Fort Sumter, Wisconsin

Though not the very first shot fired by the republicans in their war on the middle class the attempt by Governor Walker to eradicate collective bargaining from the rights of the public employee unions in Wisconsin is like Fort Sumter in that it is the first full scale assault on the middle class. The real agenda is to destroy the unions and thereby render them ineffective as a finance source for progressive causes, freedom and liberty. I call it a full scale assault because of the wide spread support he is receiving from the right at all levels including the following.
Glen Beck called teachers useful idiots and accused the police of having thrown in with the socialist on his radio show today. Previously Beck had made the following comments and as everyone knows he thinks any American standing up for their rights is guilty of hastening the day when an Islamic Caliphate takes over in the world.
Beck: Union Members "Think That They Want What's Fair. But Who Is Moving The Chess Pieces In Wisconsin?"
Beck: Union Leaders Are "Using You Just As Political, Radicalized Islam Is Using The Average Person On The Street"
Beck: Wisconsin Protests Are "About The People Looking To Create Chaos On The Backs Of The Worker"
Beck Begs Union Members: "You've Got To Decide. ... Your Unions Are Anti-Western Way Of Life"
Glenn Becks ranting and raving does not fool most Americans who are intelligent enough to know when someone is setting them up for a fall and trying to steal their right to self-determination. His simply a tool employed by the right wing media to pull the wool over the eyes of the intellectually challenged.
Further proof of the full scale effort to defeat the unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere is evinced by the Republican Governors Association (RGA) starting a website in support of Governor Walker’s assault on the middle class. The following is a direct quote lifted from the RGA article, “Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is in the middle of what will be a defining moment for our country and the conservative movement,” said RGA Chairman Rick Perry. “It is essential that we stand with Governor Walker and show political leaders throughout the country that America is ready to take on its toughest political challenges.”
If one looks at the front page of the Republican National Committee one sees headlines screaming about the union’s ability to raise money for the Democrats and how they have to be stopped. That is what this fight is really all about but rather than stand on principal and tell the American people what the fight is all about the republicans would rather climb a tree and shout falsehoods about the budget and the deficit and out of control spending.
The one thing that republicans have going for them now that the democrats don’t is an experienced board of directors in the Koch brothers, Doug Coe and others including Robert Murdoch that bring an ability to craft a strategy that looks downstream and brings some cohesion to the party line messaging and hyperbole. Truth is not a value they hold dear so it takes a fair amount of skepticism, research and common sense to ferret out the truth or the wheat from the chaff so to speak.
Most economist agree that the slash and burn budget cutting proposed by the republicans will slow the economy and cost us around a million jobs in the next year alone. Their reaction is basically tough stuff it’s what is necessary to save us from the democrats who have brought us to this debacle in just two short years. Anyone with any common sense and a modicum of intelligence knows that that is just not true. President Bush starting with a surplus free gratis from President Clinton in eight years handed off to President Obama two wars, crippling declines in job growth, a full blown recession and an economy heading for the cliff if something was not done immediately. The fact is though that the board of directors and their crony’s behind the scenes are only interested in making ever more money and gaining ever more control of the world-wide chess board upon which they play.
If it is cheaper to build in Mexico, China, Singapore or on the moon that is where the factories and jobs are going to be. These men have no loyalty to any flag, country, constitution, people or place. They truly operate on a world-wide stage and it makes no difference to them who gets hurt, lives in poverty, is denied basic human rights or is swept off the chess board in the process of playing the game for the maximum profit and the thrill of waging almost god like power over the planet. In America the Republican Party has become their bought and paid for minions and stooges who vote as told and discourse as instructed. They have their own planet wide propaganda arm and public relations entity and they are quite good at manipulating the thought processes of hardworking people who are just trying to survive by pandering to their real and imaginary fears, creating fears where none exists and manufacturing out of whole cloth falsehoods and prevarications intended to mislead them.
The Citizens United decision has given them the ability to use their virtually unlimited funds to subvert our governmental process, support those politicians who can be bought and finance any political effort without regard to fairness, equality or ethical consideration. Make no mistake this is a war and the right has the money, votes, propaganda, will and ability to win it going away. The only thing still standing in their way is you and I. Our collective ability and willingness to dig out the truth spread it around and stand our ground is the only thing in their way. We are under assault and the cannon balls are caroming off of our rights and liberties. It is time to man the walls and drive the invader back.