I participated in my first protest yesterday. I protested in Milwaukee over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s union busting provisions in his budget repair bill. I estimated about a thousand people at the protest. The newspaper gave the estimate of hundreds, an estimate that is reasonable. What hasn’t been reasonable are the reports of events, the national ones in particular, that claim the protests are over increased heath care and pension contributions. The idea that these protests are over contributions can only be arrived upon by an unreflective recitation of one side’s rhetoric. Requiring re-certification of public unions yearly isn’t a budgetary issue. Disallowing payroll deduction of union dues isn’t a budgetary issue for the state or other government units. Disallowing collective bargaining over workplace rules is not budgetary in nature. Rather than making Governor Walker prove his assertions that these are budgetary issues, the national media have turned their microphones and computers over to the governor. I’m sure the media will claim that they are just being “fair” by allowing both sides to present their cases. Ironically, State-controlled media are heavily criticized by Americans when they offer the defense of offering the State’s case; it seems the higher obligation to truth is a selective obligation.
I had intuited but not fully realized how grossly ineffective protests are. One may be tempted to object by pointing to the Middle East right now or a number of ‘color’ revolutions over the years. These are actually quite illustrative of the point. The color revolutions in particular received significant money and organization from outside their countries. Large demonstrations are also a latent factor. You can only have large demonstrations once you have achieved significant social organization. The significant social organization is the impetus for change. The physical presence of protesters doesn’t change anything. Here in Wisconsin, the real action is around turning 2 or 3 Republican State Senators. If they can be turned, the bill will go down. If they can’t be turned, the bill will eventually be passed, no matter how much more theater these is.
A preemptive note on comments. Discussion will be limited to issues addressed in this post. I reserve the right to delete comments bringing up issues extraneous to this post, and I will likely do so. Snarky comments, particularly against people posting, will be deleted. Comments likely to create an environment inhospitable for debate will be deleted. Comments violating these standards will be deleted in full without comment from me.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In