Stein and Marley do lament the decline of bipartisanship that accompanied all this ruckus. “Compromise…had become a ‘dirty word,’ ” they write. But it is far from clear that a compromise would have done anything more than delay the inevitable policy reckoning of increasing labor payouts vs. decreasing government revenue. And the extremely high level of civic engagement would not have happened without an emotionally contested battle. There’s a reason “politics as usual” is usually boring.

No one can argue that the substantive issues in Wisconsin did not receive a full airing, or that voters were not aware of the policy consequences. This is what democracy looks like.

The protesters may even have done Walker a favor. Had he been able to ram his bill through as originally intended, the governor wouldn’t have had a chance to publicly make his case or prove his mettle.

One reason the political class tends to shy away from divisive politics is that one side always stands to lose badly, which is something fans of Walker’s actions should bear in mind. His fate could have easily turned out more like that of Ohio’s John Kasich, whose reforms were ground into dust by Big Labor.

But sometimes it’s better to have clear winners and losers.