Robert Lafollette, Jr. and Joseph McCarthy. Russ Feingold and Scott Walker. How could one state–Wisconsin–elect politicians with such divergent views?

No state east of New York has had such a strong tradition of progressive views in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Despite the strength that Senator Robert Lafollette, Jr. and his father brought to the progressive wing of the Republican Party in Wisconsin, it seemed to have little staying power. In what must be one of the greatest political turnarounds in American history, Lafollette was defeated in 1946 in the Republican primary by conservative witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy. Did the people of Wisconsin fall for McCarthy’s criticism of Lafollette not joining the military in World War II, even though Lafollette was 46-years old at the time of Pearl Harbor and was a sitting U.S. senator? What caused the citizens to take a quantum leap to the right?

In Wisconsin, the state capital and the state university are both in the same town, Madison. The university has traditionally been a hotbed of progressive thinking and action, and at times that has flowed into the halls of the Capitol. This trend has continued into the current decade, but not because progressives at the university and in state government have been strengthening one another. Rather, it is students and faculty at the University, joined by thousands of state public employees demonstrating under the Rotunda in Governor Scott Walker’s office building.

Scott Walker has gone from being an embattled governor to a presidential contender. He was elected governor in 2010. The Wisconsin state legislature was also part of the red wave that covered the United States that year. Walker and the legislature collaborated in 2011 to pass the “Wisconsin budget repair bill,” which significantly changed the collective bargaining process for most public employees. The goal of the bill was to eliminate the deficit in the state budget. But the means of doing so was a punch in the gut to tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens, who had fought to bring a healthy equilibrium to the management-worker struggle, which has been with us since the first cave person hired another to do some work.

Public employees in Wisconsin and elsewhere are among the most under-paid workers in our economy. They often have jobs that are dangerous, tedious, and in the case of teachers, require far more than 40 hours a week with no overtime pay. Nonetheless, they were the target of Walker and the legislature. The law has survived a variety of challenges, including a recall election of Governor Walker. He defeated the recall in 2012 and then won reelection in 2014. His reelection only emboldened him to try to take the once union-strong state into a “right to work [for less]” state. Removing the confusing slogans, Walker wants to weaken labor unions in Wisconsin by not requiring workers to pay union dues, even if the employees of a company are represented in bargaining by a union.

Walker’s efforts to weaken unions in the private and the public sector has now drawn the ire of the National Football League. The NFL is certainly not  a bastion of liberalism, but players in the league have been organized and protected by the NFL Players Association since 1970. Players in the NFL may be well-compensated, but their working conditions have been terrible, with their health always at risk. Only with the Players Association has their pension been protected.

The one NFL team in Wisconsin is the storied Green Bay Packers. There is no billionaire owner of the team, just a bunch of interested citizens in the town of Green Bay and elsewhere in Wisconsin. Players on the Packers have always been enthusiastic union supporters.

Moving beyond the field of football, the NFL Players Association Is now playing politics in Wisconsin.

The union released a strongly worded statement on February 25 denouncing the state’s proposed right-to-work legislation — which would prohibit businesses and unions from requiring workers to pay union dues — and reaffirming its solidarity “with the working families of Wisconsin and organized labor in their fight against current attacks against their right to stand together as a team.”

The statement, written by executive director DeMaurice Smith, pointed to the various support staff employed at the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field who “will have their well being and livelihood jeopardized” by the law. It also acknowledged the “generations of skilled workers” who contribute to the state’s various industries and pointed to the law’s potentially devastating effects on wages and safety. Smith took direct shots at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who may be looking to boost his presidential aspirations at the expense of the state’s workers: “Governor Scott Walker may not value these vital employees, but as union members, we do.”

It would be a stretch to say that Scott Walker has been a demagogue of the ilk of Joe McCarthy. But Walker has successfully rallied Wisconsin citizens to undermine legislation that has protected them since the beginning of the progressive era in the late 19^th century. What’s happening in Wisconsin is similar to “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” in which citizens allow religiously formed social values to undermine their best economic interests. Yes, apparently this can happen too in Wisconsin, even with its strong university system and its proud progressive heritage.

This phenomenon stands as further evidence that the American body electorate is often more tuned into the politics of mythology and fear than to reason and their economic self-interest and that of their families and their neighbors. As I have said before, progressive education may be the best way to enlighten our citizenry.

The post Wisconsin shows how difficult it is to hold on to progressive gains appeared first on Occasional Planet.

With all the talk of raising the minimum wage, there is one state that shouldn’t have any trouble at all doing just that. Why? Because it’s the law. The minimum-wage law for the state of Wisconsin includes some very interesting language:

104.02  Living wage prescribed. Every wage paid or agreed to be paid by any employer to any employee… shall be not less than a living wage.
History: 1975 c. 94; 2005 a. 12.

104.03  Unlawful wages. Any employer paying, offering to pay, or agreeing to pay any employee a wage lower or less in value than a living wage is guilty of a violation of this chapter.

Recently, 100 people with salaries ranging from the minimum wage of $7.25 to as high as $15.05 filed a complaint with the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, telling him why their wage was not a living wage and therefore it violated the state statute. With a lie bigger than the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line, Walker’s DWD (Department of Workforce Development) was quick to respond that $7.25 met the requirement for a living wage.

They did not call any of the 100 complainants. Despite being told over and over again that these people, who work full time, often had to decide between paying rent, buying food, or buying medicine (unable to afford all three and sometimes, could only afford one of the three), the DWD somehow felt that the respondents were living in the lap of luxury off of those princely sums. Unbelievably, part of the reason was that government assistance was considered enough extra income to meet the standard. That means food stamps bumped minimum-wage earners into the leisure class in the eyes of Walker’s government – the same government that provided the food stamps. Were they to simply raise the minimum wage, they would no longer have to provide food stamps for countless numbers of at risk workers.

Although Wisconsin Jobs Now vows the fight is not over, I am finding myself unable to get past the inhuman decision from Walker’s administration.

More justifications of this untenable decision had to do with “stuff” that the poor people owned. That old, tired, and insulting idea that if a poor person owns a refrigerator they are somehow living the life of Riley needs to die a quick and painful death. Some people used to have money and now have none. They may have owned things from that former life, like an aging iPhone or a battered car. (Yes, those who owned cars were considered living well above need. However, were any of those cars to break down there were no funds to repair them.) They may have realized that being able to buy food in a grocery store and keep it in a refrigerator saved a lot of money in the long run over eating out. Many apartments include a refrigerator in the furnishings. Most people consider it as essential as a stove or oven. The only people who appear to think of a refrigerator as a sign of abundant wealth are the kind of people who have never wanted for anything in their entire lives.

Regardless of the erroneous fantasies held by those with piles of money in the bank, this particular statute is there to protect the people who work hard and cannot make food and rent at the same time. The law is there to make sure that government fatcats and corporate masters value the workers who are such a huge part of any industry. Naturally, business interests are screaming that a higher minimum wage would immediately make them flee the state. Walker even cites some bogus study that says the more you pay your workforce, the more jobs are lost. This has been proven incorrect. In Seattle, WA, the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour and their job figures have been steadily climbing ever since.

It’s an easy equation even for someone who is not an economics major. If you put more money in the pockets of your workers, they will immediately pour that money into the economy of the state. They don’t hide it in offshore accounts. They use it, because they have to. They use it paying rents, buying food, clothes, and the occasional birthday cake. They spend the money on their kids, buying them school supplies and a new wardrobe for their growing bodies. They buy health insurance and gas for their functioning car. If you keep paying them too little to survive, there is only money for necessities. They pay their rent, or get some groceries, or maybe they decide to buy some much-needed medication (Walker did not accept Medicaid expansion, so a lot of poor people here have no insurance at all).

I am hoping that the battle for a living wage continues. The law is on the side of the underpaid. We just need to find a way to get our ridiculous little homunculus of a governor* to listen. Judging by all of the John Doe investigations into him and his administration, he’s not a big fan of laws. We need a miracle – like Mary Burke winning the Governor’s election next month.

*Ordinarily, I am not a fan of name-calling. I make an exception in Walker’s case because it’s an accurate description.

The post The minimum rage: Wisconsin edition appeared first on Occasional Planet.