Anyone out there besides me wondering when “we the people” are going to wake up?  For over thirty years (that I can remember) the republican party has taken DEAD AIM at the middle class RIGHTS instigated by the Roosevelt administration in the 30’s and 40’s commonly referred to as the “New Deal.”  This legislation led to the “birth” of the greatest middle class the world has ever known – and, the same corporatists who opposed it then (well, maybe their “offspring”) are opposing it now and have been opposing it – to varying degrees since the first bill was passed and signed by FDR.  One of the worst “advancements” from the perspective of these corporatists was the legitimizing of the labor unions.

Labor unions fought hard for benefits that workers of today take for granted – in fact, we’re seeing today’s workers showing a willingness to give up these benefits in sort of a “bits and pieces” scenario orchestrated by republicans since the days of Ronald Reagan.  It started with PATCO (the union of the Air Traffic Controllers) and their attack on unions has now evolved to where (as I’ve been predicting for the past few years) public union workers – teachers, firefighters, policemen, social workers, nurses, etc. are in the “crosshairs” of the republican corporate minions.  In the news lately has been the public workers in Wisconsin who are putting up a valiant fight against a governor who got most of his financial support from out of state interests – such as the now infamous Koch brothers who are stirring up right wing authoritarian crap all over America.  It really has boiled down to the BILLIONAIRES vs. the rest of us!

Let’s try to get a little perspective here.  Governor Walker (a “tea partier”) in Wisconsin took the state into deficit (ala GW Bush, circa 2001) by pushing through tax cuts for those who didn’t need them and now he’s attempting to not only balance Wisconsin’s state books on the backs of the middle class state workers, he wants to eliminate their bargaining rights in the future – and, for good measure, he’s thrown in a couple anti-union “nuggets” designed to eliminate the unions once and for all – like voting yearly to recertify the union by its members.  As a teacher myself, I’m not surprised to hear right wing “talkers” claiming that I make too much money.  What’s surprising to me, and a bit depressing (as one of my close friends put it), how can so many of the “ditto heads” (of course, I’m now talking about those thoughtless people who listen to Rush Limbaugh) fail to see through Limbaugh’s disengenuous rhetoric – he reportedly makes $400 MILLION per year – and is attacking teachers who average in the $40 -$50 THOUSAND range across the country.  In my case, I have enough education to have a PHD (actually, I have a Masters degree plus a lot of other professional development classes).  I don’t complain about how much I make and I’m honestly not teaching based on the money – but, I do think I deserve a living wage.  These right wing thugs seem to want everyone in America working for minimum wages – WITHOUT benefits – that is, until they can eliminate minimum wages altogether (another of the “New Deal” accomplishments).

Here’s what bugs me the most.  It was the very people who are chipping away at the middle class who created the economic mess we find ourselves in.  People like the Koch brothers have been strong supporters of the “trickle down” economic “plan” of the republican party ushered in by Reagan because it’s saved them BILLIONS in taxes.  Evidently, these people who are the BILLIONAIRES can’t get enough!  (Now, I shouldn’t be painting with a “broad brush” because I’ve heard Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and others at the “top” of the economic “ladder” calling for higher taxes on the “rich” themselves)  And, they are concentrated around Wall Street in one form or another – plus, they’re plundering the very government they say they hate for all they can get – it was Wall Street where the abuses took place which led to the present economic disaster.  What’s curious to me is how Wall Street crashes the economy, the government bails them out, they go right back to gambling with America’s treasury, and finance an onslaught on America’s middle class to avoid EVER having to pay for their own excesses!  I don’t get why this is so hard for even the “tea party” to figure out.  It’s not the union workers of America who’ve created this problem.

It’s as if the corporate “heads” are saying, we can get people to do your job in China for 1/10 of what we’re paying you – so, see you later!  And, since they can’t hire Chinese workers to “man” the public employment picture, the next best thing is to bash these people so that they can join the “race to the bottom” that was started the day Ronald Reagan took the oath of office.  Can you believe this – now, teachers are making too much money!  In my state (Washington) a teacher who is just starting out with a MASTERS DEGREE earns around $30,000.  It costs them $50,000, or more, to get that Masters degree – but, what the heck – maybe what the Koch brothers want would be teachers working for minimum wages.  Maybe teacher certification will soon be a thing of the past – the jobs will go to those who will work for the least amount of wages.  And, with governors like Scott Walker in Wisconsin, they’ll have no rights to negotiate their contracts.  Can you just picture teachers punching in on a time clock when they come to work?  Is that where we’re heading?  And, if so, who’s next?

I can tell you who’s next.  It’s the old people.  They’re costing us entirely too much (even though some might say they put money into the Social Security trust fund – we need that money to keep Iraq and Afganistan going).  These big financiers can’t get their greedy minds off of the nearly $3 TRILLION in trust for America’s aging – who – like the Wall Street bankers – no longer produce anything of significance to America’s economy.  And, Medicare really is a huge problem, because the FOR PROFIT health care system is out of control.  To keep their CEO’s and stockholders happy, the insurance companies, various health providers (devices, drugs, etc.), and hospitals will need to continue jacking up the costs of health care.  It really doesn’t seem to matter whether the care is sensible or who gets the care – it only matters how much money these companies and executives MAKE!  And, yet where else but in America would you find a grass roots “tea party” standing side by side with corporate rip off artists claiming to be “populist” while being ripped off themselves by the very people funding their movement?  Talk about confusing irony.

All I can say at this point is “yeah for those in Wisconsin” who are taking the battle to the streets.  That is the real solution to this problem.  Richard Nixon used to refer to the “silent majority” when trying to defend his indefensible malfeasance – but, I think the day for the “silent majority” to stand up has arrived.  At least I hope so.  And, I believe the first example may be in Madison Wisconsin.  Bravo to all of them – all I can say is that I hope they succeed.  Whether they stop this legislation the republicans are attempting to ram through or not, I hope they move to recall this governor (who reportedly has presidential aspirations, ughhh!) as soon as possible.  I’ve heard they have to wait at least one year (that’s probably – he has to be in office one year) before they can start a recall.  I’d support that plus the recall of the republican legislators who are supporting him as well.

The bottom line here is that the Koch brothers and the rest of the right wing conglomerate which is trying to take over this nation has an UNLIMITED supply of money.  They have a stranglehold on our “liberal media” (have you noticed how difficult it’s been to get good coverage of protests involving estimates as high as 100 THOUSHAND protestors in Wisconsin?) and they have absolutely NO SCRUPLES!  Lying comes second nature to these people.  Every time I listen to one of them I’m reminded of the psychologist who was advising me on the significance of children lying.  He told me that if they are still lying at the age of 14 it becomes part of their character, and after they’ve told enough lies, they start to believe their own lies are actually true.  Listen to Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, Lars Larson, Michael Savage, or any of the rest of them for a bit.  It won’t take long for you to understand what I just said in this post.  They are dangerous just like the Nazi’s were dangerous in the early thirties – and, if “we the people” don’t stop them they will keep on their plan until they have us by where the “hair is short!”

Ultimately, win or lose, I believe what’s happening in Wisconsin will happen again all over America in this “year of the tea party.”  The people in the streets are the first encouraging sign I’ve seen since I figured out that President Obama was rolling over to the republicans.  When you do a little research on the Koch family and on the Bush family you get a really good picture of the leadership of the republican party.  Both families built their significant wealth through the oil industry and both families have a history of trading with our enemies.  George W Bush’s grandfather was supplying weapons grade materials to Adolf Hitler in the 30’s while the patriarch of the Koch family was busy building oil refineries in Russia for Stalin, enabling Russia to gain the economic strength to carry on the 50 year “Cold War.”  These families will do anything for money and they are pushing an agenda in America where those who think like they do will control all aspects of our society.   I hope and pray that the protestors in Wisconsin “stay the course” until this right wing whacko governor is FORCED to back down.  The rest of us need to be prepared to follow suit – because these republicans have a full fledged national plan – designed to create Rove’s “permanent republican ‘majority’.”  I have a feeling I’ll be saying this a lot in the near future, “On Wisconsin!”  (I noticed the captain of the Green Bay Packers was on the picket lines with the protestors – Charles Woodson – yeahh!)