Rick Hertzberg fears the end of unions:
If a Republican Party that has lately become rigidly, fanatically “conservative” can succeed in reducing public-sector unions to the parlous condition of their private-sector brethren, then organized laborwhich, for all its failings, all its shortsightedness, all its “special interest” selfishness, remains the only truly formidable counterweight to the ever-growing political power of that top one-thousandthwill no longer be anything close to a match for organized money. And that will be the news, brought to you by a few very rich, very powerful Americansand many, many billions of dollars.
(Photo: Demonstrators protest in the capitol rotunda after they were given a deadline by the police to leave the building on February 27, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. Demonstrators have occupied the building with a round-the-clock protest for the past 13 days protesting Governor Scott Walker's attempt to push through a bill that would restrict collective bargaining for most government workers in the state. Law enforcement official have said they would clear protestors from the building so that it can be cleaned today at 4 PM, the building's regular Sunday closing time. By Scott Olson/Getty Images)