They came to the Capitol in their thousands. They waved angry signs and shouted at the legislators inside the building. They even issued direct threats against politicians who refused to do their bidding–threats that could reasonably be interpreted as violent:
They can run, but they can’t hide. We’re gonna be over there this afternoon, and we’re gonna find you. And if you try to leave town without doing your job, we’re gonna chase you. And when you come back home, we’ll be there.
And now it’s all on video (skip to 3:37):
No, it wasn’t the Tea Party protest against the health care bill last month in Washington, D.C. It was the protest that union leaders staged in Springfield, Illinois this week, calling on state legislators to raise taxes–or else.
The threats were direct, they were physical, and they were made in broad daylight. Yet there was no outrage from a media that has, in general, been at great pains to cast the Tea Party movement as violent and extreme.
The man delivering the threats was Henry Bayer, director of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). But there are plenty of union workers who would prefer to keep their jobs without paying higher taxes.
A bipartisan consensus is emerging in Illinois that the solution to the state’s terrible financial mess–the second-worst in the nation after California–is to cut spending. In today’s Chicago Tribune, Democratic state senator Jack Franks writes:
Illinois doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. State revenue this year is at the third-highest level in the history of Illinois. We have more money than we had in 2007… Those who see an income tax increase as the only solution do not understand the problem… We have to shrink the size of government through better accounting and restrained spending.
Illinois voters seem to agree. Gov. Pat Quinn, who took over from fellow Democrat Rod Blagojevich last year, is running on a pledge to raise taxes–and trailing badly against Republican state senator Bill Brady.
Our debt crisis, at the state and federal levels, could be solved by leaders from both parties who are prepared to grapple with fiscal reality. That is what people at the Tea Party demonstrations–who come from a variety of political backgrounds–have been advocating, peacefully.
But we will struggle to solve our problems in a climate of intimidation. It’s about time the media took notice of the violent rhetoric of those who want to force Americans to part with more of what we earn.