Cops and Firefighters turning against the GOP?

[kinvore]

The liberal media isn't doing their job and talking much about this story yet, but it's making its rounds in places like HuffPo and the like. I won't bother to link until I find more objective sources (aside from this), but let me share what I've heard thus far and hope I haven't been punked by an elaborate April Fool's joke

Comments

[box_in_the_box]

Personally, I think a lot of the current pendulum swing away from the Republicans is for the exact same reasons as the pendulum swing away from the Democrats that led to the GOP's midterm gains in the first place; namely, the voters expected the people they elected to do everything they wanted right away, and when they didn't, it inspired a temper-tantrum in the electorate.

Granted, I have plenty of other objections to the current crop of Republicans, but before Scott Walker decided to stick his dick in a hornet's nest, it struck me that what we were seeing was basically this ...

2009:
"We voted for you, so fix everything now!"
"Actually, it's going to take some time -"
"Fuck you, then! I'm voting for the other guys next time!"

2011:
"We voted for you, so fix everything now!"
"Actually, it's going to take some time -"
"Fuck you, then! I'm voting for the other guys next time!"

[blue_mangos]

Can you explain why it is not? Because it very much looks the case to those of us outside America.

[telemann]

I've meant to post about this, but the four key states (Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan): all the Republican governors won by pretty small voter margins. Currently, public opinion polls show that if the election were held today, some would lose as much by 20 points; and this is going to have a major impact on elections as soon as this November* (e.g. where the anti union law passed could be held for a referendum if enough signatures are gathered within the next 90 days, there by nullifying the bill just signed, pending the vote in November). Those are key states that any presidential candidate needs to win, all states that Obama won in 2008, interestingly enough.

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* and that's not including recall efforts in several of those states for either state house officials or the governor.

[kinvore]

Yeah this whole thing has been a boom for the Democrats so far, they finally found an issue that resonates with mainstream America and for once they aren't being timid in capitalizing on it.

Frankly I was hoping the Dems were on the way out, we need to break the duopoly they hold on our government with the Repubs.

[underlankers]

As opposed to the GOP with its philandering diaper-wearing boy-diddling "Ban Gay marriage and keep queers out of the army because Jesus sez so" paragons of morality and honesty? Bringing up dishonesty in politics is like noticing there's blood in a slaughterhouse or skunks smell bad. The answer is "yes, and so?".

[underlankers]

Well, when you consider the Wall Street Journal condemned everybody in the public sector as a bunch of parasites (presumably including the 3 million active-duty military personnel), it's no surprise. Most people in the USA back the Unions, not the governors, and most people want higher taxes on the richest sections of the population. If only the Democrats were the kind of organized party that could actually *use* that reservoir of popular support.

[farchivist]

If only the Democrats were the kind of organized party that could actually *use* that reservoir of popular support.

I don't think it would be hard to get that organization.
Or to win some Repubs who are tired of the vicious economic conservative/social conservative bitchfight.

[underlankers]

I would have thought it entirely impossible to screw up control of both houses of Congress and the Executive with sufficient degrees to render working with the other party at all, but the Obama Administration showed how you do that......

[frodomyhero]

Bring on Bernie Sanders and the independents. We need new blood. Not the same old song from the Dems or the Tea Party or the Republicans.

[jerseycajun]

And when they're elected, they become the new version of the old. Names change, but the culture has become intractable, irrespective of party, or 'independent' status.

[harry_beast]

Unionized public workers will tend to oppose governments that try to rein in their privileges and rewards. It seems more like self-interest than any ideological shift. The impact? If this issue resonates with a lot of people, it could become a new fault line in politics in the United States, pitting bourgeois public workers against the long suffering private sector proletariat forced to shoulder the ever increasing burden of supporting public sector pay, benefits and pensions.

[kinvore]

I think this is what the GOP was trying to do, pit public workers vs. private workers, but so far this has backfired on them (and I think a large part of why this tactic has failed has been because of the unexpected support that police and firefighters have given the other public unions). I think the middle class is tired of being forced to make sacrifices while business and some of the wealthy are getting tax breaks.

[harry_beast]

With no easy solutions to the serious economic problems confronting the United States and other countries, there will be a whole lot of pain and sacrifice. It is inevitable that politicians will try to exploit the social divisions that this will cause.

[underlankers]

Namely by appealing to fear of Shariah law and imposing bans on gays and abortions to give the masses their bread and circuses.