Last week, Diane posted on the disappointing turnout among the youth vote, 18-29-year-olds. As this report from CIRCLE states, only 20.9 percent of eligible youth voters showed up at the polls this time, a significant drop from the 2006 rate of 25 percent.
This is something of a surprise given the outsized claims for civic awareness and engagement among the Millennials broadcast by many after the youth vote shot upwards in 2004. That doesn’t mean the youth vote is politically marginal—on the contrary. In 2008, the youth vote rose only a couple of percentage points to 51 percent, but because they went for Obama by an unprecedented and huge margin of 2-to-1, they count as a Democratic voting bloc. This time, they went Democrat over Republican by 57 to 40 percent—once again, a massive lean.
Peter Levine, Director of CIRCLE, put it this way in the Huffington Post (his left-leaning cards are clear):
“If you are a Republican, you are entitled to celebrate the election as a whole, but you should give some thought to youth. They represent the future and they did not vote Republican except in the reddest of red states. Even though some young people lean libertarian, the Kentucky results suggest that libertarian Republican candidates have gained little traction so far with the younger generation. The Tea Party is probably a turnoff for young people–if not because they disagree with its policy positions, then because it doesn’t reflect a diverse and future-oriented image of America.”
Levine also ponders how to increase turnout:
“Arguably, we need a game-changing event or movement to increase turnout to a whole different level. If you were hoping that 2008 was such an event, yesterday’s results may be discouraging. It is time to ask whether the millions of young people who were deeply engaged in the 2008 campaign could have been invited to engage more in governance once the election was over.”
This is a frequent statement about the youth vote. We need to inspire the young, to energize them, to give them a sense of participation.
I think this is flatly wrong. Voting should not be an act of inspiration. It should be a mundane duty of citizenship. It is not the responsibility of the government or the media or any other institution to “invite” young people into the voting booth. They are, instead, to be educated into it.
That is another consistent finding of CIRCLE and other observers of voting behavior. The more civics and government course work young people have, the more they head to the polls. (Here is a “facts” page at CIRCLE.)
This correlation makes a recent report from AEI especially timely. It’s entitled “High School Civics and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do,” and written by Steve Farkas and Ann M. Duffett. Here is an Executive Summary. It surveyed social studies teachers on their classes and aims and pedagogies, among other things concluding that:
• Teaching facts is the “lowest priority” (in my opinion, a mistake)
• Knowing the Bill of Rights is the highest priority
• Only 56 percent of respondents say that students in their school graduate having read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
• Most teachers believe that NCLB and the emphasis on testing in math and ELA damages their field
• Most teachers also would like their fields to be tested
Finally, as a benchmark, the 2006 NAEP Civics results showed that only 27 percent of 12th-graders reached the level of “proficient.”
37 Responses to The Youth Vote, 2010
mark_r_harris - November 15, 2010 at 8:31 am
I have taught Civics and American Government a number of times during my high school teaching career, and I assure you that my students and I always read and analyze every word of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (and all of the amendments). Those documents and their history take up a whole quarter. Here is the course structure:
1st Quarter — Introduction to Political Theory, with required reading of excerpts of Plato’s “Republic,” Aristotle’s “Politics,” Hobbes’s “Leviathan,” and Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government”
2nd Quarter — Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution and Amendments
3rd Quarter — Operations of Federal Government
4th Quarter — Operations of State and Local Governments; Introduction to U.S. Political Parties
Teaching facts was my major priority; in order to have meaningful opinions, the students need facts to think with.
dank48 - November 15, 2010 at 9:46 am
Remember back when three-card monte dealers were all over the streets of NYC, fleecing soldiers and sailors and other rubes? They don’t seem to be there any more, perhaps because the rubes caught on to the scam. If the suckers don’t come, there’s no point in setting up shop.
I think this is pretty much the pattern for the youth–and other–vote. The suckers have caught on, and they can’t see any reason to waste their time and money. The Democrats and Republicans haven’t closed up shop, because they are still having a hard time figuring out why there are so few victims. (No one ever claimed they were smarter than the sheep they were shearing.)
jamary - November 15, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Dank’s hyperbolic cynicism aside (as if there were not many lawmakers striving to create a better country), apathetic youth are only one aspect of the problem. Another is the large body of empirically stupid voters (“duh, Obama’s presidency is unconstitutional; he’s not an American”;<>) and inferentially selfish ones (<>).
Unfortunately, with such stupidity and blind selfishness in a great plurality of the voting public, those who run for office (regretfully or not, both these, and persons who actually succeed in holding office are validly called ‘politicians’) must circumnavigate these manifestations of the failure of civics education generally in the United States, in order to harbor a chance of success at the ballot box. This is not to excuse the bald lies of Congressmen who nurture ignorance and stupidity among their constituents (affirming the notion of “death panels”, for instance), but a large part of the American public evidently cannot read beyond the 4th grade level, literally and metaphorically, when it comes to evaluating policy, politics, and politicians.
Then again, there is that damning pablum, heard from the mouths of the most well-intentioned politicians, that it is their individual jobs to serve the particular interests of the residents of their State or electoral district. This short-sighted nostrum contradicts the role of lawmaking: In Congress, in the House or Senate, what is done is the making of policy for the nation. This is clearly why well-informed voters across the nation support candidates in distant States, whose ideas and performance are appealing in principle, Russ Feingold and the late Ted Kennedy being exemplars of legislators who conscientiously pursued policies in the best interest of all citizens – policies such as consumer protection and … well, hasn’t this always been a major problem in the understanding of politics by certain factions of Americans: that serving “the least of us” in any way functions to create a better society for all Americans..?
In the premiums we pay as homeowners to protect our homes from fire, we provide for those relatively few unfortunates to the extent recompense is possible, when their home burns to the ground. We do so, confident in having the means to assuage immense personal as well as material loss, although the likelihood is very small that it will happen to us personally. Sickness is different in this respect: few of us will escape it, especially during the scourge of old age. So dear is the need for health care, that the privateers who furnish insurance have thriving businesses. But since it is not a rare chance against which we are insuring, but frequently an ongoing need to pay for recurrent medical care, it is a near certainty that we shall use such insurance. It makes far more sense in this case, than in that of fire insurance, to make a collective plan to serve all of us, in what the best medical discretion of the day indicates we need, than to pay immense profits to privateers to sort, categorize, and ‘manage’ risk – risk which is scarcely risk at all, but human condition for most of us. Yet, the underlying fear persists and motivates our national politics, in the meanest and least ‘christian’ respect, that one will be ‘forced to pay’ for what another person cannot afford, as if it were not us all severally and jointly who cannot afford taking that risk alone.
jamary - November 15, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I had included some parenthetical substance inside double inequality symbols, to differentiate thought from utterance, but evidently the program processing these comments simply omitted that content, which I will not take the time presently to attempt to restore.
dank48 - November 15, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Jamary, it’s tempting to say that I have some friends who would love to play cards with you. However, that could be seen as hyperbolic cynicism.
(Btw, do you know Ambrose Bierce’s definition of “Cynic”? “A member of an ancient Greek school of philosophers afflicted with a defect of vision, in that they saw things as they are, not as they ought to be.”)
The electorate is as it is, and complaining about it will change nothing. At least we don’t let the politicians’ henchmen ply the voters with liquor any more. But nothing is preventing the politicians from taking the high road, aside from their own “cynicism” (usual meaning) about the voters. The message–left, right, in between–gets aimed at what seems to be the lowest common denominator. Since the average voter is less stupid than the lcd, the average voter is put off by the political yammer.
We have a political establishment that sees self-enrichment at the public trough while engaged in “public service” as the norm. How many members of the legislative or executive branches have grown poorer while in office? How many can keep a straight face, off camera, for the notion that they’re there for anything other than careerism?
Too many people in and out of politics are just role-playing, pretending to be senators or representatives or executives or teachers or whatever, going through the motions reasonably convincingly, without ever actually accomplishing anything of substance.
The main thing preventing the political class from understanding how the country feels about them is the sound of their own greedy slurping. There are obvious possible correctives, but the problem is that legislation is seldom passed by those whose excesses it’s intended to curb.
willynilly - November 15, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I must be a psychic. How else could I have known with 100% certainty that you would write an essay on the recent election; and, as per usual, find a flimsy thread to tie your political messages to an academic discipline – this time Civics – an elementary/middle school level subject? Nice try, blame elementary/middle school teachers for failing to get the youth vote out to support your right wing friends in the past election. You certainly have to do something about that before 2012, don’t you? No time better to start than very early. By the way, when was Political Science added to your workload at Emory?
lblake - February 21, 2011 at 10:20 am
An Egyptian-like alliance of students and workers in Wisconsin? You can’t believe that tripe. Here in Wisconsin the teachers (privileged class as to what they pay for what they get) control, not ally with their students. How many students will refuse to march while teacher sits at the front of the room watching what happens (yeah, yeah, I know the teachers aren’t “forcing” students to march–don’t have to force in any obvious way)? And check out how these devoted teachers (workers) produce for Wisconsin–where the state ranks re its public school outcomes. Sad.
Wisconsin voters (including lots of workers) elected Walker and the legislative majorities just last November, and the campaigns made it clear what was planned by these leaders. The unions pushed hard to keep ultra-liberals in office–but the voters wouldn’t have it. The years of liberal state goverment feeding labor and fed by it were enough to throw the bums out. Now Big Labor is trying to overturn those elections to get what they want and are willing to make Wisconsin a mockery if that is what it takes to get their way.
Wisconsin teachers have let themselves be cannon fodder for Big Labor as it fights to keep its money and power. You know you are in the wrong place when the likes of Jesse Jackson show up to “support” you. Wisconsin teachers bargained for their luxury benefits, taking them in place of obviously higher pay, but benefits ARE compensation and in fact usually are not taxed by the Feds. So let’s not spend too much time on the union’s sacrifice.
Finally the unions need to find a new song to sing. Now, as always, Big Labor trots out “the pubilc workers we trust” and push forward teachers, firefighters, etc. for our sympathy, keeping in the shadows the growing numbers of pencil pushers, regulators and enforcers in state and local government (let’s not even glance over at the massive increases in Fed jobs). So now the Madison chants and the media coverage are all about teachers–the public employees we trust. Sadly our teachers have allowed their integrity and devotion to duty to be badly damaged this time as Big Labor has them telling lies to get out of the classroom, to obtain “doctor’s notes,” and so much more. You might give a thought to the example you are providing for your students–can you ever trust a doctor’s note again?
i_am_nomad - February 21, 2011 at 10:33 am
We can’t trust doctors’ notes anymore? GOOD LORD!
droslovinia - February 21, 2011 at 10:42 am
Yes, those teachers are so coddled and making so much money. It’s no wonder that the best and brightest of our young people are clamoring to go out and become teachers, since it provides such an improved lifestyle over what they can ever do in private business. Those Wall Street types must be having a really hard time, knowing that teachers are doing so much better than they are. That’s why we must bail them out with hundreds of billions of dollars and cut off those fat cat teachers before they take over America and run it into the ground.
I don’t know what’s more pathetic: people who are sold on the idea that public workers have it so good or the caricatures of “big labor,” “welfare cheats,” “immigrants stealing our jobs,” or the “lazy unemployed” that they keep pulling out whenever people start standing up for themselves.
smcdonald999 - February 21, 2011 at 10:51 am
Please lets distinguish between private sector unions and public sector unions. The former can provide an effective check on corporate power, the latter not so much. Neither has much to do with the vitality of American democracy in the 21st century. An effective democracy requires individuals to vote using intellect and conscience rather than union affiliation. Furthermore, when government service unions contribute dollars and votes to the very executives who oversee the negotiation of their contracts, they corrupt, rather than enhance, the democratic process.
sacul99 - February 21, 2011 at 10:56 am
You said it best when you said, “severely limiting the scope of collective bargaining to wages undercuts another important function of unions: to democratize the workplace by increasing workers’ voices on important issues.” Once we move to a more dictatorial atmosphere in our government workplaces it will begin to resemble those we claim to despise most. This is not about bloated wages or benefits; this is about the Governor taking “control” in a way he sees as appropriate. I do not look forward to this attitude and practice spending across the country.
Ellen Wetherbee Rosewall - February 21, 2011 at 10:57 am
I am a UW system faculty member, but I consider this to be much larger than my personal situation. Those who would characterize this as an attempt by lazy teachers to avoid paying their fair share are being distracted from the real issue. Unions (and in large part, Wisconsin unions) are responsible for the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, workplace safety laws, unemployment compensation and worker’s compensation. Of the top ten major participants ($$) in political campaigns, three are unions — the rest are corporations or those representing corporate interests. You may not like what the unions have done, but think what might happen if they went away.
atana09 - February 21, 2011 at 11:01 am
One factor which is often ignored in these dabates is that the activities of unions in the early 20th century were instrumental in providing the foundation of the American middle class. And although most employees are no longer union they still benefit from those past initiatives by unions.
Moreover when the Glen Beckism’s are hauled out to pillory the teachers et al in Wisconsin what we are seeing is a overt expression of a generational attack on the middle class. The American middle class has been losing ground for a generation, as Dr. Warren has made quite clear. And the American middle class has itself propagated some of that damage by kowtowing to fantasies of American ‘exceptionalism’. Without of course realizing that this was a direct attack on the elements which made it possible for them to be middle class such as a decent wage for tradesmen or lower echelon professionals, affordable public education, social security and the like.
And as M. Kahlenberg noted the unions are one of the last means to provide a compensatory voice for corporate power, especially after the “Citizens” USSC decision. That same corporate power has exerted massive PR efforts to undermine support for public institutions. These institutions are core necessities for the preservation of the middle class but are simply not needed by the elite because their affluence allows them to ignore such systems as public education, law enforcement and other public services. Of course their wealth is largely drawn from that same middle class by indirect means or direct, but it would seem the realization that wrecking the middle class in order to get a few more tax breaks will lead to their own demise seems to be lacking. Presumably when their self referentialism destroys the base of this country they will take their trillions to some other country which they have not ruined. Good luck on that one…
As far as coddled teachers, might do good to recall the article several years ago in the NEA journal which noted many teachers do not make enough to pay the loans for the education which is required for them to be teachers.
i_am_nomad - February 21, 2011 at 11:04 am
I don’t doubt that the American Enterprise Institute is already hard at work developing their next media composite to rally their “base” for the 2012 election: A gold-bricking school teacher (lesbian, of course) who runs a food-stamp fraud racket and collects phony disability checks while occasionally flunking hard working white male students with crew cuts who do not cite Marx in their term papers or kiss the portrait of Comrade Obama she hangs above a crucifix in her classroom. The teacher would also drive a Cadillac Escalade with chrome rims that tows a 30-foot Chris Craft boat she uses to smuggle Africanized honeybees from Mexico that will inevitably displace hard working American-European bees (also with crew cuts and forlorn expressions of disenfranchisement…for bees at least.)
i_am_nomad - February 21, 2011 at 11:12 am
“As far as coddled teachers, might do good to recall the article several years ago in the NEA journal which noted many teachers do not make enough to pay the loans for the education which is required for them to be teachers.”
That’s because they are too busy indulging in their spendthrift ways! You can’t make a student loan payment when you have to buy a new set of Michelins for the boat trailer.
Seriously folks…if collective bargaining is extinguished in public service unions, you can expect the next move to be the privatization of government functions. And you don’t have to be a history student to know what that means: A reprise of the Jacksonian spoils system but with a post-Madoff twist.
missoularedhead - February 21, 2011 at 12:39 pm
uh, actually, Wisconsin is really quite high in their educational rankings. Just saying.
missoularedhead - February 21, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I don’t make enough to pay off my student loans, and I teach year round. And there’s no boat here, just a 10 year old Saturn. Where’s the proof for your claims that teachers are spendthrifts?
coolbeans413 - February 21, 2011 at 12:42 pm
Please. What unions have accomplished for the American worker of the past is not a reason to argue for its continuance today. It has become irrelevant and worse, harmful. Taxation has destroyed the middle class– and that taxation has been increased in part because of public employee unions who depend upon the taxpayers to fund their salaries and benefits. Years of legislators in office who have been elected because of campaign promises akin to the public sector’s ability to vote themselves benefits is not economically sustainable. That’s where we are at, and the public has finally said ‘no.’
Added to the insult on the price of public employee benefits is the ridiculous lengths to which the unions have instilled a sense of entitlement in the workers whom it represents. Case and point is another story published today; the beleaguered professor at Ohio U accused of bullying because he supposedly planned to retaliate by eventually finding himself in a position to make his detractors WORK ON FRIDAYS! Oh my!! Now there’s a reason to file grievances that cost the college employer untold amounts of time, money and effort- because of a threat about working Fridays. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Do you really think that this sort of nonsense would be tolerated outside of a unionized environment? What a collossal waste.
Another point to consider: the public service union is dependent upon instilling this false sense of entitlement- it ensures that the dues keep rolling in. The union is not for the people it represents- in today’s world, it exists in service to itself. I have friends and family who are public servants. I have a lot of respect for teachers. Some of them work hard. So what. Most of us work hard. I’m entitled to only what I am able to earn in the marketplace- and I resent any of my tax dollars going toward insulating anyone from reality.
i_am_nomad - February 21, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Who needs proof when you have an entire channel devoted to spreading falsehoods? (Cough. FOX News! Cough.)
And even though you drive a 10-year Saturn, you no doubt have it parked at your 10,000 square foot ski chalet in Sun Valley.
I would comment more, but I’m busy smuggling angry Africanized bees through the Matamoros border gate. Don’t ask where I hid them.
katikoos - February 21, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Clearly you don’t understand what a teacher’s workload looks like and how teachers work.
Aside from the hours spent delivering a new ‘performance’ for every lecture, doing the research, making sure information is up to date, there is the processing of [in my case] 50+ students per class — I teach five classes. Then, there are the bureaucratic responsibilities of adding, dropping, and posting to the College website. This is all after hours and hours of grading up to about 50 students’ work in EACH of FIVE classes, and making meaningful comments to assist those students in actually learning something rather than just going through the motions of attending classes.
So, whether teachers ‘work’ on Fridays, meaning they APPEAR on campus, they are working 7 days per week. Unlike other workers, who show up for their 8 hours per day and then leave, leaving their work concerns at the office, teachers carry their concerns home into week-ends and holidays and you can find them grading on buses, trains and during holidays. This does not even include the emails, phone calls, and meetings with students outside of either class or office hours.
If you think our workload is so enviable and easy … why don’t you try to teach 250 students without a TA or RA every week?
i_am_nomad - February 21, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Mr. coolbean413
When you assert that public employee unions have destroyed the American middle class you are just confirming whatever (latent?) biases you have against unionized labor. Although the Ohio case involves a faculty member, is he a union member? Did he use collective bargaining in order to be exempted from teaching on Fridays? Could his specific case be generalized to the thousands of other tenure cases? NO.
While you are seeking confirmation for your prejudices, could you send me a photograph of a
bejeweled welfare queen wearing a DKNY dashiki and Prada jodhpurs in the check-out line at your local Safeway? What’s that you say? Can’t find one? Well, give ol’ Newt Gingrich a call, I’m sure he has plenty!
danamoswald - February 21, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Let’s be honest about how the governor got elected–and that was through major donations NOT by individuals.
But a bit more about those “luxury” benefits. Yes, we’re clearly rolling in it. We’re paid 8% below the regional average, and our benefits are good–but in some cases, the pension will result in a “luxurious” $20,000 a year for a retiree, also possibly making him ineligible for Medicaid. Don’t get me wrong–I like my benefits, but the trouble here is that we haven’t had a raise in 5 years and we’re not likely to get one, with the forthcoming insane budget cuts. We’ve been furloughed for 2 years, as have many people in other states, and now we’ll be asked to take what, for some of my colleagues, will amount to a 12% reduction in pay. Our lecturers, adjuncts, and administrative staffs are in the worst positions. Since we are on 9-month contracts, our benefit contributions for the summer months are all taken out of our June paycheck. This will be the total amount of that paycheck for some of my colleagues. And they will have little ability to budget and save for it.
While I see that your objections here are about Big Labor (and by all means, dislike unions, but that’s not the same thing as disallowing them), all of these problems are packaged in together in a larger impulse to diminish protections for education. Make no mistake: we are in real trouble in this state, personally, economically, and ideologically.
proftowanda - February 21, 2011 at 2:16 pm
To the claim that Wisconsin is high in educational attainment: Yes and no. Wisconsin ranks high in high school graduates. But (per the most recent, 2011 census fact sheet on educational attainment) Wisconsin is below the national norm — yes, in the bottom half of states — in college graduates. The Chronicle could have checked that and localized its stats to the specifics to see just how much Walker is pandering to his people: Compared to the Chronicle’s stat that two-thirds (of those 25 years of age or older) of people in this country do not have a college degree, the comparate figure in Wisconsin is three-fourths of residents (25 years of age and older).
But where is Walker’s support? Let’s ask the Wisconsinites who know him well, from his previous job — as a public employee, almost all of his jobs — as Milwaukee County executive. Wait, we did ask them, in the gubernatorial election just a few months ago, when two-thirds of Milwaukee County voted against Walker, including his own hometown (a suburb, not the city), owing to his mismanagement that that cost the county again just weeks ago in another lost lawsuit for which Milwaukeeans will have to pay. But they’re the lucky ones compared to people who died because of Walker’s neglect of county facilities, from inmates at the county mental health institution to a teenaged boy killed when a half-ton piece of a county facility fell on him last summer. That lawsuit just was filed that will cost Walker’s constituents in Milwaukee again and again.
His support, his winning margin, came from the next county to the west, one of the most conservative counties in the country, whose population has soared with “white flighters” from Milwaukee who have turned on their former city — and turned to him for his rhetoric that barely masks what Walker really means. And they know what he means. They know. And now, so do you.
mikepierce625 - February 21, 2011 at 4:11 pm
The important think is balance. In private industry, the competitive marketplace places limits on how much unions can demand. If they push too hard, their jobs disappear. The public sector has monopoly power and taxing authority which effectively allow unions to ask for more and more until the public gets outraged enough to put a stop to it. Here in California, the unions have accumulated benefits that the general public views as outrageous. For example, it is almost impossible to fire a public school teacher no matter how badly they teach or how many students they have bullied and abused. Seniority trumps performance. Public employee pensions are incredibly generous when compared to the private sector. At some point the public will balk.
carefree1 - February 21, 2011 at 4:15 pm
katikoos,
Best post on this thread.
CF
bdmcd - February 21, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows.
South Carolina -50th
North Carolina -49th
Georgia -48th
…Texas -47th
Virginia -44th
(By the way, Wisconsin is #2.)
just saying….
kopernikus - February 21, 2011 at 6:47 pm
State rankings by SAT score are better explained by demographics than by union membership.
katikoos - February 21, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Actually, I was instrumental, AS A PARENT who participated at my child’s school, in ridding the school of a tenured teacher who was ignorant, incompetent and inappropriate and to do it without too much work.
It is NOT impossible to fire tenured teachers if documentation exists of their incompetence or misbehavior. Sometimes, it does require those outside the ‘system’ to do the work of documenting though.
Unions, for the most part have assured that those without power or without much power and certainly without financial resources have a voice. That voice, gained through collective bargaining assures that they get what they LEGALLY are entitled to, that they are able to negotiate — not get whatever they want. Unfortunately, the few unions that have managed to get unreasonable concessions color our view of the concept of collective bargaining which merely aims to level the playing field.
Sitting in a gubernatorial office, collecting a governor’s pay hardly supports the concept that it is UNIONS that are the problem.
It was the linking of budget and employee compensation to the right to collective bargaining that is central to this debate.
However … we might all question where all the money has gone. Where are American dollars going? to unions? to Unionized workers? to teachers? or to the defense department … to major contractors who command huge contracts to pay for their lobbyists and office spaces adjoining the Federal government. In fact, if you want to find some money, look at Wall Street, look at oil companies and other huge corporations that have even bigger profits. YOu might actually find far more resources there than with the working class public employees.
coolbeans413 - February 21, 2011 at 8:36 pm
I have a tremendous amount of respect for teachers as well as public servants. Its not a question of personal respect. Its a question of fairness and ability to pay. Wisconsin is broke. This is not an overnight surprise. The public employees union could have and should have done more to help avoid a crisis. Look again at Ohio– they are also considering a similar bill- Senate Bill 5. Feel free to google it.
If there were a mass of Newt Gingrich’s living in Wisconsin, I’m sure that many of us would be glad to pick that pocket. But there isn’t. There is no big oil to squeeze in Wisconsin. There are no big corporations- this is not a business friendly state because of the tax policies and the deficit. The funding has to come on the backs of farmers and the blue collar folks, many of whom cannot buy their own health insurance nor save for retirement.
And by the way, there is a tremendous amount of support for Walker in my low-income, redneck part of the state- contrary to the assertion that Walker’s supporters are solely wealthy, white flighters from Milwaukee. Wealthy people could care less about what teachers make and are happy to live in the best neighborhoods with the highest property taxes that support them. They can afford it. The backlash against the unions is coming from the unemployed neighbor who’s house is in foreclosure.
missoularedhead - February 22, 2011 at 11:44 am
man, I wish I had a chalet in Sun Valley (actually, I don’t. I hate snow). I forgot to mention that I have a child, too. Rats. I really am a spendthrift, reproducing like that.
11126724 - February 28, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Those who attack unions don’t seem to realize they are attacking the one institution in American life that has prevented open class warfare for the past 80 years. Unions have allowed conflict over unequal (!) wealth to be negotiated in a manner that has mostly prevented bloodshed and property damage of untold potential scale.
Destroy unions at your peril, America!
11126724 - February 28, 2011 at 2:22 pm
It has nothing to do with democracy. It’s about class warfare, pure and simple. When is the last time any of you met a Marxist on campus? How many are there on your campus. Not very many, I bet. So how can they have so much influence as you allege? It’s all nonsense, what you say.
robehrendt0738 - February 28, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I would compare Wisconsin to Alaska (not Egypt) because they are both cold. I would compare Scott Walker to Sarah Palin because they are both naturally incompetent, meglamaniacal, and uneducated. Prediction: Walker will not serve his entire term as governor of Wisconsin after being chosen by Sarah Palin as her vice-presidential running mate in 2012.
resource - March 3, 2011 at 12:45 pm
A cogent and right analysis. What the running dogs of the corporate fat cats dont get is that without some mechanism to distribute wealth, more and more of the population will be on the margins of the economy, and then they will be really pissed and ready to fight. Social order will deteriorate, the rich people will flee the country. The labor union movement saved american capitalists from revolution — and the capitalist class has no historical memory.
davi2665 - March 3, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Spoken like a true Marxist revolutionary. If you can’t bludgeon society into getting what you want, just threaten violence and initiate class warfare to take by force whatever you want. Just the kind of society that America strives to become. But when the rich people actually do flee the country, where will those angry fighters turn to get the money and resources they have not earned? Eventually, you will manage to achieve a utopian society equivalent to Zimbabwe.
katikoos - March 3, 2011 at 9:40 pm
to davi2665:
Unions and teachers are not taking money from rich people — it is rather the reverse! Union members pay dues out of their rather paltry salaries and manage to work together in cooperative fashion as opposed to those who want to tear apart a system that has allowed middle class people to participate and live in some measure of comfort.
It is the corporate greed, failure to pay THEIR share, failure to abide by laws to protect the body politic and the environment that is STEALING from us all.
Get real! Comments that compare union members to Marxists are just demonstrating a failure to understand the difference between social systems. Have you ever read what Marxism actually stands for? OR, for that matter, have you ever read about what sweat shops were like before unionization? Have to seen the films about the women who were burned to death by the dozens because their RICH bosses wanted to keep them locked up to assure that they worked for every minute of the time they were sweating and sewing for the benefit of the boss?
If you have NOT read … not experienced … then perhaps it is time to get informed, educated — that is, if schools continue to exist after the rich and powerful have their way with public employees.
jcisneros - March 5, 2011 at 10:57 am
I agree with you katikoos.
I wish I lived in the fantasy world where I made a huge salary, had plenty of leisure time to read Karl Marx, and impose my liberal, socialist will on everyone; but since none of the former are true, I guess I will have to stick with 60+ hours per week.
I live in a cheap apartment, I drive a ten year old automobile (that needs repairs, but alas I do not have enough income to pay all my bills and fix my car). I am just your average, wealthy “socialist” slumming with the peasants, and I secretly vacation on the French Riviera (very chic, I assure you), own five Rolexes, a Maserati, and I have a lover in every major European capital, all of whom I shower with expensive gifts and…
Where do you guys come up with this fantasy of overpaid academics? Academics might be doing really well in your imaginations, but reality is a harsh mistress. Most faculty make a lower middle class living, contract faculty teach a full load (defined as 4/2/4, ten courses per year) at between 2000.00 and 3000.00 per course, flat rate. That is $20K-$30K per year for the less mathematically inclined. Wow, look at that amazing salary! That is defined as below the poverty line for a single person. Imagine trying to raise a family on that gold mine of money.
Idiots.