Divided and Conquered (Updated) 1
Republicans are framing an issue of non-government employees vs. government employees fighting over a shrinking pie. Current events in Wisconsin illustrate this.
If employees’ share of the pie is shrinking, doesn’t it make sense to consider whose share of the pie has been increasing.
Renee Loth considers this in the Boston Globe (emphasis added).
The answer, Gruman quickly adds, is not to strip government workers of their health and security — a beggar-thy-neighbor approach that lowers everyone’s standard of living — but to improve the prospects of others. “The resentment is misplaced,’’ he said. “You need to increase private-sector unionization so those workers can start getting decent benefits again.’’
Addendum, Moments Later:
The Booman quotes Georgetown professor Joseph McCartin, who says much the same thing. An excerpt.
Note that the “20- or 30-year period of failure” roughly corresponds to the period since the election of St. Ronnie Reagan and the Republican Party’s worship of voodoo economics.
February 21, 2011 at 12:41 pm
[…] Frank at Pine View Farm continues on the riff that scapegoating — not a word he uses — is at the root of GOP exploitation of anti-labor sentiment. […]