Paul Krugman on the unfolding Cairo in Wisconsin (my emphasis throughout):
Last week, in the face of protest demonstrations against Wisconsin’s new union-busting governor, Scott Walker[,] ... Representative Paul Ryan made an unintentionally apt comparison: “It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison.” ...Ah, the Billionaires' Coup (Frank Rich's phrase). The Professor doesn't mince words — he says it all:
Mr. Ryan was more right than he knew. For what’s happening in Wisconsin isn’t about the state budget, despite Mr. Walker’s pretense that he’s just trying to be fiscally responsible. It is, instead, about power. What Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy. And that’s why anyone who believes that we need some counterweight to the political power of big money should be on the demonstrators’ side.
In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.Ah, the Koch brothers; the gift that keeps on taking.
Given this reality, it’s important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions.
Mr. Krugman points out the "irony" that the fiscal crisis was in fact caused by "the oligarchy" that's now trying to exploit it. Some wouldn't call that irony. Some would call that the plan.
GP
