Donald Trump won Wisconsin.
For the past eight years, I saw this state, right up there in the Rust Belt, tilt ever closer toward the Republicans. George W. Bush almost won Wisconsin in 2004, too.
But this time, the Donald made it happen.
Wisconsin, the Dairy State, has not gone to a Republican Presidential candidate in over 30 years. That's a long time! Reagan won Wisconsin in 1984 as part of his 49-state sweep.
Election 2016, and Republicans romped and stomped in fields where they had not won in over 30 years.
Wisconsin!
It's a red state now!
This shift from reliably to blue to safer and safer toward red did not happen over night.
Can you imagine it?
Wisconsin did not fall into the Republican column since ... 1984!
George Orwell must be turning over in his grave!
What happened in Wisconsin that brought the Dairy State into Republican hands again?
Scott Walker and his Act 10 Reforms.
It smarts to hear what the legislature was talking about in 2011:
"We are turning into California."
What were they worried about in Madison?
Scott Walker was facing a massive $3 billion deficit. Raising taxes or cutting jobs would have turned a recession into a depression.
Walker chose to enact clear-cut collective bargaining reforms.
Allowing public sector workers to organize and bargain with elected officials is a recipe for bankruptcy.
They public sector unions take their money and buy up politicians. The politicians in turn give the workers whatever they want, since neither side is paying the bills. The taxpayers are the ones who get hit with large costs.
And the cycle goes on.
As soon as Act 10 was approved, the Democrats in Wisconsin went ballistic, even though they were desperate and now lost:
Check out this video of the event on the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly:
The Democratic caucus in the Wisconsin State Assembly had been wasted to a fraction.
As Republicans took steps to bring the budget under control--and remove the collective bargaining entitlement, they began shouting "Shame!"
The state senate took swift action to pass Act 10, as well.
First, check out how the one Democrat at the conference committee tried to stall the legislation, but failed to, since the minority Democrats had ditched the legislature to preventa uorum.
In the full floor vote, the Wisconsin State Senate voted
This kind of courage is hard to find.
But because of this courage, because of the resolve of the new Republican majority in the state legislature, Governor Scott Walker signed off on Act 10.
What has been the aftermath for Wisconsin following Act 10?
Taxpayers saved $5 billion. That's with a B.
What about the labor unions?
How are they doing in the aftermath?
The Wisconsin State-Journal offers some choice snippets on what is happening:
A couple weeks before the Nov. 8 election, 10 Milwaukee public school
teachers staffed the phone bank at their union office with two goals in mind.
Both involved winning.
The first aim was to help Democrat Russ Feingold regain the U.S. Senate
seat he lost in the Republican wave of 2010.
The second was to persuade teachers to vote to recertify their union.
That vote, in its own way, was a measure of loss.
Unions cannot rely on the same number of members and skip over them afterwards. Every year, unions have to ask for the permission of their members to recertify.
But there's more:
But the scene in the basement of the MTEA complex, five years after the
passage of Act 10, was a reminder of the hard and fast fall organized labor has
taken in Wisconsin.
Even as one of the stronger locals in the state, MTEA membership is
down by about 30% since Act 10.
Nationally, no state has lost more of its labor union identity than
Wisconsin since 2011, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis found. Union
members made up 14.2% of workers before Act 10, but just 8.3% in 2015. That was
nearly double the drop of Alaska, the runner up.
The membership is down.
That means the dues are down, and the manpower is also down. The labor unions have fewer taxpayer-funded campaign workers to get their chosen candidates into office.
On a practical — and political — level, labor has less money to boost
Democratic campaigns, and a diminished pool of foot soldiers to offer.
Its muscle was not able to secure a Wisconsin win for Feingold, or
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
BINGO!
Wisconsin is going red!
Republicans gained seats in the state senate and the state assembly, too!
Democrats need to find a new way to raise money, and they need to start talking about solutions for Wisconsin families and citizens that will serve their needs, rather than cater to the greedy, selfish labor unions out for themselves at taxpayer expense!
This model needs to be replicated in every blue state.
End the chokehold of Big Labor across the country.
Demand that public workers pay more into their pensions.
Limit what they can bargain for.
End forced unionism.
Enact paycheck protection. Union dues should only be paid from employees who choose to join!
And watch the country not only go red, but watch prosperity take hold of this beautiful country.
When right-to-work is restored, we will indeed #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
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