I don't have much except the obvious to say about it from my perspective. But for the record, I'll say it anyway: We're seeing the classic pattern in American politics play out there that we've seen grow in intensity since 1980. Republicans take power and aggressively seek to roll back what the rest of us thought was settled; people throw the Republicans out when their extremist agenda becomes obvious; Democrats take power, and they dither while Republicans consolidate their gains, and in doing so nauseate everyone who expects them to fight to win back what the Republicans took away; voters whose disgust with spineless Democrats is fresher than their memory of the irresponsible extremism of Republicans vote Republicans back into power; Republicans claim a mandate, pick up where they left off, and take the next step in aggressively rolling back what the rest of us thought was settled.
This is the pattern and the only sane way to break it is to take peacefully to the streets to make the case that otherwise doesn't get made because it dies somewhere in committee. The idea that somehow this is anti-democratic because the people have spoken in voting Walker and other Republicans into office is inane because it fails to recognize that the two-party electoral democracy in this country doesn't work anymore–at least for ordinary working Americans. Clearer choices have to be given to the people besides those offered by this moribund party system. And it starts with workers.
These workers doing what they're doing now in Wisconsin, which is making the case for themselves that no party is willing robustly to make on their behalf, is the first step toward restoring a robust representative democracy–if it's already not to late to do it.
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