There is no doubt that the latest round of union-busting by Republicans is about politics because union, workers and the middle class tend to support Democrat, but the hate coming from the right is just amazing.
Only in their world are teachers, police officers and firefighters thugs and animals, but that’s what at least one elected Republican thinks. Pro-worker rallies were held all over the country in support of Wisconsin public employees on Saturday, and more than a thousand people showed up in Lansing.
But this is what teabagger Republican Grand Traverse County Commissioner Jason Gillman thinks of teachers, state employees, police officers and firefighters.
“For my part, I am convinced many of the labor union members that go to these rallies are little more than animals,” he said on the leading rightwing blog “RightMichigan.”
This is an elected official.
Remember that when they use police officers and firefighters as props at press conferences; it appears they are only standing next to these “animals” for political purposes.
Unlike in Wisconsin where the conservative, billionaire Koch brothers are busing in tea baggers, only a few are showing up in Lansing despite attempts to get more to try and get a confrontation on tape. It’s kind of like in Egypt where pro- Mubarak demonstrators tried to incite violence so they could say to the world that the pro-democracy demonstrators there were violent.
But only a handful of teabaggers like Gillman showed up in Lansing, but with so many pro-union people they managed to get an entire 31 seconds of a confrontation on tape from a rally that lasted more than three hours. We only see 31 seconds where a guy gave Gillman the finger and told him to fuck off. Nothing before or nothing after.
Democrats stayed away from teabagger “rallies” that were initially organized and promoted by the most extreme rightwing and anti-government groups out there that include militias, secessionists and neo-Nazi white supremacist groups, and they are financed by cash laden Washington, D.C. lobbying firms and people like the Koch brothers. Make no mistake about it, the attack on unions is to kill Democratic supporters and teabaggers showing up at pro-union rallies is to provoke a confrontation.
Among the many attacks I have endured from anonymous right-wingers on this blog includes the talking point that “elections have consequences.” At no time, that I recall, did a Republican take the position that they were going to take away collective bargaining rights. That they were going to push right to work for less was a given, but it’s not the same.
It’s absurd that workers should give up a civil right they fought and died for, for many years just because of a wave election. Perhaps the greatest civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, died supporting striking workers. The final campaign of King’s life was in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.
Sanitation workers went on strike for pay and working conditions after two workers had been crushed to death when the compactor mechanism of the trash truck was accidentally triggered in a rainstorm. As the strike lengthened, King agreed to lend his support to the sanitation workers, spoke at a rally in Memphis March 18, and promised to lead the large march and work stoppage planned for later in the month. He was in town for that march when he was assassinated.
3 comments:
The Wisconsin government is led by Republicans right now. In fact, the minority (Democrats in the Senate) aren't even in the state. They've run to Illinois for sanctuary.
The teachers that are skipping school and marching on Madison are protesting the government. That would make them the anti-government people.
So the anti government people are the unions.
Wrong again. The protesters are pro-working people. As for the Senate Democrats standing up for civil rights; it’s not a new tactic; it’s as old as the U.S. In fact, the father of the GOP, Abraham Lincoln, employed it.
Once again, anonymous coward, I am still waiting for you to back up your outrageous lie that we were “nearly shoulder to shoulder once.”
We once stood butt to butt, I was uncomfortable and I will not tell you where it was.
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
-- Liberal himself, FDR.
Post a Comment