Paul Krugman elegantly articulates what’s happening in Wisconsin. The government is trying to exert its control without much, if any, mind for its constituants. Governor Scott Walker claims this about a budget crisis, but his actions prove otherwise. This is about the powerful getting more powerful.
In principle, every American citizen has an equal say in our political process. In practice, of course, some of us are more equal than others. Billionaires can field armies of lobbyists; they can finance think tanks that put the desired spin on policy issues; they can funnel cash to politicians with sympathetic views (as the Koch brothers did in the case of Mr. Walker). On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.