Like All National Debates.... Wisconsin Issue Reveals How Dumb We Are

Some quick thoughts on the WI teachers Union issue

- Why is this a national story? Let the people of Wisconsin solve their own issues. Let elected officials make (most likely bad and politically motivated decisions) and let them be held to account by public opinion and elections – IN WISCONSIN. There’s not a drop of this that bleeds over at all into national or federal issues.

- That said, my personal, could-care-less view on this is that sure teachers should get paid more in general, because the amount we pay teachers is a clear reflection of how much we value education. Also, the fact that these efforts to stomp out unions have exempted police unions reveals them as a bald-faced political ploy, not a sober, judicious attempt at cutting costs.

- All of THAT said, unions for government employees is generally a bad idea. It’s exactly the recipe for corruption: campaign support (money, votes, groundwork) can so easily be traded for higher wages and pensions. Police and teachers unions do this all the time, and this is a big part of the whole “Pension Liability” crises people keep talking about. If a company gave a politician campaign support and then that pol turned around and used his office to spend public dollars to buy the company's products, I think everyone would connect the dots pretty quickly. Unions inherently invite and create the same behavior.

- The stuff that really interests me are the various displays of tribalism, dishonesty and hypocrisy that this issue is bringing out all over. It’s provided a lot of solid evidence for what I already knew: that people’s principles apply only insofar as they don’t interfere with whatever political position they need to have at that time, and that sacred cows often trump everything. There’s nothing automatically wrong with any of that, but it’s a problem when people can’t be honest about it, and talk about lofty principles but apply them like fickle preferences.
Let’s start with the “Wisconsin 14,” the group of Democratic State Legislators who fled the state in order to obstruct a vote on this issue. These are members of the same party who whined about “obstructionism” when Republicans in the Senate used the filibuster on every vote. Of course it’s easy to draw distinctions between those instances based on morality, traditions, issues of abuse etc. but Democrats made many if not most arguments about “democracy” and “duely elected representatives” and “up or down votes.” All of those arguments apply equally to Wisconsin, logically, intellectually but of course not in reality.
But that’s just the beginning… Of course political sacred cows play a big role. Were the Governor in Wisconsin a Democrat going after bloated police unions it goes without saying that the politics would be different for everyone but the AFL-CIO. Case in point, Obama proposed a budget that cut billions in heating subsidies and the reaction from the left was basically nothing. Are chants and slogans about worker’s rights more bumper-sticker ready than the same about poor people having warm homes? Or, is it that Obama is a likable Democrat while the Governor of Wisconsin is a smug, douchy (good lord is he douchy!) Republican? I’m very sure I know.

- Lastly, the hypocrisy from the left over the Citizens United ruling will not die. The Wisconsin teacher’s union is exactly the type of corporation that was afforded greater free speech and political rights by that ruling, and anyone who responded to that opinion with the remarkably lame and stupid argument that “corporations don’t have rights” must be ready to accept that this union has no fundamental or Constitutional right to protest at the state house, to distribute literature or run a website supporting their cause, or put ads on TV about this issue. Funny that no one seems to be using that argument now. Sure, maybe every person speaking out in favor of the unions and against the Governor on tv, online, in print or even on your facebook feed agreed with the Citizens United ruling, or maybe they all recognize the union is doing these things at the permission and pleasure of the benevolent Wisconsin and federal governments who could stop (arrest, censor) them at any time, but I really really really doubt that. I’m guessing most of them miss the connection altogether or have told themselves “it’s different” but never finished the thought as to why because it hurt their brain. And I’m not sure which is worse.

Wisconsin will hopefully fix their budget issue, and hopefully the people of that state will have their voices and desires heard at the next election. Our nation however, has a serious discourse problem and there's little reason to be hopeful about that.