Monday, November 19, 2018

11th hour tricks will speed up the FitzWalkerVos final bell

[Updated from Sunday, 11/18/18] GOP leaders in Wisconsin are ready, willing and able to deal themselves an unnecessary and crippling self-inflicted political wound.

Basically, that's what can happen when you take your own importance and news releases too seriously.

So sometime in the 50 days before Democrat Tony Evers is sworn in as Governor and replaces the Republican incumbent whom the electorate unambiguously rejected, a defeated Scott Walker and his lead legislative hench-people will have codified some 11th-hour changes to Wisconsin traditional law and tradition through which they will desperately try to make their beloved FitzWalkerStan permanent.

You'd think Republicans would have learned something about clever legislating and unintended consequences after tightening up the state's recount law in 2016, only to have the restrictions they pushed through make it harder and costly for Walker to obtain one following his 2018 defeat.

Literature and language are replete with this lesson. Google the phrases "of mice and men," or "the best laid plans." Or "be careful of what you wish for," "payback's a bitch," or "vengeance is a dish best served cold." You get the picture. 

But key players in this frame don't.

Assembly Speaker and public official caricature Robin Vos has done most the talking for this sad, one-dimensional, and pathological partisan trio.

He went on Milwaukee talk radio the other day, and without understanding the basics of projection or unintentional self-parody, said it was Democrats after the election who were the "sore losers."

And he later told his home county paper that he and allies have to change the rules of the game now so they won't be dictated to later. 

Talk about an expanding self-awareness deficit.

Speaking of which: the fundamental mistake these purportedly professional politicians are making is that they over value their own importance and mistakenly think they have a right to permanence and possess a path to its righteous implementation.

Instead of grasping the truth of what happened on Nov. 6th - - that people wanted change. And Walker's defeat and the blowout upheaval in the US House of Representatives proved that politics is defined by impermanence, and is regulated by the proverbial pendulum.

And as long as Donald Trump is their party leader, and the basic demographics of the US electorate get more urban and diverse, Republican losses will continue and the careers of the likes of Vos and Fitzgerald are already on the same clock that Paul Ryan knew was ticking.

And which ran out on Walker.

Meaning that whatever last-ditch rigging of boards and appointments and privilege FitzWalkerVos manage to force into government and foist onto the electorate are going to be short-lived and self-defeating - - their reversal sped along by public disgust at the game-playing and the grasping.

And, more practically, doomed by the inevitable ash-canning of their 2012 gerrymander that handed them their corrupted and unearned share of power that's already begun to fade.

So in the short run, Vos and Fitzgerald will self-deal themselves into position to dole out a few more favors for donors and special interests, and will beat their chests at a few more self-serving news conferences and trade association soirees - - and with Walker's final, legacy-killing official signature can clutch temporarily at some of the levers of power for a bit longer - - but these guys have to know the wheels of justice are already picking up speed and will grind exceedingly fine.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said, James.

It's High Time for a big Defeat Robin Vos PAC that should be state-wide (as Vos's damages have been) and very well funded. Without any corporate money.

Instead of running TV ads, a big waste of money, the PAC should send out weekly postcards by Every Door Direct Mail, starting in Burlington, Vos's hometown, and spreading eastward, even into the dreaded

Fox-Con Territory !!


Where's the ethics? said...

Impermenance in congress will only happen with term limits - by example: Sensenbrenner.

Anonymous said...

Indeed as the "good ol' boys" go down ranting & screaming, releasing their last balloons filled with self inflated egos, Wisconsinites look to real, solid change and progress. More so than children Walker's cabal clings to the belief that their balloons will have a destination in the future--->but nothing could be further from the truth as their balloons--distorted dreams--burst and fall into pieces with no form and purpose.
Goodness and truth is based on reality and revealed by and through justice.
Justice will be delivered!

Anonymous said...

The blog has a good story, unfortunately we, meaning Wis, are in worse shape than James describes. The real story is not that Walker was rejected, but the fact that the race was close. How in the heck did Walker get the votes he got when he has displayed corrupt behavior over and over again. I can not think of a single reason, not one, why anyone would vote for him, yet he got 1.3 million voters to say yes to his agenda. Heck, in Kewaunee county where they literally have feces in their wells, Walker got more than 60%.
Somehow the rallying cry of corruption has reinforced Walker as a hero. When Vos made his antiAmerican comments displaying his intent to circumvent the election, the 1.3 mil should be furious, but they are not. They are diehard Republicans who will vote for any candidate with an R.
Let's face another reality, Dems like the spineless Barca have helped justify the corruption.
So James, here is reality: 1.3 million Wisconites are perfectly fine with the following:1. CAFOs polluting wells 2. Middle class farms closing 3. Paying to support foreign companies 4.Worst roads in the nation 5. CWD 6. Dry former trout streams 7. paying for a dumbass to fly around 8. Screwing over public workers 8. Cuts to schools 9. Rampant teacher shortages 10. Passing referendums to make up for lost state dollars 11. Huge sums of money going to school vouchers 12. Destruction of our park system 13. Sell off of state land 14. Hidden campaign donations 15. Favors for the filthy rich
AND THE CITIZENS KNOW THIS!!!!
Maybe the real story is how our state is so morally decayed that 1.3 million voters are supporting the rot. Scott Walker could personally take a poop on their kitchen table and they would thank him.

Laura Sorensen said...

I love this eloquently written article and I agree,and pray that you are correct.

James Rowen said...

@Laura Sorenson. Thank you. I hope so, too.