That Wisconsin Thing

That mushy, liquid explosion you heard about an hour ago? It was the sound of leftist cheeseheads imploding in rage as Lefty Villian Governor Scott Walker survived a recall attempt to the tune of at least a double digit victory (numbers are still coming in but all the major networks have called it for him and it's running about 60-40 right now which is ridiculously bad news for the Left.) Forbes.com has already proclaimed DOOM for the public sector unions and they're probably right- though it's worth noting that two interesting ballot initiatives in deep Blue California are also up for grabs tonight.

All in all, am I fan of this? Meh. Sort of? I'm not a fan of Walker's connections to the big donors of the Right Wing and I suspect despite all the fiscal success there's a larger agenda at work here and I don't like that. No agendas. No foolishness. You fixed your state's budget and seem to be generating good economic results- don't be playing around with anything else.

This is a HUGE repudiation of public sector unions and unions in general- unions that I think won't be too enthused about voting for a President that didn't want to touch this recall election with a ten foot pole. I'm not against unions by any stretch of the imagination but they're pushing their own agendas too and I don't like that. If your membership craters as soon as they stop deducting dues from paychecks, you need to work on your pitch. If you can't even get your blue collar working types to cut a check to pay dues, you need to take a hard look at what's working and what's not.

There are plenty of Democrats (Pat Quinn of Illinois, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Mayor Emmanuel of Chicago and undoubtedly Jerry Brown of California) that are probably looking for some fiscal flexibility to solve the financial crises they're facing. Walker's victory might just give them that. While Republicans might have motives that annoy me, there's no denying we're looking at a fiscal disaster. Flexibility for Governors is a must- as a public sector worker, I'm happy to have a salary, benefits and a job I like. So, a blow against the workers? Sure- but not that big of a one in the grand scheme of things. Better news for the country? I agree.