Several items: Walker's supporter in the Wisconsin Supreme Court seems to have lost a narrow election. Votes are being recounted.

Ohio's governor appears much more dangerous because he has not created as high a profile as Walker.

GfS, Was the institution where I worked run efficiently? Yes. The work was done efficiently, as defined by the fact that my teaching hospital had an international reputation for quality. Everyone was encouraged to move up the career ladder. The ratio between the highest salaried employee and the lowest salaried employee was approximately 10. All of the employees who chose to be unionized were [about 90%]. No one discriminated against those who were not and they got the exact same representation as the unionized employees. The big difference between the two is that at the end of the fiscal year the non unionized employees get back a small check for the things which the unions did which were not directly related to representation. Those who wished to contribute to political action did so. The union itself did not.

Having said all of that, the relationship between employee and employer was and is adversarial. Their interests and needs differ.

A couple of days ago, I was at the coffee shop I usually patronize. One of the employees did not look right. I asked her whether she was OK. She said no, that she was actually slightly feverish and had a cough. I asked her why she was at work. Her answer: She not only did not get paid for days when she called in sick but stood the chance of losing her job for being absent. Another employee standing nearby commented that she did not believe in unions. She did not realize that the abuse just mentioned was a direct response to the fact that the work site was not unionized. These workers get no respect and no benefits, only abuse. They also do not get paid vacations or retirement plans.

I was in a discussion today of contracting out versus unionized/civil service employment. My point in the discussion was that when a service is contracted out salaries, especially supervisory salaries, are no longer controlled. Often this results in high paid supervisors and oppressed workers who often do not stay on the job very long. Of course, when there is high turnover a lot of the workers are paid entry level salaries and have no chance to move to higher levels...but that keeps costs down.

By the way, Napoleon Bonaparte was elected First Consul [and, I believe, Emperor] by the political system of his day.