[MD] US democracy at work?

[Dan Glover]

Hi Andre and all,

I've been following the developments in Wisconsin with great interest.
I live in Illinois, which like Wisconsin is also facing a growing
budget deficit due mainly to entitlements. In short, we're going broke
paying public employees as much or more in retirement than they made
during their working days. Not only that, but their health care is
provided as well.

As a regular working stiff, no one pays for my pension or my health
care. I am expected to provide that myself. And I don't have a problem
with that. What I do have a problem with however is my property taxes
going up year after year in order to make sure public employees enjoy
benefits that I will never enjoy.

The (newly elected) governor of Wisconsin is attempting to balance the
budget there by doing away with these entitlements. In order to
acheive this, it is (deemed) necessary to strip the public unions of
their bargaining power, otherwise it is all just going to happen
again. The key word here is "public" which denotes paid by regular
working joes and janes. In order to block the passage of the bills
that the new governor is proposing, the minority Republicans are
filibustering and hiding out.

The use of filibuster goes back over a century here. From Wikipedia:

"The term "filibuster" in its legislative sense was first used in
1851. It was probably derived from the Dutch vrijbuiter, meaning free
outsider (also entered English as "freebooter"), which became in
Spanish filibustero, and in French flibustier. This term was applied
in the mid-19th century to American adventurers who sought to
overthrow governments in Central and South America. Later the term was
extended to legislators who used their right to talk as a means of
pirating or hijacking debate.[2]"

I am not sure what message the Europeans get from the workings of
democracy here... and in addition I come from the Chicago area, which
is notoriously corrupt when it comes to politics. So my own viewpoints
may be skewed somewhat when it comes to fair play. But... something
has to be done, otherwise more that a few states are facing
bankruptcy. In fact, there are already studies being done on how such
a fiasco will affect the economies of those states. Arkansas is a
prime example. Decades after facing bankruptcy the state is still
recovering.

To answer your questions, yes, this is the freedom we fight for. It
might not be perfect, but it works. And I for one much prefer it to a
dictatorship no matter how magnanimous it may be.

Thank you for reading,

Dan



On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:07 AM, Andre Broersen <andrebroersen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello MOQ'ers!
>
> I received this today from an American friend. I was just stunned to see the
> happenings. Perhaps those of you living in the US are used to these sorts of
> practices?
>
> Is this the type of thing people are waiting for/dying for in Iraq,
> Afghanistan and now various parts of the Middle East? Of course I do not
> know the full story behind this particular 'incident' but if this is the way
> a high quality intellectual pattern of value is treated by powerful sections
> of 'the most freedom loving nation on Earth' I think I'll opt for a high
> quality magnanimous dictatorship.
>
> Here's the link:
> The Wisconsin Governor's concept of bi-partisanship. With 15 more Dems
> waiting to speak the vote was called and closed within seconds. Somehow this
> was coordinated, with all the Republicans in their seats waiting for the
> signal. Most of the Dems didn't even realise what was happening. I'd expect
> this from 'democracy' in Zimbabwe or Afghanistan, but hardly in America.
> Shame indeed! A shame on all of us.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZALlaMA9b0
>
> Cheers,
> Andre
>
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