Tuesday, January 17, 2012

"Thanks A Million"

"Thanks a million."

Those were the words that Scott Walker uttered at the end of a conversation he had with who he thought was David Koch.

Koch is, as you all know, one half of the Koch Brothers, multi-billionaires that are throwing their considerable wealth around to buy politicians and/or buying legislative policies in Wisconsin and across the country. And as we all know, Walker is one of the more key recipients of the Koch's largesse, either directly or indirectly through one of the myriad of front groups. This is probably why Walker was so comfortable with violating campaign laws and ethics by soliciting the faux-Koch for aid during last year's turmoil.

In a moment of the sweetest poetic justice, one million also happens to be the number of signatures that recall organizers delivered to the Government Accountability Board on Tuesday.

Take a moment to soak that in.

More than one million Wisconsinites stood up and publicly declared that they are fed up with the corruption and the corporate greed that Walker and his allies have been forcing upon us for the past year and that they want their state, and their dignity, back.

Those one million signatures make the recall of Walker the largest in the history of the United States. From a list of facts from United Wisconsin, they include these key points:
• In the unprecedented turn-out of signatures collected to recall Walker,
more than 46% of the electorate signed. By contrast, in the only other two
successful gubernatorial recalls in American history, almost 32% of the
electorate signed in North Dakota in 1921 and 23% of the California
electorate signed in 2003.
• And this year, 32% of the electorate in Ohio signed the petition to overturn
the Republicans’ union-busting SB5.
• During the summer recalls, approximately 9% of the signatures were
found to be invalid -- nearly 50% of the signatures collected for Walker
would need to be found invalid to stop a recall
Or, if the gentle reader prefers visuals to help appreciate what has transpired, they also provide those here and here.

To me, one of the most telling stories comes from Green County (with a H/T to Democurmudgeon):
Coordinators Amy Sloan, Monroe, and Tim Sager, Belleville, say more than 9,000 signatures have been collected in Green County since the petition drive began Nov. 15. The petition drive wrapped up this weekend.

This represents about 43 percent of all registered voters in the county (20,725 as of July 2011) and eclipses votes cast for Walker (6,391) and Barrett (6,567), according to data from the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan panel that oversees Wisconsin elections.

And the good news didn't stop there.

We also collected 845,000 signatures to recall Rebecca "Now it's going to get real" Kleefisch and more than enough to recall all four targeted Republican state senators, including Scotty "Too Snotty" Fitzgerald.

On a personal note, after all that Walker and his people have put me and my family through, I will admit I teared up when I first heard the news. And to my fellow Wisconsinites who stood up for themselves and their state, all I can say is "Thanks a million for the million."

But now the work continues.

We must make sure that everyone can exercise their right to vote, despite the Jim Crow laws and gerrymandering that Walker and his ilk have foisted upon the state. We must counter all the lies and misdeeds that will come from the right. We must continue to point out the damage that Walker has done and continues to do to our state, our ecology and our people.  We must keep Walker's benefactors from buying this election as well.

By all means, take a day, two even, to savor this moment. You've earned it. God knows you've earned it. But then roll up your sleeves and get back to work.

 We still have a state to save.

2 comments:

  1. It's "Thanks 1.9+ Million," to be more precise.

    But who's counting?

    Ohhhh, that's right, the GAB.

    ReplyDelete