Wisconsin Union Wars: Return of the Hippies

When the hippies gave up the faith of their fathers, they didn't give up faith per se, just the faith of their fathers. Their fathers' Judeo-Christian, button-down, suburban conformity may have been rejected, but the credulity and acceptance of unsubstantiated claims never wavered ... they just chose to believe in a bunch of new unsubstantiated claims that were different than the ones they'd been brought up with. At no point did they say "We were lied to, so we're going to apply a rigidly objective, scientifically-based methodology to test claims and ascertain what is actually true". Hell, that would have taken actual time and effort. Instead, they just took a stand that was 180% opposite to what they were brought up to believe.
In some ways this was easy, because much of what they were brought up to believe was indeed factually wrong. Plus, rejecting middle-class, suburban, religion-based claims was often pleasant. Smoking pot didn't make you a criminal, masturbation didn't make you go blind, monogamy was not required to have a good relationship and a fulfilling life, dressing casually didn't make it impossible to do a good day's work, and dropping out of the rat race didn't mean you couldn't earn a living.
But this spirit of rebellion also led to throwing the proverbial baby (in this case, reality) out with the bathwater. This has become abundantly clear to me in the past several weeks as I've watched the unfolding of events in Wisconsin. In particular, five things have really gotten under my skin, including (but not limited to) watching the socialist ... ahem ... progressive protesters:

1. reliving their 1960's salad days in the "movement"


2. bonding with young socialists who weren't even alive during the "movement" but are equally as confused as their leftist forefathers


3. parroting 1930's-vintage Marxist class warfare and pro-union rhetoric


4. displaying astounding economic ignorance


5. when all else fails falling back upon the "tu quoque" logical fallacy

For years I've been developing the hypothesis that what the 60's were really about was a wholesale rejection of reality, and a corresponding inability to recognize hypocrisy. Lo and behold the Madison protesters confirm this. Consider, if you will, this little gem of reasoning I found on Facebook recently:

"In their rush to make Wisconsin a one-party state, they don't care if they kill democracy in the process. All's fair when they've decided it's a moral war, and they need to win by whatever means."

Now, I've been out of Wisconsin for a while, but I think if anyone bothers to check, the current governor, assembly and state senate were, in fact, elected democratically. There was no coupe de etat. They just got more votes than the other side (despite, I'm quite sure, considerable union contributions to their opponents). Sounds like democracy is pretty much alive and well to me. I don't see them proposing or passing laws to keep themselves in power for life (unlike leftist hearthrob Hugo Chavez). But -- they did win, and as none other than lovable old Barak Obama pointed out to the Republicrats in 2009, if you win the election and you've got the votes to do what you want, you get to pass your agenda.
While I have no doubt that my socialist ... ahem ... progressive friends in Wisconsin were grinning from ear to ear when Obama told the Republicrats that they could take a flying leap in '09, they don't seem to like their own governor doing the exact same thing in 2011. All of a sudden, they want to redefine "democracy" to mean that the winning party is supposed to essentially defer to the losing party. And they'll march, picket, and set up a virtual underground railroad to spirit Demopublican senators out of the state to stop government from functioning. They seem to see this as a noble resistance to tyranny. I have another explanation: just as they did in the 60's, spoiled, dependent, petulant, hypocritical children are acting like ... well ... spoiled, dependent, petulant, hypocritical children.
Despite all of their singing, chanting, drum beating and other flower-power inspired gum beating, the bottom line is that they simply will not take "no" for an answer. If they don't win at the ballot box, they'll take to the streets and pitch a giant temper tantrum. If they're not happy, nobody is allowed to be happy. They can't even wait for the next election cycle, where -- if the policies this governor enacts are really so terrible -- they should be able to re-assume power and go back to voting themselves rich. Nope, the socialist ... ahem ... progressive vision entitles them to rule, even if they lose (which is curiously reminiscent of the god's-own-lobotomy culture warriors of the christian right).
Plus -- and this is where the hypocrisy really kicks in -- they're whining endlessly about how the Republicrats are trying to stack the deck against them, when in fact it's the attempt to unstack the deck in favor of the Demopublicans that has everyone so cheesed off in the first place.
Think about it: when the Republicrats take contributions from their corporate buddies or defense contractors, get elected, and then dole out expropriated taxpayer loot in the form of government contracts, the socialists ... ahem ... progressives get their Che Guevara monogrammed boxers in a bunch and angrily send granola flying across the room in a fit of indignant outrage. But, when public employee unions contribute equally large amounts of money to the very same Demopublican politicians with whom they then negotiate their employment and benefits, this is somehow supposed to be non-collusive and "democratic". And this troubles me, because I agree with the Demopublicans when they criticize the Republicrats for doing this. I just wish they'd apply the same standards to themselves.
But it's not just the petulance and hypocrisy of the Madison socialists ... ahem ... progressives that shines through. There's also their romanticized view of unions, their vintage 1930's class warfare mentality, and their almost fundamentalist belief in Keynesian economics that really sets them apart. But I'll leave those for the next installment.