INTRODUCTION

These are hard times, no doubt about it. People are out of work, prices are soaring, public services are down, wages are stagnant, and families are losing their homes.  In the midst of this, there is a concerted effort on the part of the Radical Right to convince the American public that overpaid government workers are to blame for the nation’s economic problems. Attacking public sector workers conveniently focuses attention on the two things the Radical Right hates most: government and unions. 

Demonizing government and unions and making progressive public officials and public sector workers into villains has serious consequences: it divides well-meaning people and promotes hatred based on misinformation, distortions, and outright falsehoods. Not only that, these myths divert public attention from some of the real problems in our nation: a financial sector that has wreaked havoc on our economy; tax cuts for the wealthy that have increased our national debt at the worst possible time; vast concentrations of wealth and power alongside economic hardship and insecurity; and the ability of the “monied class” to pervert the democratic process, dominate the mass media, and shape public opinion in ways that hurt the vast majority of Americans.