One Person's Freedom Fighter is Another Person's Wingnut

As I've mentioned before, the time I spent furiously debating on political blogs taught me two important lessons: 1) neither side of any argument generally has a stranglehold on the truth, and so it's important to understand that what you're arguing is simply your opinion, but that's ok...it's good to have strong opinions and I firmly believe in defending mine passionately, but 2) since it is only just your opinion and not a universal truth, the people who disagree with you, simply disagree. They are not, simply because of that disagreement, evil or crazy or necessarily someone you wouldn't enjoy sharing a beer with in any other context.

That's not always easy to remember in the heat of debate, but the political firestorms brewing in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio (my home state) have provided another illustration of that. As is usual when the media are too busy stoking the flames for ratings to provide accurate assessments of the situations, for the sane analysis, we turn to Jon Stewart (his piece turns to my point at about the 5:00 mark):

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As Stewart brilliantly illustrates, whether the Tea Party or the Wisconsin protesters are "thugs" or "hard-working Americans" depends on which channel you watch.

Now I happen to agree with The New York Times on what is truly going on here:

Like a wind-whipped brush fire, the mass union protests that began in Madison, Wis., last week have spread to the capitals of Ohio and Indiana where Republican lawmakers also are trying to cripple the bargaining power of unions — and ultimately realize a cherished partisan dream of eradicating them. In each case, Republican talk of balancing budgets is cover for the real purpose of gutting the political force of middle-class state workers, who are steady supporters of Democrats and pose a threat to a growing conservative agenda.

Indeed, it is extremely hard to believe that three Republican governors independently and unmotivated by politics decided at the same time that the magic fix to their states' financial woes would be to permanently end the ability of state employees to collectively bargain for better wages. It takes a huge dose of blind faith and more than a little idiocy, in my opinion, to accept (as Wisconsin governor Walker claims) that these decisions are not about busting the public-sector unions.

Now I think it's fair to argue that public-sector unions shouldn't exist (I disagree strongly, but that's just my opinion), but to do so under cover of saying you're trying to fix the budget deficit (which Walker could more easily do if he wasn't also handing out more tax cuts for businesses that analysts suggest are merely symbolic and will not attract new businesses) is patently dishonest. Perhaps state workers need to make sacrifices, like everyone else, but the truth is, they're willing to do so. In the face of that willingness, Walker's insistence that their collective bargaining rights must end, is clearly an anti-union initiative.

Again, if that's his position, fine. People can debate whether he's right about unions in the next election cycle. He should really own up to it, though. Or simply admit that he's a fully transparent tool of the Koch brothers, and not torture the good people of Wisconsin with his mangled logic and lies.

Of course, that's just my opinion on the matter. Those who disagree with me are welcome to comment below (we'll have a few beers at some later date):

UPDATE: Nathaniel provide a link to this video by Rachel Maddow that, while just her opinion, of course, makes a very strong argument that Walker is simply lying his a** off saying that this isn't a union-busting effort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJcdIyaNNQ4.