"What we've got here is failure to communicate…"There's a reason that cowardly legislators and childrens' monsters often have some of the same characteristics.
Those characteristics were on full display last night in the state of Wisconsin, as the Republican controlled Wisconsin Senate made a serious collection of grave errors. The Republicans there decided to violate the spirit, if not the letter of their own laws - as well as the will of the people of their state - and use a slimy, underhanded maneuver to jam through Gov. Scott Walker's illegal and immoral attack on the rights of workers.
In short, the Republican party in Wisconsin has now declared war on the working people in their own state.
We don't expect the working people of Wisconsin will sit idly by and quietly collect signatures for recall. Indeed, they already stormed their own capitol building last night, after the heinous vote. It would not surprise us if there is violent reaction over the next few days - or worse - aimed at the eighteen Republican state lawmakers, or anyone who supports them. We do not condone violence - but we also, in no uncertain terms, condone the actions of Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP followers who supported this heinous action. This standoff is fast becoming a ticking time bomb.
We're willing to bet that by the time these words reach your screens this morning, there will be legal challenges - and quite possibly more - happening all over Wisconsin. Our bet is that any serious physical violence will begin on the Scott Walker side of the trenches.
There continues to be all kinds of attacks on worker rights and union rights alike, from Idaho, to Iowa, to Ohio, and more. We thought our point last week - and the points of Wisconsin voters to their leaders - had been made clear. In fact, our original intention today was not to focus further on this subject. We were planning on continuing our discussion from yesterday, about America's addiction to oil, and letting the long, slow, safe process of negotiation work itself out in places like Wisconsin.
However, as our opening quote hints, there are some people you just can't reach.
That fact became brutally clear earlier on Wednesday, when Wisconsin Senate Majority leader Scott Fitzgerald - one member of an entire family installed into positions of political power in Wisconsin - went on Fox "News" and confirmed what everyone with sense already knew: this battle has never been about the budget.
Fitzgerald said, "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."
We don't think we have to say how monstrous Fitzgerald's quote is - or how completely against the spirit of democracy and justice his attitude and the attitude of those who support him are. In the light of reason and justice, neither childrens' monsters nor cowardly legislators usually survive long in their same frightful state. That's part of the reason we began our commentary as we did today.
The other reason we began as we did - with the quote we chose - may not be what some of our readers might think. We'll admit that quote is from the movie "Cool Hand Luke", about a prisoner who refuses to submit to the system. But that's not why we chose that quote today.
Those words are also the beginning lines of a rock and roll song by the band "Guns N' Roses". The title of their song?
"Civil War."
