[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 defeated 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 when all the votes are counted to levels not seen since in Wisconsin the 60;s. with solid credentials. 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, official climate change denial, 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."
Shorter version:
America becomes Wisconsin, which became Waukesha County.
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 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 when all the votes are counted to levels not seen since in Wisconsin the 60;s. with solid credentials. 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, official climate change denial, 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."
Shorter version:
America becomes Wisconsin, which became Waukesha County.
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