As I look at the union members swarm the Wisconsin capital, I have a familiar thought: A great advantage of the Left is that they are organized and determined — and have a lot of time. Paid time. The taxpayer is funding these “days of protest,” engaged in by the public-school teachers. They are using their “sick” leave, provided by the taxpayer, to go rallying.
And what are the other citizens of Wisconsin — the majority — doing? What they always do. Going about their business, or businesses; providing for their families. As we speak, some are having to stay home with their school-aged children, who have been locked out of their classrooms by their teachers — their “teachers.”
Ordinary Wisconsinites aren’t paid to go rallying in the capital. Besides, they “rallied” at the polls last November. They had their say then. And now, Governor Walker and the rest are trying to conduct the people’s business.
I am reminded of why I was so amazed at, and admiring of, the Tea Party. Right-leaning types almost never get together and rally, in my experience. But the Tea Party was something special, something new. Here was a genuine democratic movement. Its participants were not like the hordes of purple-shirted unionists, holding their prefab signs, shouting their prepared slogans. They were just folks, with their own, individual clothing, and their own, homemade signs. The Tea Party movement itself was homemade.
A veteran political journalist — not a Republican — told me that he never expected to see anything like the Tea Party: an honest-to-goodness grassroots movement.
I believe the Tea Party held their events on the weekend. Unlike the teacher unionists, they do not get paid to skip work and go rally.
Political activism in general is the province of the Left. Conservatives don’t have the time for it, and they don’t have the inclination either. Thomas Sowell once remarked that, in politics, the Left fields its A Team and the Right its B Team. What did he mean? He meant that the Left’s high-flyers go into politics, because they yearn to remake society and control others. Our high-flyers do things that make the economy grow.
This is one reason I so appreciate a politician like former Michigan governor John Engler. He adores politics: first held office when he was still in college, I believe. And yet he has Republican, Reaganite views. He spent a career in government trying to put government in its proper place, and give the public breathing room. It seems to me that most people who spend their careers in government want to increase the power of government, and shrink the private, or non-governmental, sphere.
Let me close with a quotation from a column I cited earlier today: the one by Patrick McIlheran, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He said that union leaders “must figure that if they bring 13,000 shouting people to Madison, they can overrule the election.” And I love what he said next: “Any worried legislators should keep in mind that Walker drew about five times that many votes in Dane County alone in November.”
Yes. At this critical hour, Wisconsin’s elected officials should remember whom they work for. And they should take courage in that remembering. They work for all the citizens, not just the ones who can take time off — paid — to shout and bully.
Where Does the Left Get the Time?
Answer: The right works so most of the left decide not to
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe the Wisconsin authorities should consider demanding doctor or clinic verification of illness. Other wise this should be viewed as a wildcat strike, and subject the teacher's to termination. I think that the state should demand proof of illness upon return or their resignation. I'm sure there are unemployed teachers around willing to work under the new purposed terms.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't remember any articles about this during the tax day protests. Liberals work, just as conservatives work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgree wholeheartedly, Mr. Nordlinger. One quibble: Why do you refer to the Tea Party in the past tense? It's not over, is it? I'm hoping that it's just getting started!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn my former career, we had a totally obnoxious employee who twisted the Civil Service regulations to excuse some outrageous behavior on her part. Then one day, when she was on official sick leave, a supervisor encountered her WORKING AS AN EMPLOYEE in a local store. She was out, no pension, no nothing.
I suspect any "sick" teacher photographed at these demonstrations might be running a similar risk.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Governor said he wouldn’t lay off 6000 people if his bill is passed. In light of recent events, he should fire 10,000 immediately, with 4000 eligible for rehire when his bill passes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseParker - Weak, very weak.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseParker, my local tax day protest started at 4 in the afternoon. I went in to work early that day so I could put in a full day.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne of the things that was so frustrating to me regarding the conservative response to the Tea Party movement was the establishment's indifference to it. This is particularly true at NR, sad to say.
*First, it was: discount the crowd estimates
*Then it was: get out the magnifying glass and find the racists (always a popular sport among liberals and pseudo-cons.)
*Finally, when that didn't work, it was condescension: Oh, look how neat and tidy they are! They know how to pick up after themselves, (though not a book contract to be seen, anywhere.)
If this country is to be saved, a very big if given what we are seeing in Wisconsin -- a small-scale preview of what is to come -- it will be the Tea Partiers who are a big factor in accomplishing the miracle.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy were there 3,000,000 people in D.C. on January 20, 2009? Only seven of them had to get off from work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTeachers have unlimited sick leave. Also, they are paid very well, perhaps too well. Remember, they are paid for a nine month contract. Those nine months include several holidays, so-called teacher work days, half of December, education association conference days, and, of course, an indefinite number of sick days, each of which is covered under the contract. During the nine months, teachers are always paid, whether they show up to work, or not.
Many teachers used to work in the summer months to supplement their income. Today, that activity has been, largely, supplanted by cruises and expensive vacations. Teaching is, often, a secondary income and pay used to reflect that. Today, it is a secondary job with a primary job income and benefits, a very good primary job.
These teachers in Wisconsin make me sick and, if I had unlimited sick leave, I'd take a day off to recouperate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho wants to bet that the Democrat senators at the Best Western in Rockford submit expense reports for their time there? "Let the taxpayers foot the bill for us not doing our jobs!"
I actually wonder if they'd have the gall to do that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I don't remember any articles about this during the tax day protests. Liberals work, just as conservatives work."
Yeah, but most of the ones being bussed-in to the "protest du jour" either don't work on are on the public dime in one form or another.
Weekday Tea Party events were mostly held in city centers during lunchtime or right after work, precisely so the kind of people who don't normally march in the streets could.
(I work for state government, and our Tax Day event was held outside the county court house, in an area where city, county, state and federal office buildings exist cheek-by-jowl. It was covered by the local media - which meant I could not attend. I live in a deep blue county and being identified as a conservative would be a severely career-limiting move. Assuming it didn't cost me my job outright.)
Regards,
Joe
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat with Mr. Rosen joking about a sexual assault on a fellow journalist and the Wisconsin unionists calling their governor Hitler, I gather that the shelf life on the Left's post-Tucson fondness for civility has expired.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRegarding my previous post: don't misunderstand, I respect and admire a good teacher and I do not begrudge their compensation. I was once a teacher and enjoyed that part of my life. I'm just tired of whining, ungrateful brats.
One more thing: I inadvertently misspelled "recuperate". Really, I know how to spell it. Really.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRight. Look at the "blue" states versus the "red" states. Guess which ones are wealthier?
Look at the 2008 exit polls. People with incomes over $200,000 a year voted Obama over McCain, 53-48.
Studies show that liberal-leaning Daily Show viewers are better educated and better employed than conservative-inclined Fox watchers.
This ridiculous trope that liberals "don't work" or that conservatives are the only entrepreneurs in society is the stuff of lazy hacks. It's not journalism. And it's just plain disgraceful to imply (or state outright) that those who disagree with you are lazy, unhygenic, etc. But hey, as long as writers at NRO are lazy (or cynical) enough to state such things, and people reading are dumb enough to believe them and cheer them on, it will continue.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm temporarily, I hope it's temporary, stuck in Maine; the land of the RHINO's (Collins and Snowe). On the radio earlier today, there was a report that the House Minority Leader, Emily Cain (D), expressed concern about the Republican governor's nominee to head the Dept. of Education. She was 'concerned' because the nominee had extreme right-wing views, and had worked for an organization that had an 'agenda'. I was expecting to hear that he had worked for a fundamentalist Christian organization. Nope, he had worked for the Maine Heritage Policy Center! LOL..hmm, I wonder if Ms. Cain considers the teachers union to 'have an agenda'? Does the Maine Democratic party have an agenda, or is it only groups that don't toe the party/union line that have agendas? (Yes, that's a rhetorical question.)
It's a disgrace that the media allows, or should I say, enables, the Democrats/Progressives to position themselves as centrists/moderates, and thus anyone to their 'right' is extreme. Fortunately, more and more voters are starting to figure out that it is the Democratic Party and their union supporters who are the extremists.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAre you saying that state workers should not be able to use their time off to exercise their constitutional rights?
Your point that people don't get paid to skip work and rally is simply not true. I get paid vacation and sick time at my private employer. Am I a horrible person for choosing to use my vacation time to attend a rally? Do you think all the people who attended the March for Life, held on a Monday, were somehow bereft in their duties? Those people certainly weren't on the left. If there were public employees who participated, do you think they should be fired for exercising their first amendment rights on taxpayer financed days off?
While I agree that this should not be done using sick time, I don't think that by virtue of accepting a job in public service, one gives up their rights to lobby, protest, and petition the government. That seems to be what this article implies. There are plenty of legitimate points about the behavior of the unions in Wisconsin here, but this just is not one of them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the single stupidest thing I have read from NR. Remember, the "9/12" rally was --completely offensively -- held on the 12 of September by design. The only reason it was held over the weekend was because September 12 happened to fall on a Saturday in 2009.
And let's not forget, during that demonstration, the flunkies at NR were boasting about how people came from across the country to attend. Not only would this require missing work in some cases, it also meant paying for airfare. And yet teachers protesting against cuts to their own pay are considered dilletantes. Such is the intellectual integrity of modern conservatism.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIncognito:
Just a guess, but I'm thinking that the teachers who are not at school did not request to have the day(s) off. If they did, that's one union-friendly school department Superintendent who signs off on giving so many teachers the same day(s) off that he/she has to close the school.
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