Don't Believe the (Union-Busting) Hype
Walker's extremist views aren't popular with the public
You need not be a devotee of FOX News Channel or Rush Limbaugh to believe that Americans despise the unions that represent cops, teachers (especially teachers!) and firefighters. You might reasonably believe that notion simply because far more authoritative news sources have repeatedly suggested it.
You might think so, for example, because TheNew York Times Sunday magazine told you so in a cover story written by one of the newspaper of record's top political analysts last week, or because TheWall Street Journal editorial page said the same thing a few days ago.
Public Opinion Favors Workers, Not Walker
But if you believe that the American people are now
eager to follow Gov. Scott Walker's example, in Wisconsin or across the nation,
it turns out that you (and those who have misinformed you) are unmistakably and
profoundly wrong. For as one poll after another has indicated over the past two
weeks, Americans soundly reject Walker's union-busting gambit.
The polling organizations span the political and
journalistic spectrum, from Republican-leaning Gallup and Rasmussen to the Pew
Research Center, NBC News/Wall Street
Journal and CBS News/New York Times,
yet their results are remarkably consistent. While many voters surveyed in all
of the polls say that it is fair to require public employees to contribute more
to their health and retirement benefits, a clear majority objects to any
attempt to curtail their collective bargaining rights.
Asking about the struggle in Wisconsin, the Pew
researchers found that 42% stood with the unions versus only 31% who sided with
Walker. The CBS News/New York Times
poll was considerably stronger, with 60% supporting the right of public
employees to bargain collectively and only 33% in opposition; those numbers
closely matched an earlier Gallup Poll that showed 61% supporting labor against
the governor.
And again, in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, only 33% says that it is "acceptable"
to abolish those rights as a supposed way to address state and local budget
deficits. Just under twice as many—62%—says that eliminating those rights is
"unacceptable."
That finding coincided embarrassingly with a Journal editorial assuring its readers that
Walker and his allies are prevailing because "the public in Wisconsin and
around the U.S. seems to be listening and absorbing his message. The cause has
been helped by the sit-ins and shouting of union members, the threats toward
politicians who disagree with them, and by the flight of Democratic state
senators to undisclosed locations in Illinois."
Actually, the vigorous resistance to Walker appears
not to have damaged the union cause at all, but to have drawn attention to the
gross partisan over-reaching of the Republican governor and his corporate
friends. In Wisconsin, many voters are now expressing buyer's remorse over
their choice of Walker, and tell pollsters they are evenly divided over whether
to recall him.
The ruckus in Madison, which he brought upon
himself, has called attention to his budget's favoritism toward upper-income
taxpayers and its destructive impact on educational standards and public
safety. Naturally, the good people of the Badger State are starting to wonder
whether they cannot do better.
The battle over the rights of public employees—and
labor's future in this country—is far from decided. Indeed, the debate over how
to restore the middle class and the prospect of a better future is about to
begin again. But the next time a blustering pundit tries to persuade you that
some right-wing crusade is trendy or popular, just remember Wisconsin.
© 2011
Creators.com
Polls can be skewed to say anything. I could care less what polls say or what right-wing pundits say. All that matters is what I think. I think most people don't have a problem with "workers" having rights. But you have to define what a "worker" is. Too many state jobs are simply made up make-work jobs with no meaningful purpose. When you see someone who is suppose to be a “professional” acting out in childish behavior at the Capitol, it’s hard to have sympathy for them. When someone immaturely calls in sick so they can protest about petty issues, it’s not going to score points with the truly hard working people that pay taxes. When I hear that people are breaking out in hives, crying, and hyperventilating over all of this, it tells me they deeper issues and probably shouldn’t be on anyone’s payroll. They are panicking because they know if they lose their job, they are not only unemployed, they are unemployable. Do we really want those types receiving taxpayer money?
When I go to the D.O.T. to get my license renewed, I want to the workers in the busting their butts working as fast as they possibly can. When I go to a school I want to see the janitor working like someone just shocked him with a cattle prod. When I see road construction crews I want to see them all running around like ants and no one standing around. I want my kid’s school teachers to be just like the handful of excellent teachers I had. Either be excellent or out. And the next time I call in to report that one of my elderly neighbors has passed away, is all blue and rigor mortis set in, don’t send over three fire-trucks to fetch them.
Take a look at the kid with the "Tax Wall Street" sign. Does he even know what Wall Street is? What are we suppose to do, send Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue agents out to NYC, march down Manhattan and shake down people randomly working on Wall Street? Thats probably what he thinks. I feel sorry for these people. They only know one way of life - the government gives them a make-work job, they collect a check for watching the grass grow and now that is in jeapoardy.
I was thinking today what good teachers we have out here in our Waukesha County schools. As far as I'm concerned most of them deserve every penny they get. They are good teachers that have chosen to work for good schools that have good students who have good parents. Most of them the high level of integrity to never walk off the job and go to a childish protest. They know who they are working for and they know who the parents of their children voted for. Otherwise they will find themselves on they way out faster than high speed rail.
This entire thing is egregious, and I cannot wait to see how it unfavorable plays out for Governor Walker. He has trampled on the proud progressive foundation of Wisconsin, and as we have seen by growing public opposition to SB11, there will be political repercussions.
Righto, David... "I could care less what polls say or what right-wing pundits say. All that matters is what I think". Like some say facts matter, and others don't care about facts, they just care about what it "feels" like.
Here's what MOST people do know. Their "small world" is only made up of people like themselves, basically a minority compared to the rest of the world, rest of the nation, rest of the state. All they care about is that their own burden be lifted, just make sure to shift that burden onto some "other type" of people, since there are so many "other types" out there!
Evidence - Look at your address book, (the amount of your facebook friends does not count). We humans are "tribal", it is near impossible to empathize, sympathize, or personally "feel for" more than about 150 people. That's about the maximum size of any efficient organization. Being able to identify with people outside your own 150 is just not going to happen.
Therefore it is all too easy to say "tax the rich", when we really don't know any rich personally. And all to easy to say "stop spending on 'them' ", when "them" is people we see on the news, don't personally know "them". But news sure does like to frame it in a way that makes us mad. Keeps us from turning the channel, keeps us from watching somebody elses commercials. Read through the sales psychology!
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Okay, what's your idea of a "union"... thinking of truck drivers, auto workers, construction workers, and other people you associate with strikes, muscle, and thug-thinking? People in unions are those who have not been to college, or "can't handle" college?
In the private sector, I had heard that only about 20-25% of workers have a college degree. This same report also said that Wisconsin's unionized public employees have about 55% with college degrees. We're not talking art history PhD's doing menial jobs, either. The state employs many healthcare, science, and engineering workers, for the hated insitutions for those you and I don't want to deal with on the street, for the regulatory branches that keep the businesses honest, etc. They are not all slow moving civil servants that make you wait at the DMV. Who works our over-burdened crime labs? Would we get convictions if we hired fast food pay-class forensic specialists? There's lots that the common voter does not ever see.
These workers are unionized in the state (as opposed to not unionized in the private sector), because left up to the 51% majority vote, the taxpayers and vote-craving politicians would reduce these workers down to slave conditions.
I, for one, admire a politician who does not govern by polls. Polls can be swayed by who is conducting them, as we repeatedly saw during this whole Madison drama.
We need leaders with a firm moral compass, who can't be swayed by trumped up polls. Your president could learn a good lesson from this, if he took enough time off from vacations and hoops to pay attention to what's going on.
I also don't see what is "progressive" about draggin this state to the brink of bankruptcy.
I will admit I don't know many poor people. Because of work I tend to affiliate myself with successful wealthly people who I can learn wealth building skills from. Poor people I know have always been poor by choice -- having babies with no daddy, drugs, or would rather party than study. Or they chose not to move around the country taking advantage of promotions or move where the higher paying jobs are.
I've also developed a "union" stereotype of some guy with bad hair and a bowling jacket, drinks shots with beer, and doesn't have a college degree. This was the result of working in a union shop where productive workers were told to slow down as to not make the older, slower, injured workers look bad. If you tried too hard or worked too hard, you might get beat up. Hmmm, sounds like an inner city school.
Yes I do realize that there are many state jobs such as crime lab people, regulators, and health professionals which have a great deal of responsibility. However I don't think these are the folks rioting at the Capitol. They have too much class for that. I picture the rioters as the less talented teachers and those with the make-work jobs like in Wisconsin Shares, W2, and emissions control.
Please consider educating yourself, instead of basing all your comments on sheltered stereotypes because of your limited life experiences.
Well, Mr DJ, after a nasty, prejudiced rant like that it's all I can do from getting down on my knees and asking the Good Lord to introduce you to poverty. Like, you know, one major medical illness in your family or a layoff.