I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a morning news show where the hosts, when confronted by the response of a politician, actually laugh out loud in said guest’s face, but that’s exactly what happened this morning when our Governor, Rick Snyder, appeared on MSNBC and attempted to sell the idea that the new right-to-work legislation which he had just signed into law was good for unions. The hosts, and the other guests, literally exploded in laughter. It has to be seen to be believed.
SNYDER: I’ve never said that unions are bad for business. And I don’t believe this is actually anti-union. If you look at it, I believe this is pro-worker, because the way I view it is, is workers now have freedom to choose…
[…gasps and laughter…]
WOLFFE: Hang on. Hang on a second. Are you serious? Are you serious?
Given Snyder’s role in all of this, I’m not inclined to feel sorry for the guy, but I can’t help but feel a twinge of pity when I see him on the national stage, though, desperately trying to peddle this insultingly ridiculous narrative about how he had to jam right-to-work legislation through during the lame duck session, because he cares about workers, and wants unions to be stronger. I just wish that someone in our local media had had the guts last week to laugh in his face, when he first floated the idea that he was motivated to do this because of deeply-held “pro-worker” sympathies, which, for some reason, had just recently come bubbling up to the surface. I don’t know that it would have derailed the attempt to pass right-to-work legislation, but I would have loved to have seen a serious-looking, well-regarded veteran reporter, during Snyder’s press conference last week, laugh so hard that he vomited. Maybe, just maybe, it could have been enough to nudge things back int he direction of reality a little bit.
Could it be that laugher is perhaps the tool we’ve been looking for? What would happen if we made it a point to laugh uproariously every time we heard a Republican open his or her mouth, clutching on to those around us, for fear of collapsing onto the floor, in hysterical fits of laughter, fighting for breath, with tears streaming down our faces? Maybe that would break though the noise, and get to the heart of things in a way that signing petitions and commenting on Facebook just can’t. Maybe, I’m thinking, we just need to draw attention to how hilariously insane this all is.
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I read on a blog (cannot remember where) that if the Republicans are going to insist that RTW is for the workers, then they should explain why they are denying this “benefit” for police and firemen.
Police and fire tend to lean Republican. I’m not sure if that is why they were protected under different rules or not though (I don’t know the history of that…does anyone else)? I was also ranting that it might be because police and fire tend to be mostly men but then I remembered that the UAW is also mostly men. I was a sad panda when I couldn’t use my “they just want us girls to earn pin money!!!!1!!1!” line that I love to use.
Snyder and other Republicans keep insisting that if workers feel their union doesn’t “add value,” they shouldn’t have to pay for it.
At this point I’ve reached the conclusion that my state government no longer “adds value.”
By this logic, shouldn’t I should have a “choice” about whether I should have to pay my state income tax?
There was news yesterday that one of the Republicans tried to include the corrections officer union to the list of those that were protected as well. (Apparently her husband is a part of that union.) They say that they’ve exempted the police and fire unions because of something in the constitution, but I suspect it has more to do with needing their support. One needs cops, after all, to keep riots from happening.
I promise to laugh in his face if I see him.
This is pretty hilarious.
What an asshole. Does he believe this nonsense? I think he stayed up all night trying to justify this to himself.
If one repeats something enough time, one will come to believe it.
What I haven’t heard anyone mention regarding how some workers want to “opt-out” of a union, or don’t want their dues to go to politics they don’t agree with, is that I have never met any of these people. My experience is that people are proud to get or have a union job. Their dues more than make up for the benefits, wages and protections they receive. What percent of union workers really wanted to “opt-out” in the first place. I would suspect a tiny, tiny, percentage.
What an ass Synder is.
If you want to follow the Republicant playbook here, you need to attach a single word to every single mention of Snyder. I would recommend “puppet”. The problem is that Democrats aren’t a single entity, they are a coalition and a coalition will never have the discipline of a cult like the GOP. I doubt it will work, but it’s worth a try. Snyder. Puppet. Snyder. Puppet. Snyder. Puppet.
Imagine if you could make synonymous “Snyder” and “Puppet”. You’d have another Santorum on your hands there. Imagine 10,000 people with sock puppets just holding them up and staring at him every time he tries to make a speech. That kinda thing could really get into his head. You could dehumanize this lying prick (sorry, “puppet”) and make him a historical laughing stock. That’s just good clean fun. He can cry himself to sleep on his non-union, Bangladesh-made pillow.
I like the imagery, Brainless, but I’m afraid that “puppet” may not be accurate. While I’d like to think that he’s just an affable stooge who has been forced into this by the likes of Dick DeVoss and the Koches, it’s possible that this is who he really is. Personally, I think he just wanted to be Governor so bad that he sold his soul to the devil, but it’s possible that he’s acting on things he really believes in.
See, there ya go right there. That’s coalition thinking. You have inserted thought into your marching orders and fucked up the whole thing. Thanks, Obama X.
Dammit, the word “puppet” conjures up warm, wholesome images of Mark staring lovingly at his Mark Maynard puppet. I don’t want to associate it with fucking Snyder!!! :(
x,
Let me tell you this…when I was hired, the head of special ed wanted to hire me at the top pay scale. (I am dual certified in exactly what they needed so it was a very rare case of me being in the right place at the right time). Because of the union guidelines, I had to be placed way down the scale. Yes, it was irritating that the head dude wanted to pay me ~$5,000 more than I got hired in at and yes, it sucks that I will make tens of thousands of dollars less because of this. But I will still pay my union dues and I am still happy that the union is there.
Laughing-at-him opportunities if anyone gets access to the fanciest seats at UM football and b-ball games, where Snyder sits. (How does the man have enough time to go to all these games? He passed his own private legislation called “right to not work so much”?) I wish they’d put his picture up on the screen and have the whole place laugh, heckle, and boo.
What gets to me is that this man ran Gateway almost into the ground after outsourcing production–isn’t that how it went? And he gets rewarded by being elected governor? It’s like Rick Scott in Florida–the board of his company forced him to step down after his company ripped off Medicare/Medicaid to earn something like thirteen felony charges, and he gets elected governor and then gets to suppress votes and other heinous actions.
What also gets to me is national news coverage describing Snyder as a moderate up till now. When, how? He was radical from the start–only posing as a moderate but revealing his true colors right away (and his trickery was obvious before the election); he lowered business taxes, raised taxes on the elderly, took away money from schools; then he did the Emergency Manager stuff. Oh, and the film industry incentives . . . And just before the right-to-freeload legislation chicanery, he did his usual con of trying to look good by announcing that Michigan will be the trail state, adding all sorts of trails all the way to Wisconsin. Trails are great, of course, but the plan just seems like part of Snyder’s style of tricking people. It doesn’t take brains or skill to trick people, just a lack of decency; he seems like such a dim bulb . . . and the state elected him to be governor?! Poor us.
It’s easy to remember what was happening in Michigan (ten-year recession already upon us, the people of the state tired and weary) and among angry and/or worn-out voters on the right and left when he got elected and that ugly low turnout. We’re learning a painful lesson the hard way–one we already learned from the 2000 presidential election. Hope we won’t have to keep learning this devastating lesson.
“Solidarity forever ’cause the union makes us strong.” (I mentioned a long time ago an excellent book called “There Is Power in a Union” by Philip Dray, but it’s worth mentioning again.)
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