Hard Times in the Heartland of Plenty

Wisconsin killed collective bargaining, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio are lined up to try to do the same. Michigan is asserting state rights over local governance and taxing the poor and aged to bail out corporations. While 2012 presidential Queen-wannabe Michelle Bachmann is pointing to the lessons of Lexington and Concord, real attention should be paid to the tyranny that is taking hold in the heartland. As Omar and the Howlers once said it's, "Hard times in the land of plenty."

Clearly there is nowhere else in the US that is experiencing the radical notions that Republican leaders in the Midwest have been successfully espousing and spearheading through their legislatures. In the name of balancing budgets and job creation, these leaders have put into play laws that will likely lead to less economic stability and more strains on state coffers. And for what? Retribution, an attempted power-grab, or genuine belief that these remedies will benefit all?

Whatever their reasoning, their Charlie Sheen-like attempts at "winning" are coming at great cost to the people who do the work, union and non-union alike. By changing the landscape, the sum total is that workers and management have reverted to the more adversarial past that led to violence when reasonable accommodation couldn't be reached. To de-evolve back to this old world view is likely to create a free market caste-system that has no connection to democratic values.

There is cause and effect for anything we do and, had we not already tried what is being re-enacted, it might be seen as worth doing. However American history tells us that when the rights of any group are suppressed or overtaxed, eventually the main street American agrees that it is wrong. In this case, it is clear that main street already agrees that their government is over-reaching and since they have nothing to show for their votes, the political pendulum will swiftly go back the other way.