For those of you who have read many of my previous blogs, you are well aware that politically I am slightly left of center. At times it is difficult for me to step back and look at the situation without my liberal bias affecting my perception. However, I have been thinking about the turmoil leading to the recall election and have come to the conclusion that the basis for the recall isn’t political, but purely psychological.
Even before Scott Walker was sworn in as governor, everyone who paid the least bit of attention knew that he was going to make cuts to state employees’ wages and benefits. Most thought he would do as Jim Doyle had done and either freeze increases or force wage and benefit rollbacks. But, shortly after being sworn in he did the unexpected; he proposed the legislation that resulted in Act 10. This resulted in a major redirection of the state that broke a 50-year precedent. This was the opening salvo of the political war.
If you talk to most people who support the recall, they’ll reel off a number of reasons for the calling of a recall.
- The justification that the governor used to balance the budget deficit and the means he chooses to do it. He claimed the state was broke, when for all intents and purposes the state wasn’t broke but was experiencing a revenue shortfall brought on by the recession.
- The haste, at which legislation was introduced, passed and signed into law.
- The restrictions to union collective bargaining.
- The draconian cutting of the state’s share of funding to state K-12 education.
- The draconian cutting of the state’s share of funding to higher education.
- The radical redirection of state funding to support business and the wealthy.
- Cutting the state’s share of funds to support the poor and elderly.
- The changes to Badgercare and aid to the disabled.
- The shift of key posts within departmental administrations from civil service to political appointees.
- The Voter ID law.
- The law allowing concealed carry.
- The defunding of Planned Parenthood clinics.
- The law changing sex education in the public schools.
- The legislative redistricting.
I am sure I have missed a few, but I think, you the reader are familiar enough to concur that these are the stated reasons for pushing the recall. However, the true reason is not listed.
Human beings, like other animals, are creatures of habit and surety of future expectations. These basic characteristics make us highly resistant to change and seek the familiar. Just as physical evolution and adaptation happen over a long course of time; change and social adaption also require sufficient time to be assimilated. This is the significant difference between revolutionary change and evolutionary change. Since the Republicans have taken complete control of all branches of the state government, they have introduced a rate of change unsustainable by most folks and for lack of a better term are revolutionary.
Whether you see it as positive or negative; the amount of legislation and change that the Republicans have achieved in less than a year, would at any other time be remarkable if it had been accomplished over the course of one or two gubernatorial terms.
I don’t know the exact reasons that the Republicans chose to move so rapidly, like in a blitz Krieg fashion, but it is clear as to what the impact has been; a rift within the state that can’t be easily healed. Tom Barrett is correct in his assessment that it has led to a political civil war dividing the state's citizens.
I fault the Republicans for not understanding or perhaps not caring what the reactions would be. The strategies for rapid and decisive change have been completely mismanaged. When change is managed at the proper rate it gives those affected sufficient time to adjust. Without time to adjust it feels overwhelming and forced; and, more often than not creates a reverse reaction proportional to the feelings of being overpowered.
The real reason for the recalls simply come down to being overwhelmed by changes brought too fast and too far-reaching for people to adjust.
Sorry. It's not going to go down like that. I don't think Walker owns kid gloves...nor should he have to in order to deal with GROWN ADULTS. He's the friggin' governor, not your mommy. Walker needed to move swiftly in repairing the budget so Wisconsin would become a competitive option for businesses, thus creating jobs. Why would he drag his heels? Rip the dang band-aid off, dry your tears & move on....in a much stronger, viable & successful Wisconsin, as it's been proven. It's WORKING. We all know the recall isn't about Act 10 or that "chawanges are hawwwrd"...the recall effort was being organized before Walker was even elected and well before Act 10 became a household name--and now collective bargaining isn't even on the recall radar. No. This is about a ginnormous temper tantrum and a refusal to give in & appease the giant baby...no matter how much it cries, whines, kicks and stomps.
An Example: Count every individual listed (by SSI#) on the 2010 employer UI form and report the total of (X). Then in 2011, do the same count and the total is (X+32,000). In 2011 you reported 32,000 more people employed than in 2010. You have created 32k jobs.
What those "employees" of mine need to also take note of is when myself and 1,128,940 other Wisconsinites walked into a voting booth last November and cast a ballott for Scott Walker, we weren't idiots...and we do not deserve the recall movement's effort to steal that vote and flip it in their favor. Nor do we deserve to foot the bill. Oh...wait. No. That's logic. Sorry if it flew over your head while you covered your ears with your hands & screamed. :(
No votes are being stolen. Anyone who feels so inclined can repeat their vote for Walker. I sense you're afraid it won't go your way this time.
Really, considering the circumstances, which stink to high heaven, what Walker is doing here is laughable. Imagine if a Democrat had done the same thing. You'd all be hooting like a pack of baboons.
Back when I was brigadier general at West Point I saw plenty of people who make up stuff about themselves. Usually someone in your imagined position would not allow themselves to be treated like a rube by a lightweight like Walker. Fortune 500 company? What? The World Wide Widget Company.?You're a scream.
I'd poop a brick, but it will never happen. A democrat and a ballanced budget will never meet.
Lyle posts an editorial and all the playground kiddies have a field day. “You’re a lefty/righty”, “Walker be da man”, “Barrett be da man”, etc., etc. This is all so ludicrous. For those of you old enough to remember, let’s go back to the days of govt rebate checks (uh, Thompson and Bush in case your memories are lost or your parents didn’t tell you ‘cause you were still wearing diapers). You are screwed either way because they (doesn’t matter who) will come after you for your tax dollars and will prosecute/imprison and serve you up with a life long sentence called a felony that will follow you until the day you die. Do you get why Walker exempted the police from ACT 10 or do the crayons need to come out for all you anti-labor types? You are only buying time before your livelihood, whatever it may be, will be rounded up as well.
Ever higher spending and crippling debt have put us on the dark road to Greece. Taxpayers can no longer afford to give public employee unions everything they want. Blue states like California and New York will experience a fiscal crises caused by unsustainable promises to state workers and open ended welfare programs first. A 2009 Tax Foundation study rated Wisconsin as having the 4th highest state and local tax burden so we may be next. Lyle minimizes the revenue shortfall brought on by the recession and labels every decrease in spending as "draconian." Calling a decrease in the projected spending increase "draconian" is pure hyperbole. Draco put people to death; if Walker had completely eliminated a wasteful and redundant program like BadgerCare that might be called draconian. Let's keep it real, overall state spending will increase by 3 percent on Walker's watch through 2013.
Don't piss on our collective legs and tells us it's raining. Democrats have come no where spending what Reagan, Bush I and Bush II spent. And they did it to prevent Democrats from coming and funding needed investments in the America, only to defended by the high foreheads among us.
But I don't expect you to agree After all, those are facts.
Right! (what?)