Walker “fight” a waste of time

So Scott Walker gets to keep the political post – governor of Wisconsin – to which he was elected in 2010.

WALKER: Still the guv!



The politico who has been blatantly hostile toward organized labor interests, and working people in general, will remain as the state’s chief executive at least through the 2014 election cycle.

AS MUCH AS Walker’s policies and ideological streak offend me, I can’t say that I feel all worked up over his victory Tuesday in the great recall election – an effort that we’re told makes Walker a “first.”

As in, the first governor to successfully keep his post despite an effort to recall him from office.

Somehow, I suspect that Walker is going to take great pride out of that designation and try to make it into something that it is not worthy of. I just got through reading an e-mail from the Heartland Institute, the Libertarian think-tank based in Chicago that offered me a batch of “quotes” from their leadership for my use telling me just how wonderful Walker’s victory was!

Then again, I also thought the whole recall election effort was misguided. I wish those people in Wisconsin who put their efforts into trying to dump Scott from office in mid-term had instead focused their efforts on trying to build a strong coalition behind a single candidate who could have dumped him from office when his term expires.

INSTEAD, THEIR EFFORTS have given him yet another electoral victory – and one that makes him all-the-more battle-toughened. It may make him harder to defeat two years from now.

And that is what is truly harmful about what has happened in Wisconsin.

It makes me thankful I don’t live there.  And that my own home state does not have the recall election option. Because I have no doubt that our political people in Illinois would misuse it beyond recognition if it existed here.

As I have written here before, I don’t care for the concept of recall. It always strikes me as being the tactic of sore losers. It strikes me as being a move bordering on a coup d’etat.

IT SHOULD BE incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to dump a duly elected government official from office. And that is what Walker is – he won that 2010 election cycle.

If a government official truly turns out to be incompetent or venal, a part of me believes the people covered by that respective government entity ought to have to live with the shame of having such an official.

Walker ought to be Wisconsin’s embarrassment – somebody they have to live with for two more years.

Instead, we have a situation in Wisconsin where Walker will feel emboldened. He’s going to try to claim that this is a “victory” for the people, or at least the segment of the people who deserve to be represented by their government.

WHICH IS REALLY what offends me the most about Scott Walker and other political people just like him.

These are the conservative ideologues whom I often rant about – the ones who want to win by slim margins consisting solely of their equally hard-line political backers.

This way, when they get elected, they can look out for just themselves and can totally ignore the needs and desires of the masses of the populace. These are the people who want to think that “compromise” and “negotiation” are dirty words!

Whereas I find the notion of someone who thinks that only they deserve the benefits of government to be the truly obscene concept.

AND IN LOSING this effort to recall Walker from office, the activists who were most eager to do this have given strength and credibility to this man and his “cause.” Which ultimately will hurt us all.

In fact, about the only concept that gives me any sense of justice these days is the hope that come autumn, the Chicago Bears will knock the stuffing out of the Green Bay Packers and make a whole batch of Wisconsin-ites feel bad.

I’d say that the Chicago Cubs would whomp on the Milwaukee Brewers, but I’m realistic enough to know that that has about as much chance of happening as Scott Walker suddenly developing into a responsible politician concerned about all the people of his home state.

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