I didn't read the story, but you can take a look at the Seattle Times' top headline to see their anti-union agenda at work.

"Axing the middle class" has been at the top of the Republicans' agenda since at least Reagan. I wonder will happen when all those Tea Partyers discover that they're no longer middle-class, and have no-one but their "own" party to blame for it.

@2 thats when the Republicans will blame other religions and foreign immigrants for the fall, which will lead to calls of 'taking back what is ours for Christ'. You don't think a USA with pre WW2 German like conditions wouldn't be appealing to a LOT of people?

Joe, part of the problem lies with the Dems, too. Fifty years ago, they were the party of the middle class. Nobody sees them that way any more. Most of middle America would now tell you that the Democratic Party is the party of the blacks, Mexicans, gays, and freeloaders. It doesn't win any popularity contests.

Corporate profits have risen over the last 20 or so years due to employee salaries staying flat. Now they want more, and the only way to drive down private worker salaries is to first destroy the current "floor" of public employee wages and benefits.

Hell, hand baskets, looking good...

A republican governor (Christy) is attacking the unions because they're "greedy, selfish, and self-interested?"

Isn't that supposed to be the foundation of a successful capitalist? He's attacking them for being successful capitalists?

Anything to keep the light off of the robber barons on Wall St.

You'll note Christie said the "leadership" of the union is who he is attacking. I hate to tell him but that's who the membership elected. A strike against one is a strike against all.

Hard to believe but some pundits say this is the guy who is going to bridge the gap between the Tea Party and the regular Reps.

@5 Agreed 5280, The Dems are definitely a huge part of the problem, as they are now majority owned by big business. No single-payer, no public option, faux banking reform, Obama's atrocious record on civil liberties, expanding the war, his give away on the tax cuts of hundreds of billions, then turns around and plans to cut homing heating assistance to try and lower the deficit. All without causing anything close to a revolt from his party, because they're on board. The Democrats are not the party of the middle-class. All they are is Republican-lite.

My only glimmer of hope at the moment is that maybe Russ Feingold and his new PAC can really unite the ever-splintered progressives in the this country. I may be delusional, but I need something to believe in these days.

It's the unholy marriage between the plutocracy's wish for ever-lower wages and an ever-more-powerless working class, and a Republican Party that sees gain in trying to reduce the financial and GOTV power of the Democrats.

Never mind that teachers are just about the lowest-paid professionals in the country . . . and never mind that many of them are so dedicated to their kids that they supply out of their own meagre salaries the materials their districts can't afford to stock in the classrooms.

@8 - That's a good observation but those traits are meant to be applied to the players in a free market. A unionized labor force is the furthest thing from that.

@14-The "free market" doesn't exist. The people who claim to support a "free market" don't actually want one. The term is used solely to justify plutocrats and discredit anyone who speaks up against them. Why don't you join the rest of us in the real world?

@16 - you know, the free market. Where taxpayers give billions to Wall St. for free.

@14,
How is a labor union not part of the "free market?" There's no single union that runs everything. Nobody is forced to join one, if you don't want to be in a union, find a job that doesn't have one.

Your point doesn't make sense.

In yesterday's CNN daily poll, less than 1 percent said they were rich, 25 percent said they were poor, and the rest said they were middle class.

Sadly, most of the people who think they're middle class are actually upside down on their mortgage - and they're really poor.

Revolutions are built from conditions like this.

What's amazing is that the main thing that prevented the classic Marxian dialectic of working class vs. capitalists is the rise of social democracy, which built the middle class and provided a pragmatic alternative.

The capitalists, by destroying social democracy and the middle class, are recreating the conditions that led to historical communism (and fascism as a reaction). They're just begging to give the working class another shot at successful revolution.

@19: I think you mean "underwater", not "upside down".

@ 20,

We're onto something new here. What happens when the majority of a broken nation's swindled, submoronic, right-wing citizens are too stupid to achieve class consciousness?

If the corporations and union busters had their way we'd still all be paid in script and forced to shop at company stores.

@23:

And that's the least of it...