One of the most transformational stories of 2011 had to be the Wisconsin protests after Governor Scott Walker tried to ram through union-busting legislation. Those protests sparked the national Occupy Wall Street protests and mirrored protests
January 1, 2012

One of the most transformational stories of 2011 had to be the Wisconsin protests after Governor Scott Walker tried to ram through union-busting legislation. Those protests sparked the national Occupy Wall Street protests and mirrored protests around the globe. This video, first posted here at C&L on February 18th, has Chris Hayes and Naomi Klein peeping into their crystal ball to explain why they matter.

And as Chris noted, it's a reminder of the fact that when our political institutions fail us, people mobilizing outside of those institutions through the process of peaceful protests as we've seen in Wisconsin have brought about some of the greatest moments of progressive transformation in the United States.

Chris' fellow contributor to The Nation, Naomi Klein discussed how what Walker doing is a classic example of the Shock Doctrine, where politicians create a crisis and then using that crisis as an excuse to push through horribly unpopular economic policies. And as Hayes and Klein both explained, what ends up happening in Wisconsin is not only going to have local implications, but national as well.

You betcha. Their crystal ball was working quite well that day.

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