Update on the Wisconsin Right Wing Crisis in their Attempt to Dismantle Unions

Today (Friday, 2/18/'11) marked the shutdown of the Wisconsin legislature and the largest demonstrations in opposition to Republican lawmakers so far this week.  While democratic lawmakers are ''on the lam'' in the vicinity of Rockford, IL, just over the border (but safely out of the reach of the authority of the state police to compel them to return).

While the state police is unable to locate the absent legislators (supposedly - one wonders how much effort, given the union issues, that they may be putting into the search) it has been perfectly simple for the left wing media to locate them, and for the democratic legislators to do multiple interviews.


There is conflicting information as to the return of the legislators - some reports have them returning for a session on Saturday, other reports have them out of the state, holding up the determination of the legislation indefinitely.  Meanwhile the one independent legislator has indicated he would make up the one additional person that is needed for a vote, conditional on unspecified changes being made to the legislation.  Even if those changes are not made, if that independent legislator, Bob Ziegelbauer, a former democrat until last June (2010) when he won over both a Republican AND a Democratic challenger, returns, the Republicans will be able to pass the opposed legislation with or without making changes to his satisfaction.

It will remain to be seen if Ziegelbauer follows through on his decision to give up his advantage of caucusing with his former colleagues, if the demonstrations and protests continue to expand and intensify.  Meanwhile a variety of religious groups are offering sanctuary to the oppositional Democrats, and the AFL-CIO is promising to continue to fight the legislation, even if it eventually passes.

My best guess is that the voters for these Republicans did not anticipate their actions, and certainly a lot of people in the state, which has a long history of contributing to the development of unions, including for government employees, will not be re-electing them in 2012, given the hostility being expressed now.  Once again, in exceeding whatever mandate they might have genuinely had in the last election, they are over-reaching, and will find themselves back on the outside in the next round of elections (if not sooner). Republicans are waging a misplaced war on the middle class and working classes.  They are likely to regret that action, no matter how much corporate money they take in as payment (or pay offs?)_ for their legislation.