Thursday, January 23, 2020

We're all living now in Robin Vos's basement

And he's shouting again from the top of the stairs. 'You'll do what I say as long as you're living under my roof.'

The fresh evidence is Vos's immediate, misleading and snarky dismissal of the plan Gov. Evers announced in his State of the State speech Wednesday night to create a nonpartisan commission to draft fair redistricting maps once the 2020 census is complete.

“He can form whatever kind of fake, phony, partisan process he wants to create, but I have no doubt in the end we will do it the way we have always have, which is to follow the constitution," Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said.
Two comments:

* Note this description of his mapping commission which Evers tweeted Tuesday evening is what Vos quickly labeled "fake, phony, partisan."
The People’s Maps Commission will be comprised of folks from all across Wisconsin--not politicians, lobbyists, or high-paid consultants--real people from our state who will visit every district, hear directly from Wisconsinites, and draw The People’s Maps.
7:35 PM - Jan 22, 2020 
* And I said "misleading" because Vos' Assembly team used with public funds a partisan, secretive map-drafting process following the previous census to create the current maps - - maps which have given Republicans a blatantly gerrymandered and disproportionate number of legislative seats relative to statewide voting tallies: 
Despite Democrats winning every statewide office on the ballot and receiving 200,000 more total votes, Republicans lost just one seat in Wisconsin’s lower house this cycle. And that victory was by a razor-thin 153 votes. Democrats netted 1.3 million votes for Assembly, 54 percent statewide. Even so, Vos will return to the Capitol in 2019 with Republicans holding 63 of 99 seats in the Assembly, a nearly two-thirds majority.
But we have seen this arrogant, ultra self-serving GOP power-tripping before:

* In the secretive drafting of lame-duck laws that stripped power from the Democratic Governor and Attorney General after the 2018 statewide repudiation of all GOP constitutional office holders.


* In the instant rejection of any floor consideration of Evers' 2019 package of gun safety bills. Though the measures were polling at 80% approval, Vos said that even allowing debate was "playing politics."

* And, of late, in the disclosure that the Capitol staffers Vos added to Republican payrolls after the 2018 elections are now being used at his direction to keep tabs on Evers' appointees and other public employees.

Wisconsin state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is deploying staffers to closely monitor Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, including the social media accounts of agencies and top appointees, as part of a continued push to counterbalance the Democratic executive. 
So voters and public employees are locked into a long-term lease as unwilling tenants in Vos's basement, bound by a lease he's drafted and rules he's determined to make permanent.

As with the permissions for authoritarianism which Vos's US Capitol counterparts like Mitch McConnell and Ron Johnson are handing to Donald Trump, the GOP prescription in Wisconsin for fairness and transparency bodes badly for democracy.




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't our worthless Wisconsin media challenge this fool and ask him what does it actually say about redistricting in our Constitution. He does not know because he is not smart. As a matter of fact, they broke the law when they drew the maps.

Why does our press not put these dumb-asses on the spot???

When we take people who lack marallity and intelligence, how long can this country survive?

Perfect national example: we started cleaning up waterways decades back, and now we let the Donald pull back the protections. Sure, dump manure in my well or chemical contaminates??? If we keep on the path we are heading, Canada and Mexico will be calling us the s---hole country.

Maynard McKillen said...

Vos' commentary is textbook narcissism. This creature is so self-absorbed it could not perform actual public service its hollow shell of a life depended upon it.

Katrina said...

Whatever Vos is, he is disrespectful and tarnishes the image of the Assembly he is supposed to be leading. I get that the other GOP Representatives are afraid of him but don't they just get so tired of him throwing his weight around? They should at least try to elect a new speaker for no other reason than to preserve some self-respect.