I am always amused when Democrats — the party that bends over for government employees, unions, environmentalists, aggrieved interest groups of the left, ad nauseam — are accused of being not liberal enough.

I’ve known Madison Democrats and I know non-Madison Democrats. I disagree with the latter group on most issues, but they for the most part are grounded in reality. Here’s an example of the delusion of the former group that the People’s Republic of Madison seems to breed from Jack Craver of Isthmus:

What’s incredible, however, is how willingly the American people entertain the notion that the Democratic Party is anti-business or left wing. Let’s be clear: There is no American left. There used to be. But the right has taken over the dialogue in the last 30 years, and convinced us that any move towards an economic system championed by Roosevelt, Truman or Eisenhower represents an attack against American capitalist values.

One wonders what’s in the air wherever Craver works. Raising taxes on business isn’t anti-business? Raising income taxes on people who directly pay their S corporation’s income taxes isn’t anti-business? Attempting to give this state the worst possible legal environment for business (see Loophole Louie Butler and lead paint) isn’t anti-business? Restricting developers from turning a trash-strewn vacant lot into a job-creating business (see Bass Pro Shops) isn’t anti-business?

Had I been Craver’s editor, I would have told him to pull that final paragraph, not because I don’t enjoy fiction, but because it distracts from Craver’s much more interesting point, a possible sign that Wisconsin’s left believes the recall elections are going to go badly for them, however they define that:

WTDY, the radio station where I work part-time, can’t get in touch with Democratic candidates for Senate. They’re apparently not interested in discussing why “big labor” is only a big issue for Republicans now. Democrats make little mention of the issue that brought about this historic opportunity to take back the State Senate.

A while back I said that Walker’s war against collective bargaining has as much to do with the Democrats as the governor. Some agreed, but some were incredulous. One commenter argued that Walker’s union-busting was so outrageous that nobody could have possibly expected it.

And yet, we see the Democrats neglecting the issue yet again, suggesting that the debate over collective bargaining is not one they want to have during an election. If the major center-left party is unwilling to engage in labor issues, how can we possibly be surprised when the right cracks down on labor? Republican anti-union efforts are enabled by Democrats who either believe organized labor to be a thing of the past or are told by consultants that it is not a winning issue.

Democrats get tons of money from unions, but they get even more from corporations. I would argue that the party’s current posture on unions is evidence of its attempt to straddle straddle both interests. It shows its support for labor by working for the existing unions, mainly found in iosolated pockets of the economy, especially the declining manufacturing sector and the public sector. However, it does not show vocal support for efforts to expand unionization, especially in the service economy.

What that final paragraph proves is that politically corporations — that is, publicly traded corporations that get involved in politics — are, above anything else, pragmatists. For all the pejorative references to Wall Street against Main Street, answer this question: which party did Wall Street banks give more money to in the 2008 election cycle? The answer: Democrats. The party big corporations generally favor is the incumbent party.

What Craver wrote above is his second examination of the subject, after he first brought it up last week:

I thought it was all about collective bargaining.

Wasn’t that the idea when activists began circulating recall petitions for eight Republican senators in the days following Gov. Scott Walker’s introduction of the infamous budget repair bill, which stripped most public employee unions of most of their collective bargaining rights?

Make no mistake; the recalls would never have been possible without the union issue. It’s true that progressives, especially in Madison, have mobilized against just about everything else the GOP has done in the past six months, including the concealed-carry bill and cuts to education and health programs. But none of those issues could have spurred the Capitol protests in February and March, which recalled Vietnam War-era fury. …

And yet, with all the momentum from the union issue, Democrats running in recall elections have decided that just about everything else is more important than collective bargaining. …

Does anybody remember Tom Barrett bringing up labor issues last fall? He didn’t, because who would have cared?

Maybe the nearly 40% of union members who voted for Scott Walker.

Talking about unions certainly carries risks. Too much talk about such a small segment of the population can leave the other 86% feeling left out. That was certainly Walker’s thinking when he proposed busting the unions. A politician who can motivate the majority to resent a minority is invincible.

However, Democrats tacitly play into his game. Instead of articulating how unions benefit the general population, they speak in the vaguest terms about the importance of preserving the rights of public workers.

And that’s exactly what Walker wants. The public will not respond kindly to the preservation of a tradition it believes is to its disadvantage. He wants the hairdressers, the laid-off GM workers and others to believe the public-sector unions are a privileged class of people who have earned the support of the Democratic Party through political connections.

The average state employee costs the state $71,000 in salary and benefits. According to the U.S. Census, the median family income in Wisconsin in 2009 was $49,994. Per capita income growth in Wisconsin has trailed the national average since the Carter administration. Money income per capita in Wisconsin in 2009 was $26,447. In comparison to those whose taxes pay their salaries and pay for their benefits, members of public-sector unions are a privileged class.

A similar theme about the recalls can be found in the Letter from Here:

Democrats feel they already have the labor vote. But talking about it too much risks alienating Republican and independent voters. Why rock the boat? But it’s possible to be too tactical for your own good, and Democrats both nationally and on the state level have been doing too much of it lately. Especially in last fall’s gubernatorial race, as Craver notes. …

Sure, speaking up involves risks. But the alternative is worse. You risk being perceived as standing for nothing. That happened last fall. Scott Walker wasn’t elected because of any great conservative tidal wave. He was elected because the Democrats ran a weak, mushy campaign that was short on issues that connected with people. The union vote for Walker says it all. …

If there’s a legitimate reason for the recalls, it’s all about political principle, not partisan politics. Democrats are not going to win by listening to the same old campaign consultants and campaigning in the same old way. They need to sustain the passion and the solidarity that fueled the protests and the recall drives in the first place.

If they don’t, they’ll play right into the Republicans’ contention that this is about nothing but an expensive exercise in politics as usual. And they’ll lose, just as surely as they lost last fall.

Independent of the fact that there is no legitimate reason for the GOP Senate recalls, perhaps those 40 percent were tired of seeing their state getting progressively worse under Democratic control. Some of those 40 percent saw Democrats ignoring their Second Amendment rights. Some of those 40 percent may have thought their jobs were on the line if things got worse for their employers. (The fact that union membership does nothing for the unemployed is demonstrated by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association’s willingly throwing 350 of their own members under the layoff bus instead of agreeing to increasing costs for health care and retirement benefits. Some solidarity.)

Christian Schneider sees the façade of the Democrats’ solidarity theme:

In fact, with the television ad war in full swing, it appears that not a single ad is being run that addresses the collective-bargaining issue. As political scientist Ken Goldstein told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “We had all this drama about collective bargaining, but what is driving the advertising is fairly straightforward messaging about taxes and spending.” Even liberal bloggers around the state have picked up on this curious meme.

Take, for example this ad, being run against popular Republican state senator Sheila Harsdorf (full disclosure: my former boss). It criticizes Harsdorf for supporting “cutting $800 million” from education,* yet there’s no mention of the collective-bargaining issue that landed Harsdorf in a recall election in the first place. This is especially notable given that the ad is being run by the unions themselves — the treasurer of the “We Are Wisconsin PAC” is Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the state AFL-CIO.

This pattern is being replicated statewide. The We Are Wisconsin PAC is attacking GOP senator Luther Olsen for “devastating cuts” to schools and health-care programs. They are going after Sen. Alberta Darling for approving a college tuition hike of 5.5 percent (while the previous governor, Democrat Jim Doyle, increased University of Wisconsin tuition by 18.2 percent and 15.4 percent in two successive years.)

Perhaps the most ridiculous ad of the recall cycle is one being run by Luther Olsen’s challenger, Democratic assemblyman Fred Clark, in which he vows to be an “independent voice” in the state senate. “I won’t take from our seniors or from our children just to reward some special interests,” Clark intones, presumably with a straight face. Of course, Clark is only in this race because Olsen angered the most powerful special interest in the state — the public-sector unions, who forced the recall election to begin with. Yet in Democratic circles, organized labor is never considered a “special interest.”

And while their folk songs may be execrable, the unions are very smart. They knew the collective-bargaining issue was provocative enough to get between 15,000 and 20,000 people per senate district to sign recall petitions (about 10 percent of each district’s population), but not enough to get any of their candidates elected. Unions know the people who signed recall petitions are already in their pocket — they had to quickly change gears and return to the more traditional Democrat talking points, in order to garner independent votes.

Schneider points to an example of left-wing delusion: that Democrats lose elections because they’re not liberal enough. Presidential elections disprove the delusion but prove the converse. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were elected because they were seen as reasonable alternatives to the incumbents, or the White House incumbent party — hope and change, you’ll recall, in 2008. In contrast, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were elected because they touted conservative principles. George H.W. Bush and John McCain lost in 1992 and 2008, respectively, because they failed to interest independents or charge conservatives to support them. (And once voters saw past the false image of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D–Wisconsin) as an independent maverick, he became former Sen. Feingold.)

If Democrats don’t regain the state Senate, they will have failed in Recallarama. And if that happens (and I think it will), it will be fun to watch the Democrat vs. left wing circular firing squad of recrimination.