Just a few hours ago on March 9th, the Wisconsin State Senate, using GOP shock tactics, and brooking no interruptions, speedily passed a proposal to severely limit the collective bargaining rights of most Wisconsin public sector employees. The RepubliCon senators found a way to bring the bill to the floor by stripping out all fiscal provisions, thus obviating the need for a super-quorum required by the Wisconsin Constitution:
Vote on fiscal bills; quorum. Article VIII, SECTION 8. On the passage in either house of the legislature of any law which imposes, continues or renews a tax, or creates a debt or charge, or makes, continues or renews an appropriation of public or trust money, or releases, discharges or commutes a claim or demand of the state, the question shall be taken by yeas and nays, which shall be duly entered on the journal; and three−fifths of all the members elected to such house shall in all such cases be required to constitute a quorum herein.
For bills without fiscal measures, like the one the GOP senators cobbled together today to crush collective bargaining rights, a simple majority is sufficient for a vote to be taken. Since the GOP senate delegation outnumbers the minority Dems, the trap was complete. In effect, removing the fiscal provisions literally mooted the Senate Democrats’ two week long diaspora to Illinois.
The maneuver, though, did not moot Assembly Democratic Minority Leader, Peter Barca, D-Kenosha who was the only Democratic member present at the ambush. He immediately and loudly objected, mincing no words, “Mr. Chairman, this is a violation of law,” invoking the state’s Open Meeting statute that, among other things, requires (with a few exceptions) 24 hours notice before legislative action. And with this, Barca raised the possibility that the GOP tactic of using speed, shock, and awe may yet crash against the battlements of government in the sunshine. Violations of the law may lead to voiding of the GOP actions taken tonight. Let’s hope so.
“I’m not going to be intimidated, particularly by people from other places.“ Scott Walker, NYT Interview, February, 19, 2011
“. . . there’s a much smaller group of protesters—almost all of whom are in from other states today.” and “The guys [protesters] we’ve got left are largely from out of state, and I keep dismissing it in all my press conferences saying, ‘Eh, they’re mostly from out of state.’ “ Gov. Scott Walker speaking to the Buffalo Beast’s Ian Murphy February 22, 2011
As more and more protesters come in from Nevada, Chicago and elsewhere, I am not going to allow their voices to overwhelm the voices of the millions of taxpayers from across the state who think we’re doing the right thing. This is a decision that Wisconsin will make. Governor Walker during his “Fireside Chat,” February 22, 2011
During a February 23rd press conference about his chitchat with the fake David Koch, a seemingly humbler Scott Walker clarified his feelings about pro-public employee union protesters, “I appreciate the protesters from Wisconsin who are here.” Then he spoke more kindly of those people who he normally seemed to think of as a plague of locusts: “I welcome those who’ve come from other states.” Wow! From outside agitators to welcome guests. For someone who touts the consistency of his views, that’s quite a turnaround.
Hives, I say, hives! Some from out-of-state!!
Of course, this newly outsider-friendly Walker is the exception, by far. For Walker, distrust and disdain for the “outsiders” protesting alongside Wisconsin’s state employees is the norm. Moreover, his anti-outsider comments quoted above point to a general dislike for “out-of-staters” who try to influence Wisconsin politics, not just those who “invade” Wisconsin in support of government unions. It’s hard to see it any other way. After all, Walker is consistent in applying his principles; for example, he points with pride to his record as Milwaukee’s County Executive where he reduced public employees by 20%. He’s constantly pushed an austere version of fiscal responsibility; is an unwavering anti-abortion advocate; and always gets “tough on crime.” Obviously, he doesn’t like unions very much. . . Oh, yes, and “outsiders” give him hives. Perhaps that’s a clue.
“I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.” James Thurber.Like those allergic to cat dander, but not to cat noses, allergies are mysterious. I’m allergic to some cats, but not others. I can spend hours petting our cat, but wind up wheezing and weeping within minutes with my friend’s. It occurred to me, perhaps Governor Walker’s apparent moral inconsistency about out-of-staters is a serious allergy, beyond his control, even with medical science backing him up.
Is there an inoculation for close contact with Democrats? No, there isn’t, and I checked this with a friend who nearly got into a Wisconsin medical school but is now a semi-retired lawyer under investigation. Real doctors agree, however, one can become resistant to hives, runny noses, and teary eyes by spending more time with some of those things that make you allergic. That seems like a sure loser, I know, but I tried it. My doctor advised I spend more time with my cat. I did, and despite some early medical difficulties including bleeding from my ears and stroke, I have developed an immunity to my beloved cat’s aller-stuff.
Every Time I Pass An Illinois Democrat In A Hallway My Tongue Swells. Perhaps the same problem I faced with my cat is true of Governor Walker: He’s generally allergic to out-of-staters but for those he spends more time with, like out-of-state billionaires or members of Americans for Prosperity, the less allergic he is to them. After countless hours with these billionaire out-of-state allergen dispersal units, he’s free of allergic reactions. However, conversely, since he spends little time with those outsiders protesting in Madison, or with Democratic senators presently residing in Illinois, the more they continue to cause him coughing fits, hives, leeches, and carbuncles.
And that, my friends, is why the Governor cannot meet with Senate Democrats outside of Wisconsin’s border. He suffers from what is called “Outsider Induced Allergy Syndrome” (OIAS). Yesterday, he demonstrated his fear of the condition, when he answered Wisconsin’s own Democratic Senator Mark Miller’s request for a March 7th meeting at the Illinois-Wisconsin border with a resounding “No!” Although he didn’t fess up to this, Walker can’t get his doctor’s approval for fear of a flare up of OIASS.
And this despite the obvious: Those Democratic senators in Illinois are, after all, still Wisconsinites, and, as in-staters, Walker ought to be resistant to their allergens. Medical authorities within Wisconsin, though, are unwilling to take the chance that the senators-in-absence have become contaminated by crossing the border and remaining in Illinois. Also, of equal concern, there are suspicions that Walker is generally allergic to Democrats as a group. Moreover, according to one medical researcher, quoting an intern, who remembered something a public sector nurse said, “There are indications Walker’s also hyper-allergic to the middle class.”
Out-of-state campaign contributors are another group of outsiders Governor Walker has been able to tolerate medically. These medically-tolerable out-of-staters contributed more than $615,000 to candidate Walker’s campaign. Wisconsinites, to whom Walker is immune, contributed the lion’s share, of course. And the third category, “Unknown,” are apparently ghosts, extraterrestrials, little brown bats, or very confused short tailed weasels. They contributed sparsely, and therefore do not count in this comprehensive study. The important point is, however, that Walker suffered no medical harm from outsidecontributors’ allergens, proving there are some contacts with out-of-staters he can survive. His OIAS has some chinks in its armor. . . where money is concerned, the Governor is immune!
We Cannot Sit Idly By. Given Walker’s testy attitude, we might want to idle in neutral, even when we know of his disabling medico-political condition. But, we’re talking about a human being here, at least arguably. O.K., it’s a rabbinic-level argument. But we simply cannot allow Governor Walker’s OIAS to go unaddressed, although medical science, as we’ve seen, has bupkus to offer.
It’s quite likely that but for his bouts of OIAS, he wants to meet with his political opponents and carve out a compromise that keeps public employee collective bargaining rights strong. Maybe he’d be happy to back away from his draconian collective bargaining proposals, which, after all, he thought up – and he’s too embarrassed to admit it – after viewing a squirrely Glenn Beck episode. Surely, you can see, something needs doing if anything is going to get done. Let’s save Governor Walker! Get him allergy-free and there’s a chance – I believe, a good one – that all of Wisconsin’s Governor-induced mayhem (GAM) will disappear like a badger down a rat hole (if such a thing is possible, please advise).
In his article The Revolution Against Neoliberalism? Dr. Walter Armbrust, University Lecturer in Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford University, speculates about the next revolution in Egypt, the economic revolution, and whether it will succeed at all. Dr. Armbrust examines Egypt’s political economy during the Mubarak era, and finds a system that relied on cronyism and a misguided and corrupt neoliberal state, one where only the well-connected were able to thrive, and thrive they did. Armbrust is highly critical of the neoliberal economy, where the so-called free market trumps all other considerations of social policy and fairness.
“. . . the real problem with the regime was not necessarily that high-ranking members of the government were thieves in an ordinary sense. They did not necessarily steal directly from the treasury. Rather they were enriched through a conflation of politics and business under the guise of privatization. This was less a violation of the system than business as usual. Mubarak’s Egypt, in a nutshell, was a quintessential neoliberal state. . .[In the neoliberal state,] guaranteeing the sanctity of markets is supposed to be the limit of legitimate state functions, and state interventions should always be subordinate to markets. All human behavior, and not just the production of goods and services, can be reduced to market transactions. And the application of utopian neoliberalism in the real world leads to deformed societies as surely as the application of utopian communism did. . .
“The only people for whom Egyptian neoliberalism worked ‘by the book’ were the most vulnerable members of society, and their experience with neoliberalism was not a pretty picture. Organised labor was fiercely suppressed. The public education and the health care systems were gutted by a combination of neglect and privatization. Much of the population suffered stagnant or falling wages relative to inflation. Official unemployment was estimated at approximately 9.4% last year (and much higher for the youth who spearheaded the January 25th Revolution), and about 20% of the population is said to live below a poverty line defined as $2 per day per person.
A Neoliberal Fix Would Be a Tragedy For the Pro-Democracy Movement
“For the wealthy, the rules were very different. Egypt did not so much shrink its public sector, as neoliberal doctrine would have it, as it reallocated public resources for the benefit of a small and already affluent elite. Privatization provided windfalls for politically well-connected individuals who could purchase state-owned assets for much less than their market value, or monopolise rents from such diverse sources as tourism and foreign aid. Huge proportions of the profits made by companies that supplied basic construction materials like steel and cement came from government contracts, a proportion of which in turn were related to aid from foreign governments. . .
“The generals [now in charge] may well prefer a new round of neoliberal witchcraft. More privatization will simply free up assets and rents that only the politically connected (including the generals) can acquire. Fixing a failed neoliberal state by more stringent applications of neoliberalism could be the surest way for them to preserve their privileges.
“A neoliberal fix would, however, be a tragedy for the pro-democracy movement. The demands of the protesters were clear and largely political: remove the regime; end the emergency law; stop state torture; hold free and fair elections. But implicit in these demands from the beginning (and decisive by the end) was an expectation of greater social and economic justice.
“. . . If the January 25th revolution results in no more than a retrenchment of neoliberalism, or even its intensification, those millions will have been cheated. The rest of the world could be cheated as well. Egypt and Tunisia are the first nations to carry out successful revolutions against neoliberal regimes. Americans could learn from Egypt. Indeed, there are signs that they already are doing so. Wisconsin teachers protesting against their governor’s attempts to remove the right to collective bargaining have carried signs equating Mubarak with their governor. Egyptians might well say to America ‘uqbalak’ (may you be the next).”
Watching Wisconsin public sector employees asserting their right to collective bargaining, I wondered whether GoverNO! Scott Walker was about to bite the hand that fed him – to fire, as he has threatened lately, more than a thousand state employees should he fail to get his way on ending meaningful collective bargaining for public sector employees. Interestingly, these are some of his own campaign contributors. So, last evening I visited Wisconsin’s Campaign Finance Information System (WCFIS) to see how many public-school teachers contributed to Friends of Scott Walker, his campaign organization. I ran a search of the contributions database and queried monetary donations only.
Although the number of public-school teachers who contributed money to Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign was small, their contributions were generous. In all, these 37 public servants donated $10, 304.99 to help catapult Mr. Walker into the governor’s mansion. The average contribution is somewhat less useful than the median since four contributors gave more than $1,000, skewing the average to the high side. The median of $250, though, indicates that half the teachers gave less than that and half gave more. These generous people included full-time teachers, of course. But there were also teachers’ aides; a substitute teacher; a music teacher; a teacher/librarian; retired public school teachers; and a special ed. teacher.
The fact, though, that teachers gave contributions to Walker’s campaign is not a foolproof indication of their underlying reasons for doing so. The data provided by WCFIS doesn’t, of course, indicate whether they are union members at all. In fact, their motivations may be far from education issues altogether; some, maybe all, admired Walker for his stance on abortion (he’s against, regardless of the reason), or his fiscal conservatism. His beliefs about the importance of asserting state sovereignty move some, as well as his anti-tax stance. And, let’s face it, Scott Walker’s feelings about public sector unions have been well-known for many years, particularly in Milwaukee. So, anyone who didn’t, at the very least, suspect that a Walker governorship would not go easy on collective bargaining was not paying attention.
So, perhaps the list below does not reveal anything certain about the contributors at all. Yet, one can’t help wonder if a few of those teachers who gave their support to candidate Walker tonight sit near the state capitol, having marched and chanted all day, and entertaining some doubts and regrets . . .
Contributors to Scott Walker’s Gubernatorial Campaign Identifying Themselves As Teachers (monetary donations only).
[The numbers in brackets indicate the total number of contributions made.]
