It had become clear that Wisconsin's governor Walker did not want a budget settlement with the public employees union, which had already signaled a willingness to accept cuts in pay and benefits. What the governor was really after was an "excuse" to kill their collective bargaining rights.
Now, Howard Fineman, writing in HP, explains there's yet an even deeper motive.
The real political math in Wisconsin isn't about the state budget or the collective-bargaining rights of public employees there. It is about which party controls governorships and, with them, the balance of power on the ground in the 2012 elections. . . .GOP operatives had expected to take as many as 20 governorships away from Democrats in the November elections. They took only 12. And they believe it was the power and money of public-employee unions that kept the Dems in power.
Gov. Scott Walker . . . is the advance guard of a new GOP push to dismantle public-sector unions as an electoral force.
"We are never going to win most of these states until we can do something about those unions," one key operative said at a Washington dinner in November.
And under the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, unions -- like corporations -- are free to spend as much as they want directly advocating for a candidate. That makes the math even more urgent as the 2012 election season approaches.
So, underneath all the drama, it's just plain old political war.
Like most wars, however, there are civilian casualties. In this case, they're trying to demonize the generic "public employees."
But many of these "public employees" are teachers, nurses, firefighters, police and paramedics. Demonizing them isn't working too well with the public.
They may win this battle -- and lose the war.
Ralph
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