The Party of No Show

When Republicans in the U.S. Congress repeatedly voted "no" to Democratic legislative measures, they were dubbed the "Party of No". Well, Democratic state senators in Wisconsin have taken their "no" one step farther. They have become the party of "no show".

In order to block Republican attempts to pass budget cutting legislation, including taking away the collective bargaining rights of public union employees, the Democratic senators in the Republican controlled house fled the State of Wisconsin. They apparently hid out in Illinois in an undisclosed location. This prevented any votes on the controversial bills, since the house had lost its quorum. (Indiana Democratic senators followed suit in their state).

I found this whole episode fascinating. It struck me as somewhat undemocratic. After all, there were November elections, and the Republicans won. They are proceeding with their promised legislative agenda, just as the Democratic Congress proceeded with theirs (health care etc.) when they were in control of the US Congress. Although the Republicans in Congress voted "no" to the Democratic legislation, they at least showed up, debated, and voted.

But perhaps "all is fair in love and war and politics". And if not showing up to vote prevents a vote, maybe the Wisconsin senators were just exercising their democratic right to stay away from the house in order to prevent the vote?

But then I wondered, why hide out in Illinois? Why couldn't they have just stayed home in Wisconsin? I gather that Wisconsin state senators cannot just not show up. They apparently can be compelled by law to attend the session. Thus they had to flee and hide. Fascinating stuff, isn't it?

Another interesting side bar to this whole budget cutting episode is that apparently some teachers who attended the protests and missed work were getting fake "sick notes" from doctors. This would prevent them from having their salaries docked because they were absent from work without cause. Now if this is true, it is a bit disturbing, no? It is one thing to stand up for what you believe in, even if there is a price to be paid for your convictions, but another to try to avoid taking responsibility for your act, by lying about it. Especially by teachers, who probably get a lot of "sick notes" and other excuses, from their students. It will be interesting to see how the teachers explain their behaviour to their students, when they recover from their illnesses, and return to work.

Who would have thought that Wisconsin state politics could be this interesting?