In his 1998 book Inside Terrorism, Bruce Hoffman defined terrorism as "the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear through violence or the threat of violence in pursuit of political change" (page 43).

Jay,

I'm a federal employee and I absolutely HATE public employee unions. In fact, I'm not fond of any union after having almost violent confrontations with them when I worked in the private sector many years ago (I was lower management and had to cross that picket line - they knew it and yet still pounded and spit on my car and yelled plenty of stuff I can't type here).

I personally know other public employees (including two teachers) who hate them as well, but are afraid of what will happen to them if they voice their opinions.

Public employee unions need to be outlawed in general, but doing away with collective bargaining rights is a good start.

I want to thank and praise Jay Nordlinger for writing with passion and clarity on this situation with the government empowered unions, particularly the one in charge of "education." This is serious business, a prelude to our future, and while the American public probably won't get it -- does it ever? -- I like to fantasize that a few people here and there are catching on: that our enemies on the left mean business and civility as the chosen response will prove inadequate.

Allow me to be blunt: the goal of our resistance is not to have lunch with socialist* Obama and his minions, but to render these wretched people impotent over our lives. Like our enemies abroad, our enemies at home are now free to strike whenever and wherever they please with the full encouragement of the media (which remains a powerful political force.) As Stanley Kurtz has explained, we are now fulfilling (the amazing, moderate, reaching across the aisle, triangulating) Obama's plan.

And just wait until he brings in the artillery of race. Not good. Not good at all.
_______________________

*What kind of socialist? I think this version:
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Excuse me...I mean 'privilege' in the sense of God, not the State, conferring it to us at birth.

It looks like the Left is trying to make the debate emotional, as if they know they can't win a reasoned argument. They're ginning up a shouting match so voters can't distinguish between the alternatives.

If the Wisconsin government can come through this looking businesslike and determined, that's a huge blow to the lefty meme of angry conservatives.

Don't expect the electorate will get angry at this. It's not like the Republicans haven't done their share making the problems. And most people don't pay enough attention to this stuff to see the tactics with enough clarity to get angry. Maybe they should, and it's still more irritating that these childish tactics don't carry a higher price.

But the winning ground is in the policy. Which is why the Left is so eager to move to more chaotic ground.

Fear and intimidation is all that these losers have.

Public employees are decently paid. They are not the abused workers at the beginning of the last century, when unions were needed to prevent abuse by employers.

I know, I am a former civil servant in California.

Naturally, I'm sympathetic, but these tactics make me repudiate them. Let's hope they lose the goodwill of everyone.

And the head editorial hack in the local rag, opined that just because Luna's mother was approached by someone and his car spray painted didn't necessarily mean that these were teacher's unionites or their fellow travelers - why it could have been a juvenile delinquent that did it. I mean the timing could have been purely coincidental! And the guy that went to his mom's house? It could have been anyone. We just don't know and we shouldn't leap to conclusions.

(The Statesman is a McClatchy paper - enough said I think)

Hey, Lanette--

Can't make your fun-filled trip to WI. Gotta work to pay my (soon to be rising) taxes.

A Conservative

The spoiled brats demonstrating in Wisconsin are not MY friends. If I knew them, I would tell them not to expect a Christmas card from me ever again. I don't live there, so they are not my neighbors. If they were, I would shun them. I would not want them teaching my children if I had any, and I think their appalling example teaches all the children something really awful: you can get what you want if you just throw a tantrum big enough and loud enough. Definitely not a lesson that should be propagated. Are the test scores of WI children worth mentioning?

I hope they all get fired, and the governor hires minimum wage babysitters to come in and keep the kids in an orderly environment for the length of a school day, until computer learning tutors (not teachers) can be hired to show kids how to do self-paced learning. The best classes I ever had were self-paced, and the promise of free time made me work harder to get done faster. I had wonderful teachers in most of my public school classes, but I also wanted to learn as much as possible. At this point, I think computers have made most teaching positions obsolete.

Now if the WI legislature will also pass a law making it illegal to offer benefits to employees, so we all work for wages alone, that will close off one avenue of improvidence. I'm sure there are downsides to that, but are they worse than the state government defaulting on its fiscal responsibilities?