More Wisconsin

Notice anything about the states without collective bargaining?

Roy Edroso highlights the conservative blogosphere's take on Wisconsin.  Needless to say, teachers are parasites and traitors to America, blah blah blah.  It's part and parcel of my theory that the GOP is consciously trying to make America dumberer.

Dennis G at Balloon Juice looks at the link between those states above and their links to part of the neo-confederate resistance to anyone interfering with "free labor".  "Free labor" used to mean the freedom to enslave people.  Now it means the freedom to keep them from organizing and using collective bargaining to improve their economic livelihood.

Former libertarian and ombudsman E.D. Kain at Balloon Juice draws the parallels between union busting and the decline of the middle class.

Paul Krugman makes much the same point here, when he notes the slide into oligarchy.

I can remember the heady days of Tea Partiers when they mobilized people to yell "Where's My Bailout?"  Hey, dude, the reason you didn't get a bailout and Goldman did is because Goldman has muscle and you don't.

You want muscle?  Get a union.

As we increasingly breakdown the idea of a vibrant middle class, we need to understand that GOP policies - tax cuts for the wealthy, financial deregulation, union busting - are directly responsible for it.

So, middle class America, the choice is yours.  Vote for the guys who are trying to reduce you to serfdom or vote for the ones who might care about you if the winds are blowing in the right direction.

Or start a union and fight back.