Tom Jensen/PPP:
Wisconsin closely divided, but against Walker
On the biggest picture question: do you side with Governor Walker or do you side with the public employee unions 51% of voters in the state go with the unions to 47% who stand with the Governor. On another broad question: do you side more with Governor Walker or with the Democrats in the state Senate, 52% of voters go with the Senate Democrats to 47% who go for Walker. And perhaps the clearest indication that Walker has lost a majority of the voters in the state in this conflict, if only a narrow majority, is that 52% of voters now disapprove of him to only 46% who like the job he's doing. Those numbers are basically the inverse of last fall's election results.
When it comes to broader questions about rights for public employees in Wisconsin the margins are less narrow. 57% of voters think that workers should have the right to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, and working environment rules compared to only 37% who think they shouldn't have those rights. And 55% of voters think that public employees should have at least the same rights they have now, if not more, compared to only 41% who believe they should have fewer rights.
E.D. Kaine in Forbes:
I’m not sure what all is entailed in ‘loving’ unions. I think it’s more important to understand the benefits unions provide not just their members, but workers across the board. Unions may have all sorts of problems – just like any other organization – but unions do have a legitimate role, and it goes beyond wages and benefits. Union membership provides the middle class with more opportunities to become politically involved and powerful. That’s why it’s so important for people like Walker to bust the teachers unions, and why his poor calculation in this matter may end up helping the Democrats in ways the Democrats never could have helped themselves.
Adam Sorensen in TIME:
As I wrote last week, Democrats lack the votes in Wisconsin and other state legislatures to block collective bargaining restrictions from making it into law. Their hope to is to rally an opposition movement under the banner of public opinion. And there's every indication they've managed to put Republicans on the defensive.
The Fix:
Wisconsin Democrats -- and national unions -- have shown no signs of budging in the dispute, and the Pew numbers -- when coupled with a new CBS News/New York Times poll that shows 60 percent of Americans oppose taking away collective bargaining rights to balance state budgets -- are almost certain to embolden them to continue the fight.
It's worth noting, however, that the Pew numbers come from a national sample and not a collection of Wisconsin residents. While Walker doesn't want to lose the public relations battle on the issue at the national level, he's almost certainly more concerned with how the people who elected him -- and he will ask to re-elect him in 2014 -- feel on the issue.
The Pew poll is, like all polls, a snapshot in time, and the Wisconsin situation remains very volatile. When so many people are paying such close attention, momentum can shift in a moment. But, for now, the momentum appears to be on the side of the unions.
Mark Mellman:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) jihad against public employee unions is about 30 years late and likely to make Republicans even less popular with voters, who endorse collective bargaining rights for public employees — professionals for whom they have abiding respect. It’s no wonder smart Republican governors, who are a bit closer to their constituencies than their congressional counterparts, regularly demur when asked to endorse Walker’s approach...
By misunderstanding public opinion and misrepresenting the facts, the Walkers of the world risk further isolating the GOP.
Allan Lichtman:
Republican responses to budget challenges nationally and in Wisconsin come together as part of a long-standing strategy to destroy institutions that allegedly sustain the American left. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature have targeted teachers’ unions. Republicans budget-cutters in Congress have targeted Planned Parenthood, the Public Broadcasting Corporation, and the Legal Services Corporation, among other groups. Their budget inflicts little or no pain on Republican-leaning organizations such as the agribusinesses that garner most farm payments or the oil companies that receive billions in special tax subsidies.
The GOP first elaborated this strategy in a 1999 memo on priorities for the new millennium that I discovered in the papers of former Republican Representative Dick Armey of Texas. A copy of the memo can be found in the photo essay of my book, White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement...
In attempting to weaken the foundations of American liberalism, Republicans may have reached too far. Since their successful demonstrations in the battle for Florida after the 2000 election, conservatives have dominated the streets. Now, for the first time in recent memory, liberal protesters have taken to the streets in large numbers, portending perhaps the rise of the grassroots leftwing base that Obama promised, but failed to deliver thus far.
Extraordinary piece. Hope he's right.
Samuel Culbert:
In the raging battle over union rights in Wisconsin, those seeking to curtail collective bargaining for state employees have advanced an argument that seems hard to resist: It will make it easier to reward those workers who perform the best. What could be fairer than that?
If only that were true. As anybody who has ever worked in any institution — private or public — knows, one of the primary ways employee effectiveness is judged is the performance review. And nothing could be less fair than that.