Hope Made a Fool of Me

Yesterday, I despaired for the future my country.  Although it was what I had expected, I was very sad that Scott Walker won his recall fight and will be the Governor of Wisconsin for the remainder of his term.  People voted for him in spite of his questionable (to put it mildly) testimony to Congress and in spite of (perhaps because of?) his vicious attacks on the rights of public employees.  I despaired for the future of all of us who are not among the very wealthy, all of us who need our jobs not just for the pay, but also for the health insurance.  And I was amazed at the utter lack of imagination among so many of the voters of Wisconsin.


"Why a lack of imagination?" you may ask.  Because it shows a serious lack of imagination to vote to keep someone who, as soon as he had the power, immediately stripped away the rights that had been won through hard experience, the rights that were, in fact, protecting the rights of ALL of Wisconsin's workers, regardless of whether they belonged to unions.  Do the people who voted for Walker really believe that their jobs are safe as long as he is in office?  Do they really think that he won't want to take away other workers' rights?  Do they actually believe that their lives will be better now?


The truth is that workers with rights are what keep our economy going.  Walker talks a lot about how good for Wisconsin's economy his policies are, but where will Wisconsin's economy be in, say, 5 years?  Our national economy relies on consumers, primarily middle-class consumers, with disposable income.  How many of those consumers will be left after a few more years of Scott Walker?  Now that public employees can no longer bargain collectively and he's made it so hard for their unions to work for them, we're going to see their pay and benefits dropping, which will mean they will have significantly less disposable income.  There will be, to quote a famous Republican, a "trickle-down effect" throughout the economy of Wisconsin.  Stores will close.  Companies will downsize.  The few manufacturers who remain will relocate their businesses.  People will lose jobs.


Yesterday, I imagined similar scenarios playing out in other states over the next few years, with similar outcomes.  I saw short-sighted voters all over the country electing people who would take away collective bargaining rights, would cut funding to schools, would cut the few remaining public programs that help those in need, and would increase tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals.  The social-class divisions that exist today are nothing compared to what we could be living in just a few years from now.  


And why would people vote for the politicians who would enact such harmful policies?  I suspect that much of it boils down to the attitude of, "If I don't have a union representing me, why should you?  If I don't have good health insurance, why should you?  If the people in my profession can't bargain collectively, why should anyone else have that right?"  But maybe that's just cynicism on my part.  I confess that I am feeling exceptionally cynical right now.