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A few short weeks ago the buzzword in American politics was
"civility." The mainstream news networks, liberal newspapers,
the left-wing blogosphere and their assorted allies were in high
dungeon claiming Tea party conservatives and the new Republican
majority in the U.S. House of Representatives was responsible for
what they viewed as an uncivil tone in the national debate.
They even suggested, in some cases stated outright, the shooting of
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords by a madman was somehow related to
conservative rhetoric.
But, in the past couple of weeks it is the American Left which has
come unhinged and engaged in some decidedly uncivil actions. A
combination of new Republican majorities in governorships and
legislatures across the nation and the inevitable fiscal impact of
the recession on state budgets have thrown into reverse gear the
gains liberal/progressives made over the past two years.
And they are reacting poorly.
The most visible example of leftist rage has come in the state of
Wisconsin where new Governor Scott Walker and a newly empowered
majority in the state legislature ended collective bargaining
privileges for state employee unions. It was a fiscally
necessary action, but the labor unions flew into a rage. This
despite the fact comprehensive collective bargaining privileges for
public employee unions are far from universal, with workers in 24
states not having them.
In Wisconsin, as with many other northern states, unions were
accustomed to winning such fights. This time it was clear they
were going to lose. In a childish move state Senate Democrats
fled to Illinois in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the repeal of
collective bargaining privileges from coming to a vote. Union
workers abandoned their jobs to stage a raucous protest at the state
capitol.
It would be charitable to describe the union protest as uncivil.
The demonstrators were loud, frequently profane, borderline violent
and generally unruly. It took days of negotiations to get them
to leave the capitol rotunda at night so crews could clean.
Contrast their behavior and the mess they left behind with that of
Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally in Washington, D.C. last summer
and you get a clear cut picture of how conservatives and liberals
conduct themselves at public events.
Wisconsin is not the only state where leftist thugs have behaved
inappropriately. In Idaho an education reform bill that would
have eliminated tenure and seniority and allowed more charter
schools to be established drew the ire of unions. The
superintendent of Idaho's public schools, Tom Luna, who championed
the reform plan, had his car vandalized. One protestor even
showed up at the home of Luna's mother.
Here in Pennsylvania radical environmentalists invaded the offices
of former Governor Tom Ridge's consulting firm. Ridge is now a
high profile lobbyist for Marcellus Shale gas drilling companies.
The protestors were angry over Governor Tom Corbett's refusal to
place a severance tax on gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale
reserve. Despite the fact Ridge is a private citizen and his
office private property; they stormed the place demanding to talk
with the former governor.
The conservative media has made much of this wave of uncivil
behavior, but the establishment media has been largely silent.
Imagine if you will that conservatives behaved in such a manner.
If a deranged shooter who is a devotee of Karl Marx somehow
unleashed liberal finger waggling, such behavior as exhibited by
liberal activists by conservatives would have brought about a hail
storm of condemnation.
Unfortunately we can expect more uncivil behavior from labor unions,
radical environmentalists and other components of the Left.
Republicans at the state level are grappling with massive budget
deficits brought about by years of overspending and by the lingering
economic recession. It is clear to voters that the current
levels of public spending cannot be maintained, and the policies
that created growing deficits must be reversed.
Given that labor is a substantial part of any state budget it is
inevitable that public employees will have to join their private
sector counterparts in paying more for health care and other
benefits, contribute more to their pension plans, and do more work
with fewer workers. Collective bargaining stands in the way of
accomplishing those goals, so it will be a target in more and more
states as the fiscal year progresses.
So far, unions and their allies have not handled the situation in a
civil manner. Few expect they ever will, and fewer still
expect they will be held to the same standards of public behavior as
conservatives.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host
of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His email address is
lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
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