A bunch of relatively poor folks fighting amongst themselves

If you came here looking for something amusing, come back next week or look at some past posts. With the possible exception of my tendency to resort to sarcasm, what follows is not intended in any way to be funny.

I have several possible outlets for my posts and I decided to post what follows here as a way not to combine politics with the topics on my other blogs. My other blogs typically focus on educational topics. I do think that educational bloggers should address equity issues from time to time. Most of what we write about most of time really has less impact on educational outcomes that equity problems.

I have been following the tea baggers and pro-union supporters duel in Madison, WI, now for a couple of days. I have been fascinated with Madison for some years. I love the liberal and intellectual energy level of the city. I can kind of imagine the activity on State Street.

I hope my title implies where this post is going. That is supposed to be the purpose of a title. I am not a union member and in general I have not been a backer of unions. I am a state employee and see the focus of political figures in going after public employees as unfair and those who think these folks are the problem as misguided. You can go after public employees because they often have no way to protect themselves. This is pretty much “public employment” by definition. Individuals in comparable professions – say health care workers other than physicians (medics as my mentor used to say) are not as vulnerable. It is essentially a “get them, not us” type of selfishness. I think we simply need to raise taxes. Not a popular Republican perspective I know, but I see no reason to support the present Republican agenda – let the poor folks fight amongst themselves.

I have been influenced by in my thinking by a book I have been trying to wade through – Winner Take All Politics (a review from the Economist). The authors attempt to understand the increasing centralization of wealth in the hands of a few. On the surface, it might seem our government should provide a defense against this trend, but it functions as an enabler. The activities of the government – sometimes directly and sometimes by lack of action – has accelerated this problem. The authors also demonstrate that both parties feed this trend with Republican dominated years contributing more than the years in which the Democrats are in control.

The problems are complex, but much appears to relate to the immediate pressure on elected officials. The “union topic” plays a role. The problem is basically that vast numbers of Americans have no one to represent them. Your opportunity to call or send an email is of little consequence. Unions, by virture of their size and focus, have some opportunity to exercise some direct impact. So, for or against unions, the message is your vote and your impact on what your representatives actually do is irrelevant. Once elected, others influence their behavior.

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