Decamping

So the last of the squatters were finally evicted from the Capitol building in Madison last night. About time.

These people are idiots. There's no point in saying it otherwise. What they did wasn't about free speech, or democracy, or anything else they claimed it was. It was about mob rule, a boundless sense of entitlement and addled thinking.

Do you doubt that last part? Check out the video on this page, in which we are informed that Noodles & Company is as much of a dictatorship as the nightmare that Scott Walker is apparently imposing. There is one four-syllable expletive uttered by an AFSCME goon that essentially renders it NSFW, but hilarity ensues at 3:38 or so.

The young fellow interviewed at length in the video is the sort of person I'd see from time to time during my college years. About once a semester the Spartacus Youth League would come down to the Beloit College campus from their redoubt in Madison, set up a card table in the basement of the student union, and hand out mimeographed nonsense for a few hours. Most of the students walked on by, although occasionally one of our more addled trust fund babies might engage them in a conversation. I talked to them once but was creeped out so quickly that I walked away after about a minute. The only other time I felt a similar sensation was when I went with some buddies of mine to see the kooks who built this notorious Wisconsin landmark.

What the silly socialist and a lot of other people in his generational cohort fail to understand is this: they are protesting against their own interests. Scott Walker, and John Kasich in Ohio, have moved against the public employee unions for three reasons, only one of which is overtly political.

• The promises that previous administrations have made regarding long-term compensation, pensions and benefits cannot be paid. Nor will they be paid.
• In order to stop things from getting worse, public employee unions must no longer have the ability to control both sides of the bargaining table.
• And yes, if the public employee unions are defanged, it will benefit the Republican Party.

For me, the truth of the matter is this: the fortunes of Republicans are a secondary consideration at best. What I see is a string of gigantic, almost incomprehensible bills coming due that my generation has charged off to the credit cards of our children. The bills come from all levels -- federal, state and local. Until we can remove the current adminstration in Washington, there's not much we can do to stop the madness there. Nor is there much we can do in St. Paul, at least for the moment. But those who have the opportunity to change things, as Scott Walker does, really have to do it. If we leave our children with bills they cannot pay, we will deserve the fate they will choose for us.