American Thinker Catalogs Union Extremism

We need the public to understand that liberal forces in Wisconsin are enacting a full scale shakedown. They intend to intimidate because their claims are baseless. Governor Walker’s common sense solutions were bravely supported by duly-elected lawmakers. The Democrats, on the other hand, are takin’ it to the streets…


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March 19, 2011
Wisconsin after the Union Takeover

By Josiah Cantrall

“Are you wearing a bulletproof vest?”

Click. Michael Hintze’s phone line went dead — the caller never identified himself. A prominent Wisconsin Tea Party leader, Hintze is the latest recipient of anonymous death threats.

Maybe you thought it was finally over in Wisconsin. Walker overcame the liberal blitzkrieg, elected Republicans decided that there’s no moderate stance between bankruptcy and prosperity, the bill was passed and signed, and the fourteen Democrats gave up their life on the run.
But there’s more. Though chapter one undeniably ended with a resounding victory for Walker, the next part may easily become a forgotten chapter among thousands in the left’s annals of Alinsky-style combat.
Wisconsin has become the latest setting for organized liberal activism. Pro-union forces are setting out to execute the power-plays of leftism: divide, intimidate, and conquer. Community organizers are working tirelessly to increase the opposition through lies and distortion in the hope of building cold-blooded hatred for Walker and his allies.
Traditional Wisconsin symbols have been co-opted to foment anti-Walker sentiment. UW Madison mascot Bucky Badger is portrayed as a victim of Walker’s budget cuts, cheese is promoted as union-friendly, and some even claim that Walker has cut state funding for the Green Bay Packers.
Shockingly, the absurdity doesn’t end there. The Wisconsin Dog Rescue is joining others in vilifying Walker as a dog-hater, and liberal blogs steadfastly avow that “Governor Scott Walker wants to kill puppies.”

Common citizens and private businesses are the next objects of union wrath. Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association Jim Palmer signed a letter giving businesses who donated to Gov. Walker’s campaign one week to publicly denounce Walker or face a union-organized boycott.
Sendik’s Food Market has refused to capitulate. Consequently, their doors were super-glued shut at one of their Milwaukee locations.

In Merrill, a group trying to recall Democrat Sen. Jim Holperin set up a table outside the Lincoln County Courthouse. Soon union protestors arrived and surrounded the group’s table, waving signs and screaming through megaphones. In a press release, the group reported that even as the pro-union crowd chanted “this is what Democracy looks like,” one of the protesters, “pretending to be interested in signing the petition, wrote profanity across a partially collected petition form, then began ripping up the completed petitions that were in close proximity.”
Pro-union forces remained around the table and prevented people from reaching the petitions. According to the group, police officers stood by and did nothing.
In another incident, during school hours, a supposed teacher posted this on the Madison Craigslist:

So you Tea Bags want to take away my hard earned blue ribbon bennies. Well guess what you scum sucking Tea Bags, I got your kids all day long in my classroom and with just a few slick questions I know who the little tea bags are! And you think you’ll have the last laugh HA-Ha-ha

I, too, a twenty-year-old college student, have been subject to this union onslaught. Nearly two weeks ago, I captured incriminating video of doctors handing out sick passes on the streets of Madison. The video went viral, and I consequently appeared on Fox News and several radio shows to discuss the fraud. The left has yet to forgive me.
I’ve been stalked, chased, and verbally assaulted by several individuals. One woman drew a crowd around me and proceeded to rattle off my full name, my age, my hometown, and the exact size of my family. She noted that I am the second-oldest of thirteen children. She also recited the very dates I had been on Fox News and the time period of my visit to New York.

Creepy though it was, this woman’s knowledge of my personal life was impressive. She knew information that many of my friends were not aware of.
This is the new norm in Wisconsin: an unrivaled, systematic assault is leveled against anyone who refuses to carry the union’s water. It’s a war zone where the left seems driven by Saul Alinsky’s motto: “The end justifies almost any means.”
Democrats and their union allies are making their agenda clear: retain power at all costs. If they can raise enough money, silence enough foes, recall enough senators, intimidate the opposition, and strong-arm enough businesses, they believe that they will ultimately win.
If they lose the fight to preserve collective demanding, Democrats fear that Republicans will review every other liberal policy failure. Entitlement reform could be the next target — or worse yet, America’s growing economic quagmire, also known as the national debt.
Gov. Walker is a new kind of Republican — a leader whose steadfast convictions break from the indecisive muddling that has forever defined the right.
Such fortitude is a dramatic shift from past eras, where Democrats routinely bullied Republican leaders onto their list of tribute-paying victims. Walker’s victory changes all that. It sends a simple but clear message to the overpowering bully: “Take my name off your list.”

That is something the left can’t afford to tolerate.

Josiah Cantrall also writes for BigGovernment.com, and his works have been referenced by USA Today, Megyn Kelly, and Greg Gutfeld. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Channel, GlennBeck.com, and the Lars Larson show. His Washington Times column debuts April 1. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

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