Blaming The Victim (GOP Style)

First they tried to tell you that the reason Wisconsin was broke was because teachers (and nurses, and 9-1-1 operators, and social workers, etc.) made too much $ and had drained the system. Remember Belling and Sykes screeching that the average teacher makes $100,000 per year? Of course they forgot to mention that that figure includes salaries of superintendents and principals, who are non-union professionals, who all have their doctorates and that that figure includes the cost of all benefits and insurance.

What the Republicans neglected to mention was the fact that EVERY state was broke because we tried to finance two foreign wars while giving tax breaks to the wealthy and handing out no-bid military contracts to companies like Blackwater and Halliburton (run by Dick Cheney).

What the conservatives forgot to mention was that the state was struggling financially because people lost their jobs, then paid less or no income taxes, and lost their homes and then paid less or no property taxes. They forgot to mention that while the state took in less money in taxes than ever before, it was shoveling it out in unemployment benefits.

Then we saw Republican Supreme Court Justice David Prosser narrowly miss charges for the choking of Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, but it was Bradley who took the blame for the altercation because she had the audacity to ask Prosser to leave her office and point towards the door.

What else is a man supposed to do when threatened by a small woman and her finger but to put your hands around her neck? (Yes, she is smaller than he despite Justice Gableman stating the opposite).

Prosser got away with an attempted choke scott-free and Bradley got blamed for "instigating" the situation. So again, the Republicans blamed the victim - in this case, Bradley for standing up to a bully.

Then Republican pretty-boy Paul Ryan tried to blame the poor and the elderly for the lack in funding to Social Security and Medicare by coming up with the ingenious solution to end Medicare as we know it and instead send out coupons and vouchers of up to $8,000 per year.

Imagine an 82 year old grandmother fighting cancer or diabetes and trying to "shop" for a deal in the private insurance market with her "pre-existing conditions". No insurance company would touch her with a 10 foot thermometer. And if "Obama-Care" managed to go into full effect before she died and her pre-existing" conditions could not be used against her, how long do you think $8,000 would last when treating cancer or paying for medications?

But it is the fault of the old person after all, right? They should evaporate their entire life savings, sell their family home and cash every last bond they have to pay for their health care instead of every American slowly pitching into a shared pot that we can dip into when we are in trouble and elderly. How Socialist can you get, right?

Now they are trying to tell you that the reason Wisconsin is bleeding jobs at a jackrabbit pace is also the fault of the teachers and other public sector workers. The teacher - the "greedy" "lazy" teacher - who is upset over losing 50 years of bargaining rights and hard-fought negotiations is at fault.

They are trying to tell you that Scott Walker's mean-spirited and Scrooge-like approach of balancing the budget on the broken backs of the working-class and poor is the fault of none other than the teachers. The Republicans have stripped funding for the poor and disabled and public education, then given it away to private schools and big corporations, all while blaming the public worker for a loss in spending-power for middle class families.

There are 250,000 public-sector workers who have been blamed for the financial troubles of the state, had their entire retirement restructured, salaries lowered and benefits decreased. Now because they are attempting to have another election in a few months, it is their fault (again) that WI is losing jobs.

It is the fault of the teacher and the garbage man and road crew member that private companies are closing shop and laying workers off. It has nothing to do with the fact that 250,000 families saw a 10% decrease in salaries and have less $ to buy goods with.

Let's take my family for example. We saw a hike in our insurance to a $4,000 deductible (next year it goes to $5,000, then $6,000). We also saw an increase in our retirement contributions and a pay freeze of two years, and an elimination of all overload and overtime.

All this after paying $11,000 to earn a Master's Degree in Education (at our own expense) because in order to retain your educator's license you have to continually take college courses.

My family has cancelled our membership to the YMCA and has stopped going to Ferch's. And instead of buying from Half-Priced books, we borrow from the library. All these actions are hurting local businesses, so I guess it is our fault that WI is losing jobs. I guess we should put everything on the credit card and do our patriotic duty of going into deeper debt to keep the economy rolling.

Silly me - I thought we were losing jobs because people had less disposable income to spend, but then again, that is the kind of liberal thinking you would come across in a college economics class (but our Governor wouldn't know anything about that would he)?

What the right-wing conservatives do not, and never will understand, is that while you can kill leaders (MLK, JFK) and unions (WEAC, MTI), and crush opposition with force (OCW) you can NEVER, EVER kill an idea (like the idea of workers having the right to bargain for living wages, healthy working conditions, decent benefits and a voice).