They don't want to lose bargaining rights, but they couch that worry in a broader, more existential fear: What if they're losing their country? It is almost impossible not to hear echoes of Tea Party protesters. (There are some common slogans: I spotted one "Mad as Hell" and one "Can You Hear Us Now?" sign.) The Tea Party worries about George Soros and ACORN; the Cheddar Revolutionaries worry about libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch, and an overall Republican strategy to "defund the left." They cite New Yorker and New York Times reports to make this case, and they're scared.What they really have in common is that they're largely white. (Liberal, SWPL whites in the case of the well-paid teachers, but still white.)That's why there's been little actual violence, and why this analogy is a failure.
However, I don't expect Keith Olbermann to go on television and denounce the Wisconsinites for being white.
