"We are in kind of a fasten-your-seatbelts mode here. It's easy to say this is about a particular governor who maybe overreached, but there's nothing very different from what Scott Walker is trying to do in Wisconsin than what is happening in several other places."

The short-term fallout in Wisconsin is that public opinion has swung against Walker, and several legislators on both sides of the aisle face recall efforts — Wisconsin law says that an elected official must be in office for at least one year before he or she can be recalled, so Walker is safe until Jan. 12, 2012. An upcoming state Supreme Court election there has taken on a higher profile because some of this stuff will probably be litigated and appealed to the highest court. Whoever wins this election will tip the court majority to their party.

In the long term, I'm basically in agreement with Joyce's analysis of the situation. So I expect things to continue being pretty interesting around here. As the world evolves — and it is a worldwide order we are contemplating here — opposing forces are trying to shape the outcome. It's going to take numerous efforts as powerful as the protests in Madison to sway the tide in a direction that benefits ordinary working people.

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