Wisconsin

[Swissdictator]

Have any of you been following what has been going on in Wisconsin?

I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and I still reside here. I've been up to protest a few times now.

Until recently I considered myself a Republican, but with this and other events I severed my final ties to the party. I'm too progressive for what they have become.


Today they are denying people access to the Capital and the governor ordered that the first floor windows be welded shut so food can not get to the protesters still inside. No, there is no food service within the capital either.

There has been A LOT of stuff, one thing after another, coming out about what is in this bill and our governor's actions.

In a tape recorded phone call, the governor even admits to considering hiring trouble makers to infiltrate the protesters so as to discredit/disperse/discourage them... but the only reason he didn't do so is it might backfire. His office didn't deny the tape, but spun it saying it showed he was honest.

I could go on, but I'm so angry that I have to leave it at that. However the blatant corruption, the levels of arrogance, the attempts to destroy unions, the clear effort to turn private workers against public workers, the artificially created budget crisis (we had a surplus when Walker became governor), and countless other issues are just adding to the wretched state of things.

Governor Walker, at one point, had even threatened to call out the national guard to deal with "unrest". Last night, when Police were ordered to clear the building, they joined the protest in defiance of the orders.

Other problems is the devastation of Medicare/Medicaid/SeniorCare, a reduced status of LGBTQ people seeking employment, and the list goes on.

Even though the unions agreed for the pay cuts and "having to contribute" to their pensions/health insurance (even though they already do) all they want is to keep collective bargaining rights, and Walker turned them down.... refusing to negotiate.


Ugh, I have to end this post now. I'm beyond angry.

 

[Master Vampire]

This feels remarkably similar to what I have felt for some time about our own government. The Netherlands is quite small compared to the whole of the USA (which is a bit of an understatement), and I guess even Wisconsin could be bigger (not sure).

Nevertheless, when I was allowed to vote at the age of 18, I decided to check out the parties. Here, they have a lot of small parties, and not Republicans/Democrats... There are around 10 big/popular parties around here, and probably a lot more small ones.

I've been let down by pretty much every party. They are so bad, that I refuse to vote at all and rather let others do it. When the sh!t is really going to hit the fan and I'm discredited in any way more than I feel entitled to, I feel I need to act/project it.

But for the time being, I won't do anything. I basically don't care about politics. I have a great life at the moment, and I don't want to waste my time following some politicians on what they have to say. Every day I unconsciously remember myself that probably more than 50% of the world's population have a worse life, and than I'm excluding most animals that often have worse lifes than the worst human lifes...

I also don't believe in demonstrations. It nearly always failed to leave an impression other than: "O gee, that's a lot of people coming to protest". And hence I don't believe in that. It just doesn't work. It doesn't leave an impression.

I also think that governments are far from being clean themselves. They have their motives. Just like terrorists or criminals do. Now it is unfair to put a government in the same street as these two groups. But I do feel they are secretive about a lot of things that the common people know nothing of. And that's why I think that Wikileaks does have a point, but yet again they are also an organization, and I doubt they have no motives at all other than 'bringing out the truth'.

So yes, I do share a bit of your anger. But I decided some time ago that I want nothing to do with it. It's a negative feeling, and that's a bad thing. I don't want to worry about these things too much. I concentrate on more positive things, which makes me feel better.

Despite the fact I feel let down by my government, I do think they are doing some good things.

But what I hear of you, Swiss, is a bad situation...

 

[Sanai]

I've never even heard of wisconsin and I hate it.