I suggest keeping this broader historical frame in mind to understand likely developments in weeks and months to come.

This isn’t to let Democrats off the hook. When they controlled things, they also had agendas, pushing spending programs and rewarding supporters. It is hard to understand how Democrats and the state teachers’ union could have been so tone-deaf to the growing — and thus exploitable — contempt average residents felt for the lack of shared suffering after the 2008 recession. When they finally offered to compromise and accept cuts, the Act 10 train had already left the station.

Madison’s left likely assumed Walker’s attack on public-employee unions was viewed outside Dane County in the way it was seen by the audiences of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: as grossly unfair and repugnant. Instead, outraged protesters outside the Capitol Building in 2011 were apparently regarded by Joe and Mary in Wausau in the way, decades before, that the “silent majority” saw mouthy Vietnam protesters.