Political Twins On The Right: Wisconsin's Walker, Michigan's Snyder

So after saying he wasn't much interested, Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder says he'll sign right-to-work legislation the GOP-controlled legislature there is rushing to his desk to stick it to union families that had the gall to back Democratic President Barack Obama over one-time Michigan favorite son Mitt Romney.

In Wisconsin, Scott Walker said recently that he wanted to end election-day voting registration (popular in Democratic strongholds), then said he wasn't much interested - - spurring two of his closest legislative allies - - State Sen. Alberta Darling, (R-River Hills) and State Rep. Joel Kleefisch, (R-Oconomowoc) - - to immediately begin looking for signatures on a biil to do just that.

Now whom do you suppose gave them that green light?

You'll see a similar dynamic at work in the mining issue.

While the state voted for the Presidential candidate most identified with environmental protection, Republicans who hold all the cards at the State Capitol will fully assert their power and approve an environmentally-hostile or dismissive bill heavily-influenced by conservative special interests and inevitably threaten the Bad River watershed with an open-pit iron mine - - for starters, statewide.

Same for Obamacare implementation, or any major policy matter that comes along where Walker and the legislature can thumb their nose at the President and the voting majority in the state that wouldn't put Mitt Romney and Janesville's Paul Ryan in charge.

The politics of pique and payback. Very small-minded.

But that's how electorates that want more than one-party rule across the Republic and which vote Democratic in Presidential election years are going to be treated by Republicans like those in Madison and Lansing who control state houses and Governors' mansions.
They hold the cards and will play them - - not because it's the right thing to do - - but because they can.

More at The Political Environment, here.