Friday, November 18, 2016

Trump Presidency? One-party rule? Look at Wisconsin

Better, updated title:
Wisconsin Becomes Waukesha County Becomes America 
[Updated from 11/8] I remember when Republicans Scott Walker and GOP legislative candidates won the Governorship and Legislature in 2010, and Mark Belling crowed the day after, with emphasis, "they can do whatever they want."

I saved it - - November 4, 2010:

"They can do whatever they want." 
Mark Belling, Nov. 3rd, on his WISN-AM 1130 talk show, describing Republicans' history-making sweep of the Governor's office and both houses of the state legislature.
Update - - In yesterday's elections, Republicans increased their majority in the Legislature. 

They defeated powerful, incumbent Democratic State Sen. Julie Lassa, (Stevens Point), threaten to unseat Democratic Senate Minority Leader and potential 2018 gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Shilling, (La Crosse), and boosted potential majorities if the uncounted ballots break their way to lopsided levels not seen since in Wisconsin the 60's. 


Wisconsin is going to be red for years.


We've documented many of the consequences of that truism on this blog for years:


The overall diminution of the public sector and the public interest in favor of well-heeled, well-connected special interests, tax favors and other big benefits to the 1% and tax increases for lower-income Wisconsinites, the effective end of Civil Service hiring, a near-erasure of public sector collective bargaining, the installation of right-to-work rules in private sector union shops and the end for working people of higher, 'prevailing wages' on public projects, the sell-off of public lands and eased pollution enforcement by the state natural resources department along with the giveaway of public groundwater enabled big ag and huge feedlot operators by that department with an assist by an equally ideologically-hard-edged, corporately-captive GOP Attorney General, the closing and financial starvation of Planned Parenthood clinics, mandatory drug-testing of public assistance recipients dog-whistled clearly by Walker to non-minority voters and audiences, the reduction of food stamp availability for the poor, campaign coordination with Koch/related and other big-dollar conservative advocacy interests and corporations to take over and harden control of the State Supreme Court, the monkey-wrenching of Obamacare, cuts to public transit, rollbacks of multiple local control matters, easier development on shorelines, etc. etc.


So substitute "America" in all matters Wisconsin above: a rightist US Supreme Court for years and years and years; National Parks for Wisconsin public land; a monkey-wrenched Obamacare on the state level wiped out nationally; remaking tax law in one state with  larger benefits to upper-earners in all 50 states included in something nightmarish called "The Ryan Budget,"...and you get a whiff of what can happen when "they can do whatever they want."


Or as Walker called them yesterday: 'Doing good.;

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They wouldn't have allowed Hillary to govern so now Ryan has the ball totally in his court. We all know that cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporate donors will not grow the economy.....never has....never will. Deregulation will continue unabashed meaning we will return to Wall Street and the BIG banks and financial powers will once again rape the public; while deregulation of business and industry will allow profits to soar at the expense of the environment. Tax cuts will starve the government of revenue so there goes Medicare, Social Security and safety net programs for those devastated by a dead economy. Here comes recession and with no stimulus spending because Paul Ryan says the market will fix all evils and say hello to a deep depression. Paul Ryan now has the perfect storm that he wished for....he has total control of all avenues of government and he and Mike Pence [who will actually be the president] can experiment in a grand way with his conservative free market, no regulations low tax, low spending, ideological path to doom. 99% OF US ARE IN FOR HELL................but once and for all Paul Ryan must stand and be counted. It will be his America and when he breaks it ...he and the Republicans and their free market cures will hopefully be gone forever. Whether we have a country left is anybody's guess.

Anonymous said...

To those of you who seem to think that electing the President of the United States is of no more importance than choosing who plays first while playing Chutes and Ladders or Candyland: What are you going to do when the United States Postal Service is handed over to the 1% and the cost of mailing a letter goes up to $2 or $3? What are you going to do when your, or someone you know's health insurance is taken away/ What are you, or a friend or family member, going to do when Social Security and Medicare are privitized with many of the services either eliminated or drastically cut back? What is going to happen whn the Environmental Protection Agency is eleiminated? What is going to happen when federal public service worker's right to bargain is taken away, along with their benefits and wages? What are you going to do when ALL unions are declared illegal and we have a federal Right To Work law? What are you going to dowhen the many programs the help and feed children are severely curtailed or eliminated all together? America has many safeguards in place protecting us, our children and our well being, none of these are safe with the conservative majority of the Congress, soon the United States Supreme Court and the Presidency. I am so very sad that our country has devolved to being a society where intelligence and self thought are no longer a looked well upon characteristic.With Trump being elected president our democracy is fleeting and life as we, our children and parents have known it is soon to be gone.

nonheroicvet said...

The election results are a real shocker and wake up call. I wonder if the state Democratic party knows about this yet?


























d

tesseract said...

I am not from Wisconsin, but I was looking at Wisconsin vote totals and saw some odd things - maybe someone from *there* can shed some light?

Here's an example of one of those "odd" counties I noticed: Waukesha... So we were led to believe that Trump "turned" Wisconsin - a state that hasn't voted Republican in a presidential election since 1984 or something like that, right? Waukesha isn't huge, but it's not small either. Considering the overall blue to red progression in Wisconsin counties, one would think that since Trump won that county (as did Romney in 2012), that his numbers would be at least consistent with Romney's (considering Wisconsin "turned", so more people turned to Trump). Only they aren't. Clinton actually got MORE votes in 2016 in Waukesha than Obama did in 2012.... (she got 79,199 to Obama's 77,617) And Trump actually got LESS votes there in 2016 than Romney did....(he got 145,519 to Romney's 161,567). That makes NO SENSE at all if the Wisconsin narrative is that Democrats didn't show up, Republicans did, and he turned some Dems that did show up to his side....Not on a county this size - statistically, that makes NO sense at all. But I haven't seen anyone else mention this so....Just wondering how odd this is?