wisconsin fallacies

Listening to Wisconsin's governor talk to a man he believed to be his wealthy sponsor,
I was struck by several things.....

1. the spuriousness of the logic employed

2. the simple-mindedness of the man--and that reminded me of a debate in the Czech Republic

3. the utter adoration expressed

Logic?
--Public unions are wrong because that would mean that the people's money was used
to spend more of the people's money to benefit a "special interest"

I may have just blended what Herr Gov. actually said with something from one of his supporters, but I don't think I'm unfair.

1. Why do we need public unions? Why do we need any unions?
They organize an otherwise unorganized group of people., To what end? To the end of getting fair pay, good working conditions--or, more accurately, to contesting the appropriation of the surplus by a minority--aka the capitalist class.

But, if a union is for state workers, does the capitalist class disappear? No, after all, when Herr Gov. in Wisconsin kow tows before someone he thinks is a wealthy sponsor, he is kow-towing before (someone he thinks to be) a wealthy capitalist.

(I realize that FDR made some remarks identifying government with the people, but that's sheer fantasy. In any case, representative government is not the most democratic form of government....)

Just because you work for the government that doesn't guarantee the government pays you fair wages. After all, the government is a large bureaucracy and many forces impinge upon it.... including the wealthy people who don't want money spent on anyone else. (money for the wealthy? Yes, so called foreign aid, e.g., primarily goes to manufarcturers of weapons and such here in the US of A.--and while some ordinary people benefit, the wealth is never share equally, but more of it goes to the people who need it least. (That is "our" economic system; it is called capitalism. You can try to fool yourself and call it "free enterprise" but you still get screwed unless you are a capitalist.) Then again, there's all that money that went to Wall Street....)

2. In the Czech Republic they used to argue about whether official communists in the past were actually true believers or just opportunists. This went to amazing lengths, as I seem to recall, even leading to successful lawsuits by former Communists who claimed to be sincere--lawsuits
aimed at defending themselves from the charge that they had once been Communists...

Can Herr Gov really believe what he says he believes? Is he so uninformed or is he an opportunist? Trickle down economics doesn't work. I heard him talking about freedom; that w
was his goal, to win back lost freedom. Freedom?-to be gotten by weakening or eliminating unions? Whose freedom? Apparently freedom for employers to squeeze all they can out of workers! Freedom for capitalists to screw the rest of us.

3. It was amazing to hear the man's tone of voice, his honesty, candor, the talk of "us" versus "them".....I dare say that politicians are not so candid when they speak to the public, nor do
they quite gush so much.... How can that be? Candid when talking to a wealthy sponsor, but not to others? Or, does he always talk in that manner? I suspect not. Which would suggest that the wealthy have more power and influence than ordinary people. And, in fact, that's one reason why we need unions. They provide one tool by which to fight against the power of the wealthy.

I hope I can fix this up, but I'm going to publish it as is.