Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin kept his job, thanks, in part, to the Koch brothers of Wichita and other wealthy conservatives across the nation who poured millions of dollars into the race.
Walker amassed $45.6 million in his 16-month fund raising marathon. His opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, was a distant second with $17.9 million in his kitty.
More than three-quarters of Walker’s money came from out of state.
Observers guessed that Walker drew support from so many wealthy conservatives because the Wisconsin fight focused on Gov. Walker’s successful effort to strip public labor unions, such as the teachers’ association, of the right to bargain collectively and reduced some of their benefits to reduce public spending.
Organized labor remains a key source of strength for Democrats. A blow against the unions in Wisconsin was seen as part of the battle against President Barack Obama as well as against Barrett.
But Gov. Walker’s victory meant more than that. While it is true that he outspent his opponent more than two to one, both candidates had ample resources to get their message to the people. Gov. Walker won because a solid majority agreed with him. The public sector unions in Wisconsin were not bearing their share of the sacrifices created by the Great Recession, in the minds of the people.
There, as in California and many other states, the unions have won high wages and super-generous fringe benefits from elected officials who weren’t spending their own money. It was far easier to give the unions — whose members vote, by the way — what they wanted than to go into battle with them.
The consequence over the years has been to elevate the public worker over private sector workers. This historic reversal of living standard patterns is now creating predictable resentment.
That resentment polarized Wisconsin over this past year and a half. It pitted the private sector middle class against the public sector middle class. The numbers were against the public unions.
IT WON’T HAPPEN here. There are public sector unions in Kansas. The teachers union stands out. But compensation for public employees at the local and state levels is compar-able to private sector wages and benefits. Indeed, it is sometimes necessary to raise state worker wages in order to attract skilled applicants due to private sector competition.
California patterns have not been copied by Kansas cities. We have no $100,000-a-year firemen eligible for retirement at 55.
Kansas state workers have not won for themselves the cushy wages and benefits that would make a tempting target for a budget-conscious conservative governor.
What Wisconsin has to teach Republicans and Democrats alike is that the public rebels against widespread, visible inequality. Private sector workers there resented the fact that those working for the state often had a better deal.
All Americans — or, at least, 99 percent of us — should resent just as strongly that 1 percent of the population controls 90 percent of the wealth. Come November, that resentment may also be expressed in the voting booth.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
