Posted on 05/28/2012 9:15:19 AM PDT by AmonAmarth
If polls are correct, the recall election that opponents hoped would rid the State Of Wisconsin from its present governor, Scott Walker, will end leaving Walker in office. Many analysts attribute Walker’s apparent success in overcoming this recall effort to the Big M — money. Millions of dollars have poured into Wisconsin from right-wing billionaires, money Walker has used to gain an advantage. He outspent recall advocates more than 10-1 before his recall opponent was even nominated and legally able to raise his own recall funding.
It’s pretty clear to me, however, that money isn’t the only Big M explanation for Walker’s apparent current lead in the polls. Perhaps not even the most important one. The more important M Factor at work here is Mean-spiritedness.
Why have so many people in Wisconsin bought into the Walker way of political thinking? Why have public service unions proven such a popular target? Are members of the public service unions Walker has been bashing so successfully wallowing in luxury at the public’s expense?
Of course not. These union members have simply enjoyed, through the process of collective bargaining, a traditional American standard of living no longer accessible to so many others.
A growing number of these others in Wisconsin have lost many of the rights and perks that make up our traditional standard of living. The job security. Wages that grow faster than inflation every year. Benefits like health insurance paid for by employers.
The Walker mean-spirited pitch? These union people are getting something you don’t have. I won’t make your own lives better, but you’ll at least feel better if state employers can be brought down, that the unions protecting rights and perks you no longer have protected can be undermined.
Similar billionaire underwritten mean-spirited politics is at work in other realms like with food stamps and Medicaid. Why should others get free food when you work so hard to buy food for your your own family, just because these others are so poor? Why should others get free health care with Medicaid when your own health care costs are so high, just because these others are so poor?
You can govern in difficult times by bringing people together, by appealing to their better angels. Or you can take the 50-percent-plus-1 approach to governance, turn a tad more than half the voters into a nasty-minded mini-majority conned into identifying their own interests with those of their financial betters, while also turning them hostile towards anyone less well-off than themselves.
A line from a famous poem by W.H. Auden runs: “We must love one another or die.” The State of Wisconsin has died a little since Scott Walker took office. The cruel mean-spiritedness of many Republic Party nostrums these days is driving the whole country further and further away from communion with our better angels.
The Labour Unions/DNC had more money and mean-spiritedness at their disposal and they are losing. The writer seems to have forgotten the labour sit-in in the state capitol and the spittle-laden rants of the Unionistas.
The Dems and Libs just don’t get it, and they label us conservatives with “mean spirtness”
Siverstein...You’re a dumb schmuck!
This article was written by a publication called “The Moderate Voice,” but many self-described moderates are simply liberals who don’t want to admit it.
That being said, many swing voters who are supporting Walker believe that policy disagreements don’t warrant a recall. Recalls should only be done in cases of corruption or if the recalled official won on the basis of an egregious lie. There is also a case of recall fatigue, with recall elections for state Senators are few months ago followed by this recall leaving voters sick of politics and taking it out on the rcall proponents.
That definitely deserved a barf alert..
Your right, there is no basis for recall, he is doing what he was elected to do, there is no corruption or crime, and I think the voters better judgement will prvail.
I would say the people who live in Wisconsin have looked at what Walker has done with their debt, and realized that they are tired of getting ripped off.
Yes, sorry about that, I meant to put that in the headline, but my fingers were quicker than mu brain at that moment.lol
Wisconsin: Labor unions try to label the rest of us as “mean spritited”. Most of us don’t see it that way.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
People like Silverstein think that good only comes from leftists and government and forcing capitalism to pay higher wages and benefits. The pain suffered in the private sector is due to the over-reach of government. The redistribution of wealth in Wisconsin is from the private sector to public sector employees. Those higher wages and salaries are stolen from the people. Silverstein doesn’t acknowledge that. The voters understand this intuitively. Silverstein is clearly a leftist licking his wounds. I find his view disgusting and deliberate, bald-faced lie. To hell with him.
To be politically correct, 2012-VI-5 and before is not BW, "Before Walker", but BWE, "Before the Walker Era".
2012-VI-6 and afterwards will be WE, "Walker Era".
I know ... a little extreme. I live in Wisconsin and my opinion of the governor is that he is a bit of a prick, but I love him for being so.
What rights? Since when is collective bargaining a right? If it is then why can't the SEIU collectively bargain for the union workers at the federal level? Hint because JIMMY CARTER took this "right" away from them. He did exactly what Walker did and left them with wage bargaining and not benefits bargaining ability. Where is the outrage?
"The Walker mean-spirited pitch? These union people are getting something you don’t have. I won’t make your own lives better, but you’ll at least feel better if state employers can be brought down, that the unions protecting rights and perks you no longer have protected can be undermined."
"Won't make your on life better". Really? Seems as if lower taxes and a surplus instead of a deficit not to mention ADDING JOBS would indeed make peoples lives better.
What a crock! This writer lives where even the short buses don’t run. Instead of beating the old class envy drum, why not try the truth? And the truth is that the old ways and old ideas of unionism are no longer affordable and if allowed to continue will simply end in massive financial ruin and bankruptcy.
Criteria detailing exactly under what circumstances a recall election can be initiated needs to be on the Nov ballot so the folks can vote on it and let their feelings be known.
Exactly. Some white liberal who out of liberal white guilt needs to preach liberal talking points without even practicing it.
Labor unions are poison and worth less than the obama i drop at the toilet.
I imagine the constant barrage of TV ads has gotten quite tiresome by now.
I don’t live in Wisconsin but in another state whose public employee unions have bankrupted the state with no end in sight. I sent money to Walker to get the steamroller moving, and if he is successful in defeating these marxist pigs, then there’s hope for other states as well. It’s not soon enough. Walk all over them, Walker!
Who would want to remember the days before Walker except the lying crooks.
The “OWS” approach.......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.