Wisconsin Media Follow up

Last night it was MSNBC that went nuts over the Wisconsin recall results; this morning it is CBS. In an amazing statement this morning, CBS "reporters" actually said "democracy and the recall effort failed in Wisconsin yesterday." Then they said that Scott Walker had taken "all" collective bargaining rights from state workers. This was followed by the explanation that Walker had won due to the enormous amount of out-of-state money that he had received.

Let's analyze what CBS had to say. First, they said that "democracy failed". Huh? There was an election, and the people chose the winner. It sure sounds like democracy to me. What they actually meant is that the liberal position was rejected, so that must mean that democracy somehow failed. The left never accepts that a majority of folks do not agree with their ideas. It is always people behaving weirdly that causes their losses. Remember all those articles about some group or another voting against its own interests? You know, white blue collar workers just have to vote for the Democrats since only the Democrats (to whom these folks are just "biter clingers") have the interests of this group in mind. The real truth is that democracy did triumph last night in Wisconsin. The special interests lost their stranglehold on that state's government once and for all.

Second, the reforms put in place by Walker and the Republicans did not take all collective bargaining rights from state workers as CBS said. Only some state workers were affected (not police or firefighters) and they only lost the right to bargain over benefits and certain work rules. Salaries and some work conditions are still to be set through collective bargaining. This is pretty far from a deprivation of all rights, but CBS seems not to know this; it is parroting the liberal union line completely. Of course, Walker also took away the state law that required all state employees to join the union. As a result, more than half of all state employees left the unions (which drastically reduced the dues that the unions have to spend on future elections).

Third, it wasn't money that won it for Walker. Sure the money helped, but both sides had plenty of that. Indeed, the Democrats had thousands of volunteers across America making phone calls into Wisconsin for the last three weeks. That and similar efforts by the unions do not show up in the money totals. Out of state money is no different than out of state labor. They both come from out of state. Nevertheless, CBS chose the explanation for Walker's victory that makes it somehow diminished, no longer a victory among the people of the state.

The real truth is that Walker won, the people spoke, and the liberals need to understand just how completely they were beaten.