The Way I See It!

Walker, Christie, Reagan, and the Union Bosses

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on March 29, 2011

Scott Walker, Wisconsin, Ronald Reagan, Chris Christie

From US News

How Walker, Christie, Kasich Can Beat the Union Bosses

If there ever was any doubt, it has become clear that the real story of the 2010 election was not the Republicans’ regaining control of the House of Representatives.  With the new Congress, like its predecessor, doing what it does best—going on break—public attention has rightly shifted to the states.

It was in the composition of state governments that the real changes of 2010 took place.  Nineteen state legislatures (that is, both houses in 19 states) passed from Democratic to Republican control.  (The GOP now exercises complete control of 29 state legislatures.)  Republicans picked up 11 governorships (they now head 29 state administrations).  Nationwide, the GOP picked up a total of 650 seats, their highest gain since Calvin Coolidge sat in the White House (more on him later).

People listening to Gov. Chris Christie talk of “two classes of citizens” in New Jersey, “one that receives rich health and pension benefits and all the rest who are left to pay for them” will be forgiven for hearing echoes of John Edwards' once famous refrain about the “two Americas.”  The “New Jerseys,” however, consist not of the very rich and the very poor, but of people in similar economic circumstances, but with one being asked to contribute a larger amount of fewer resources to maintain the lifestyles to which the other enjoys.  The very rich, along with others with substantial assets, moved to other climes long ago, where the tax rate was lower, union power weaker, and the overall business climate friendlier.  It is their migration, plus the increased numbers of Hispanic and other immigrant populations, that is causing the representation of red states to increase in Congress.

In truth, the distances between the two New Jerseys or Wisconsins or Ohios are not as vast as the union bosses imagine or even some governors imagine.  Members of public employee unions, like other residents of states, have also been hit by rising taxes and a declining quality of life.  There is ample opportunity for the savviest among this new crop of governors to appeal to them over the heads of the union bosses who claim to “represent” them.

History suggests that voters have historically rewarded governors who put the needs of the public ahead of special interests or those deemed to be excessively selfish, greedy, or avaricious.  Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge landed the second spot on his party’s 1920 ticket after breaking a police strike in Boston.  Gov. Ronald Reagan, having defended the right of college students to attain an education at publicly supported colleges and universities uninterrupted by disruption, went on to fire the air traffic controllers as president.  That was the instant, historians tell us, that the Soviets began to take him seriously.

Through it all, Reagan found ridicule a more powerful tool than name-calling.  He brought legislators and taxpayers to their feet when he recalled encountering a demonstrator who “yelled like Tarzan, wore his hair like Jane, and smelled like Cheetah.”  How Reagan might respond to events now taking place Madison, Wisconsin is well worth contemplating.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/alvin-felzenberg/2011/02/25/how-would-reagan-have-handled-wisconsin-fight