Breaking the rich-poor alliance.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Political Eye

It was a tough night in downtown Madison. The scene around the Capitol building on June 5 was wonderfully familiar: the firefighters with their bagpipes, the horns honking "this is what democracy looks like," the homemade recall signs, the teachers on the march. All of what was great about the grassroots uprising in Wisconsin was on display. And the mood was jubilant, as reports of record off-year turnout in Dane County and Milwaukee came in, with poll workers running out of ballots as people waited in long lines to vote. It seemed, for a brief, shining moment, that we had pulled it off.

Then the networks started calling the race for Governor Scott Walker early, as people were still waiting to vote. There was disbelief, anger, and the deflation of a movement that had built up so much steam over the last year and a half.

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But the movement is not over.

The truth is the deflation began with the transition from that great, spontaneous, grassroots rebellion against the rightwing takeover of our state to a conventional political campaign. This was never about Walker's opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. It was not about the campaign professionals or the Democratic Party or Barack Obama who literally phoned in his support with a last-minute tweet the night before the election. It was about us in Wisconsin: our community, our workers, our public schools, our environment, our middle class.

And we have no choice but to continue the fight, and to take solace in the incredible community of solidarity we've built.

But the loss has to prompt some serious soul-searching and regrouping on the part of labor, Democrats, and progressives.

White House press secretary Jay Carney and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka were quick to deny that Walker's win in Wisconsin has national political implications. They are kidding themselves.

This was a test of labor's ability to win with the support of ordinary, working Americans. It was a test of small-d democratic politics in the Citizens United era. The results are ominous for the nation.

Walker won by lying about fixing Wisconsin's budget deficit, by spinning the worst job-creation numbers in the country, and, most of all, by a massive, unprecedented influx of out-of-state corporate cash.

But he also won by appealing to the worst impulses of a vulnerable, unorganized private sector workforce. His "divide and conquer"...