"...it's not about the budget, it's about the power"

This is what Paul Krugman writes in his very astute column today, Wisconsin's Power Play. He is exactly right. What is going on here in Wisconsin is not a battle over the budget but rather who will control political decision-making - the Koch brothers whose industries benefit from deregulation, tax credits, union-busting, and environmental destruction, and who also donated generously to Scott Walker's campaign for governor, or workers and their families, unemployed people and the urban poor?

Will it be industrial agribusiness or family and organic farmers, producers of food to burn in our cars as fuel or producers of healthy food to eat, polluters of our air, soil and water, or those working to create a clean environment for our families, our kids? Will it be those willing to throw away a decent future on this planet and in this country for the sake of profits, or those who want to ensure abundance and quality of life for future generations?

This struggle also reveals a sharpening clash of values, a clash embedded in all of these divides. Will we be a society of fierce individualists who fly into a rage at any suggestion that there is such a thing as social responsibility - since we all share the same air, food, water, economy, polity, government - or of those who welcome these interconnections as de facto reality and work to make them healthy, joyful, respectful, and sound?

George Lakoff wrote about this clash for Alternet in an article dedicated to Wisconsin's peaceful protesters struggling for their place in our democracy. Recommended reading. Let us know what you think.