For some time on this blog I had been cataloguing the fundamental disrespect which candidate and GOP Governor Scott Walker had repeatedly shown a citizenry he had manipulated, pounded and even punished for his own personal and partisan advancement.
So it caught my attention yesterday when I read that Walker had paused for a few minutes before a motorcycle ride while the country was in mourning over infuriating and demoralizing killings in three states among the full fifty which he still fantasizes overseeing as chief executive and moral leader to urge everyone to show greater respect for each other.
Hardly a deep response to violence rooted profoundly in a country founded on racism and repeatedly damaged by broad, historic inequalities, yet Walker's record of actions - - less audible than, say, Chris Christie or Donald Trump's combativeness or insults - - hollows out the credibility of otherwise reasonable language about respect even if his sentiments were heartfelt.
Walker cannot call for or command respect after having misled voters in 2014 into thinking he was focused on serving out a second term and was disinterested in running for President before almost immediately entering the presidential race after winning re-election with a national operation he and his organization had long been planning.
A take-us-for-granted pattern he is repeating right under out noses, again.
And having financed his 2012 recall campaign with some secret fund-raising and tied up that campaign with a high-pitch dog whistle in exurban Waukesha County for votes to prevent, as he said, the state from turning into another Milwaukee.
And having managed his 2010 campaign with a secret system set up in his taxpayer-paid Milwaukee County Executive suite which defeated the intent of the Wisconsin Open Records law and which led to the criminal convictions of six staffers, associates or campaign contributors, and which also led to one ongoing probe still before the US Supreme Court.
Or after having whispered but audibly to his biggest 2010 donor that he had a "divide-and-conquer" union-busting plan which would work to her business advantage.
And - - and here comes a partial list - - having signed legislation to help retain school logos and nicknames which stereotype Native Americans, blasted away without warning collective bargaining for public employees, signed bills which made it easier to end private sector unions and cut the pay of workers on public works projects, overturned local government controls or practices on land development, wetland protection, shoreline incursions, public employee residency and public union contracts, raised - - despite promising never to raise taxes - - three taxes on low-income Wisconsinites to fund a tax cut for the wealthy, reduced food stamps for the poor while few states did so, added drug testing for public aid recipients without any indication that drug use was occurring and knowing that such legislation was unconstitutional, chopped public assistance by a flat $20 a month across the board just to make the point, added barriers to voting, including mandated photo ID effecting principally low-income citizens and college students, and reduced early voting hours statewide, cut off health services to low-income women and others by defunding Planned Parenthood clinics and adding onerous clinic restrictions knowing they would be declared unconstitutional, sued to block federal initiatives to clean up the air we breathe, raised state park entrance and camping fees, recreated the Department of Natural Resources into a business-friendly agency intentionally disregarding the US Clean Water Act, and more.
That's not governance by respect. It's governance by surprise, intolerance, favoritism, and power play.
To Walker, respect is but a word in a talking point tossed out before his Harley rolled out on, of course, another self-promotional ride.
He'd get more credit for sincerity if had a record of respect to back up Saturday's remarks.
More here:
So let's not let Walker skate by, again, since much reporting last year fell for his self-promoting aw-shucks, not-Christie, 'son-of-a-preacher' Midwestern nice persona which was and is seriously at odds with his record.
Which I'd summarized recently this way, for the record:
So it caught my attention yesterday when I read that Walker had paused for a few minutes before a motorcycle ride while the country was in mourning over infuriating and demoralizing killings in three states among the full fifty which he still fantasizes overseeing as chief executive and moral leader to urge everyone to show greater respect for each other.
Hardly a deep response to violence rooted profoundly in a country founded on racism and repeatedly damaged by broad, historic inequalities, yet Walker's record of actions - - less audible than, say, Chris Christie or Donald Trump's combativeness or insults - - hollows out the credibility of otherwise reasonable language about respect even if his sentiments were heartfelt.
Walker cannot call for or command respect after having misled voters in 2014 into thinking he was focused on serving out a second term and was disinterested in running for President before almost immediately entering the presidential race after winning re-election with a national operation he and his organization had long been planning.
A take-us-for-granted pattern he is repeating right under out noses, again.
And having financed his 2012 recall campaign with some secret fund-raising and tied up that campaign with a high-pitch dog whistle in exurban Waukesha County for votes to prevent, as he said, the state from turning into another Milwaukee.
And having managed his 2010 campaign with a secret system set up in his taxpayer-paid Milwaukee County Executive suite which defeated the intent of the Wisconsin Open Records law and which led to the criminal convictions of six staffers, associates or campaign contributors, and which also led to one ongoing probe still before the US Supreme Court.
Or after having whispered but audibly to his biggest 2010 donor that he had a "divide-and-conquer" union-busting plan which would work to her business advantage.
And - - and here comes a partial list - - having signed legislation to help retain school logos and nicknames which stereotype Native Americans, blasted away without warning collective bargaining for public employees, signed bills which made it easier to end private sector unions and cut the pay of workers on public works projects, overturned local government controls or practices on land development, wetland protection, shoreline incursions, public employee residency and public union contracts, raised - - despite promising never to raise taxes - - three taxes on low-income Wisconsinites to fund a tax cut for the wealthy, reduced food stamps for the poor while few states did so, added drug testing for public aid recipients without any indication that drug use was occurring and knowing that such legislation was unconstitutional, chopped public assistance by a flat $20 a month across the board just to make the point, added barriers to voting, including mandated photo ID effecting principally low-income citizens and college students, and reduced early voting hours statewide, cut off health services to low-income women and others by defunding Planned Parenthood clinics and adding onerous clinic restrictions knowing they would be declared unconstitutional, sued to block federal initiatives to clean up the air we breathe, raised state park entrance and camping fees, recreated the Department of Natural Resources into a business-friendly agency intentionally disregarding the US Clean Water Act, and more.
That's not governance by respect. It's governance by surprise, intolerance, favoritism, and power play.
To Walker, respect is but a word in a talking point tossed out before his Harley rolled out on, of course, another self-promotional ride.
He'd get more credit for sincerity if had a record of respect to back up Saturday's remarks.
More here:
So let's not let Walker skate by, again, since much reporting last year fell for his self-promoting aw-shucks, not-Christie, 'son-of-a-preacher' Midwestern nice persona which was and is seriously at odds with his record.
Which I'd summarized recently this way, for the record:
Media and delegates on their way to Cleveland should stop in Wisconsin to get a closer look at The Walker Story - - and these Walker-inspiredhighlowlights - - broken roads, and broken promises, and broken schools, and poisoned water, and corrupted government, and dishonest governance, and insider money, and jobs' fail, and jobs' bail, and environmental disregard, and raw power, and polluter power, and more polluter power, and more polluter power...
Did you photosho that pic of walker with the "push" brush? Why is his right eye so far below his left one. Man, that is one freaky dude.
ReplyDeleteYou photoshopped, right?
No.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that his insides look much better than his outsides and that includes his colon.
ReplyDeleteIf we take Walker at his word, perhaps we should understand Walker to mean that the way he and his party have treated "the least of these" is in fact the way that Walker and his co-travelers would like to be treated. Drug testing, arbitrary pay cuts, housing insecurity, denial of medical services, contaminated air and water, no right of appeal or of petition for redress of grievances... Walker's practically begging for the Golden Rule to fall with its' full weight upon him. Because, you know, it's a matter of "respect."
ReplyDeleteJames ain't lying. (Not that I ever thought he was.)
ReplyDeleteDoes Channel 3000 Photoshop?
http://www.channel3000.com/news/politics/walker-to-speak-at-florida-conservative-forum/40469212
Yesterday, Walker talked about the UW system less negatively than usual. What a crock. He's such a hypocrite. I think his recent attempts to appear human are efforts to polish up his image -- either for the Republican convention next week or for his next election. I don't think we can trust him to actually do anything that would help the UW.
ReplyDelete