It is not my fault that we must make common cause, at least emotionally, with a state that chose to adopt the badger as its mascot, but the contingencies of history cannot be controlled. Those folks demonstrating in the streets of Madison also cannot be blamed for a decision made long ago, though many of them can be blamed for decisions made more recently, as many of them voted for the man whose first act in office was at attempt to strip them of their rights. Who could have predicted such a thing, other than a reasonably aware sentient being? Can you say PATCO?
Maybe it takes this in your face sort of thing to finally wake up the American people. The right, aided by Democratic fellow travelers and Democratic cowards, has been systematically looting them for years, transferring wealth to the wealthy, and the American people have been quiescent, preferring to think that they will somehow, someway, share in the bounty being diverted to their betters or preferring to be distracted by hot button low idea issues of race, gender or religion.
One great thing about the right wing media, particularly Fox, is the fact that it encourages a lack of self awareness among its habitués and a general detachment from what people actually think. Thus we have Paul Ryan comparing the Madison protestors to the folks in Cairo, blissfully unaware that, other than those ensconced in the Glenn Beck parallel universe, most people sympathize with the folks in Cairo. We learn more about Ryan from his statement than we do about the folks demonstrating in Madison, though we can certainly hope he’s right, and that they will have the staying power of the Egyptian people.
While I sympathize with Malloy, I think he might deserve a bit of the Madison treatment. It wasn’t state workers or their unions that got this country and this state into the mess it is in, but it is those workers that will bear the lions share of the “shared sacrifice”, while the affluent have their taxes raised a sliver. The workers are easy targets, apparently, because they can’t afford to move out of state and Malloy can put them in jail if they strike, just as we in the middle class are prisoners here as well, which makes it easier to impose an increased sales tax on us than to impose a graduated income tax on the truly rich, who blackmail politicians like Malloy into treating them with kid gloves while he broadens the distance between the haves and have nots. Thus do we continue the transfer of wealth under both Democrats and Republicans.
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