Paul Grant
Neighbor Against Neighbor in Wisconsin
In this conflict, the state's distinctive history matters.
No one has better articulated the political moment in Wisconsin than the student in my discussion section who raised his hand and asked if he could please join the walk-out. When I replied that rebels don't ask permission, he said: "I just want to do what's right."
This interaction embodied for me the discrepancy between the mood on the streets and the national conversation. While the media have reduced 70,000 protesters to labor activists, while the governor has cast his effort as a revival of Ronald Reagan's union-busting, and while would-be presidential candidates have been weighing in, this conflict remains at heart a local story. It is about the culture of public spaces and public works in a quirky state. It is about who we are, and who we are becoming. And it is tearing us apart, here in Wisconsin.
Families are fighting, and communities are divided unlike anything we have seen in decades. I do not presume to know how the art of the possible is best practiced. But as a Christian—as an evangelical who believes in family and love of neighbor—I see evil here. Not so much in the governor's proposal to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, and drastically shrink the Medicaid budget, and sell off state energy assets without a bidding process, although I disagree with all of these. Governor Walker, elected in November, is proposing legislation. That's part of democracy. But our public sphere extends far beyond the political sphere, and includes everything from community choirs to self-policing snowmobile trails across private property. All of these derive from a culture of consensus: we can talk things through, because consensus is not just a tool—it's an asset, worth more than its weight in gold.
In his effort to pass a philosophically purist bill, the governor has turned neighbors against each other. By telling us that our sewer workers and schoolteachers and librarians are lazy and greedy, he has set the terms of the debate in the worst possible way. It is a wound that will outlive his tenure by a long shot.
In 21st-century America, 70,000 people do not hit the streets in sub-freezing temperatures for political strategy. Policy does not motivate like that anymore. What does motivate is emotion: anger, joy, fear, loathing, celebration, and so on. Recent years around here have seen large-scale rallies over immigration, marriage, war, and, of course, the Green Bay Packers. But nothing close to this: singing, chanting, dancing crowds, filling the downtown streets with passion, pushing their strollers and waving their flags and beating their drums. These are not union thugs, student radicals, commies, or "out of staters," although some of those types are here. No one who has watched these protests up close can fail to notice that the vast majority of the people on the streets are everyday Wisconsinites.
Wisconsin's history is unique in the United States. Admitted to the Union in 1848, the same year as the failed revolutions in Germany, the new state was immediately attractive to large numbers of German socialists. These folks combined militancy with a German penchant for community development. Among their ranks were people like Margarethe and Carl Schurz, revolutionary refugees. After settling in Wisconsin, he joined the abolition movement—eventually becoming a general in the Union army—while she founded the country's first kindergarten.
In the 1870s, waves of Scandinavians and Germans came, motivated this time by poverty. These were the builders, the people who brought their Northern European instincts for consensus-building and cooperation to bear on their projects. It is because of them that Wisconsin is stacked with credit unions, farmers markets, co-ops of every variety, native grass seed exchanges, strong public libraries, and impressive music departments in tiny rural high schools. Largely Lutheran and Catholic, the bedrock Wisconsin way of doing culture is to blur the boundaries between public and private. Play your music too loud, and you can expect to be told: "this isn't that kind of neighborhood." Not "you're intruding in my space" but "you're intruding in our space."
Why does this matter? It helps explain the anger of the moment. We are seeing a collision of distinct traditions of political conversation—one grounded in mainstream American traditions of brinkmanship, and another drawing on midwestern traditions of consensus-building. It is not insignificant that Governor Walker was born in Colorado Springs to a Baptist minister: he represents national political cultures.
In other words, the Wisconsin fight is not a ground zero. It is first and foremost a local fight reflecting local cultural change. And it is most interesting exactly for that reason. National categories such as liberal or conservative are not very helpful here. This isn't Berkeley liberalism, centered on free speech. Nor is it Ronald Reagan liberalism, dedicated to rugged individualism. A Wisconsin economist was the father of Social Security; a Wisconsin governor founded Earth Day. This is a liberalism that is quite conservative, because it is dedicated to taking care of our most precious assets.
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Ray Schwartz
It is interesting, always - that the elite can frame an agrument as US vs THEM -and actually get away with it. What is happening in WI is occuring in most states - where many are asked to pay for the benefit of the few. Sometimes that should happen - like in the case of firefighters and policemen. But not sanitation workers, or ... teachers. As more and more individuals in my church lose jobs, private sector jobs - and their homes - I find it hard to have any sympathy with those who are asked to do what the majority already do - contribute. As for the author mentioning 'ham-fisted' - it is what public sector union organizers have been doing for decades. There is no more money. We are soon to be Greece. You can only tax businesses so far - and they will leave. The same is true for the average private citizen. We can no longer afford public sector pensions. And I would ask the elite in their ivory towers of academia ... come down. Get a real job - and quit pretending with Christian arrogance to be so above it. You're not. And it's shameful. Not once did this author mention or speak out about the death threats, the slurs, and the slanders against those who proposed this legislation. That ... is shameful and telling, in and of itself.
Nancee Lynn
This was an excellent article and gets to the heart of the issue and how it really is tearing Wisconsin apart. Steve from Madison asks: Who bargains for taxpayers? Steve must not be paying attention. Every single politician panders to voters by promising not to raise taxes, especially taxes on their wealthy corporate campaign contributors. No, raising taxes is the real 3rd rail of American politics. To Burkhrd Lehman from California who thinks union teachers are unqualified, imcompetents; perhaps some teachers in the past challenged his poor spelling. 3 Spelling errors and 2 typos might be tolerated on some blogs, but if you are blaming teachers for doing a poor job, you should at least show that you can pass along some superior knowledge to young people.
Steve in Madison
When were union folks called "lazy"? I have been following this closely and have NEVER heard anything like that. But, Walker has clearly been called all sorts of names--all you have to do is read the signs. I guess when those whose side you favor are denigrated it is a bad thing, but not so bad when the folks you disagree with are called names. Playing the class warfare card of claiming that the poor (nursing homes) suffer because of low corporate taxes admits to a weak understanding of who really pays taxes. Corporations do NOT pay taxes, their customers do--the cost is simply passed along to their customers. Therefore, taxing corporations is an inefficient way for governments to collect revenues and it disguises the real tax rate we all pay. Then, there is the ignored problem of collective bargaining of public sector unions with their government bosses, both of whom are interested in making government grow. Who bargains for the taxpayers?
Nic Gibson
I'm a Madison resident and a pastor here. This is obviously a tough and really contentious issue, but I did not find Paul's handling of it helpful and it seemed to me like adding gasoline to a fire he's professing to want to put out. A PhD candidate obviously knows exactly what he's doing when he calls something 'ham-fisted' or says that Walker called workers 'greedy' and 'lazy'. And he should be objective enough to know there is nothing objective about the way virtually every issue was framed here. If we want a more reasonable discussion you need to frame both sides charitably. One side sees a transfer (or better FLOW) of wealth from the elderly and middle class to the industrialists. Just as reasonably, others see the present system a transfer of wealth from private workers and our children to present government workers who are paid disproportionately in relation to private workers without similar protections. Charitable conversation requires charitable framing, and this isn't that.
Gennavette
Oh spare us. Transfer the great wealth of the state to the industrialists? How 19th century. In this century, the wealth belongs to government employees and the unions who skim off the top of their salaries. Wisconsin is not special. It's the next-door neighbor of Illinois, the great pay-to-play state.
Darrell
This was an extremely one sided article supporting the corrupt system of forcing individuals to pay union dues whether they want to or not. The State of Wisconsin automatically deducts dues from every state worker and sends it to the union. The union then spends a huge amount of these confiscated dues and donates to the same corrupt democratic politicians for their re-elections. Paul didn't mention this at all in his article because he is a leftist. The voters of Wisconsin voted overwhelmingly to replace the corrupt and inept democratic politicians with republicans who ran on a ticket of doing exactly what they are doing now. If the voters don't like what the new governor is doing, they can vote him out in four years. That Paul, is democracy. Taking your ball and going home because you aren't getting your way is not. By the way, I was a Teamster for 31 years. I had no choice. I had to pay $50 a month for the right to work for the company I worked for. That is not democracy.
Jon
From the previous commments - I see that most of the people are not state residents. As a resident, in a State with some of the highest taxes - the true issue is how long the State can exist without running all the working citizens out. For years we have heard about the "brain drain" in the state - people are educated here but leave due to lack of jobs/high taxes. Ask the 3+ million residents if they want taxes raised to continue the "tradition" as indicated in the article - a resounding no would be heard..even from the 70,000 marching in Madison. As the governor came to office (with an existing deficit from his predecessor) and the idea of raising taxes off the table - what is left...live within your means. Something every household understands and definitely a Biblical principle. Its easy to be free with comments about what should be done - when the cost comes out of some else's wallet/purse. J
Burkhard Lehmann
As a californian and a parent I have very little simpahty for teachers unions. They promote a lowest common denominator education and frankly in my experience a full third of them should not be in the classroom. It is not just to the children who endure this mediocrity for political power and nothing else. To absolve everyone except businesses of greed is hypocritical and franly unchristian...since you are labbeling folks now...
Jodie
I love, love, loved this! I have been trying to articulate to my California raised husband what is distictive about Midwestern political thought for years. This was so helpful and articulate. Thanks
Grace Hsiao
Paul--- Long time (remember me?), but Lydia S. shared this with me---and good thing. So right on...I could tell something was not right with how the media was casting the debate. What Walker is doing is against the very ethos of the people I very much remember meeting and living with in Wisconsin. I should really order them some pizza. Cheers! Grace
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