In my experience, I have always found Wisconsin political people to be a bit off. They relish the image of themselves as the ultimate good government-types.
They want to believe that they not only play by the rules, they take the rules to a higher plane. I have known some Wisconsin political types who are among the most obnoxious, self-righteous people ever.
WHICH IS WHY I found it amusing to read an Associated Press report on Monday that relates to the upcoming recall elections that are meant to cut off the gubernatorial term of Scott Walker.
For it seems that the people who are eager to defend Walker are resorting to one of the oldest tricks in the political book. They’re trying to undermine the opposition by having candidates run against Walker who really aren’t his critics.
“Fake” Democrats, is the phrase used by the Associated Press to describe this tactic.
Gee, putting up token opponents to undermine the opposition, causing them to split up their support rather than converge on one real challenger.
IT SOUNDS LIKE something the Wisconsin people would lambast Illinoisans for doing. And let’s be honest, it has been done in Illinois. Now, it’s being done in Wisconsin, and by the ideologues who like to think they’re superior to us all to the point where they think they should be able to create the world in their image – and the rest of us should be forced to live in it under them.
Not that I ever thought Wisconsin people were superior politically.
I always find it laughable when other states try to lambast Illinois as being corrupt politically, or when rural people try to claim that the matter of political corruption is somehow a trait caused by urban government officials.
Or have we already forgotten the official in rural Dixon, Ill., who supposedly used (at least prosecutors say so) municipal funds to prop up, and enhance, her horse ranch?
NOW, WE HAVE Republican officials in Wisconsin openly urging their counterparts to consider voting for Democratic candidates who aren’t really serious – in hopes that Walker ultimately will have a weak challenger in the effort to knock him out of office.
I’m not going to get all worked up and start condemning Republican officials for even thinking of doing such a thing. It happens.
Quite frankly, if the Democratic Party in Wisconsin is so weak that it can’t fight off such a cheap shot tactic, then perhaps they deserve to “lose” and Walker should remain as governor for the remainder of his term in office.
Heck, there were those in Illinois back in the March primary who talked of flipping over from Democrat to Republican just to vote for a presidential candidate other than Mitt Romney – so as to weaken his support in the Land of Lincoln.
NOT THAT IT mattered much. Romney solidly won Illinois’ delegates to the Republican National Convention.
If there are competent political people in Wisconsin, they will be able to succeed in their efforts to depose Walker – which would be a worthy punishment for the guy who tried to use his government authority to strong-arm organized labor because they were cutting into the profit margins of corporate interests.
I should point out, as I have written before, that I don’t care much for the concept of “recall” elections. They strike me as the tactic of the sore loser. And if the official is really that bad, perhaps the state should have to live with the shame of him for his (or her) term in office (for Walker, that’s early 2015).
But it seems that Wisconsin-ites aren’t really any different than you or I who live in Illinois – or likely any other state in the nation. Except for the fact that their state did away with a death penalty in 1853 (even though Walker ideally would like to bring it back), while it took us in Illinois until last year to catch up.
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