In this segment on Wisconsin (heh), Rachel Maddow talks about the “great Republican overreach” of 2011, in which their up-yours kill-the-union tactics produced a Cairo-like escalation of response.

Her point is that the hard-fighting Dems have won. My point is, look what the other side is doing in response to strong defense. Can you say “use of force”? Maddow can (at 2:00).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

(Our coverage of Wisconsin cops gang-tackling that Dem legislator is here. By the way, did you catch the cop saying “Secure the perimeter”? Rules of engagement.)

One way to see this turn of events is Maddow’s way. She says, correctly, that the Republican reaction — upping the ante themselves with use of force — shows the Repubs are losing (yea Dems, she cheerleads). And like Ed Schultz, whom she regularly praises, she wants to spur the Dems to stronger and stronger action.

Good for her; so do I.

But the other way to see this is less sanguine. We may be winning this round (so far). But Movement Conservatives (in both parties) are escalating, not backing down. They are indeed using force.

Private security — “bounty hunters” — bringing back the out-of-state Wisconsin Dems (4:00 in the tape); the governor’s own private Praetorian Guard. Really? Or Bradley Manning stripped naked as an ongoing policy, until he folds and “confesses” Julian Assange’s sins. Or Timothy DeChristopher, environmental activist, who faces 10 years in prison for interfering with an oil and gas auction … by bidding.

Not to mention Assange himself, who faces a bullet according to Paul Craig Roberts.

Give this some thought. It looks like we’re in the next phase, on every front from environmentalism to union-busting to women’s rights to the war on whistle-blowers. I wouldn’t take that lightly. More in a bit.

GP