|
Townhall...
Wisconsin Judicial
Tyranny
By Kyle Olson
Why did the state of Wisconsin bother to have an election last November?
To look at the results, you would think the voters had spoken clearly.
They elected a Republican governor and legislature, based on the
promise that they would take strong action to balance the state budget
and give schools and municipalities more control over their local
budgets.
Within a few weeks of taking office, the Republicans followed through
on their promise.
Public sector unions that had stubbornly refused to make concessions to
help struggling schools and municipalities save money were called out.
Labor costs comprise about 80 percent of any school or municipal
budget, but the unions wouldn’t let local officials cut labor costs.
The unions abused their collective bargaining privileges, so the state
moved to take most of those privileges away. We elect state officials
to make those kinds of decisions. If voters decide later that those
decisions were wrong, they elect different people next time.
But it’s beginning to seem like the will of the people, as reflected in
the election results, is completely irrelevant. The Democrats and their
special interest sponsors in the labor movement are using any means at
their disposal to block the efforts of the officials who won the
election.
Our Founding Fathers warned against “the tyranny of the minority.” This
must have been the type of situation they had in mind.
First we had the runaway Senate Democrats, who accept large cash
donations from the unions to do their bidding. They fled to Illinois
and blocked the legislative process, because the voters did not elect
enough of them to defeat Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed legislation
through prescribed methods.
How is that democracy?
Now we have Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, a woman whose family is
knee-deep in Democratic Party politics, blocking implementation of
Walker’s legislation. She issued a temporary restraining order, based
on the accusation that a Senate committee approved the law in violation
of the open meetings act. When the Legislative Reference Bureau
published the law anyway, she reiterated her order and threatened
anyone who implemented the law with sanctions.
That poses a simple question - if the Senate committee indeed violated
the open meetings law, couldn’t it just meet again, vote in favor of
the law again, then have the full Senate pass it again and the governor
sign it again?
Not so simple, according to a Senate staffer. The Senate could do all
of that, but the Democrats have vowed to keep posing legal challenge
after legal challenge, to block implementation of the bill indefinitely.
As one key Democrat told the media, his party will use a “tsunami of
litigation” to hold up the process. And there’s no doubt that they can
go judge shopping and find useful tools like Judge Sumi any time they
want.
How is that democracy?
People love to gripe about the influence of special interests in
government. Now they’re watching a horrific example of special interest
influence blocking the will of the voters, and nobody is saying a word.
The Democrats who are doing the unions’ bidding accept thousands of
dollars in campaign contributions from organized labor every year.
That’s what special interests do - purchase the loyalty of lawmakers -
sometimes Democrats, sometimes Republicans - to protect their agenda.
And the unions’ pet lawmakers will go to any length to disrupt the
process, even if that defies the will of the voters.
It’s hard to believe that the average voters of Wisconsin, who cannot
afford to purchase the loyalty of legislators, are not descending on
Madison in droves, demanding that the people they elected to govern be
allowed to govern.
Read it at Townhall
|
|
|
|
