Something is happening in Wisconsin*. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that before. Nevertheless, there are aspects of the show down between Governor Scott Walker (Republican) and the public sector unions that may become familiar over here too. The details* of the dispute in the Badger State need not concern us unduly – though James Joyner has a good round-up – save to observe that the combination of deficits, a conservative administration and unhappy unions is hardly limited to Wisconsin. David Cameron’s government will face its own union-led challenges soon enough.
Nor do I think it terribly surprising that Barack Obama has backed the unions. So I’m a little surprised that as urbane a commentator as Clive Crook is surprised by this. He argues:
I was surprised to see Obama inserting himself into the fight in Wisconsin over public employees’ collective-bargaining rights.
[…] I can see that the Democratic party base will love it, obviously, but in the battle for centrist opinion, does it make sense to align with unions against governors struggling to balance their books–that is, to align with unions against taxpayers? I doubt it.
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