By siding with public employees in the state and local budget disputes, the national Democratic Party is playing with dynamite. Voters are sometimes willing to accept new taxes to purchase shared public benefits such as roads or schools. But even in liberal California cities, voters are reluctant to raise tax revenues to transfer directly to the retirement benefits of a middle-class interest group. So public-sector unions seek to channel resources away from education, parks and libraries into pensions — making public unions a major obstacle to the adequate provision of public services. This is a losing political proposition in Wisconsin, California or just about anywhere else in the country.
This column is well worth reading. While Gerson does a fine job differentiating between the two factions of activist Democrats, the progs and the unions, he doesn't address a third faction: Dems who are neither progressives nor union members, and who quietly go about their business without taking to the streets and making utter fools of themselves. While many have decamped for the sanity of being an Independent, some have clung to their roots and retain their Democratic party membership. What of them?
I suspect that this group voted for Walker, and, after witnessing Obama's antics and failures, may consider Romney in 2012. One can hope.
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