Wisconsin: Where Do Things Go From Here?

TPM reports that the protesters have not left the Capitol.While this is in keeping with the heroic nature of what is a spontaneous outpouring there still exists the question of where things go from here. The deeper implications of this struggle are many and not necessarily apparent to all on either side. I was impressed that many at the ongoing event seem to grasp that the survival of an American Middle Class is at stake and that this is not only a question of organized labor but also the consequences of corporate media concentration and the decline of the American Empire. My friend the Wege at Norwegianity has an incisive view:

"What’s it all about? If you’re a righty, Wisconsin is about your deep resentment of public sector workers whose wages and benefits haven’t yet been completely eroded by the selfish few at the top (those who seek always to make their enormous piles even more grotesquely ginormous). If you’re a lefty, the public sector is the last line in the battle to preserve the middle class.

If you’re sane, you wonder what kind of dimwitted middle class moron would support killing unions when it’s obvious that the decline of unions has resulted in wage slavery for most Americans.

In the history of the world, have slaves ever done well? And how exactly did the side that keeps screaming FREEDOM become so enamored with reducing options and gutting safety nets? Is there more dignity in begging for charity than cashing a government check?.....

When wages are going down for all but the rich, what kind of wretchedly hateful person resents the few who have held on to some of what they once had more of? That is what modern Republicanism has been reduced to: hating the survivors of a thirty-year war against workers. Just like they hate those who practice sex or religion differently.

Wisconsin is the last stand against the politics of bigotry and hate, and none of this would be necessary had Rupert Murdoch not founded a 24/7 propaganda channel that lobotomizes its viewers, scooping out their brains one spoonful at a time, replacing gray matter with dark thoughts, paranoia, hatred and resentment.

The left is saying enough is enough. The right replies that enough is never enough, and that the point of having is to have too much, however many have to live with less to enable the winner-takes-all lifestyles of the modern rich."