The failure last Tuesday to remove Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker from office by recall is a major blow to the labor movement and to progressivism.
It is a warning sign that workers, whether union or non union, whether public service workers or those employed by private employers, can expect that many of the hard won reforms of the 20th century could be taken away by Republican Governors, a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican President in the future.
It is a sign also of the power of wealthy corporate interests to destroy our political system, with the assistance of the right wing Supreme Court which allowed the Citizens United decision in 2010, which has now led to the right wing takeover in many states, in the House of Representatives, and was able to help Scott Walker survive, despite the abuse of power by him and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature. The ability of wealthy individuals to contribute large amounts of money without limit distorted the whole political process!
The fact that Mitt Romney was able to raise more money last month than Barack Obama for the first time is another danger sign that everything progressives and liberals have fought for could be going down the drain!
It is hard not to be very pessimistic about the short term and long term future, but those who believe in the rights of workers, women, minorities, children, the elderly, and wish to promote education, health care and the environment, cannot sit back and mope over the results!
If the forces for democracy decide to give up, instead of mobilizing for the upcoming campaign, and if they do not convince citizens how important it is to vote for their own futures, then indeed the country will be moving closer to a form of corporate fascism that will destroy the great progress made over a long period of generations of hard fought struggles!
Hello Professor,
I was concerned that Scott Walker would win and I cannot think what the people of Wisconsin are taking into account to overwhelmingly thinking that keeping him is going to good for the Working Middle Class of this country.
How about Scott Walker has been able to save every employees job and also reduce the overall state budget. Just like we on an individual level have to balance our budget, and sometimes that means sacraficing, Scott Walker also has to balance a budget. This means making tough decisions to either lower salaries, or cut staff. I work for a local Government, and my IT department has been cut in half over the last 7 years. The secret is that we still provide the same amount of service, this tells me that there has been a lot of fluf staff around now, that they have been able to get rid of. The problem with UNIONS they keep growing and growing untill they destroy the company or government their emplyoyees work for.