"Government employees are the new elite"

"Thnx. Keep on him," Michelle Malkin twittered yesterday re our own District 8 MA Rep. Michael Capuano's unfortunate slip of the tongue at a union rally in Boston Tuesday, when this me-too signer of the President's fatuous "New Civility" temperance pledge a few weeks back was caught in the national spotlight urging public-employee union members to "get a little bloody." As we twittered back to Michelle: "I'm newly awakened. Focussed energy on Sean Bielat last cycle. Heard Mike Capuano's eying Scott Brown's seat. Let's roll!" Bret Baier, above, delivers the awful news.

"Government employees are the new elite," said Fox News Digital Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt on Special Report last night, putting his finger on exactly how this post-November-election moment of clarity stood Angelo Codevilla's Ruling Class vs Country class revelation on its head. As we wrote a couple of months back:

Then came Angelo Codevilla's palate-cleansing revelation that neither statist democrats nor nominally limited-government republicans gave a darn about the electorate. It was the Ruling Class vs the Country Class. Enter stage right the Tea Party and Barbara Bush's unmasking when she revealed her contempt for you and me. And now the cascade of outrageous intrusions on our Bill of Rights.

Even as our friends on the left side of the aisle have been muddying the waters of the national debate with iterations of the tired Greedy-Republicans-vs-poor-but-honest-workers narrative, those same workers have been eating high off the hog at the expense of the "forgotten man." Now lucid luminaries on the right side of the aisle are shining a bright light on the decades-long collusion between Democrat powers that be and big labor that has festered in the murkiness of Beltway politics while We the people slept. Byron York, Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute and Charles Krauthammer clear the air. First York, on "Why the GOP shouldn't fear a government shutdown": 

Even if the '95 shutdown hurt the GOP — and there's no doubt the party suffered wounds inflicted not only by Clinton but also by themselves — today's voters are in a different mood. "We have fiscal crises at the federal, state, and local level, and voters understand that," says Bill Paxon, a former Republican lawmaker and veteran of the shutdown. "Back in '95, we were whistling into the wind — we were trying to preach fiscal discipline when voters were saying, 'Hey, there's not a problem'"…

Today's media environment is substantially different. "In '95 there was no Internet, no bloggers, no Facebook, no Fox News," says Dick Armey, who was House majority leader during the shutdown. "The discourse of politics today is carried out in a media world that didn't exist in 1995." That doesn't mean there wouldn't be negative coverage of Republicans if a shutdown occurs, just that the overall media picture would be more balanced.

"Why has public-sector unionism thrived while private-sector unionism has shriveled? asks Chris Edwards in a revelatory analysis of "Public-Sector Unions" from last March:

One reason is that public agencies tend to be static — once a union has organized a group of workers they tend to stay organized. By contrast, the private sector is dynamic, with businesses going bankrupt and new businesses arising all the time. Since all new businesses start out nonunion, greater organizing efforts are needed to sustain private-sector unions.

Another factor is that many government services are legal monopolies, such as police and fire. The result is that consumers don’t have the option of abandoning unionized public services if they become too inefficient, as they can with unionized services in the private sector.

The bottom line is that competition fosters excellence, and when you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. Incentives are all, and perverse incentives lead to bankruptcy. Charles Krauthammer has the last word:

The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

A choice, not an echo: Democrats desperately defending the status quo; Republicans charging the barricades.

Wisconsin is the epicenter. It began with economic issues. When Gov. Scott Walker proposed that state workers contribute more to their pension and health-care benefits, he started a revolution. Teachers called in sick. Schools closed. Demonstrators massed at the capitol. Democratic senators fled the state to paralyze the Legislature.

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: Off to Worcester to join DaTechGuyblog's talk radio show with special guest Jazz Shaw on the phone and Sissy in the studio, 10 a.m. to noon, WCRN 830 AM. Listen here. Update III: Archived recording now available.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[Tom Bowler]

Sissy, I don't get the part about "the arse-backward narrative of Angelo Codevilla's Ruling Class". I thought his essay was right on the money.

[Sissy Willis]

Oh, my. That's not what I meant at all. I agree Codevilla is spot on, as blogged here:

Darwin and the clueless left: It was all a misunderstanding

Gramsci's long march through the institutions ends at the water's edge

What do Oprah Winfrey, Glenn Beck and Bristol Palin have in common?

I'll have to fix that. Thanks for pointing it out!

Sissy

[Tom Bowler]

Thanks for the clarification, and the clarity, Sissy.

To your point about Barbara Bush, she sure stood up to be counted as a ruling class member in good standing, with her comment about Sarah. Disappointing that she didn't just keep her mouth shut.

[DV]

What's disappointing to me is that Bush, Sr. didn't tell Barbara to put a sock in it. But, you see, that's how and why the blueblood Yankee class went wrong. There's no denying the intelligence of Abigail Adams et al., but once the women-with-big-mouth syndrome set in, the New England blue-blood men never had the gumption to tell them to shut up. Maybe it was guilt about the witch trials, who knows? Barbara and Laura Bush, if you are listening ... SHUT THE HELL UP! WE DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT SISTER SARAH OR SAME SEX MARRIAGE OR ANYTHING ELSE. Now shut up and get off stage!

[retriever]

Sissy, I like Barbara Bush. And if we are to defeat the Obamination and associated minions we need a Big Tent, not to start fighting amongst ourselves. We need to find a candidate for 2012 who unites us, and who can inspire the whole country to get back to work, not splinter into groups that the left can pick off. I guess I'm hyper-sensitive as a formerly liberal New Englander with a big mouth....

I work with people who all voted for Obama and who are now disaffected, but they will not be won over by people they perceive to be extremist. They hate both parties, perceive both parties to be in the pocket of the rich and to care nothing for ordinary working Americans. They want jobs for themselves and their children and can't move to China or India for them. Their houses are worth less than they paid for them and they can't sell them even if they got a job in another part of the country.

The problem seems to be that it's the Independents and currently disafffected Democrats who will decide the next election. Also the young. So they are the people we have to appeal to, reach out to, get the message out to. And they are more scared of people like Sarah P than Barbara B.

[Gayle Miller]

Back to the point of your post, dear Sissy.

Government employees THINK they are our unassailable ruling class and must be disabused of that erroneous notion by any means necessary, including a good swift kick in the gluteus maximus!

The Congress, the Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch are ALL our EMPLOYEES and we need to keep reminding them over and over and over again until they "get it" since they are, one and all, slow learners!

Onward Christian soldiers!