In only 235 years, our country was born, grew, flourished and now is dying. America’s upswing was because of great people who united and led Americans to greatness and freedom. The death of this country will be due to greedy people and leaders who divide. It’s not just the Republicans and big corporations, Democrats and unions are equally as guilty.

People should understand union history and who runs them before following blindly. After all, there is a very strong possibility that union leaders are not truly interested at all in state workers losing their jobs, but are only interested in keeping it mandatory that they receive their union dues every month.

Unions were once necessary and now, because of them, there are laws to protect workers. However, there is no longer a need for unions. In fact, they have become what they were initially formed to fight against.

People have their discontent with Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans who allegedly ally themselves with big, greedy corporations who line their pockets with campaign contributions for special favors, but unions have also become corrupted, power-hungry, and greedy. They use union dues to contribute to Democratic campaigns so they can receive special favors.

For example, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, gave a lot of money to the Obama campaign and has recently been interviewed saying that he visits the White House two or three times per week and calls the administration every day. What do you think they discuss, baseball?

Whatever your view is on unions or Walker’s attempt to give people the option of participating as a unionized state worker is neither here nor there. What should have everyone upset is the latest stunt by Wisconsin’s Democratic state representatives not doing the job they were hired to do.

The absconding 14 should know that the Wisconsin state statute 946.12 Section 1 specifically notes that it is a felony when a public official intentionally fails or refuses to perform a known mandatory, non-discretionary, ministerial duty of the officer’s or employee’s office or employment within the time or in the manner required by law.

The action of the senators has mixed reviews. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called it a “temper tantrum.”  Others think these representatives are heroes and support what they did because there was no other option and think what they are doing is the same as a filibuster. However, filibusters are a legal process, what they did was a felony.

Some Wisconsin residents, like Kim Simac from Wisconsin Sen. Jim Holperin’s (D-Conover) district, think the senators should be recalled for failing in their duties and are gathering signatures to make that happen.

Whatever your view is, a representative fleeing the state because they don’t like a bill up for a vote is irresponsible and precedent setting. A tactic the Republicans will likely use in the future when the Democrats are the majority. When does it end?

The worst part about this whole thing is that without realizing it, the Democratic senators and the protestors gave Gov. Walker a get-out-of-jail-free card for the next election. Now he can go forward with his budget-cutting plan to help close the budget shortfalls, which will include cuts to schools and local governments, and job losses.

Now, instead of being held accountable, he can point his finger at the Democrats and make a case that it’s their fault because they weren’t here and they forced his hand. It becomes a finger-pointing contest, where the only people losing are the ones who find themselves without a job.

There could have been other ways to solve this problem. Sometimes the best thing to do is to simply let your opposition fail. They would have received a lot more support had they publically given alternatives to the bill and just voted against it. If this bill is as horrible as everyone says, they could have honestly told their constituents that they did everything they could and nobody could hold them accountable for the job-cutting axe that will inevitably fall and their hands would have been clean.

Then, when the next election cycle came through, the Republicans would again become the minority, a Democrat would be elected governor and they could introduce a bill that would reverse what Walker did. That’s how our system is supposed to work.

What is happening instead is a political game where we are the ones suffering. Rather than uniting us, our “great” leaders are playing us against each other.