Kimberly Emerson

It is February, and even here in sunny Southern California temperatures have dipped down.  (57 degrees…brrrr.)  Parents across the land are covering their children with parkas and hand sanitizer in order to avoid the spread of colds and flu.  To everyone’s surprise, however, the most contagious disease this winter appears to be political upheaval.

It started in a land far, far away called Tunisia.  Unable to find a job after graduating college, a young man started up a vegetable cart in his hometown.  Having run the cart for seven years without a license, he had received several citations by the police, and when he received yet another, he probably thought of it as just another minor irritation.  (Well, maybe major irritation, given that the fine constituted as much as he made in a whole day.)  When he tried to pay the fine, the policewoman who had issued it insulted his family and spit in his face.  He tried to complain to the authorities.  No one listened.  In frustration, he gave his life in protest by setting himself on fire.  Evidently a lot of people could understand this young man’s pain, because demonstrations broke out on the streets not long afterward.  Analysts far and wide put the blame on people’s lack of three key elements to life – food, work and a voice in the government.

Sharing the same three deprivations, similar rumblings were soon heard from Egypt.  As I understand it, they’d been rumbling for quite a while beforehand, but matters came to a head shortly after the Tunisian uprising.  The Tunisian ruler of 23 years made a hasty exit.  The Egyptian ruler held out for a few weeks more, but soon stepped down as well.  (In both countries, you can make a good argument that the people who took over in their absence are not a lot better, but you have to start somewhere.)  From there, the unrest went viral: Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Morocco, Wisconsin.

Wait…what was that last thing again?

Oh, yeah.  Revolutions were going on in the Middle East and sage Americans clucked their tongues and said “I told you so,” right up until the minute that someone started to protest over here.

In 2010, with the economy in the tank and state deficits running rampant, Wisconsin ditched its Democratic administration and went for  Republican Scott Walker.  In similar circumstances, you’ll note California ditched its incumbent Republican and went for a Democrat.  The parties don’t matter that much.  People will go for whoever wasn’t in office when the bad stuff happened.  Political parties, however, are loath to acknowledge this idea, and like to say when they are elected – by however infinitesimal a margin – that they were sent to office “with a mandate.”  The Wisconsin Republicans decided that the best solution was to expand business opportunities and cut costs.

Unfortunately, expanding business opportunities involved cutting business taxes.  You can debate whether this helps the economy long term, but in the short term, it adds to the deficit.  Since that was not the direction anyone wanted to go, some immediate cuts were needed.  Where was the money going?  Well, to be sure part of it was going to state employees.  Okay, then.  State employees as a whole were getting very nice benefit packages.  No one in the private sector had seen those kind of benefits in years.  Time for state employees to make some concessions, including their right to bargain for future benefits.

State employees said they had made concessions, thank you very much, and they really weren’t okay with that little provision about giving up collective bargaining rights.

Okay, not to toot my own horn, but had the lawmakers in Wisconsin asked me (not that there’s any earthly reason why they should), I could have made this whole thing much easier.  How, you might well ask?  By making sure we were all on the same page about two basic facts.

1.  Public sector employees get better benefits.  Private sector employees get better wages.  I know from whence I speak.  I grew up with teachers for parents.  We may have eaten a lot of tuna noodle casserole toward the end of the month, but we always had vision insurance.   This is why state employees get so touchy about their benefits.  It’s what they have instead of cash.

2.  You can only create a lasting peace when both sides get to walk away from the negotiating table feeling like they’ve won something.  I’m not making this up because I hate to see anyone lose.  (It’s true, I do, but I still didn’t make this up.)  I learned about it studying political science twenty years ago, and it wasn’t new then.  Anytime one side comes out the clear victor, the other side says the negotiation was unfair and licks its wounds until it has a chance to strike back.  For a good example, look at the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, the “war to end all wars”.  It was harsh.  Understandably so, but still: Henry Kissinger considers it the #2 reason why there was a World War II.  (Hitler is still #1.)  No matter how repulsive you find your political opponent, if you want to achieve peace, you must find some common ground.  (Click here for an interview with Kissinger that touches on the subject.)

Given both of these facts, I would have offered a compromise: we’ll reduce your benefits by 25%, but we’ll add 50% of the money that we would have paid in benefits to your paychecks instead.  You get to decide whether you’re okay with the reduction in benefits, or whether to use that money paying for better ones.  Savings are accomplished.  True, it will be 12.5% savings, not 25%.  However, it would still effectively establish the precedent of having public employees contribute to their benefit packages, and the public employees get to come out of it with more cash in hand.  Yes, it’s an oversimplification of a complicated concept.  But you see my point.  Everybody gets something.

As of this moment, as I understand it, the unions of Wisconsin have agreed to all the reductions in their benefits.  They know that concessions have to be made.  (They’ve already taken furlough days, but we’ll let that go for the moment.)  The only point they’re standing firm on is maintaining their collective bargaining rights.  The Governor of Wisconsin, however, insists that he isn’t backing down.  His entire package must be passed as is.  He wants to set a precedent.

As someone far away trying to learn from this, however, I am struck by the thought that all those people gathering in the streets are not his enemy, they are his constituents, and in a couple of years he will be trying to win their votes for a second term.  It may feel nice for a moment to win an uncompromised victory, but those three key elements for revolution are still at work: lack of food, lack of work, and lack of a voice in government.  At the moment, food prices and unemployment are both up throughout the country.  This measure won’t change either of those things.  Maybe we should realize that Gov. Walker would do better to leave collective bargaining rights intact and let the populace know that it is indeed being heard.

…Or maybe all those of us outside of Wisconsin can stock up on hand sanitizer and hope that the outbreak of political upheaval has run its course.

Kimberly is the child of public servants, and thus admits to bias.  She does not like tuna noodle casserole.

Tags: diplomacy, Egypt, Middle East, Tunisia, Wisconsin