I apologize in advance of my post...

(NOTE:  F. Ryan noted that the gargantuan picture of Hitler seemed a bit distracting... and it is utterly repulsive to me, as well, so it was removed.  I'll leave the post, though, and forgo the image)

This is a pic (now removed) that is being used around the web by those that feel the recall election in Wisconsin went against their wants to show that Hitler was "anti-union" and that Walker and Ryan are the same sort of people.  I HATE putting these images on my sight, but the hypocritical nature of such sentiments makes me ill, and I feel a burning need to rebut them at every turn.

My issues with this image and the message it sends:

1)  Hitler did NOT end all unions in Germany in 1933... or any year after that, in fact.  What he did do was to form the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, or DAF, which was a party-controlled union that encompassed ALL previous unions and their contracts with private and public employers.  Membership was compulsory, and employment outside of the DAF was all but impossible.  The DAF ensured HIGHER salaries and longer contracts than previously found in Germany, but the requirements made by management  could be much tougher without recourse... meaning no right to strike.

This was nothing more than another example of Hitler and the Nazis bringing another facet of their tyrannical agenda home to the everyday worker on the street, by ensuring that total control of union labor lay solely with the Party leadership... and never with the workers themselves.

2)  Walker and Ryan did nothing to reduce or hinder membership in the unions of Wisconsin.  In fact, all they did (and we really shouldn't lump Ryan in with this... he's a Representative to Congress, not a State official) is remove the compulsory aspect of union membership for state contracted employment.  Any drop in membership that has occurred over the last 18 months is due to the individual members themselves LEAVING the union upon determining that membership does not suit their means or serve their ends.

Walker changed the manner in which the State bargains with unions, limiting it to salaries only... he did nothing (nor could he do anything) to change the manner in which unions conduct their business, either with the State or anyone else they choose to deal with.  These unions have the right to strike, organize, collect dues and fees, disperse monies and assemble how, when and as they see fit.

3)  The prominence of union interests within the very structure of the Democratic Party today is a far better example of the sort of governmental control of union goals as reflected in the above picture than anything one could hope to find in the GOP.  Granted, that shared interest is much more two-sided in today's America than it was in May of 1933 in Germany... but the similarity is uncanny and undeniable.