Last night I re-watched Roger and Me by Michael Moore. Although the movie was filmed a long time ago, it definitely resonated with what we're currently facing right this second. There are no factory shut downs, at least not to the level experienced in Flint, Michigan, but the working-class is under attack all over again, yet this time, the risk of its demise is much greater.

The working class is fighting for its survival in the state of Wisconsin, Ohio and other pro-union states all across the country. Their legislative branches are currently in session and many Republican-led state governments are targeting unions, particularly educators who are currently having to defend their profession. As Republicans move forward with their "union busting," I'm thankful for a rise in populist support, which in all honesty I have never seen and did not think it actually existed. Like something Howard Zinn once said, "to be passive, is to collaborate." My fellow Democrats are not being "passive" and I believe that many on the other side, are starting to see what their leaders really do represent.

The elections of 2010 were very disappointing to many of us Democrats. I moved on the day after the elections, with a heavy heart, unable to understand how to proceed. Later in the lame duck session, a change in Democrats appeared in which I was reenergized due to their strength of pushing through legislation that we never thought would happen, least of all in a lame duck session like this one. In January we were finally introduced to the Republican's and to Congressman Boehnor's first day as Speaker of the House, an outspoken Republican, who all through 2010 criticized the Obama administration for doing very little to create jobs and campaigned on the notion that him and his fellow colleagues would create the jobs that the Democrats never did. With all this rhetoric, the Republican's campaigned on this message with the support of the tea party movement, lying to their constituents in order to win an election.

This shouldn't be a surprise. I have always believed that the Republican party, particularly in the last fifteen years, are nothing more than a group of individuals who are focused on their position in power and wealth and manipulating a poor, uneducated and angry constituency. Their focus on social issues like abortion, gay rights, destroying the middle class, are policy issues they do not campaign on but use the issue of the economy as a facade in order to get elected and their consituency seems to believe them each and every time. They claim that in America, if you work hard you can become rich, but if you are poor you do not work hard enough. The bottom line is that the Right hates the working class.

SInce the rise of unions in the early 20th century, Democrats have greatly represented the working class, women and people of color. Overtime their representation has exemplified the definition of what it means to be a Democrat. Unions scare the hell out of Republicans. When you look at what is occurring in Wisconsin and Ohio, this is not some random situation. It is something that was planned all along. After Governor Walker's phone call with a fake Koch brother, you understand this notion of "union busting," isn't just something that this legislative branch decided on in a whim. The Right campaigned on creating jobs and repealing government run policies, making statements on how they were going to put American's back to work. Their constituency like always believed them, but what the GOP did is hijack a policy platform and deconstruct it to play out what we're seeing today.

Tonight, the Republican's in Wisconsin illegally moved forward on their plan to end union rights for collective bargaining by stripping budgetary pieces of the legislation to move it forward without Democrat involvement. How they did it and how quickly it was done is still mind-blowing. I'm outraged by how the Right has viciously undermined constitutional procedures to defeat something so sacred to the working class. If majority of American's do not feel the same sense of dissatisfaction as I do, I can only hope that our democracy survive.

Polls do show that the majority of American's support the teachers and union's maintaining their collective bargaining rights. I can't emphasize the importance of maintaining this populist momentum and continued pressure on Wisconsin Republican's and other GOP leaders all over the country. We need to stop these horrid acts of constitutional defiance and in turn, serve the working class. Our democracy is at risk of falling apart, all at the hands of rich, white men and the plague they call the tea party.