Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has taught the nation some very important civics lessons. The price is high, but we should pay careful attention to what he teaches by example.
The first lesson: Citizens should not be hoodwinked by rhetoric. Governor Walker said that the state was broke. He said that public sector workers had to make larger contributions to the cost of their pensions and health care, even as he handed out generous corporate tax breaks for the same amount. Doing a reverse Robin Hood, he took from the middle class to enrich the powerful. The unions promptly agreed to pay what the governor proposed, effectively cutting their compensation, but the governor would not take yes for an answer. He insisted on breaking the unions, even though no financial issues were involved.
Lesson two: It is really important to vote. Only 51.7% of eligible voters in Wisconsin cast a ballot last November, and they ended up with a governor and a legislature who are wreaking havoc on state government and decimating vital public services.
Lesson three: Voters should listen carefully to the candidates and ask for details about what they will do if they win. Scott Walker promised to balance the budget but he didn't reveal his intention to strip away collective bargaining rights from public sector workers. Journalists and citizens should have asked how he planned to balance the budget.
Lesson four: Politics in a democracy is different from politics in an authoritarian state. When there is strong opposition to their decisions, they negotiate and compromise. Negotiation and compromise are not signs of weakness, but of the disposition needed to build consensus.
Lesson five: Leaders in a democracy do not crush their opposition. Politics is not war. Leaders may not agree with the people on the other side of the aisle, but at the end of the day, they recognize them as "my loyal opposition," not my enemy. That spirit of comity is at the heart of our democracy. Elected officials do not destroy those with whom they disagree.
Lesson six: Citizens should not believe politicians who talk "school reform" yet plan to cut $1 billion from the state's education budget, while privatizing public schools. Schools will be devastated by the cuts. Class sizes will soar. Programs that children need will be eliminated. And for-profit operators will find a way to make money from a dire situation. This is not school reform.
Lesson seven: Governor Walker's attack on teachers has galvanized millions of demoralized teachers across the nation. The fact that Wisconsin's teachers organized and protested in the face of insuperable odds has inspired their colleagues across the nation. Teachers realize that it is not only their collective bargaining rights that are at risk, but their profession. Wisconsin will lose many senior teachers -- the master teachers needed in every school -- who will retire to save their pensions, their old-age security.
Lesson eight: In his effort to destroy public sector unions, Governor Walker joins in common cause with other Republican governors, including those in New Jersey, Ohio, Idaho, Tennessee, and Indiana and elsewhere. It's time to remind them that the International Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, contains Article 23, section 4, which says: "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." When the Declaration was passed, only eight nations abstained, not only the Soviet bloc, but also South Africa -- which opposed the pledge of racial equality -- and Saudi Arabia -- which objected to the pledge of religious toleration.
So Governor Walker and his fellow anti-union governors have decided to demolish one of the pillars of a democratic society: the right to join a trade union for the protection of one's interests. Totalitarian societies ban unions outright or create faux unions without any collective bargaining rights. Not a club that good Americans should want to join!
By his negative example, Governor Scott Walker has reminded us about the rights and obligations of citizenship, about the importance of standing up for the right of children to attend a good public school, and about the dangers to our democracy of the path that he has charted for his state.
Now it's up to us to learn from those civics lessons and get our democracy back on track.
Diane Ravitch is the author of the best-selling The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.
Follow Diane Ravitch on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DianeRavitch
Lesson Ten: Public employee unions will do Anything to retain their ill-gotten advantages over the public they are paid exceedingly well to superciliously serve.
They'll call in celebrities to give credibility to their petulant rallies.
They'll lie and their sympathizers in the media will echo their lies unchallenged.
They'll defend teachers who, in the private sector, would be summarily fired for rampant, uncaring incompetence.
They'll issue death threats and then make it obvious that they are gathering license plate numbers of Republican supporters to engender fear in those who dare oppose public employee unions.
They'll buy democrat legislators with union dues mandatorily withdrawn from their paychecks so they can take even more money from the rest of the citizens unlucky enough to not be part of their grand union scheme.
They'll cry and scream about private sector corporate interests and job growing tax incentives while ignoring the rampant hypocrisy of union leaders making six figure salaries on the backs of those they claim to be in solidarity with.
Yes, Diane, there are many lessons to be learned from the war being waged against the citizenry by public employee unions.
It was the Dems who ran away.... all Governor Walker did was keep his campaign promise...
you don't see much of it any more, especially among politicians... but its called LEADERSHIP and
INTEGRITY.
I know lots of Progressives who voted for Obama who wish he had a little more of both of these.
Confession. I stole that line fro Jack Vance's classic fantasy of Lyonese,"The Green Pearl) Simple observation shows that state governments without these mechanisms tend to have lower paid elected state costs also.And,as it says in the Constitution (2nd Amendment ).A highly paid elected state legislature is necessary to ensure the rights and safety of the citizenry..
So,it makes economic sense,and it's in the Constitution. I would think a few million bucks to clean defaced public buildings is a cheap price to get all this
PS. I highly rec'd the Lyonesse Trilogy.
Although he is a college graduate, there are obviously many people in the public sector that are not; but, I don't know many of those who make very much money. Many of them make 15K a year for clerical work which is minimum wage. I just do not see what so many of you are talking about.
However, when the lines to file paperwork with a district or county clerk is two to three hours long, you might rethink your position and feel that your time is worth something. I bet you will be the first hollering that "why don't they have more people working".
Pathetic.
What is actually occuring now is socio-economic reform to benifit a few.
The majority of the population say no....but the legislators and govenors still press forward showing absolute disregard to their constituents.
The pupetier, Koch, and his puppets are trying to keep us in a tunnel vision by focusing on a discussion of Unions and collective bargaining.
Why....they know this can be a devisive subject to many of us.
Please, do not allow them to put the blinders on so that we are not able to understand their actual tactical purpose .
When you expect that regualar paycheck to be direct deposited in you account every (or every other) week, you can thank the unions for that too.
When you take the little ones to the beach in the winter & for a week to see grandma in the summer, throw some goodwill towards those union folks, cuz without them you wouldn't have paid vacation or leave to take any time off at all without risk of losing your job.
Ever get sick? Have a child? Still have a job to go back to? Yup, thank the unions for that too.
The list goes on & on.
All those trashing unions have no idea how their daily lives have been made better by them, & if you don't think 7 day workweeks & irregular paychecks will make a comeback without them, think again.
I work in the private sector and am a middle class wage earner that is being devastated by the local and federal level tax burdens. The recession has shrunk the private sector job market by millions over the last few years and this has caused a reduction in government revenues. Along with the collapsing real estate markets which is causing tax revenues to drop on average twelve percent yearly, governments across America are struggling to balance their budgets.
Your suggestions for "civic lessons" ignores the economic facts that are causing it!
I am a middle class taxpayer and will fight as hard as the public union sector to protect myself. My goal is to completely stymie all public union efforts to raise taxes. No exceptions.
I have worked for the IRS and have a degree in economics and have been up and down on the "income ladder."
There is a lot of misinformation about Americas tax structure, like the upper 50% pay most of the taxes! This is not true because the Earned Income Credit is calculated as a negative income tax.
And some say Pres. Clinton "raised taxes on the wealthy and he economy boomed." This is a farce, he lowered the Capital Gains Tax by 60%, and this is a wealth tax!
The more complicated the tax code the more corrupt the government is a fact! Today we have the most complicated Tax Code ever.
Like the housing debacle was caused by the repeal of the "Glass Steagle Act" in 1999. This is a fact because it deregulated the banks. Canada did not deregulate their banks and today they are doing fine.
You speak with pure envy! There is no substance to what you and many others say.
It's not the taxpayers that are the problem, it's the government.
Look government jobs are no harder then private sector employment. Ironically, most government employees feel exceptional.
Government employees are a voting block that government representatives are to buy with taxpayer funds. This is done through contract negotiations.
And the public unions donate back to these reps.
This is what I am fighting against!