Lindsey Graham had a point. On "Meet the Press" yesterday, he held up "this ...
campaign flier I have ... from the last election cycle where Wisconsin unions said, 'If you elect this guy, Scott Walker, he's going to reform or limit collective bargaining.' He was open about what he was going to do about contributions to pensions and retirement, and he told the people of Wisconsin, 'I'm going to change collective bargaining because it impedes progress when it comes to education. It's too hard to fire anybody, it is too complicated. And I'm going to change that system.' So, in a democracy, when you run on something, you do have an obligation to fulfill your promise. He didn't take anybody by surprise. He's doing exactly what he said. There was a referendum on this issue, and the unions lost.
As I understand the preelection history behind Wisconsin's labor-management troubles, candidate Walker indeed campaigned as a kind of Gov. Calvin Coolidge eager to bust the power of public unions. He wasn't shy about it; he strutted around like a Heritage Foundation sandwich board and bellowed the perils of worker-organization to any gubernatorial dictatorship, either Silent Cal- or Huey Long-style, take your pick.
A plurality of Wisconsin's boobeoisie promptly voted for him. Democracy in action. End of story. So you, dear protesters, should quit your whining.
Graham had a point. But he would have scored a point had he and his fellow union-busting Republicans similarly proclaimed an untamperable, Democratic mandate following the 2008 elections.
To be sure, Graham has uncomfortable differences with tea partiers, and some have been quite public; still, I never in 2009 heard the South Carolina senator instructing, say, feral town hallers across the country to sit down and shut up and permit healthcare reform to proceed, because Barack Obama campaigned on such reform, and now he has an impeccable mandate to carry it out.
Funny thing. In the GOP's universe, there are Republican mandates and then there are swinish, Democratic insensitivities to the people's will -- no matter which side wins the election. Funny thing.
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