Wisconsin on my brain
Recently revolutions and protests have been filling the airwaves, from Egypt, to Libya, to the United States. Wisconsin has recently (but not for the first time) popped up as being a center for the labor rights debate that has begun, and will continue to spill over across the nation. Unfortunately, as we are seeing the GOP is launching an assault on labor unions, workers rights, and other areas such as women's rights and reproductive rights. Although I will be doing some work on these latter issues, I will focus this particular post on what is going on with the issue of labor rights and unions.
Last night I was watching the Daily Show (1), and his whole first segment was focused on Walker, the protests, and an interview (or hoax interview) that Walker participated in yesterday. Just in case you haven't heard, Walker took a phone call and thought he was speaking to David Koch (a major financial backer of Republican candidates and issues (6) NATIONWIDE)
when in reality he was speaking with reporter Murphy from the blog buffalobeast (3).
This interview between Murphy & Walker (3), when juxtaposed to Walkers recent press statements (2), the Club for Growth Wisconsin, Inc television ad (4), the Americans for Prosperity TV ad (5), and the policy and financial policy that Walker is proposing, shows that there is an attack going on against unions, supporters (including the demcratic representatives), and democratic party values. The attack(s) may be understood collectively as a side to a debate; a sequence of arguments and rhetoric that aim to promote GOP interests, and to negate union interests.
On the other side of the debate we have a recent ad (7) sponsored by Wisconsin AFL-CIO, we have the protests (8), the democratic leaders who have left their states in protest (9), as well as some remarks by Obama (10) stating that what is going on is an assault on unions. Overall, this side of the debate is against Walkers proposal, specifically this side of the debate is against the push to end collective bargaining rights for unions.
Although this a preliminary list of texts that are contributing to larger narratives on each side of this debate, it is clear that there are campaigns on either side to promote the issues that they wish to make salient to the public and that they want to influence public policy. Such rhetoric is worthy of attention and it is my hope to be able to look at these texts to better understand how they function within the debate for and against collective bargaining rights for unions. What strikes me as interesting is the different ways each side seems to be engaging the debate. For example, from the hoax interview we can see that there are some interesting tactics being explored in an effort to end collective bargaining rights- such as infiltrating the protesters and using deceit with Democratic leaders to get what they want. Are these tactics exemplary of popular American debate, argumentation, and rhetorical practices? As someone who has worked on campaigns in the past, I can say that these tactics do happen, but are they dominant forms of practice? Or are they examples of arguing differently? Additionally, how is this interview, an act in itself, performative of arguing differently? Additionally, the efforts by Democratic leaders who have left their representative states in protest- are these examples of arguing differently?
I will return to this blog later, but for now- what do you think about this debate? What other texts should I include for possible analysis? What about all these texts, and each side of the debate do you think are exemplary of traditional American rhetoric and debate, and what about them are not?
1- http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-february-23-2011-donald-rumsfeld
2-http://online.wsj.com/video/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-on-protests/3ACE429A-1DED-41EC-8AD6-0C62F3F8FF48.html?mod=WSJ_article_related
3- http://www.buffalobeast.com/?p=5045
4-http://wispolitics.com/1006/110211_WCFG_Benefits_TV.mov
5- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adX6C01X9TU
6- http://www.truth-out.org/koch-industries-front-group-americans-for-prosperity-launches-ad-to-support-walkers-union-busting67
7- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/first_look_national_unions_lau.html
8- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/21/wisconsin-protests-_n_826246.html
9-http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/us/25states.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
10- http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/02/obama-on-wisconsin-budget-protests-an-assault-on-workers.html
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