Why did the state of Wisconsin bother to have an election last November?
To look at the results, you would think the voters had spoken clearly. They elected a Republican governor and legislature, based on the promise that they would take strong action to balance the state budget and give schools and municipalities more control over their local budgets.
Within a few weeks of taking office, the Republicans followed through on their promise.
Public sector unions that had stubbornly refused to make concessions to help struggling schools and municipalities save money were called out. Labor costs comprise about 80 percent of any school or municipal budget, but the unions wouldn't let local officials cut labor costs.
The unions abused their collective bargaining privileges, so the state moved to take most of those privileges away. We elect state officials to make those kinds of decisions. If voters decide later that those decisions were wrong, they elect different people next time.
But it's beginning to seem like the will of the people, as reflected in the election results, is completely irrelevant. The Democrats and their special interest sponsors in the labor movement are using any means at their disposal to block the efforts of the officials who won the election.
Our Founding Fathers warned against "the tyranny of the minority." This must have been the type of situation they had in mind.
First we had the runaway Senate Democrats, who accept large cash donations from the unions to do their bidding. They fled to Illinois and blocked the legislative process, because the voters did not elect enough of them to defeat Gov. Scott Walker's proposed legislation through prescribed methods.
How is that democracy?
Now we have Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, a woman whose family is knee-deep in Democratic Party politics, blocking implementation of Walker's legislation. She issued a temporary restraining order, based on the accusation that a Senate committee approved the law in violation of the open meetings act. When the Legislative Reference Bureau published the law anyway, she reiterated her order and threatened anyone who implemented the law with sanctions.