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| Wis. GOP trying to keep Walker spirit alive |
All
of which has the still-Republican-leaning General Assembly inclined to use its
authority to impose limits on the kind of powers those two positions will have
in the future.
 |
| Ill. GOP would do the same, if possible |
IT’S
AS THOUGH the one-time Party of Lincoln has truly been taken over by this Age
of Trump we now live in – they want to make sure the Democrats who now hold
those two Wisconsin state government positions can’t do anything to undermine
the kind of things that Republicans imposed on the Badger State in recent
years.
Sleazy?
Authoritarian? Un-Democratic, if now outright un-American? All very definitely
true. But also not the least bit surprising.
If
anything, I’d be surprised if Republican partisans weren’t trying some sort of
measures meant to penalize the kinds of people who (in their minds) had the
unmitigated gall to vote against them.
For
it could be said that Wisconsin voters, by dumping Walker, engaged in the same
kind of sentiment we here in Illinois did by voting Bruce Rauner out of office.
In many ways, Walker was exactly the kind of governor that Rauner wanted to be
here in Illinois.
BUT
WHILE WALKER gained national attention for the conservative measures he was
able to enact into Wisconsin law during his eight years in office, Rauner’s
national attention was for the way in which he was thwarted by the Democratic Party
leanings of the Illinois Legislature.
I
suspect Democrats in Illinois will go out of their way to erase any traces of
the Rauner years. Similar to how Republicans are using the fact that they still
control the Legislature in Wisconsin to force the continued existence of their
way of doing things.
 |
| Wisconsin's progressive spirit merely history? |
To
hell with the will of the voters! It’s as though modern-day Republican
partisans want us all to think they are the natural order of things, and that it was only the opposition's delusions that took away their authority to impose their will upon us all.
Yes,
I believe the Republican actions are ignorant, overbearing and border on
corrupt. But I’ve seen enough political people to know they’re not surprising.
THEY
ACTUALLY REMIND me of the final days of 1996 – which is when the Republican
domination of Illinois government that resulted from the November 1994
elections came to an end.
For
the 1996 elections saw the return of Michael Madigan as Illinois House speaker.
Which caused the soon-to-be no-longer Republican majority to engage in one
final act of overbearance on their part before Madigan regained a say in the legislative process.
Remember
back a couple of decades when state officials were determined to oppose then-Mayor
Richard Daley’s desires to turn Meigs Field into a public garden of sorts?
Which caused the Legislature to vote for a state takeover of the city-owned
airport.
Which
was little more than a “screw you” to Democrats and to city government
officials (who are, by and large, the same thing). Which is why I always got a
kick out of the eventual outcome of the Meigs debacle – with city officials
sending in the bulldozers to demolish the airport (and carve giant “x’” into
the runways to make them unusable) in the middle of the night.
IT
MAKES ME wonder if Wisconsin officials will come up with some
equally-diabolical means of getting back at their Republican counterparts for
trying to limit the powers of future governors.
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| Meigs Field gone, despite last-ditch GOP efforts to try to preserve it |
This
is all petty and ridiculous, and certainly not in the spirit of a government
looking out for the best interests of its citizens.
But
it is the reality we have devolved into in this 21st Century – that
of governments that think they can only operate if everything is rigged in their
own ideological favor!
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