All The Marbles

It may be news to people who get their information from Fox. A man posing as one of the Koch brothers was able to engage in and record a twenty minute telephone conversation with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The recording, available on the internet, didn’t produce a proverbial smoking gun. But in the exchange, during which the Governor did almost all the talking, there is no mention of the financial crisis that, we’ve been told, required such severe legislation.

A major part of what the governor volunteered concerned that progress of what seems like a conspiracy among some newly elected Republican governors to effectively kill organized labor. The controversy in Wisconsin doesn’t involve remuneration to which the union had already conceded to the state’s demands. It deals with a proposed law that would severely restrict and virtually eliminate public employees’ right to organize in their mutual interest.

The commentary I’ve heard suggests that Republicans have bitten off more than they can chew and that this plan is working against them. I agree. Polls are showing a nearly two to one disapproval. I suspect that many people like me may not be overly fond of unions, but recognize the need for the right of workers to organize as at least a necessary evil in a nation that thinks of itself as a democracy. The president’s relative silence on this matter, while not exactly inspiring, is politically prudent. Governor Walker is doing just fine on his own and doesn’t need help.

The Citizens United decision extended First Amendment free speech rights to corporate advertising financed by anonymous benefactors who may not even be citizens. The Amendment guarantees this right to all Americans including union members.  It also guarantees “the right of the people to peaceably assemble” in the same context and even the same sentence as freedom of speech. When people assemble it’s often for the purpose of pursing common interests. Rumor has it that this sort of thing happens in corporate boardrooms.

The Republican Party has given us Joe McCarthy, Watergate, Iran Contra and assaults on the Constitution by George W. Bush and friends. Democrats have not been without major transgressions. But theirs have tended to be less partisan while Republicans play for keeps.