The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Dispatch from Madison

Text Size

Madison, Wisconsin -- Greetings from ground zero of the showdown between taxpayers and public sector unions. After arriving this afternoon I stopped by the capitol to check out the ongoing pro-union protest; commentary on that, and a couple of pictures that I snapped, are after the jump.

This evening Governor Scott Walker gave a "fireside chat" outlining his position; I don't see video online yet, but the transcript is here. State Senator Mark Miller -- speaking from Illinois (with a Wisconsin flag behind him) -- gave a Democratic response; Hot Air has video of that. The contrast between Walker's delivery and Miller's was striking; the former projected competence and confidence while the latter stuttered and looked ever-so-slightly deranged.

While most of the signs at the rally outside and inside the capitol were fairly boring, coverage of Tea Party rallies has taught me that it's standard practice to cherry-pick the craziest sign in the crowd, so here goes:

The Niemoller quote, of course, goes onto say "Then they came for the Jews." I'm fairly sure that Governor doesn't plan on building death camps, but if I find any evidence to the contrary I'll be sure to report on it.

Speaking of tropes from coverage of Tea Party rallies, the crowd both inside and outside the capitol was overwhelmingly white. One would expect this given Madison's demographics, but reports on the Tea Parties seem to think this is important to mention. Unlike Tea Party rallies, though, they have a drum circle:

The drums served to drown out the governor's arguments, which were being broadcast over the PA. According to local news, when Walker's live fireside chat was broadcast, it was also drowned out with boos.

More from Wisconsin to come; I'll be here for several more days.

View all comments (36) | Leave a comment

Paul McGrath| 2.22.11 @ 10:15PM

I'm delighted to hear you're going to be there for a few days Mr. Tabin. Might be a tough assignment, but it sure would be interesting to see if you can find out how many of the union supporters are from out of town. Nobody has really reported on this yet with any specificity.

I'm guessing it's a lot.

With God all things r possible| 2.22.11 @ 10:58PM

Of course, they want nothing else to do with Niemoller's message or convictions. They just want to use him like they want to use you and me--to steal our money, go on vacations, fornicate and commit adultery, lie to their employers, cheat on their taxes, beat honest people and abort the next generations. Why not--they're Democrats.

Patriot| 2.22.11 @ 11:24PM

...deranged--lol

Pelligrino| 2.23.11 @ 4:41AM

Mr. Tabin, glad that you are on the ground at the capital learning what is really occurring.

In addition to learning just where these "protestors" hail from (are they really 'Cheeseheads?'), please let us know:

Where do they find the time to be off work on work days in the middle of the week (this week and last)?

I mean, these are tough economic times. What boss, shop, office, company, etc. permits this?

Aren't there places in these tough times where, if you don't show to work, it's really no problem; you're fired and another guy takes your place?

Who has the luxury of protesting days on end?

In addition, please corner some of these s0-called docs handing out the generic sick slips. Aren't they placing their medical licenses in jeopardy?

Thank you in advance for checking this out. I appreciate it.

Hook| 2.23.11 @ 7:37AM

As a former AFT member, it is hard to have sympathy for these teachers. The union cares not for the kids and only for adding redundant jobs, giving teachers little work and inflated salaries for what they do, keeping incompetent and even bizarre teachers on salary. It is pretty outrageous that tenured people make more than people with far more pressure and responsibility in the private sector.

It turned me into a Libertarian.

Pecos Pete| 2.23.11 @ 8:03AM

Mr. Tabin, regular posts to this blog will be appreciated. The MSM are flooding the air waves and it will be interesting to see your comments every couple of hours, or so.

Thanks!

lookingforjob| 2.23.11 @ 8:07AM

There are plenty of hungry unemployed college graduates that can get an 'emergency' certification to teach their field of expertise. With the underemployed and unemployed clamoring for positions, these striking teachers better be waking up. (Personally, I hope they don't--they deserve to go.)

martin j smith| 2.23.11 @ 8:19AM

This guy Walker has it--But Mitch Daniels forgetabout it. Mitch Daniels is a Democrat-Socialist .

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 9:21AM

During the Gilded Age, Jay Gould famously remarked that he could hire one half of the working class to kill the other half. He meant what he said literally. Like other plutocrats of his day, he knew how to manipulate the members of the working class to the continued benefit of the rich.

Fortunately, we have moved beyond that time. However, today's plutocrats are every bit as savvy as Gould at manipulation. Through one of their spokesmen, Rick Santilli in his famous rant, they deftly shifted attention away from Wall Street and the mortgage bankers' responsibility for the financial collapse toward the individuals who believed the hype and took irresponsible mortgages. The Koch brothers fund organizations like Americans for Prosperity to divert the attention of members of the middle class away from who is primarily responsible for three decades of stagnant wages, diminished benefits and lost jobs due to outsourcing. Through their spokeman, Scott Walker, they fan the flames of resentment and suggest that middle class public employees are responsible for the declining fortunes of non unionized workers.

Well played, Plutocrats.

conservative Bob| 2.23.11 @ 9:34AM

Mike we are so honored by your presence here with us today to help us see how stupid we have been. Thank you for enlightening us, without your insight and wisdom we would not have know we were being used and duped. We are just a little too slow to understand these complex issues.

How is that Kool-Aid Mike, what flavor are they serving today? Drink up Skippy!

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 9:51AM

Bob,

I gather from the content and tone of your response that what I wrote strikes a little too close to home.

conservative Bob| 2.23.11 @ 10:24AM

Laughing so hard I can hardly type Mike, your comments are great for their comic value.

Ha Ha Ha Ha your such a kidder....

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 11:45AM

My previous comment still stands, Bob

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 8:10PM

Hypocritical coming from a liberal sleazebag who supports an anti-Americancommunist slimebag like George Soros.

LarryK| 2.23.11 @ 9:23AM

Liberals are for democracy and freedom as long as it doesn't hinder their plans.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 9:54AM

What plans Larry? A job at a decent wage? Affordable health care?

Curtis Rasmussen| 2.23.11 @ 12:38PM

Mike, decent jobs are disappearing in record numbers in part due to the uncertainty of OBAMACARE. You can have one or the other, not both.

Also, there is uncertainty with the record debt initiated by your socialist hero, the community organizer in chief, Barack insane Obama. Socialism is a failure wherever it's enacted, and your socialist plan for government dictated wages and healthcare will bring us all down.

Don't be a fool.

Jeff| 2.23.11 @ 10:34AM

Mike is like the rest of the left, find someone rich most people will be jealous of, define them as evil and blame all the ills of the world on them. Ignore the left-wing rich like Bloomberg who fund multiple "progressive" propaganda organizations because they are enlightened.
The only thing most of the left wants is a benevolent dictatorship run by them to tell us dimwits what is best for us, because non-progressives are just not smart enough to know what is good for us.
Classic line from the Washington Week with Gwen Ifill on PBS--I forget the liberal speaker name--she said to the effect that people are now figuring out the consequences of their votes in November, and we'll see if they actually have the stomach for the types of cuts they voted Republicans in to make. Gee, we weren't smart enough to see that before now...Newsflash: we knew who we voted for this time and we better get the cuts and leadership promised.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 11:50AM

Jeff.

It appears that there are many on the right who are very jealous of decidedly middle class state workers.
By the way, Jeff, these workers pay taxes to the state and municipal government, so they are , in effect, already giving back some of their salary. They also pay federal taxes, some of which pays for corporate welfare in its various and sundry forms.

Jeff| 2.23.11 @ 12:17PM

Mike,
I am a State worker, thanks. I don't see anything in my post leading one to think I am jealous of State workers. What I am frustrated with are Public unions which seem to think and advocate that a job is an entitlement, that they are entitled to whatever they can get. In the private sector if management gives too much the company goes out of business (unless they in collusion with the unions can get a Democrat progressive to buy them out-those sweet UAW contracts wouldnt have been worth the paper they were written on if GM/Chrysler had been allowed to go bankrupt-but I digress). For Public unions they seem to think the answer is raise taxes, stick it to the wealthy, after all its not like the wealthy earned their money, they stole it from the working class! Unions had their place and relevancy 70 years and more ago. Today, at least the public ones, are a political organization dedicated to perpetuating their own power and voting in their own cronies. Basically anything you can say derogatory towards big business applies equally or more so to unions.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 1:21PM

Jeff,

Constitutionally, people have the right to organize and to pursue their own interests. Given the flow of national wealth upwards for the past three decades, I would say some have done a far more effective job of this than have unions.

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 8:12PM

Mike, just WHERE in the Constitution does it say people have the RIGHT to unionize?

Please answer my question quickly--I'm just dying to know, moron.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 8:42PM

Established law under the Constitution. See Lochner and the Wagner Act.

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 11:17PM

That's better--our rights come from God, union organizing is a benefit.

conservative Bob| 2.23.11 @ 12:29PM

Mike,
Hubris is asking someone making 37k to feel bad for not wanting to pay more taxes so that an underperforming less productive government worker making 57k plus benefits won't have to contribute to half as much for their health insurance and pension.

As to welfare corporate, agricultural, or individual eliminate it all tomorrow. It is all about buying votes and influence. It distorts the market rewards inefficient and counterproductive behavior.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 1:29PM

Bob,
What is your evidence that government workers are under performing and less productive than private sector workers. I know that the media controlled by the right has promoted this idea for a long time, but where is the objective evidence?

And how "productive" are the GE workers who are wasting time and resources building the back up fighter jet engine that the military neither needed or wanted? Fortunately, Democrats, establishment Republicans and Tea Party Republicans joined together in the House to cut the program.

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 8:14PM

Our kids can't read or do math--that's more than enough proof that our public school system has failed.

Pelligrino| 2.24.11 @ 1:05AM

I was a government worker at one stint in my life. Wherever I went I saw less than 100% effort. Almost everywhere. And this malfeasance came in all shapes, sizes, tastes, and smells. Sometimes it could be terribly subtle.

And it is enticing and addictive. AND self-perpetuating.

Did I fall into the trap of doing less and uncritically justifying it? Yes, I did.

This is why, in part, I determined that long-term government service was/is a very bad idea.

Most government workers never ask: "If I presently earn $65,000 plus benefits annually, just how many normal/median US taxpayers (and families) does it take to pay my way?"

If I stayed in this area of government service long enough to earn retirement payments for the rest of my life, what would that look like? How many taxpayers would be propping me up?

To be fair: Most in the US military also NEVER ask these questions.

conservative Bob| 2.23.11 @ 2:24PM

Mike,
Government does not produce anything it actively hinders production.

Look at everything the government has undertaken and tell me what it does well, on budget and on time.

Private corporations (when the government doesn't improperly interfere) go out of business when they are inefficient, ineffective or unprofitable.

Government on the other hand is always inefficient, unproductive and uneconomic but they just stick us all up for more money.

Consider any level of government you want, it is all a bad joke. It accomplishes almost nothing while costing more than necessary doing things that don't need to be done.

To make it easy on you I will just wait for you to list everything the government does well.

That government which governs best governs least.

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 3:16PM

Bob,

This is not a rational rebuttal. This is a series of sweeping, unsubstantiated generalizations.

I realize that for as long as government bureaucracies have existed, their first goal is self perpetuation. But this does not necessarily mean they are inefficient, unproductive or uneconomic in their appointed task. I am pleased that members of Congress are talking about identifying and eliminating duplication of services by different government agencies.

You might be interested to know that the administrative costs associated with Medicare are less than for private insurers. So who is more efficient?

conservative Bob| 2.23.11 @ 4:36PM

You really want to site Medicare and efficient in the same sentance?

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 5:10PM

Compare administrative costs, Bob. Not to be confused with the rapidly rising cost of medical services that is negatively affecting the entire health care system.

Have a good evening.

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 8:15PM

Got your ass beat again, moron. lol

Mike| 2.23.11 @ 8:50PM

Jamie,

You have not offered one substantive argument or any facts to support your contentions which are really nothing more than angry rants. Name calling and sweeping, uninformed generalizations do nothing to advance the conversation.

Jamie| 2.23.11 @ 11:19PM

Wrong, I got you to clarify your claim that unionizing is a Constitutional right. It's not.

Pellligrino| 2.24.11 @ 1:17AM

Once more:

But ALWAYS present.

There is just something about profit/loss margins that force efficiencies in the workplaces. Most of government is NEVER confronted with real efficiency. Never.

And the tendency to slough off, shirk, take an extra 15 or 30 minutes for lunch, delay assignments, cost overrun, postpone, hire unqualifieds, etc., etc. is enticing and addictive. AND self-perpetuating.

During my time as a government employee did I begin to fall into the trap of doing less and uncritically justifying it? Yes, I did.

This is why, in part, I determined that long-term government service was/is a very bad idea. A very bad idea.

I departed my govt. position -- happily so.

Most government workers never ask: "If I presently earn $65,000 plus benefits annually, just how many normal/median US taxpayers (and families) does it take to pay my way?"

If I stayed in this area of government service long enough to earn retirement payments for the rest of my life, what would that look like? How many taxpayers would be propping me up?

To be fair: Most in the US military also NEVER ask these questions.

(And these military ones who "retire" after just 20 years of service at only 43 or 44 years of age can live a long, long, long time yet. That's a lot of taxpayer support.)

Every taxpaying American has the full right to require ever downsizing government at the local, state and national levels.

Government budgets always scream for more taxpayer monies while the government agencies provide less services.