Friday, February 18, 2011

Republican Hypocrisy Over Wisconsin Protests


Remember when the tea party protested non-stop for two years against anything proposed by the administration and Republicans urged law makers to heed their calls because it was the voice of the people?

Now that Republicans are in power, that does not seem to be the case - Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker now apparently believes protesting citizens are just a bunch of bully activists who should be ignored.  Walker has also used the protests to rally state Republicans.

"If anything, I think it's made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger," Scott said. "They're not going to be bullied. They're not going to be intimidated."

Republicans also saught to silence their opposition - Republicans turned off microphones during a speech being delivered by Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, in which Barca vowed to fight to the "bitter end," declaring the Republican's actions "desperately wrong."

Democratic legislators, attempting to aid workers, fled the state in an attempt to block the legislation - the bill cannot pass if there is not a single Democrat in the chamber.  

Previously, Walker had proposed replacing union workers with the National Guard, and in a surprising move, at the behest of the Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, the governor dispatched state troopers to hunt down Democratic lawmakers to send a message.

In an attempt to change the narrative, Republicans are now focusing the blame on Democrats, calling the situation a "powder keg," claiming Senate Democratic Minority Leader Mark Miller "shut down democracy."

"We left the state so we were out of the reach of the Wisconsin state patrol, which has the authority to round us up and bring us back to the legislature," state Sen. Mark Miller told ABC's Good Morning America from an undisclosed location Friday. 

"Shut down democracy?"

It sounds more like the Republicans are attempting to shut down democracy by ignoring the voice of the people.  It also sounds as if they are ushering in a police state...

2 comments:

  1. This is really what is hypocritical. In an attempt to save the taxpayers money, the Party of No wants the union to give up its collective bargaining rights, reduce their future wages and pay more for their benefits. However, how many of these teabaggers are against the health insurance mandate? I bet everyone. So the think it is perfectly fine for them to pass the costs of their health care down to society. Hmmm. I see their plan. As long as someone else is making the sacrifice, they are for it 100%.

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  2. Walker and the right want to target laborers like prison guards. They want to cut pay, bargaining rights, benefits. They have attacked unions and government workers, like prison guards. These positions are understaffed because they cannot compete with the private sector. Why get paid 30k to be a prison guard with lots of risks when you can go work somewhere else for the same amount if not more?

    Nobody asks the question of who will take over these jobs if the government was not there to provide it. The common response is the free market will find a way, but that is not sufficient...

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