews, with titles including phrases such as the "Children of Satan," or "The Beast Men," both of which echo ancient anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Tarpley’s analysis is virtually identical to that of the LaRouchites; in fact Tarpley helped shape core LaRouchite obsessions. In 1995 when he was a LaRouche acolyte, Tarpley wrote: "An agent shared by Memmo with the Morosini family was one Giacomo Casanova, a homosexual who was backed up by a network of lesbians. Venetian oligarchs turned to homosexuality because of their obsession with keeping the family fortune intact by guaranteeing that there would only be one heir to inherit it; by this time more than two-thirds of male nobles, and an even higher percentage of female nobles, never married. Here we have the roots of Henry Kissinger’s modern homin- tern. Casanova’s main task was to target the French King Louis XV through his sexual appetites."
Hominterm/Cominterm. Cute. In one paragraph Tarpley scapegoats Jews, Communists, and homosexuals. Note that this same linkage was central to the McCarthyist witch hunts in the 1950s—another borrowed idea. These days Tarpley is also a featured author on the Jeff Rense website, along with more obvious anti-Semites such as Henry Makow.
Could the language of Tarpley and LaRouche be an innocent coincidence? It doesn’t matter. People who claim such a vast knowledge of history and politics should know these phrases signal anti-Jewish themes and avoid them.
Even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, homosexuals, people of color, immigrants, or other scapegoated groups, they create an environment where racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice, bigotry, and oppression can flourish. We do not need conspiracism to challenge social injustice. There are other forms of analysis. With any form of conspiracism, serious questions of race, class, and gender are almost always shoved aside. Political and economic policies are framed as controlled by a handful of powerful and wealthy secret elites manipulating elections, foreign and domestic policy, and the media.
http://www.politicalgroove.com/showthread.php?1317-Crackpots-the-Left-and-Jewish-Banker-Cabals
Two A: Thank you for the intelligent, well-informed post.
Many leaders of the left should be friendlier, more sociable, and less narcissist, less egocentric, less self-absorved. And maybe they have lost the US working class with their egocentric attention-seeking, narcissist unfriendly behaviour. This is just my personal opinion on the US left. You might not like it, but this is what i think about why many US citizens prefer right-wingers.
You know many americans have a right to follow Sarah Palin and The Tea Party because many leaders of the left are just as self-absorved, and even a lot more unfriendly and lack in social skills and charisma than many leaders of the left. And are not much better than Glenn Beck
Poor oppressed americans do not want self-absorved leftist celebrities like Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti and Chris Hedges.
People out there just hate unfriendly narcissist leaders with an air of aristocracy in the way they talk and behave. The left needs to mingle more with the poor americans, with people who eat from food-banks, food-stamps, with rednecks, poor blacks, poor hungry americans and war veterans.
What the poor americans need is is love and affection, friendly, compassionate leaders not self-absorved liberal celebrities with nice shows, nice books, like Amy Goodman and Chomsky but who fail miserably in love, affection and compassion toward the poor homeless and extreme poor americans.
So that's my personal view on why US citizens prefer right-wingers over leftists. Because of the lack of love, lack of compassion and egoistic behaviour in the leftist celebrities of America
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Hello my friend, indeed, maybe i was being too negative. But we should be positive and optimists instead. Pessimism, nihilism and negativism are the real enemy of the left. And I thnk what you said about the reasons of why many people in the USA still vote for the traditional political parties Democrats and Republicans, are because the corporate media completely ignores third parties and alternative anti-zionism politicians such as Kucinich and Ron Paul. So the one to blame for forcing the ideology of oligarchic neoliberal zionist capitalism on people are CNN, FOX news, and even the spanish TV networks Univision, Telemundo, and CNN en espanol, who are also hard at work brainwashing the spanish population
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MarxistMan: You really ought to read some history, or, actually, just read! Especially if you aspire to be an effective propagandist.
Good point, Camille... love the way "Marxist" uses the same names repeatedly, and can't spell this gem, which is the center of his argument.
Twice he wrote:
"just as self-absorved"... the word is ABSORBED as indicative of the capacity to take in. Think sponge and how it absorbs content.
Damn the USA is so dumb, that's why this country is really doomed. What the hell are you talking about? Who is doing propaganda here? What do you mean i am a propagandist. damn i hate lots of things of this country, specially the way people label you. Americans have this bad habit of using labels and categories for every thing. That's mental lazyness. And by the way i am well-read. Unlike the majority of people in USA who are hillbilly grunge sheeple raped by the media. If wasn't well-read, i would be a Democrat Party voter or Republican voter.
USA is doomed, because of an evil right-wing, and lots of narcissists, egocentric selfish people in the left who behave like right-wingers
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http://members.efn.org/~rolanda/discovering/contents.html <--Living in the USA is like a punishment. This country is real depressive, full of dumb fat people, it is a living hell. Check out this book, about how painful and frustrating life in USA is
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Why in the hell does only ONE state have to be a test laboratory with something like this? That is like making a an experiment one time with one piece to prove something as absolute.
But then again, only scottie of wisconsin is the one piece at one time doing anything to prove a point. Which means if scottie holds his breath longer, he wins. Then the rest of the states, seeing an opening, will do the same.
Makes me kinda of want to believe that all the other states live in prefect harmony with their government with 0 complaints.
There is more than just the goddamn federal government messing everything up, the state and local levels are just as corrupt, check out Bell, CA and their rich town officials. At least they were caught and are on trial.
So, again I say, at election time give hard serious study and thought about those running for office at the local, state and federal level.
Hello all, this is just to warn you against The Republican Party and T Party histeria in the nation. These people are crazy.
check out this site, it's a site done by a loyal fan of neocons and the Republican Party, and critisizing anti-war americans, and linking Bill Ayers, with Obama. Note: This site looks like its done by a radical ultra-nationalist american, you know one of those people who think that the US constitution is God-ordained, and the US founding fathers were saints. These people are very dangerous and crazy. In that site they are even attacking Oliver Stone, Bruce Willy and other actors. Remember that fascists have desdain for artists and intellectuals:
http://www.capveterans.com/national_veterans_memorials_protection/id110.html
Check this other link with a picture that says: "Now it's personal". Sounds like the murder threats of the T Baggers against Gabrielle Giffords:
http://www.americans-working-together.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&amp;linkpath=http://www.americans-working-together.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/billboard2.jpg&amp;target=tlx_new
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Ah, now you are posting links to right wing sites. To "warn" us..
You sure have covered a lot of ground in a few short hours here.
On Wisconsin! On Wisconsin!
Marxistman: Obviously you are a right-wing sock-puppet trying to discredit real Marxism with your irrational rants. I am not fooled.
Two Americas: Remember the old bumper sticker "Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!". There are real conspiracies aimed at securing power for a wealthy minority, and they are helped enormously (deliberately?) by conspiracy theorists like Larouche whose very irrationality leads people to dismiss all claims of conspiracy without seriously examining them.