What am I talking about? Unions in the private sector are useful to protect the employees and keep employers in check, but when the employees of the government unionize, it means a small number of people (the union members) can hold the government hostage until they get their way, thwarting the will of the community as a whole as enacted by their representatives. This is the textbook definition of an oligarchy, not a democracy.
It may very well be that small deviations from pure democracy to keep the government in check are healthy, whether they take the form of term limits, checks and balances, supermajority legislation, or unionized employees; I’m not saying that they aren’t. All I’m saying is that if Governor Walker acted to limit the power of public-sector unions, which are inherently anti-democratic, then Governor Walker is on the side of democracy. When Walker’s opponents and supporters alike claim that democracy lost, when he actually won, they are all speaking nonsense. They miss the bigger picture. It leaves me confused and wondering…which side am I on?