The sit-in that has been taking place in the Wisconsin State Capitol for the past two weeks is showing no signs of stopping any time soon.  The protesters are opposing a legislation put forth by Republican Governor Scott Walker to eliminate the power of unions to collectively bargain.  This is Walker’s way of balancing the budget of Wisconsin which is important given the economic troubles that are facing the United States as a whole.  Walker says he is taking action on the problem that previous governors and legislators have passed along and that it is time that someone stood up and took care of the issue of government debt in Wisconsin.  Even with the sit-in, Governor Walker says he will not budge from his position.  Whether he sticks to this statement and actually refuses to compromise remains to be seen.  The protesters seem to have captured the attention of the media and the politicians.  This is evidence of the effectiveness of protesting in implementing change, or in this case preventing it.  I don’t think that other forms of political participation would have been nearly as effective.  For starters, voting would be ineffective because Scott Walker assumed office on January 3 of this year which means that despite these proposals to strip unions of their collective bargaining ability, he still likely has the majority of the public supporting him.  With voting off the table, direct contacting is the only other option before protesting.  In this situation, direct contacting would probably not be effective given that if he is not backing down with all of the media attention and protestors, he is even less likely to back down to one person calling in.  I think that even though Governor Walker has stated that he will not budge from his position, eventually the media pressure, the pressure from the Democrats and the protestors will force him to compromise with the union heads and ease up on his legislation.