100 Madisons

This post may ramble a bit, so feel free to skip reading it. But some of your comments lead me to believe you might agree.

There is a reason that I'm paying so much attention to the events in Madison Wisconsin. It's possibly the start of something larger. Not so much because of the actual union busting, but the many states who've decided to balance their budgets on the backs of working people. The anger captured by the "Tea Party" movement may have been corporately manipulated, but that underlying anger was real. We see the rich getting richer, while we are getting royally screwed. While I support progressive ideals, this isn't as much about "progress" as it is about stopping "regress", which is a better word for what we're experiencing. In Madison the workers are showing that they are tired of being the victim.

Just as Tunisia was a small revolution in a small country, ripples expand. Most Americans couldn't find Tunisia on the globe, and most Americans aren't union workers in Madison. But then it spread to Egypt. OK, everybody made the "walk like an Egyptian" jokes, but most have a vague idea about pyramids and the sphinx. They may not know that there is a country called "Bahrain" but they've heard of Iran. So revolts can spread, even if it's different people in different places.

Imagine, if you will, a workers uprising in Ohio. Then, protests in Pennsylvania. Missouri follows. Heck, even Arizona could have a good protest (just not in summer. it's too hot) around health care death panels and the prison industry immigration laws. How about the coal states? I'm deliberately not picking cities, because I have no clue which would be next. But I want the next "Madison" and then another, and then...

The part that feels weird is that I'm really not revolting against Obama. He's stuck with the rather unpleasant job of being the front man for a failing ideal. But the failures are hitting, and he's not going to be able to fix it anytime soon enough. Too bad; I think Obama is a well intentioned guy. It's the corporations who are steam rolling him and us. After the "Citizens United" decision, they own the system. Which is why we cut taxes for the rich and wages for the rest.

So I believe: the only way to fix it is one city, one state, one community at a time. We need 100 "Madisons" around our country. When your state tries to balance its budget your back, will you fight back?