Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

Dear God ... it's delicious.

While it would be interesting to see data on how much spending was involved by both parties re: this recall attempt, I'm more inclined to blame this one solidly on the Democrats. Everything I've heard about the Wisconsin Dems has made them look disorganized and uncharismatic. They had as vilifiable an opponent as anyone could ask for short of Walker actually designing a machine explicitly to devour the souls of kittens... but, as we've learned before, it's not just enough to be against a guy, you have to offer an alternative that people will want to latch onto. And it looks to me like they just fumbled their chance, plain and simple.

I mean, you can blame money for worsening things, but money can still only do so much in a democracy if the people are firmly united against it. It shouldn't have even been a close contest in the first place, it should have been a blowout.

The only plus I see to this is that we've seen a good bit of participation, and hopefully that will damper down the self-defeating apathy crowd for the next few elections.

I really hate having a lot of Republican friends on Facebook at this moment. All I see is a long line of statuses along the lines of "lol now that Barret got owned lets make the recall petition signers pay for the recall!"

To which I'd love to respond "Walker has more than twenty million dollars in the bank, I'm sure he could pay for it, before some of his campaign staffers steal it out from under him."

This is probably how Republicans felt when Obama got elected, you know. ;)

Looks like you people didn't notice that we came out of all this with another state senate seat, and with it, control of the chamber.

Not that that means much since the Wisconsin state legislature ain't meeting again until January. well, it could be called into special session, but hell of Walker's gonna do that now that he doesn't control it all anymore.

Wait, who won? I thought the Democrats lost everything.

I think it's too close to call? Recount time! ::That lady from Waukeshau somehow finds out how to fuck it all up again::

Some facts about the money in the race: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/wisconsin-walker-recall-money-stats

After the initial vote count, John Lehman leads Van Wanggaard by 779 votes.

I do not know who either of those people are, TBH.

Yay!

edited 6th Jun '12 12:11:19 PM by DerelictVessel

@ Tomu: Lehman represented the 21st state senate district until being defeated in 2010, by Wanggaard.

if that holds up, thats victory enough

Even one recalled republican senator fucks the republicans from passing laws with impunity.

edited 6th Jun '12 12:16:31 PM by Midgetsnowman

To be fair, they tried their damned hardest to shove everything through as quickly as possible, so most of it's already happened. Not to mention that their previous 17-16 majority was occasionally, from a practical perspective, more like a 16-16 tie plus Dale Schultz.

This basically makes Dale Schultz no longer quite as important.

True. But at least now at worst we can employ republican playbooks and stop the wisconsin legislature in its tracks and then claim walker has done nothing since his recall.

I would think that if Walker actually proposed something that would HELP the state, Democrats would probably say "Long game? WHAT long game?" and actually let it get passed, thus assuring Walker's re-election (but, you know, actually improving Wisconsin).

Well, at least Walker can't do any more damage for the time being. Small victories.

The real take away from this is this: People don't want to recall a guy to get someone they don't know in. The one guy that won was the guy that used to have the seat.

I'm writing up a big retrospective on all of this. Give me a moment.

Just one word: FUCK!!!!

I am about to loose all hope ...

Oh it's only another three years of Walker. Just stay strong, make sure the Republicans don't take back the Senate, and hope Walker can be replaced in three years. If you survive that long you should be fine.

Okay, give me a few more moments.

Okay, I'm done.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097922/-How-far-we-ve-come-and-what-to-do-next

I have one quibble with this article, Glenn.

No, there really isn't.

Oh, certainly, when there's some high-profile bill, everybody comes out and makes noise, but at the end of the day we recalled all of one State legislator, and they've been rolling back labor rights since the '60s at least, silently and with zero visible opposition.

People really just do not care, because our society has been successfully convinced that the very same unions that built the middle class are worthless institutions, not helped by the fact that many unions became complacent and co-opted by the system as their upper leadership was bribed or intimidated into irrelevance. This, in my opinion, was not the beginning of a trend, but rather a blip on the radar, which will in time be forgotten as things return to the norm of rights being rolled back as no one bats an eyelash.

Though this:

...is very good. Because this is how I think as well. Politics is not a game. There are no referees and there are no real rules. I think Leftists and progressives spend too much worrying about fair play, and not enough time worrying about winning. Politics is war—a social war, a culture war, a war of experts and a war of special interests—and it is to be fought, not played. Voters are soldiers; campaign organizers are officers; candidates are generals; and elections are battlefields. This is how the Right thinks, and that's why they continue to win despite campaigning on outrageous platforms, and getting countless voters to vote against their own interests and the interests of their loved ones.

A suggestion, though.

Avoid things like this. Buying into the Right-wing terminology allows them to frame the argument. You lose before you start if they get to frame the argument.