Thank you, Wisconsin friends

I'm taking a break from blogging until Monday. But I wanted to offer some words of gratitude here for this Thanksgiving week.

First, I want to thank all you folks out there gathering signatures on recall petitions as the weather gets colder and nastier. I want to thank especially those people standing with their clipboards amidst the crowds at Lambeau Field on Sunday. I have no doubt you received a load of grief from many fans, evidenced by the fear on the face of one young man as I approached him, and his relief when I cheered him on.

I want to thank the tens of thousands of people who showed up in Madison many times this year, including this past Saturday, for your good spirit as you reclaim space for the voices of those silenced in this repressive, divisive atmosphere created by the politics of exclusion of the current state government.

I want to thank those dedicated workers who are on the front lines dealing with the impacts on real human beings of the cuts in health care programs, education, and other essential services. I want to thank dedicated public sector workers who hang in there despite the demonization of them that is all the rage these days from the political right, including those who have been picking up our leaves and who will be plowing our snow this winter. What would we do without you?

And a special shout-out of thanks to public school teachers who these days seem to be on so many Repub dart boards. I don't get it, and this, too, shall pass. What you do is so important.

I want to thank the Occupiers who have sent a burst of energy into our movements for social justice, fairness, and decency, and for helping to make the concentration of wealth part of our national conversation - finally!!

I want to once again thank the Wisconsin 14 for their witness, for taking the drastic step that helped bring the true intentions of the Walker/Fitzgerald brothers into the light of day. You also helped reinvigorate popular democracy showing that sometimes elected officials will actually respond to, even take risks on behalf of, the people they represent.

This is a beautiful state full of good, good people. Yet, even as I give thanks here, I am aware that right in my own city there are thousands of people who are suffering from deep poverty, discrimination, and a special kind of urban hopelessness. As we give thanks, let's also remember that we have to do better than this.

While we worry about worker rights, let's also worry about poverty. While we worry about protecting wages and benefits in the public sector, let's also remember those with no wages or benefits. While we loudly defend our democratic rights, let's remember those whose voices are barely heard amidst all the noise, who are most likely to be shoved farther to the margins by the current regime.

Let's remember that our struggle is not a just one if we are only defending our own interests and the interests of our particular sector, union, or interest group. Our struggle is only just if it has at its foundation a concern for the well-being of all, for the common good and the good of the commons.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

So, is destroying government a lot of fun?

I mean, as Scott Walker, the Koch brothers, the Greater Milwaukee Committee, the Bradley Foundation, the Fitzgerald brothers, plot the end of Wisconsin state government except as a service to business, the presence of federal programs in the state, the evisceration of municipal government through takeover schemes - are they having fun?  Do they sit around tables in dark rooms having a good laugh knowing the chaos and suffering to come?

Really - what are these people made of?

One example, the privatization of the food stamp program, a for-profit private business deciding who gets them and who does not, therefore, in many cases, who eats and who does not. This would also mean the disappearance of federal funds for the program. It would mean, really, the end of the program - which is what they want ultimately, the end of government programs, the demise of the public sector, the one accountable to you and me.

Second example, the evisceration of the public school system, including yet another transfer of tax dollars to wealthy families, this time to use for vouchers in the 'choice' program. They do this by eliminating the income cap for the program. Here we go again, another scheme to transfer more of our public wealth from the 'masses' to the rich. It is also a way of further abandoning Milwaukee, with well over a quarter of its population living in poverty.  Why waste potential profit-making dollars on the poor?

Third example, the evisceration of public transit, a vital element of any city's hopes to create employment options for the poorest among us. They have to get to work. They have to get to job interviews. They have to get to job training programs. A waste of money!  Poor people needing to get to work?! Business is moving out of the city's core and apparently doesn't care about the neighborhoods and the people who are being abandoned.

They don't care.

Fourth example, in secret they have been preparing a plan that would allow Walker to take over municipal governments whose financial practices do not meet Walker's standards (not his because he is not that smart, but the standards being written for him). They won't do this because they love our city. They will do this rubbing their hands with glee to finally pick on the city that picked on Walker, or that Koch and their ilk see as a drain on the economy and on potential investment income.

Oh, and they want to completely disband and eliminate county government as well, you know, while they're at it.

Friends, Walker & Co. are seeking to hand over our state government and its services to the private sector, to corporations - for profit. Not for you and me, not to deliver services, but to make a profit. What they are talking about is a massive transfer of our public wealth and resources to private business.

If this is allowed to happen, if it does not meet fierce resistance, then don't even worry about their assaults on voter rights and their voter suppression measures - because there won't be much left to vote for.  Once these services are privatized, another election won't reverse that process. You know, all those contracts that will have been signed. Once you eliminate government agencies and programs, getting them back is a monumental challenge, one that could take another generation.

Once again, I only wish I was using hyperbole and exaggeration to stir things up. I would sleep better at night if that was the case. The real battle for the future of Wisconsin has been engaged, as Sen. Mark Miller so famously said upon the triumphant return of the Wisconsin 14. Are we up to this battle?

Republicans appear worried, but we best be as well

Little signs here and there seem to reveal that Republican state legislators are a bit worried about the political fallout from the Walker/Ryan bold plans for America and our state. Folks are getting a little feisty out there, shouting down the great deficit hero, refusing to allow the deceptions and obfuscations to go unchallenged. He came to lecture, and often got lectured.

Seems these bold plans to address the deficit not by returning tax rates to something more sane (like those of the 60s and 70s, or even just before the budget-busting Bush tax cuts), not by cutting defense and getting out of 2-3 wars loathed by the vast majority of the population and taking an enormous toll on soldiers and their families, not by cutting subsidies for ethanol and fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, but by attacking social programs that impact the most vulnerable populations - seems these plans are not exactly popular.  Medicare?  Yikes, Repubs, you must be reeling at the poll numbers!!!

Check this out from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post:

You know what’s not popular? Reforming Medicare such that beneficiaries “receive a check or voucher from the government each year for a fixed amount they can use to shop for their own private health insurance policy.” According to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll, 65 percent of Americans oppose the idea -- about the same number who dismissed it in 1995. And if they’re told that the cost of private insurance for seniors is projected to outpace the cost of Medicare insurance for seniors -- which is exactly what CBO projects -- more than 80 percent of Americans oppose the plan.

...Cutting Medicare polls poorly even if you leave out the details. Almost 80 percent of Americans oppose Medicare cuts in the abstract, while 70 percent oppose Medicaid cuts.

Paul Ryan just received a lesson in democracy from a lot of older folks and many conservatives whom he forgot still read newspapers, follow politics, and are well-informed.  They can spy the intention to destroy Medicare when they see it, even if Ryan and others think they can pull one over on them.

Photo: Swedish

That and the successful recall efforts against 6 Repub State Senators who voted to bust public sector unions have some Repubs looking for a little negotiating room with their governor on some elements of his crash-and-burn biennium budget proposal.

Like mandating recycling but cutting funds to pay for it. Like intentions to turn the UW-Madison campus into an elite private-public institutions that only the rich can afford (and without the annoyance of union representation for the faculty and staff, but that's another issue).

Meanwhile, those outside agitators, the folks from the American Recall Coalition in Utah, have not had much success against the Wisconsin 14. Imagine thinking they could get enough petitions to recall Sen. Lena Taylor or the revered State Sen. Risser!! A little miscalculation there, doncha' think?  Should make for a fun summer.

Meanwhile, Repubs continue their assault on the most basic right of any democracy - the right to vote. In their proposed voter ID law, the intent to suppress the vote was already apparent. Now they have new proposals to put in place difficult hurdles for voter registration efforts and to move the primary election from September to August - when folks are on vacation and students have not yet arrived at university campuses.

My favorite line in the article is this one: "A hearing on the bill is slated for 10 a.m. Wednesday, and Republicans who run the Assembly will meet in private later in the day to discuss any changes to the measure." So many private meetings on so many essential things. Transparency is not a characteristic of the current character of our Repub legislators.

Interestingly, the guy pushing these proposals is Repub Rep. Jeff Stone who just lost decisively to Chris Abele in the election for County Executive, one of the local elections considered to be a mandate on the Walker regime. Didn't go well for him, and actually a number of Repubs could face difficult elections next year - so best to get measures in place now to make it harder for poor people, students, and the elderly to vote. Best to get measures in place now to make it more difficult to vote absentee or to carry out voter registration drives.

It's about their future

It's too easy to say it's just about a sore loser. In fact, once again, there are efforts to do similar things in several states, and, once again, you get that feeling that something else is going, like coordinated efforts to create one-party rule wherever possible. At stake are issues as basic as whether or not our democracy will survive these rightist assaults, whether there is intent to co-opt, manipulate, and control state and local elections to attain dominance for one political party.

I try not to get all hyperbolic about these things, but I've been involved in grassroots political work and advocacy all my life and I have never seen anything quite so threatening to our democracy as these recent efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Maine, and elsewhere to take away the right to vote from more and more people, the populations whose votes Repub governors and legislators cannot count on to keep them in power for their true agenda - to gut government, privatize as much of the public sector as they can, and make off with our future.

For more, I highly recommend you take the time to view this video, if you have not yet seen it. This is stuff we need to know - because it looks more and more possible that it is democracy itself that is at stake here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Karl Rove, the ultimate outside agitator, shows up in Milwaukee

You know, when I hear the gov, Scott Walker, or others of the extreme right talk about outside agitators coming into the state to stir things up, union thugs and all that, I scratch my head because these guys would be nothing without outside agitators and their money. We know, for instance, that recalls of some of the Wisconsin 14 are being organized by a secretive right-wing group in Utah, the American Recall Coalition. We know that Walker received big contributions from the Koch brothers, whose Koch Industries is based in Wichita.  We know that the Koch-founded and funded Americans for Prosperity brought outside agitator Sarah Palin and organizers into the state to try to drum up some passionless reaction to the massive protests of February and March.

Karl Rove. Master outside agitator with lots of money to throw around. Spoke last night at UWM. This guy loves to stir things up. It's a voice we don't really need here in Wisconsin right now in a state where honesty, integrity, truthfulness, compassion, a toning down of nasty rhetoric, a calming of emotions, and all that, are needed if we are to carve a path through our political crisis - one brought to you by subterfuge, less-than-honest campaigns, ideological rigidity and hidden agendas, TV ads intended to stir things up and keep us from talking to each other.

Union thugs, one of his favorite terms for organized public sector workers. You gotta be kidding me. Show me the thugs, Karl!!! Rove loves to show images of these dangerous people. His organization, Crossroads GPS, sponsors ads on TV showing you these made-up thugs. Here's how the Journal Sentinel article describes these ads:

Crossroads GPS...launched a $750,000 national cable television ad campaign that portrays government unions as self-serving bullies collecting mandatory dues to influence liberals such as President Barack Obama.

Photo: Margaret Swedish

Wow! friends, what an accusation! I just didn't know that all those families and teachers and firefighters and students and farmers in the streets of Madison were such lackeys of these bully unions. I didn't know they were forced so jubilently into the streets by their oppressive union masters!! I didn't know that my fellow yoga student who works at UW-Waukesha, or my friend of 40 years who is a social worker at a public middle school, were such agitators of social disruption!!!

Good God, do people really believe this stuff?  Karl Rove need only look in the mirror to find a perfect example of the political bully, who deceives and lies and manipulates, and throws around millions and millions of dollars, to effect the strategy of the far right wing that has a great distaste for popular democracy. His version does indeed harken back to our founding days when democracy belonged to rich white landowners.

He defended Walker as "courageous" for busting unions. What in the world is courageous about using your power, achieved by misleading voters, to crush public sector unions?! Courage is what happens when 14 State Senators, not able to live with their consciences if they don't do something about this assault on worker rights, take off for Illinois having no idea what happens next, but putting their fate in the hands of the people.  That's real political courage.

And when, oh when, did 'agitating' for liberal policies become a matter of thuggishness, or come to have this taint of illegitimacy, while agitating for rightwing policies is somehow permissible and patriotic? That alone represents very well the kind of destructive, negative, nasty political discourse that Rove fosters.

Rove has become a multi-multi-millionaire doing this stuff, and that should speak volumes about how far to trust his politics. We know who he represents, and it ain't you and me.

Those in the cheerleading section for Scott Walker tell you a lot about what he has in store for this state.

Learn more about Crossroads GPS from the link in the JS quote above, and from here.

Photo: Margaret Swedish

The sad thing about having Rove and his operations, along with Koch Industries lobbyists, Ams for Prosperity, and their ilk coming into our state is that it bodes ill for the future of our politics. Look for election campaigns to get uglier and nastier, for discourse to break down even more (they intend this as part of their strategy since polarization serves their interests) - unless we reject these groups and their efforts to divide and conquer us for the sake of their corporate backers.

Vital programs, human & political rights, all lined up on the Walker/Fitzgerald chopping block - unless democracy takes the knife from their hands

What they want is to dismantle the public sector as much as possible and privatize whatever they can get their hands on. What they want is a world in which corporations are free to make as much money as they want, CEOs and shareholders, with as few constraints as possible (like freedom to pollute, to not pay taxes, to make profits in prisons and schools, freedom to pay workers as little as possible, etc.), to surrender the inner cities to poverty because there's nothing in it for them to create programs that would generate jobs, housing, good education for workers they will never need.

You get the idea. I don't usually do a blog post on Sunday but will not be at my computer in the morning, so here's my rant as this week begins. It took a whole lot of decades to make of this western industrial world something other than what is so aptly and horrifically described in a Charles Dickens novel. But that's where we're headed if the corporatist right gets its way. I wish I could say there is an effective political counter to this steamroller, but even much of the political left has been pretty ineffective in recent years.

Which is why the Madison story is so important - something emerged there that does not fit easily into anyone's attempt to stereotype the phenomenon according to the old political spectrum. What joined people together with such an amazing combination of rage and joy was the threat we all feel to our communities, our neighborhoods, to a culture in this state - flawed, yes, overly parochial, yes, tainted with all sorts of troubled history like racism and self-interest, and leave-me-alone sorts of sentiments, sure, that's all present - but a culture that in its best moments recognizes that Wisconsin is a good place to live and can be an even better place to live if we address these flaws.

Now we see a great unraveling. Look at the long list on the Walker/Fitzgerald chopping block: public education, threatened by many things, none more serious than lifting the income caps for the voucher program; voter rights, as manifested in the proposed voter I.D. law that would disenfranchise large numbers of students, poor people, legal immigrants, and elderly folks; rollback of environmental regulations and a direct threat to the Clean Air Act as enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency; lower corporate tax rates, or even the elimination of corporate taxes, despite the heavy toll they take on our resources and the services they demand (think Zoo Interchange reconstruction, as one example); intentions to privatize (out-source) more public services, meaning lower wages, no benefits, more working poor, fewer worker rights, sacrificed on the altar of defeating Dems at all costs; threatening what little public financing for elections we have now, turning them over to those with the most money to spend.

I could go on. You could each add to the list. Point is, our quality of life is under assault by the current regime, and the only counter I can see to that is the popular voice that exploded into the headlines these past couple of months. Even our Wisconsin 14 were very clear about this - they have said that they only stayed away because of the protests. They left the state not knowing what would happen, but once folks were in the streets day after day and weekend after weekend, they COULD NOT come back even though a few of them really wanted to.

Larson, Erpenbach, Taylor, Risser, and others said this - their strength came from us.

I think often of the moment when LBJ signed the civil rights legislation knowing that his Democratic Party would probably lose the South for a generation after that (prescient). But he did it because politically he had no choice; it was not only the right thing to do, it was the ONLY thing to do to save the nation from a real collapse into more chaos and violence.

The point being, it was a moment when a movement and the politics came together. The politics did not create that moment; the movement did. The movement shaped the politics and the politics had to respond. That's what happened in the weeks following the Wisconsin 14's flight to Illinois. A movement appeared, loud and raucous and energized by a feeling of popular empowerment, and the 14 determined their strategy on that basis.

And this spirit feeds the new political work - recall efforts and certainly the highest profile race for judge that we've seen in a long time, if ever; voter registration efforts; greeting the governor with protests wherever he happens to be appearing; or the record attendance at town hall meetings and community gatherings.

All of this to try to keep together what sits on the chopping block. A big knife hovers over so many programs and rules and regulations that bring quality to our lives, or at least attempt to do so, and the point is to simply take that knife from the hand that wields it.

Apathy, lethargy, lack of vigilance and participation on the part of citizens of this state are among the reasons why we are seeing our rights threatened by a state government voted in with only half of eligible voters exercising this right (and that was considered a high turnout). Now we are seeing not only what participatory democracy can do, but why it is so crucial to our well-being, to the common good and the good of the commons.

Oh, and BTW - Vote on April 5!

Photos: Margaret Swedish

Closed government

Perhaps the most popular chant during recent protests was an old tried and true one: "This is what democracy looks like!"

Here is what democracy does not look like:

Building commission meeting closed to public

At this closed meeting, the Building Commission made decisions regarding $1.1 billion worth of bonds for the next 2 years. This bonding could include a controversial proposal for no-bid sales of power plants in the state.

Yesterday the Dane County district attorney filed suit in state court claiming that Senate Republicans violated the state's open meetings law in the manner in which it passed the portions of the budget repair bill pertaining to collective bargaining rights for public sector workers.  You know the moment only too well, but if you need a reminder and some background, go here.

Meanwhile, we have an election coming up on April 5 for a seat on the State Supreme Court. Given the legal challenges mounting over the way in which the new governor and Republican majority are trying to ram through their agenda, this latter election has taken on new significance.  In case you wonder about that, Republicans are making it perfectly clear.

This from the Wauwatosa Republicans:

"David Prosser is the only Conservative running in the State Supreme Court race. If he doesn’t win, the court will have a 4-3 liberal majority, and all of the reforms that Governor Walker is accomplishing, will be challenged and judged by liberal legal activists who believe that their opinions are more powerful than the Constitution."

Opinions more powerful than the Constitution... Does this mean that Joanne Kloppenburg, should she win, would not respect the Constitution? That's the accusation implied here.  I worry a lot when one group like this claims a special hold on the meaning and interpretation of the Constitution.

In any case, it's a pretty stunning development when a race for judge takes on this kind of significance.  Says a lot about where our democracy is right now. Are Republicans aware that many of the things they want to do might be challenged in court? Is this revealing of their intentions that they are feeling anxious about this?

It has occurred to me often in recent years that the new rightist Republican party tries to claim the mantle of patriotism and American correctness, as if more than 200 years of a 2-party system and a vibrant, often cantankerous, political culture, is not itself the heart of the democracy.

Closed government, closed meetings, hastily put together votes, not allowing the opposition time to debate, to even arrive in time to be able to vote, not being completely transparent about policies buried in line items in the budget proposals, and on and on - this, my friends, IS NOT WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.

So why all this secretiveness and subterfuge? Well, it's in this press release from State Sen. Fred Risser and  State Assemblyman Mark Pocan. Scott Walker did not run on a platform that stated he wanted to crush public sector unions, and then he did just that. With the budget repair bill, he brought it to the state house then Republicans tried to ram it through with their majorities in a matter of days, before Democrats, or you and me, could find out what was in it. The Wisconsin 14 saved the day, if not legislatively at least in terms of giving us time to find out what was really going on, and the result is that Walker has found his poll numbers plummeting while the 14 were welcomed back as conquering heroes by the masses!

So, let's retreat back behind closed doors, shall we? Let's let the people find out what we're doing after we've already done it.  Democracy can make things pretty messy.

Why all this secretiveness and subterfuge? 

"Why is Walker so afraid of the public?" ask Risser and Pocan. In asking the question, they also answer it.

Montage from the Madison rally

Friends, Saturday saw one of the largest rallies in the history of Madison, Wisconsin. The day was as remarkable for the climax that it was of more than 3 weeks of protests, of citizens of Wisconsin reclaiming their democracy, as it was for who was there - the folks, the people next door, the teachers, nurses, farmers, firefighters, cops, trash collectors, whole families with small children getting an excellent lesson in 'what democracy looks like.'

Favorite moment: my brother and I went from the tractorcade over to the Monona Terrace Convention Center to try to catch the Wisconsin 14 at their press conference there. So I go into the restroom and a mother comes in with her little daughter, maybe 3 years old. They go into a stall, and suddenly, out of nowhere, at the top of her lungs, the little girl chants, "This is what democracy looks like," and all the women in the packed restroom burst out laughing.

Scary people, these protesters.

The return of the Wisconsin 14 was triumphant. You could hardly tell that we had just lost the battle for collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. It felt like victory.

WI 14 make their unbreakable bond before leaving the state

My brother and I did indeed manage an intimate moment with 3 of our most famous 14. A crowd of 75-100 or so folks had come to the convention center and hung out in the narrow lobbyway hoping for a moment of encounter, a raucous "Welcome Home!" We were told they would not be leaving the building through the main entrance but then the doors of the meeting room opened and out came one of the staffers for Sen. Lena Taylor, needing a bathroom, surprised by the crowd. Someone asked if the 14 knew we were out here, and she said, no, but she would let them know.

Sen. Taylor is welcomed home

Then the chanting began, "Fab 14!" First out of the room came the cameras, right? because now we were the interesting thing, the great photo op. Then came Sen. Taylor, who walked right into the crowd and embraced them, then gave a sterling little speech: "We left because the bill was unfair, unjust... You created the movement!"

Sen. Erpenbach

Next came Sen. Jon Erpenbach, whom Rachel Maddow has made into a national rock star (and maybe our next governor?), who walked into the crowd shaking hands, waving, and thanking everyone. He gave all the credit to the protesters for giving them the strength to stay united: "You made us [the Democratic caucus] coalesce." They had to hang together because the protesters were hanging together. They could not let us down.

Sen. Larson with his clipboard

Then I turned and there was Sen. Chris Larson 2 feet from me.  "My Senator!" I said, and he held out his arms and I gave him a big hug. "I am so proud of you!" Larson also gave a little speech, referenced Ben Franklin, saying, "We have our democracy, if we can keep it." He said folks needed to get their clipboards and get to work (staffer then hands him his clipboard), says "This is all on you now," a challenge if ever I heard one. In other words, if we are going to defend and take back our rights, it really is up to us for the long haul.

So then off to the rally of some 150,000 or so folks. When the 14 joined it, they were led from the Capitol by a phalanx of firefighters and bagpipes, but the line did not hold long for the crush of people trying to see them.  When they arrived on the stage to a tumultuous cheer, one of them said, "Wow, you go away for a few weeks and look what happens!"  Big roar from the crowd.

Okay, this is long and there will be more to share, but just wanted to leave some impressions here.  What follows are a couple of videos and a few of my favorite photos (go to the end for a message from Erpenbach). And these final words from Sen. Mark Miller as he addressed the throngs at the rally: "The battle for Wisconsin is now joined!"  Indeed.

I don't either

Really good idea

Gandhi was there too

One of the scary radicals

More scary radicals

This one almost moved me to tears

Small portion of a big crowd

Photo of hands joined together: Sen. Chris Larson
All other photos: Margaret Swedish

Last word from Jon Erpenbach:

Democracy is collapsing under the weight of this much wealth concentration

400 people in this country have more wealth and assets than half our population; that is, more wealth than 154,000,000 people COMBINED.

That is just one of the 'factoids' Michael Moore mentioned in his surprise appearance, and stirring speech, at Madison's Capitol on Saturday (see below). 

Read it again.  It is a breathtaking fact.  It goes with the graph I posted previously, and will again.

Is this really the country we want?  While wealth has been flowing to the top 1%, wages have been slipping, jobs have been disappearing, benefits are disappearing, and so is the middle class, and more and more people, including working people, are slipping into poverty.

This is the socio-economic context, that backdrop, for what is occurring in Wisconsin right now. And Scott Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers are proposing policies and budgets that will exacerbate this growing divide, an economic restructuring of this country that is turning it into a nation for the elite, run by the elite, at the service of their business interests.

For the rest of us? - only hurt is in these proposals.

We did not come to this all of a sudden. Some of us have been trying to talk about this, to shout into the wilderness, since the Reagan days when the assault on working people and the poor really began. That's what makes this graph so dramatic - this has been happening inexorably as the Republican Party became the party of corporate America, and the Democrats did their best to keep up.

Part of what makes the struggle in my state so crucial is that, thanks to the Wisconsin 14 (thanks again especially to my guy, State Sen. Chris Larson) and to the indefatigable protesters in Madison, precious time has been given us to discover things we needed to know a couple of decades ago - things they didn't want you to know. The Koch brothers did not want the notoriety they have now; they would rather work under the radar.  Too bad, guys, the curtain has been pulled away and we see now who is behind it.

Not the 'invisible hand' of a free market, but billionaires taking control of our economy, our politicians, our tax laws - and not just here, but in board rooms across the world, or in gatherings like the World Economic Forum, or in the World Trade Organization where global trade rules are written by the world political leaders and the billionaires.

Here is what becomes essential if we are to restore our democracy, to take government away from people whose interest is to privatize everything so that they have control of everything, to take our resources if they can earn profit from it, to gut the livelihoods of workers if that helps the bottom line. The sleeping giant awakened in Madison has to begin to get seriously organized for the long haul. It must build a movement. Public sector workers who have seen so much solidarity in the past 3 weeks must now give their time and energy unselfishly in return to hurting private sector workers and unemployed and those living in poverty. Without that solidarity, this glorious moment in Wisconsin will ultimately fail; without solidarity that supercedes the narrower interests of particular sectors of workers, and without a solidarity that gets voters out in huge numbers in 2012 - or in recall elections should we have them later this year - this energy will dissipate.

I think of the days of the real robber barons.  I think of how horrible the world was before workers got organized, of the days of companies savagely exploiting workers - 7 day work weeks, filthy and dangerous conditions, company towns, and more.

Some fabulously wealthy would be happy to return to such a world.  I don't want to.

Our understanding of democracy has seriously eroded

So, back from a 4-day work trip and, well, things haven't improved much in my disgruntled state, have they?  I saw Walker on the news last night and was appalled at his intransigent, nasty tone.  Seems like the guy just can't get over the fact that becoming governor does not mean he can rule by fiat - even with his party in the majority in the legislature.

What we have here is a failed education in the meaning of democracy, so let me try to explain.  We have heard slogans shouted at protesters - "You lost, get over it." We've heard Walker say that the absent Democrats are not doing their jobs, which would be to come to the Senate chamber to hand him his big victory, that their job is to vote on bills.

Okay, yes, that is part of their job, and, yes, thanks to the woeful voter turnout last November and other factors, Democrats took it on the chin, to be sure. But here's the thing about democracy: it does not end at the ballot box (some of the world's most oppressive governments have elections, after all, and in those places it does stop there) and for legislators it does not rest solely in their votes on bills. Democracy is something you engage in, and sometimes have to defend, as part of what it means to live in a democracy at all.

So democracy is also advocacy and organizing and lobbying and protesting and writing news articles and sending out updates on Facebook and ordering pizzas for folks in the streets of Madison. It means that when you see injustice or an immoral or corrupt power play, you counter with whatever democratic tools you have. And for a minority party, it can mean using perfectly legitimate means to stop a majority from becoming tyrannical, from trying to ram through legislation no one has had time to read or digest or lobby about or debate or organize for or against - in other words time to apply democracy to that proposed legislation.

Sometimes, to stop a tyrannical move, a bunch of either placid or energized politicians, not having invited such a moment in their lives, must take a drastic step in defense of democracy - like denying a legislative chamber a quorum.

It is amazing to me how nasty, ugly, bully-ish, Walker and senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald have been in the face of an action that falls well within the bounds of this democracy. One of the more dramatic such actions was that of Abraham Lincoln who leaped out a window of the Illinois state legislature to avoid a quorum. Now his action didn't last long as he was returned to the chamber. Perhaps the Wisconsin 14 learned this valuable lesson - get out of town fast - from the tactic used by this old Republican.

My Sen. Chris Larson, one of the WI 14

Here's another valuable forgotten lesson about our version of democracy. At the federal level the founders established a republic in part to avoid the potential threat of "tyranny of the majority." For that reason, minorities are given tools to fight back when threatened by this kind of tyranny. The Wisconsin 14 have done a great service to the cause of democracy by staying out long enough for us to find out what is really going on, what Walker's agenda really is, who he actually represents, who funds his campaigns, whose interests he seeks to serve. If not for this, a budget repair bill would have been imposed, not legislated, and that is not how democracy works. In a democracy, information, access to information and knowledge, is everything.

And in that knowledge come the tools the citizens of my state need in order to exercise their rights, to assert their voices before draconian changes in Wisconsin's politics and its way of life, to express their hopes and desires, to take a position on Scott Walker's budget repair bill - and right now, it just so happens that their voices have become one considerable majority in this state.

According to a poll conducted by the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute just mentioned on CNN, Walker's unfavorable rating has gone from 35% last November to a whopping 53% now. It has gone up by more than 10% in just the last 3 weeks. More to the point, 65% of those polled want Walker to "negotiate with Democrats and public employee's unions in order to find a compromise solution." See this article.

Why the growing distaste for our young gov? Because in this democracy we have a governor who refuses to negotiate with his opponents, to take into consideration the voices of the tens of thousands in the streets - the people he was elected to serve - and he has treated his elected opponents as so much detritus to try to brush out of his way. A real governor learns the art of negotiation, learns how to cut deals, to make compromises, because governance is always about the balancing of competing interests represented by elected politicians, interest groups, popular organizations of all kinds, etc. etc.

Right now, across the country, and here in Wisconsin, we have lost that balance because of the power of corporate money. Organized labor, people out in the streets, folks out getting signatures for recall efforts, lawyers getting ready to take Walker to court for his alleged violations of labor laws and possible ethics violations (see prank call from the faux David Koch) - these are all tools of a democracy available to the people to try to blunt the power of money or any other form of tyranny over the majority.

Lessons in democracy. We are learning them in abundance in my state right now. The Wisconsin 14 and the folks in the streets have done more to teach us these lessons than anyone in this state in a very long time.

Power play - a nasty one

Oh goodness, Republican state senators are charging the 'Wisconsin 14' with contempt of the Senate. They're prepared to drag 'em back in handcuffs. Force is allowed 'if necessary.'

This isn't helpful.

Of course, with a threat like this, how likely is it that the Democrats will come back any time soon?

This is absurd. The unreasonableness of one side, the unwillingness to negotiate and compromise (the art of governing) when a deal is offered - we accept the budget cuts in the budget repair bill if you separate out the provision that would crush collective bargaining rights - compared to protesters chanting things like, "Let us in, please."

But what punitive measures like this do is further poison the political atmosphere. They make it harder and harder to imagine this state legislature ever working together with its current membership. Next up are law suits and recall efforts in several Senate districts targeting both Democrats and Senators.

Thus has the Scott Walker power play rendered politics in my state uglier than it has ever been.  Friends, may we not respond in kind.

[I will be unable to post again until next Tuesday.]

All together or all apart - which way will we go?

It's difficult for me not to think of the Wisconsin governor and Republican legislators as crossing over the threshold from merely damaging, ideologically rigid politics to cruelty. But when I read articles like this in the morning paper, the word cruelty bubbles up. When deficit hawks create or deepen deficits by offering government services and tax breaks to the wealthiest and to corporations, then insist they are 'broke,' cruelty is one result. (Note to Governor Walker: please get a dictionary and look up the word 'broke;' we are not broke! We have imbalances in revenue and spending, but we are not broke!!).

Cruelty towards human beings, towards students in public school systems who will be failed by these policies, towards public workers who provide services to all of us for very modest incomes (put the cuts to these workers up against the tax breaks for folks like the Koch brothers), towards those slipping rapidly from the ranks of what we once called the middle class while the wealthy become obscenely wealthier, towards the poor who are about to see BadgerCare 'reformed' by cruel policy by a governor attempting to legislate sole authority over the program - oh, we could go on.

This is class warfare in the extreme, brought to you by 20-30 years of the erosion of our democracy, an erosion caused by handing it over to corporations and financial institutions. They own the system. They can purchase politicians, hire lobbyists who help write the legislation that will serve their interests (I am not making this up. I learned this all too well in my 26 years working in Wash. DC), and if they get the right presidents, they can appoint Supreme Court justices who will defend corporate interests.

For decades now, the courts have recognized corporations as 'persons' with certain constitutional rights. This is completely made up and never intended by our Founding Fathers or anyone else until this past century. But it has served corporate interests well. And these are the folks that have money to buy cable news channels, to saturate the airwaves with paid ads from mystery organizations, and do things like move lobbying offices right into the heart of Madison to influence legislation.

So, the struggle here in Wisconsin really is about the soul of this nation, and what kind of nation we want to be. Will we allow those with power and wealth to tear us apart so that they can better control our lives and well-being, will we allow ourselves to be bullied or duped by their faux news outlets, paid ads, or politics of blame - blame of the marginalized, the public worker, the failing middle class, the urban poor, the immigrant? Or will we choose to resist those trends and create solidarity among our people, pull together across class and lines of 'competing' individualistic interests, and center our values on a sense of the common good and the good of the commons, a realization that we are all in this together, and that the path of mere self-interest and concentration of wealth and power is leading us towards a world most of us won't want to live in - mean, impoverished, cruel, heartless, and ecologically wrecked?

Thank you Wisconsin 14, thank you to my guy Chris Larson, thank you protesters, thank you public sector workers - for giving us all this time to find out what is really going on. The real victory here is knowledge, and the more we have about what is really going on, the more empowered we are to change this ugly course before things get worse - much worse - which is what Walker, the Koch brothers, and Repub state legislators sadly have in mind for our state.

Now Walker gets mean

Really, now the Gov is threatening to send layoff notices next week if the Senate Democrats don't bend, blink, become submissive and subservient to his agenda. This is democracy? To threaten workers with unemployment as retaliation for not getting his way on the budget bill? Then he'll say, "see, you made me do it."

Problem is, a lot of people will believe him. A lot of people watch Fox News and listen to Charlie Sykes and Rush Limbaugh. It's sad because this is all a charade, a feint - "Hey, look over there," while over here they are tearing to shreds the livelihoods of millions of US Americans, and thousands and thousands of Wisconsinites.

Why not use public workers as pawns in this struggle? Demonize them first, of course, that helps the cause. Then turn on them as if they are not educating our kids, plowing our streets, providing health care for the poor, picking up the garbage, taking care of our state parks, staffing offices where we go for state services of all kinds, etc., etc.

Hey, you can contract out that work to the private sector!!! Low wages, no benefits, lots of turnover, lots of abuse - but, hey, we'll save a few bucks and then we can lower taxes for the rich and for corporations even more!!  Good deal for the Koch brothers (this link takes you to an article every Wisconsin resident ought to read) and the Club for Growth.

Rachel Maddow did a great job of exposing Walker's woeful incompetence in the matter of privatizing public workers when he was Milwaukee County Executive (see video below). His attempt wasn't even legal. Cost the strapped county hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now the guy is governor.We see what we have in store.

This guy is becoming really destructive. He is ripping people apart, driving wedges among struggling working people, unemployed, and underemployed.  He's got a cushy job. He's got the backing of the Koch brothers  and Fox News. So what has he got to lose? What did Sarah Palin have to lose, or Michelle Bachman? They both became millionaires whether or not they ever win another elective office.

The right takes care of its own.

Now the question is - will we Wisconsinites take care of the people who work for us? But more, much more - will we refuse to be divided, private sector workers v. public sector workers, unemployed v. those with jobs, folks with health insurance v. those without? Instead of trying to take rights and well-being away from one group of workers, will we come together instead to restore those rights in the private sector? Instead of seeking to lower the floor for wages and working conditions, will we struggle to have the floor raised for all workers?

Bosses have always tried to control workers by strategies of divide and conquer. The Club for Growth ads on TV are doing exactly that - and we have to stop being duped by or ignorant about what is really going on. These guys, Walker and Senate Republicans, are the bosses trying to divide and conquer so that they can give our state's resources and tax money to the corporations that contribute to their campaigns. The community of those 'hard-working taxpayers' that Walker keeps talking about, as if this is what he really cares about, has to come together now across all those lines that seemingly divide. The quality of life in our state and nation is not being eroded by public sector workers. It is being eroded by the corporatization of government, by the ecological wreckage of our biosphere and atmosphere, by the takeover of our democracy by the power of corporate money.

There are other ways to balance the budget - like returning tax rates on wealth and on large corporations to where they once were - before Reagan, before the assault on the middle class, before the assault on worker rights and dignity, on government services and the public sector, on public education. One thing about this nation - though never perfect and always marred by inequality and injustice, it did create a very broad base for quality of life and democratic rights for a vast majority of its population. It ain't public workers that have eroded that. Nope, it is not them.

I promise you, this road on which Walker wants to take this state will not end well for the vast majority of us. There is more at stake here than a balanced budget.

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