Political Opinion: Madison, Wisconsin

Do you remember when the surgeon general’s warning on cigarette packs began? “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health” premiered in 1966. Yet, I can recall long before then how we teenagers in the late 1950s and early 1960s used to refer to cigarettes as “cancer sticks” and “coffin nails.” The point is it wasn’t a secret. So, why did we insist on indulging in the practice of smoking in the face of information that illustrated the obvious dangers? Probably the same reason people indulge today even though faced with incredible, overwhelming information regarding the dangers of heart disease, cancer, addiction, cost, insurance risk, and all the ancillary consequences ad infinitum. There is an inclination for people to have a “don’t confuse me with the facts” attitude when the “facts” tend to be contradictory to the narrow point of view preferred. Consequently it is not unusual for smokers to use as arguments in a discussion with anti-smokers the same unreasonable jive they lay down on themselves about how the dangers of smoking are either overblown, invented by rabid anti-smoking zealots, or just doesn’t apply to themselves because of their special metabolism or that their uncle Willie smoked for 75 years and died at 97 years old of a car accident. Essentially, no amount of rational and logical argument will make any difference at all.

Fast forward to television news lately in Madison, Wisconsin. You can substitute any state with public sector unions but the data are clear. There is a high correlation coefficient between states with public sector unions and state debt. There is a prodigious body of data available but an article in The WashingtonExaminer.com (April 3, 2010) captures the trend with this commentary: “The states with the highest per-capita debt all have something in common: Robust public-sector unions that have, over the years, cut sweetheart deals with politicians -- usually, but not always, Democrats.” Yet, out front on the protest lines, making noise about how evil it is to deny the public sector the “right” to collective bargaining are the public school teachers. This is the same crowd that won’t live up to their contract to “teach” the children in their care to read to a standard competitive with Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, you-name-it. Nevertheless, these people believe it should be their collective right (although rights accrue to individuals, not to groups) to have seated opposite them at the bargaining table, their own advocate with the check-writer and bill-payer having none. This is akin to John McEnroe showing up for every match with no opposing player and he gets to waltz off with every trophy and every purse -- hardly sporting, but worse . . . unfair and not wise. It appears to me these folks yelling obscenities and sporting signs that compare their governor to Adolf Hitler are a lot like smokers who just cannot abide the facts because they’re simply inconvenient to self-aggrandizement. Essentially, no amount of rational and logical argument will make any difference at all.