Public Comment

Before this subject fades into the twilight let's get the facts straight. 

Anti-union sentiment is on the rise again in America and Wisconsin is the epicenter of new Republican and Tea Party activity. 

Wisconsin has a $3.6 billion budget deficit which Tea Party Governor Scott Walker and the GOP are blaming on the unions while most news outlets have pointed out the huge tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals as the determining factors for Wisconsin's financial woes. 

Republicans have stopped demonizing Hispanics and Latinos and immigrants and are now scapegoating teachers and unions. This is nothing new for Republicans who have been attacking unions for decades. 

What is happening in Wisconsin is a preview of the future under the Republican and Tea Party confluence. 

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Wisconsin is the epicenter of new Republican anti-union activity. TeaParty governor Scott Walker has even gone so far as to say he wants to crush unions; Republicans continue their part in vilifying unions. 

Gov. Walker and his GOP majority are endeavoring to take away the union's collective bargaining rights. They passed the first part of this legislation at 1 AM in the morning, Democrats were given only seconds to vote, and then, Republicans were escorted out of the chamber by law enforcement personnel. Does this sound like democracy in action? 

Gov. Walker's attacks on union workers reminds one of another infamous politician from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, who tried to strip people of their citizenship. The next phase of Gov. Walkers' endeavor, to quiet dissent, is already under way as he tries to remove union supporters from the State Capitol in Madison. 

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As the budget battles rage on in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, pitting American workers against the conservative and Republican establishment, a new poll out shows union workers are backed by a majority of Americans. Again, the GOP is on the wrong side of the issue as they try to push their ideological mindset on the country. 

The Democratic senators who have fled the state and the heavy handed tactics of Republican Governor Scott Walker have already signaled that they are willing to a proposed cut in compensation and benefits. Walker and his Republican majority will have none of it. What union workers are not willing to do is give up permanently their right to collective negotiation. Would you? 

Stand up American workers, union and non-union, and fight for your rights. You're dreaming if you think that Corporate American and the Republicans are going to change their ways. 

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