From my Daily Press column [1] today:
Governments across the nation are facing the harsh reality of years of overspending and special interests having too much access. Republicans, as they were elected to do, are leading the charge to promote private-sector job growth and cut government spending, while Democrats obstruct, avoid or outright run away from taking action against a failed status quo.
I wrote this before seeing what is also happening in Indiana, Ohio, and, to a certain extent, Michigan. In all these states, budget deficits are crippling the government. What do they all have in common? They all have a public sector union that has forced compensation and benefits well above what the private sector earns.
This is why we have elections. We have a debate in the campaign. Then we have a debate over legislation. And then we have a vote. We don’t take our ball and go home or shout-down the opposition in debate so that they cannot be heard.
Democrats are behaving worse then petulant, spoiled children.
What does this say about the future of democracy if an opposition party, also duly elected, won’t even participate? This is quickly growing into something much larger than a discussion about collective bargaining.