The GOP that I once knew - e.g., where one didn't need to be ignorant, bigoted and a religious extremist - fades away into the past more and more with each passing day. The current anti-union efforts in Wisconsin and elsewhere likewise show the lie of the self proclaimed party of "family values." While budget cutting is raised as the excuse for seeking to destroy public worker unions, the real agenda is to crush those who hold different political beliefs and to open the door for rapacious conduct by big business. It's no coincidence that the Koch brothers nasty finger prints can be found in what's happening in Wisconsin. Yes, the same Koch brothers whose enterprises are major polluters and who would reduce regulations that inhibit their destruction of the environment. If this GOP effort prevails, we can expect more and more of a return to the robber baron era where we will have the extremely rich and everyone else is struggling to survive. Not exactly the image of what the Gospel message preached. But then, the GOP uses God and the Bible merely to dupe the stupid and ignorant who fail to realize the agenda they support ultimately has them in the bull's eye as well. The New York Times has a editorial that looks at this increasingly distressing phenomenon. Here are some highlights:*
Like a wind-whipped brush fire, the mass union protests that began in Madison, Wis., last week have spread to the capitals of Ohio and Indiana where Republican lawmakers also are trying to cripple the bargaining power of unions — and ultimately realize a cherished partisan dream of eradicating them. In each case, Republican talk of balancing budgets is cover for the real purpose of gutting the political force of middle-class state workers, who are steady supporters of Democrats and pose a threat to a growing conservative agenda.
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Conservative leaders in most states with strong unions have in the past generally made accommodations with organized labor, often winning support on social issues in return. That changed this year after wealthy conservatives poured tens of millions of dollars into the election campaigns of hard-right candidates like Mr. Kasich and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
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As Eric Lipton reported in The Times on Tuesday, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who have long been staunch union opponents, were among the biggest contributors to Mr. Walker. (Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group financed by the Kochs, will begin running anti-union broadcast ads in Wisconsin in the next few days.)
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Some public sector unions have contracts and benefits that are too rich for these times, but even when they have made concessions, Republican officials have kept up the attack. The Republicans’ claim to be acting on behalf of taxpayers is not believable.
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In Wisconsin, union leaders agreed to concessions requested by Mr. Walker: to pay nearly 6 percent of their wages for pension costs, up from nearly zero, and double payments for health insurance. At that point, most governors would declare victory and move on. Instead, Mr. Walker has rejected union concessions and won’t even negotiate. His true priority is stripping workers of collective-bargaining rights and reducing their unions to a shell. The unions would no longer be able to raise money to oppose him, as they did in last year’s election, easing the way for future Republicans as well.
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Never mind that the union workers have families, children to raise and bills to pay. Nope, it's only the agenda of nasty individuals like the Koch brothers that matter to today's GOP regardless of the bullshit they dispense to the Kool-Aid drinkers of the Christian Right and the Tea Party. Hasn't anyone figured out that when the middle class is killed off, there's going to be a vastly reduced purchasing power to revive the economy?
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