You don’t always get what you vote for

Meanwhile a friend just emailed me about Wisconsin. I’m happy people are protesting,…

I hope that they have learned something from the French and the British protesters failure to bring about change and from the Egyptians success at bringing about change. It’s going to take more than one day or one week.

I recommend this Vanity Fair article. (It’s nine pages but you don’t miss much if quit on page seven at the heading “Bring Me a Little Ire.” From that point on it’s two drawn out tales recounting the feckless expressions of dissent by two separate individuals.)

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The numbers were breathtaking. A single bank, Anglo Irish, which, two years before, the Irish government had claimed was merely suffering from a “liquidity problem,” faced losses of up to 34 billion euros. To get some sense of how “34 billion euros” sounds to Irish ears [GDP wise], an American thinking in dollars needs to multiply it by roughly one hundred: $3.4 trillion. And that was for a single bank. As the sum total of loans made by Anglo Irish, most of it to Irish property developers, was only 72 billion euros, the bank had lost nearly half of every dollar it invested….

At the rate money currently flows into the Irish treasury, Irish bank losses alone would absorb every penny of Irish taxes for at least the next three years….

Yet when I arrived, in early November 2010, Irish politics had a frozen-in-time quality to it. In Iceland, the business-friendly conservative party had been quickly tossed out of power, and the women booted the alpha males out of the banks and government. (Iceland’s new prime minister is a lesbian.) In Greece the business-friendly conservative party was also given the heave-ho, and the new government is attempting to create a sense of collective purpose, or at any rate persuade the citizens to quit cheating on their taxes. (The new Greek prime minister is not merely upstanding, but barely Greek.)

Ireland was the first European country to watch its entire banking system fail, and yet its business-friendly conservative party, Fianna Fáil (pronounced “Feena Foil”), would remain in office into 2011. There’s been no Tea Party movement, no Glenn Beck, no serious protests of any kind….
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If, even after reading Joe Bageant, you’re still wondering where Scots-Irish Americans come by their willingness to vote Republican and to be reamed, again and again, by their government this article will reveal that location.

Considering my last post as it relates to the thread title, I suppose you could say “You don’t always get what you protest for,” or, “you don’t always get what you revolt for.” If history is any judge, an adequate substitution would be “never” for “don’t always.”

Is the U.S. today what all those bright-eyed hippies had in mind when they were protesting in the sixties? I would think not, but that conclusion is necessarily falsifiable.

Wisconsin is a bellwhether state in this fight – heavily unionized, deep progressive roots. A lot of other states are watching to see what happens. If Wisconsin goes, many other states will follow – the stakes are high.

I don’t live there, but from what I’ve heard from the news, I’m not sure the voters clearly knew this was Gov Walker’s intention. He’s only been in office since January. Although it’s possible, I doubt if he openly campaigned on “busting the unions”.

I’ve also heard that Wisconsin finished 2010 with a budget surplus – and so the claim of necessity due to dire financials sounds bogus.

His earlier threat to mobilize the National Guard against protesters is especially rich, since many of the Guard are teachers/union members themselves or have family members in unions.

I’m cheered that the legislature’s Democrats fled the state, to stall the vote. It’s an interesting and strategic situation, to say the least.

Ian,

I don’t know that I would “blame the voters”.

Yes we have freedom of choice…

Waiter: Coke or Pepsi? What kind of cola do you drink sir?

Free citizen: I’ll have water.

Waiter: I am afraid that is not a choice. What kind of cola do you drink sir? Coke or Pepsi?

Free citizen: How about some lemon-aid?

Waiter: What are you…some kinda wise guy? What kind of cola do you drink? Coke or Pepsi? And spare me the teary eyed longing for something other than cola…Coke or Pepsi?

Waiter: Coke or Pepsi? What kind of cola do you drink sir?

Waiter: I am afraid that is not a choice. What kind of cola do you drink sir? Coke or Pepsi?

What the hell kind of restaurants do you visit?

Ian:
So what do you do when presented with a situation like Colorado? Where a Democrat, Hickenlooper, clearly hates unions.

From MontanaMaven @ correntewire.com/will_madison_be_our_cairo#more

From MSNBC we get a report noting some Green Bay Packers weighing in:

Present and former members of the Green Bay Packers…Curtis Fuller, Chris Jackie, Charles Jordan, Bob Long, Steve Okoniewski, Brady Poppinga and Jason Spitz. The statements reads:

“We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn’t have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans.

“It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work.

“The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin’s long standing tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work.

“These public workers are Wisconsin’s champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights.”

…Today, the NFLPA stands in solidarity with its organized labor brothers and sisters in Wisconsin,” the statement said.

Digby has a post up applauding an interview Bernie Sanders recently gave and then she wistfully sighs that she wishes she could vote for him.

It seemed to completely escape her notice that Bernie Sanders is NOT a Democrat. He’s listed as an Independent, but he’s a declared socialist.

In California, where Digby resides, she has the opportunity at every election to vote for a socialist on the ballot. She could vote for members of the Socialist Party or she could vote for someone from the Green Party.

So maybe she can’t vote for Sanders himself but she could vote for someone JUST LIKE him.

But she can’t seem to grasp that simple fact. It’s complete cognitive failure.

I live in Wisconsin, and I went the the polls last November, but had nobody to vote for, for Governor anyway. Walker’s a disgusting, submoronic hack, but his Democratic opponent, Barrett? He campaigned on: cutting government spending in a recession (mocking the city of Madison, where I live, by calling that putting Madison ‘on a diet’, btw), cutting health care spending for the poor, cutting health services in prisons, slashing the state workforce, pushing more Ethanol, etc.

http://jsears.xidus.net/blog/?p=1064

Oh, and he was a serial liar who ran a ludicrously sleazy campaign, caught, along with Walker, repeatedly lying to the electorate about virtually everything. The best article on the campaigns was by an exasperated local alt paper, which ran a front page feature piece on nothing *but* the lies told by the two schmucks.

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30891

Neither man had an ounce of decency or integrity. I couldn’t stomach voting for either. That left some very fringe candidates and cranks on the ballot, so I had to leave it blank.

Ian Welsh:

[1] Also, note that the protestors in Egypt, in fact, were willing to respond to violent attacks with violence (they didn’t just lie down and let people on horses run them over), and that when [2] Mubarak fell is when they went to his palace and [3] he was scared to give the troops ammo because they might shoot at him.

On point [2], regarding “they” — The Tahrir Square protesters and the Palace protesters were not the same. The self-organization was inferior, and the demographics were different. “Let’s to the Winter Palace, quickly!” worked in Petrograd, but Cairo isn’t Petrograd. For example, in retrospect, what the protesters ended up doing, waiting to march on the Palace after Mubarak totally pissed off everybody with his last speech, might well have been the wisest thing. Certainly the energy was highest then. Not knowable, of course.

On point [1], sure. But the Tahrir Square faction (which was the face the revolution presented to the world) didn’t initiate violence — save by burning down the party headquarters and attacking State Television and the Ministry of the Interior, which no self-respecting revolutionary can avoid doing. I think that level of commitment to non-violence, which showed incredible maturity and self-restraint on the global stage, wasn’t just tactical but strategic: It put them in the right with every adversary they faced, and (I would argue) that’s why they retained the initiative from the very start all the way through Mubarak’s fall. I should also say that as I’ve kept writing about these events, I’ve really tried to take the attitude that we need to be the students of the Egyptians, and not presume to give them advice, as if we were the teachers. Given the record of the left on this continent, in which I most definitely include myself, it seems more than a little presumptuous to pontificate on issues where taking our advice could get people killed to no purpose. “Listen and learn.” Of course, as a pundit, I constantly fail at this!

[3] I’d like evidence on that. Do you have a link?

Always copy, paste, and Preview your comment over at Corrente before clicking Submit Comment here.

the same supermajority that has destroyed California was put in place by the Republicans in Wisconsin. Californification of America. Death by a million cuts. while the Rich/Republicans bleed America dry.

seems like i have seen this story before.

America is in for a precipitous decline. Maybe after enough of the Zombies die/thing get “so” bad, people won’t buy the Big Lie being sold by the Republicans and Democrats.

but i wouldn’t hold my breath. it took 30 years for Egyptians to revolt. 30 years of Republican theft/destruction is just beginning to show up on the radar. as i read somewhere, not a single Democrat has “led” any revolt, or dared to lead.

This really is the “Weimar” America i had heard about.

First they came after abortion doctors/clinics, then they went after Gays, Then they went after muslims, immigrants, women, Hispanics, socialist, environmentalists, and so on.

Rev Niemuller was way ahead of his time.

@Lex:

And yet, when corporations and individuals make shit tons of money, these same people cheer for them. I guess because the propaganda that corporate profits = jobs has worked, eh?…

Not so much, I don’t think. As you noted earlier in your comment, Americans in general don’t care about other workers/jobs, as long as they’ve got theirs – and you correctly note the cognitive dissonance in that sort of thinking.

No, it’s really just the “Lifestyle’s Of The Rich And Famous” syndrome – Americans want to protect the rich because, after all, we’re all going to be rich just like that ourselves someday, right? /s

I’ve been reading The Theory of the Leisure Class. You can find a web pub version of it here.

The comment by Smith above reminded me of it. A person over at Corrente recommended it, and it has been very insightful on the possible reasons, and development of rich person veneration. Evidence of the same phenomenon is as close as your grocery store check out lane on the racks, those dreadful things called tabloids.

I highly recommend Theory of the Leisure Class, at least for the measured sanity it might bring for making some sense out of this crazy culture, here in the west.

And while I am recommending books, Empire by Negri and Hardt is some wonderfully pertinent neo-Marxist stuff, if you want a little gravel in your diet. Years ago, someone at the Agonist recommended it, I really can’t remember who, and I found it comforting in its way. Helps if you have a little Foucault in your background, but not absolutely necessary. The companion, Multitude, is a bit more accessible, but I don’t think there is a free version of it out there yet.

The political left spent very little time understanding the motivations of the public compared to the right, possibly even adjusting for the amount of money the latter has available to do it. Why would anyone believe that people would gravitate to a politics of class self-interest on any sort of predictable schedule? But that seems to have been the case and to suggest otherwise is met with cries and accusations of advocating deception in politics.

Morocco Bama

social media played an important role in egypt from the strategic planning of the demostrations that avoided being kettled and keeping the momentum going but mubarak didn’t cave and the army top brass didn’t ditch him until the labour unions joined in

it’s not over, there was an army coup and the army has made some important concessions but the protesters who instigated it and planned it, haven’t bought it yet

composition of the constituent assembly to draw up the new constition remains clouded but it’s unlikely the protesters will get their way to have an elected assembly, rather they may have to live with selected ‘wise men’ but they are unlikely to compromise on parliamentary democracy with a nominal executive presidency

that is still progress from an unaccountable strong man dictatorship

protesters also demand trial of ex regime members for corruption, graft and human rights abuses – the army is sliding on that although they have agreed to an independent judiciary – it might get a play when a new parliament is elected under a new constitution approved in a referendum – that’s more than what’s going on in the USA – there’s not much of a cooee demanding the rule of law be applied to all and sundry, just an inchoate noise from nutters

ian, re your reference that the egyptian protests were not totally non violent, neither was the indian independence movement – gandhi’s salt march, satyagraha, energised the masses and that was totally non violent and lost the british raj its moral authority or legitimacy and garnered political support within the uk political sphere but the independence movement didn’t end with the satyagraha and it wasn’t necessarily all non violent

Bill, It’s actually a take off from Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” which is an Ode to FDR and what he did for this nation.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-FDR-Gave-Us-by-David-Glenn-Cox-100629-17.html

Oh, anon2525, I promote Corrente often enough, because there’s no point writing if you don’t plan to be read….. I was actually alerted to the amazing Ian’s story in comments, and my commenter found the idea at Hoyden About Town, which is another one of those blogs that should get more traffic than it does.

Ian,
The situation in Ireland isn’t a Democrat/Republican issue. My read on it is that’s a rejection of the EU and the harsh terms they have told the Irish to accept, without asking the voters. Mish has some more here:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/02/massive-rout-in-irish-elections.html

Rob

Well said. I’d read that slightly differently.

With regard to corporate taxes; I’ve always thought that’s just a hidden tax on the people. After all, if you raise corporate taxes, what that just raise the cost of the product? The overlords cannot allow a decrease in the profit margin.