Of course, there are no riots. None. Not one. But that’s what the Right Wing talking heads want us all to believe. That’s what the Republican elected officials are telling us. They want us to think that those that are protesting newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eradicate the unions and squash the labor movement are wreaking havoc all over the state of Wisconsin. The right wingers—including Walker himself—want us to believe that it is necessary to call out the National Guard to quell the violent protests breaking out all over the state. They’re propagating the lie that the hospitals are filling with injured protesters and the jails are being overcrowded by the violent offenders who are taking part.
Wisconsin’s own Congressman Paul Ryan has even gotten into the act. He told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “Cairo had come to Madison.”
Here’s MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, who has been the most passionate member of the media on the matter, on the issue:
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The truth is that there has been no violence in the protests we’ve seen in the last week. Those taking part have been merely exercising their rights GUARANTEED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES to “petition the Government for a redress of their grievances.”
The protesters are teachers and students, firefighters (who, oddly enough, will not be affected by Walker’s proposal, yet there they are protesting alongside everyone else), and municipal workers. They are honest people who fear having their rights completely stripped from them. They are not “freeloaders,” as Republicans insist they are.
The truth is that the right wingnuts are HOPING to see the protests turn violent, and they’re willing to take actions to force it in that direction. It’s really not any different than what we’ve seen in Tehran, or in Bahrain recently, where government backed thugs have taken matters into their own hands and have slaughtered protesters who were determined to make their voices heard in a completely non-violent manner. It’s no different than the pro-government police in Cairo who attacked protesters and journalists trying to tell the story of the people of Egypt.
Republicans WANT the protests in Wisconsin to turn violent; they WANT the protests in Ohio to turn violent. Because if they do, it gives them cause to point to “those liberals” and tell the world how anti-American they are, how they’re trying to “destroy our country.”
Ask yourselves this question: Why would Governor Walker—who has only been on the job for just over a month—openly threaten to send out the National Guard before the protests even started? Why would Republican legislators insist on sending out the state police to round up Democratic legislators and drag them to the state capital?
An even better question: Why is it OK for Republicans to pull out all the stops and obstruct the legislative process, but it’s not OK when Democrats do it? Just exactly who are these Republicans working for? Because it’s certainly not the people who sent them there in the first place.
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I think it is rich that Michelle Bachmann criticized the Wisconsin school teachers for “derelict of duty.” Now that the Republicans are in charge of the house, they work 2 weeks and are off 1 week. Sweet job if you can get it! And hey- we pay for it!
Andy, they are just like you! Remember “Pitchforks and Torches”?
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