Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to be a panelist at a forum
discussing the merits of recalling Scott Walker. One of my co-panelists was the erudite
Professor Edward Fallone of Marquette University, who gave us a lesson on the history of recalls and how it became a treasured part of our state constitution.
The lesson that Professor Malone gave us that evening has stuck with me ever since.
At the forum, he taught us that eighty or so years ago, there was a grassroots movement sweeping the nation. At that time, businesses and the richest members of the country were using their wealth to have an undue influence on the government at all levels. And because the politicians were kowtowing to these big-moneyed special interests, the people felt that their voices were not being heard.
In response to not being listened to, the people made damn sure they were heard and a progressive movement swept the nation. In some states, they chose to give the people the initiative, where the people could sponsor their own bills. Other states wen with the referendum, where the people could vote down maleficent bills, such as they recently did in
the Great State of Ohio. In Wisconsin, the recall was the tool that was given to the people.
Sadly, the people became lax in their diligence and the corporate forces quietly amassed their powers again, diminishing the power of the unions a little bit at a time and getting laws which favored them over the people greatly, using a diabolical device known to us as ALEC to help get the job done.
As Professor Fallone spoke, and as I mulled it over, the stunning repeat of history right here in Wisconsin first stunned me and then filled me with rage.
From day one, even before he was sworn into office, Scott Walker was implementing his agenda to make Wisconsin an corporate state - or an oligarchy if you will.
Before he took office, he was using whatever influence Walker had to make sure that the unions' last ditch effort to get a contract renewed failed. The fact that former State Senator Jeff Plale, who sabotaged the contracts in one of his last acts as a legislator, was immediately rewarded with
a comfy political appointment in the Walker administration.
Shortly after taking office, Walker and his cohorts
started on their mission by giving all sorts of tax breaks to big businesses. This, of course, turned the surplus he had inherited and turned it into an immediate deficit. To pull the state out of the deficit, which he had artificially constructed, he "balanced" the budget on the backs of the workers, the poor, the elderly and the the disabled.
On Groundhog's Day of last year, which was more like
Weasel's Day, Walker got another bill he wanted, allowing him to fill in a wetland to build a store for Bass Pro Shop. But when they learned what he did,
they refused to move into it, pointing out their conservationist values.
Throughout the rest of the year, Walker continued his assault on Wisconsin and Wisconsinites. His cuts to SeniorCare, BadgerCare and Family Care weren't because of a budget deficit, it was to be able to give that money to his corporate buddies.
The same goes for Walker's attack on our children's futures by gutting the schools and his destroying all the rights that women have fought for decades to gain and keep.
But never has Walker's effort to corporatize the state has really been laid bare in the past few weeks.
Walker and his minions wish to
take away the local control of the Milwaukee Area Technical College. Instead of having local leaders, he wants to give control to a private company officers and business people.
There is also the
unconscionable mining bill that Walker is trying to ram through now. The thing is, not one state Republican wrote the damnable thing. It was
written by the mining company.
Walker just signed the law that allows a free-for-all against our wetlands. But did you notice where he signed it?
Right in front of the people that paid him to do it (emphasis mine):
Gov. Scott Walker signed a contentious bill Wednesday that helps developers win wetland construction permits, achieving one of Republican lawmakers' key goals for this legislative session.
Walker signed the measure to a standing ovation at a Wisconsin Realtors Association meeting in Madison. The governor said the bill balances economic growth and wetland preservation.
These are just a few examples out of the scores of misdeeds that the Republicans have rammed through in the past year, all of which have the incriminating fingerprints of ALEC, the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation, and other sects of the Church of the Almighty Dollar.
All of this goes to show that if Scott Walker is unhappy about being on the verge of being recalled, he can't blame it on "big union bosses" or even the unions in general. He also can't blame the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the teachers or any other group.
The only person to blame for Walker's recall is Walker himself. Well, Walker and his poor studying habits. Perhaps if he had actually applied himself at Marquette, instead of trying to
take the weaselly way that he did, he'd have known Wisconsin's history.
But because he didn't know history, we are all doomed to repeat it.
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