Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ: Big Starker & Little Schnook

Support for public unions certainly is the Progressives' current litmus test and grand tactic, so it is right to identify the unions as part of their sine qua non. But I'd like to take things a step further. In terms of strategic goals, the Progressive sine qua non is POWER, grabbing it, using it, keeping it. This is why the public unions are playing such a critical role in the Progressive coalition because they understand power and will let nothing -- not the law, the constitution, or the political process -- get in their way. The rest of the Progressive coalition is composed mainly of eggheads, far-left ideological cranks, MSM types, Alinsky disciples, elderly hippies and others of the drug-addled classes, professional agitators (aka. Community Organizers), permanent collectors of welfare and SSI, etc., and therefore lack the muscular intimidation factor that union thugs always bring to the table, even when allegedly "representing" school teachers (Miss Bishop and Mr. Chips are long gone!). As Andy Stern said when he was still head of the SEIU, "If the power of persuasion fails, we will use the persuasion of power."

The Progressive movement of today reminds me of the ninety-pound weakling in school who gives his lunch, his allowance money, whatever it takes, to make some muscle-bound brute his loyal protector and keep him that way. Thus can Little Schnook talk and act big, because he knows he has Big Starker around to do his dirty work for him. Despite his "cool" self-image and basketball pretensions, Barack Obama is Little Schnook. His alleged street smarts and Chicago toughness are a pose made even remotely credible --although not abroad, apparently -- largely by his association with Big Starker, i.e., the labor movement, especially the public unions. BTW, Saul Alinsky was just the same, basically an egghead sociologist who liked to pose as a streetwise tough guy, especially when safely in the friendly company of real tough guys. But I digress.

The American political "game", if you will, has rarely been played for stakes higher than those on the table right now and right through November 2012. The Progressives know this and so do their great comrades, the public unions, and they do not intend to give up power no matter what We the People may say at the polling place. What is the true Progresssive idea of "democracy" today? Check out Wisconsin 2011 or -- same thing --St. Petersburg, Russia, 1917. In both cases, the Little Schnooks cheered on the Big Starkers as they applied "the persuasion of power" to their opposition. Of course, the Russian "workers" were far more successful in grabbing, using, and keeping power than their American counterparts have been to date. However, hope springs eternal, especially in those radical precincts where, in the end, power is really the only sine qua non. Of course, between now and 2012 it may become increasingly unclear who is master and who is servant, Little Schnook or Big Starker.