Politics trumps good governance in Wisconsin

I know that many who read Bearing Drift and who contribute are pleased with what happened last night in Wisconsin.  Some think this is the end of the battle over collective bargaining in Wisconsin, but I think it’s just the beginning of a broader war. That broader war – like most wars – will prove to be, in my opinion, unnecessary and destructive.  Things didn’t have to happen this way.

I know there are many people, particularly in my party, who are proud of what Scott Walker and the Senate Republicans have done. They think gutting collective bargaining is the panacea that will solve all of the budgetary ills that states like California, New York, Wisconsin and others face.  But there’s no evidence that this is true.  Just take a look at the federal government – where workers have next to no collective bargaining rights and public sector salaries are just as high – if not higher – than those you’ll find in the states and the budget deficits are even more ridiculous.  If collective bargaining is really the problem, why are things bad even where it isn’t available?  Because things are bad everywhere, and its up to legislators to make the  tough decisions needed to govern, not play politics.

What the Wisconsin Senate did last night will not close their budget gap.  All it did was cause unnecessary conflict and gave the news media something to cover between Charlie Sheen eruptions.  What happened in Wisconsin is what happens when elected officials care more about politics than they do about governing.

What bothers me the most about what happened last night in Wisconsin is what I have said has bothered me since this entire “crisis” began – it was completely unnecessary.  It was a trumped up, manufactured crisis that could have been ended at any time.  Governor Walker has said time and time again that the issue here is balancing the state budget.  Last night proved that this wasn’t true.  By stripping out all of the budget related stuff and passing the rump bill that guts collective bargaining for public sector workers, the Republicans in the Senate and the Governor himself have demonstrated that this was not about balancing the budget, it was about busting the unions.  Balancing the budget is necessary.  Taking away the rights of tens of thousands of workers is not.

It should be clear now to all Americans that what happened in Wisconsin wasn’t about governing. It was about politics. And it is that kind of politics that poisons our political process and makes it harder for people to work together to get things done.  I’ve been critical of the Senate Democrats in Wisconsin for running away, but at the same time I have to be critical of the Senate Republicans for what they’ve allowed to happen as well.  None of these protests had to happen. None of the people who have been arrested and manhandled by police for exercising their First Amendment rights had to be find themselves in that position. Thousands of workers didn’t have to have the stress of an impending layoff hanging over their head.  These Senate Republicans could have done their procedural move and “won” their battle without the last month of union bashing that has swept across the country.  As a labor Republican, it is frustrating to me to see such a damaging and completely unnecessary fight being waged in the heartland of America by members of my own party.  There’s no legitimate reason for it. It was pure politics, and the worst kind of politics too – the kind that hurts you more than it helps you. Almost half of all union households contain Republicans, like mine, and there’s no excuse for my party to attack those people simply because they pay dues and hold a union card.  Attacking all of us will not balance a budget or create a job.

I have been advocating for a long time that Republicans need to stop attacking labor and start working together on issues that we can all agree on.  The maritime industry is one place where we’ve proven that unions and management can work together.  If unions and management can work together, there’s no reason why unions and Republicans can’t do so.  But when folks like Governor Walker want to raise their political profiles at the expense of the working men and women of their states, I think that’s counterproductive and unfortunate.

Walker has every right to set his own agenda. He won the election.  But the campaign is over.  It’s time for the politics to stop and the governing to begin.  And that’s where Governor Walker – and my friend Skiles – get it wrong. Wisconsin has a legitimate budget problem, and the legislators there need to focus on that problem.  Taking away the rights of some workers to sit down and bargain will not solve their budget problems, nor will they solve the budget problems many states find themselves in.  Virginia, for example, does not allow for any collective bargaining by public sector workers and we still had a significant budget deficit to make up – and we did so through the hard work of Governor McDonnell, Lt. Governor Bolling and the men and women in our General Assembly. And they did it without grandstanding, without creating PR firestorms, and without Governor McDonnell doing every Sunday TV talk show and every radio program around the country raising his presidential or VP profile.  That’s what governing is all about. Quiet competence, not PR stunts.  That’s why Bob McDonnell is a true leader and Walker is an opportunist.

Walker had a legitimate point about balancing the budget that no one could argue with. In times like these, we all need to make sacrifices, including public sector workers. That’s why the unions involved here were willing to accept the cuts he proposed.  But he couldn’t take those concessions, declare victory and move forward.  It wasn’t until Walker overreached that these protests began.  Balancing the budget is a legitimate reason to demand concessions.  But taking away the collective bargaining rights of these workers will not save the taxpayers a dime.  And the argument that Walker uses about collective bargaining – namely that it’s hard for local governments to bargain and they need ‘flexibility’ – is a poor one as well.  You might as well argue that we should do away with the trial by jury because it’s a pain to get jurors to show up and the system is slow and unwieldy.  These public workers in Wisconsin have had the right to bargain collectively for over 50 years.  Now that right has been taken away.  As a Republican,  I cherish all of the rights I maintain – the natural, God-given rights, the rights protected by the federal and Virginia constitutions, and the rights protected by the Virginia legislature. It should be a very big deal for anyone to take those rights away.  But in Wisconsin it wasn’t.  And that’s just wrong.

I have to give Governor Walker credit – he has managed to do in a month what the leaders of the labor movement have been trying to do for years: he has energized unions and their members in a way I have never seen.

While this chapter appears now to be closed, I hope that what has happened in Wisconsin can be salvaged and some good can come from it.  I hope that I can convince some of my fellow Republicans that the labor movement isn’t the source of all evil in the universe.  And, conversely, I hope I can convince my union colleagues that not all Republicans want to shut them down and there are plenty of guys like me and Bob McDonnell out there who care more about competent governing than we do about looking good on TV.  But until we get past these petty tit-for-tat political games, we’re not going to make any progress.  I know that the Governor supports what Walker is doing, but he has to support a fellow Republican Governor. What matters is that he hasn’t done these kinds of PR stunts here in Virginia. That’s a tribute to his competence and his desire to govern, not simply keep campaigning.  The permanent campaign has led to too much petty political maneuvering in our national debates.

The stakes are too high for too many families and for our nation’s future for this kind of petty politicking.  It’s time to stop playing games and start governing. That’s what really matters and that’s what we elected these men and women to do.

 

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