President Walker Primer: 4 things you should know about Scott Walker before it's too late

[Lefta Dissenter]

From the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative:


"So … Scott Walker is all but officially running for president, and the country is getting a look at a man whom we residents of Wisconsin have been living with since before he became governor. While the national press has focused on the policies and conservative ideology that Walker has imposed on our state, these don’t define the man or explain the mayhem he has caused here.

The massive protests against Walker in 2011 began with “Act 10,” which stripped public employee unions of almost all of their rights and power. Walker loves to leave the story there and depicts ongoing opposition to him as a fight between him and the unions. It’s a narrative that sells well to his donors and to a national press eager for narrative simplicity.

But Act 10 was only a triggering event, not the sole or even primary motivation of Walker’s opponents. While much of the opposition to Walker centers around his policies, there is more to it than that. It is the way he implements these policies, the way he deals with opposition, and the way he rewards his allies that make Walker not just divisive, but frightening. Even conservatives who share Walker’s ideology should distrust him, and dread the prospect of him becoming president.

Why? Here is a brief primer on Scott Walker, drawn from what we have learned about him first-hand here in Wisconsin. These are things that the rest of the country should know in order to avoid learning the same lessons the hard way—on a national and international platform of the presidency."

... oh, you're going to have to read the article in order to learn the four things, including that Scott Walker is a liar, that he's corrupt and that he doesn't tolerate dissent. READ AND SHARE!

http://wcmcoop.com/2015/02/15/president-walker-primer-4-things-you-should-know-about-scott-walker-before-its-too-late/

[Scuba]

1. Plus he's a beady-eyed little snake.

[Lefta Dissenter]

4. Well, there is that, Scuba.

Should we suggest they add that to the article?

[Scuba]

5. Well, it's just my opinion while the rest are documented facts, so maybe not.

[unionthug777]

7. beady-eyed rat.

with a crooked face.

[Still In Wisconsin]

17. "goggle-eyed homunculus"

That's always been my favorite.

[calimary]

2. Let's make sure we spread this around!

I never liked that little weasel. Didn't know why at first, except that he's a republi-CON so that constitutes points off, just for starters. But then watching the utter disarray he threw the whole state into, a few years ago, in attacking public employees unions - including first responders - how revolting that was!!!!!

I'm just simply astounded at Wisconsin voters. Yes, I point the finger at the voters. They had a chance to recall him, throw him out of office, and start over, and they passed. WHY??? WHY ON EARTH did they do that? It's nobody else's fault that these schmucks get elevated to higher and higher office - except the VOTERS who see fit to put them there.

I find myself pointing at various blocs of voters the same way I point at various unseen parents - when their children misbehave and act like bullies and jerks and grow up to do the same only on a larger scale. My question then becomes - "WHO brought them up?"

[Jackpine Radical]

6. We'll see how well the voters in your state do

when subjected to the kind of propaganda blitz, probably augmented by electoral fraud, that Wisconsin got.

What happened is that the Walker campaign somehow mobilized the know-nothings to come out & inflict their moronic opinions on the rest of us via the ballot box.

And BTW, the 7:1 spending disadvantage is a gross underestimate when "independent" expenditures are counted; it comes out to something more like 30:1

With a 7-to-1 fundraising advantage and record turnout, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker defeated a union-led recall challenge by Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee Tom Barrett.

The Wisconsin vote captured national attention, and a flood of out-of-state money. Of the $63.5 million dollars spent, $45 million came from Walker’s campaign and supporters, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. The record spending total was made possible thanks to the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision — which had the effect of invalidating Wisconsin’s century-old ban on independent expenditures by corporations and unions — and a state law that allowed unlimited contributions to the incumbent in recall elections.

So you have a choice. You can either assume that the average Cheesehead is too dumb to be given unsupervised access to Lego pieces, or you can maybe wonder what the hell we're going to do to counter the effect of huge imbalances in campaign funding.

And, given that choice, it's probably best to go for the cheesehead-stupidity option. That view has a lot of advantages, such as affirming your superiority to the entire lot of shit-kicking, beer-guzzling ignorami that populate Wisconsin, and not having to feel a little nervous about what Citizens United is going to do to your state, which, as we all know, is populated entirely by people who are far superior in intellect, moral fibre, insight, and downright attractiveness, and would never fall for Walker like those besotted Cheeseheads did.

[calimary]

8. Oh, make no mistake, Jackpine - I AM nervous about my state.

Even true blue California. We're a HUGE prize for the CONs. HUGE. Our winner-take-all electoral battles, our bigger-than-every-other-state Congressional delegation, Electoral College vote counts, population, the bad guys would LOVE to get their hooks into gerrymandering our districts more than ever, and tilt the playing field toward an ill-gotten gain for themselves.

I don't take anything for granted out here, either. I think some of our leading Dems, certainly dear darling DEBBIE, are taking California for granted, may not be doing what needs to be done to shore us up so we are and remain invincibly a BLUE state. I think they're taking us for granted. Only come out here to hit us up for money and campaign when they have to, because they figure they've already got California in the sure-thing category so they don't have to work for it out here. So I fear we are ripe for the stealing.

And your point about undoing the damage of Citizens United is spot-on. But it STILL comes down to the voters, Jackpine. It's still THE VOTERS. Either the "Cheeseheads" (as some call 'em) of Wisconsin or the "Fruits 'n' Nuts 'n' Flakes" (as some call us) of California. And how well we're educated. NOT just during campaign season but all the time! What is being done to educate? Especially when education in this context involves trying to beat back the misinformation of the campaign commercial carpet-bombing that koch brothers money and more can buy for the bad guys. So it comes down to US voters, I suppose. Our side will never have the money the other tribe does - because the koch brothers are over there and as the cliche says - they have "more money than God." But it STILL comes down to the voters.

Actually, reading flat words on a page or a screen can be misleading as to whatever un-heard, unvoiced sentiment is behind those words. I hope you had a little tint of sarcasm in there, in that "...such as affirming your superiority to the entire lot of shit-kicking, beer-guzzling ignorami..."

I don't feel superior - but I DO feel better-informed. And yeah, maybe moreso than voters in (fill in the blank here) state. Yes, maybe it's because my immediate child-rearing days are long over, and I'm not working at a job anymore, and I have time to read and research and study different inputs that undoubtedly a lot of those generalized "ignorami" referenced earlier do. They're probably busy enough just trying to make ends meet and keep their kids out of trouble and keep a watch on whether the homework gets done while trying to make sure the boss is satisfied and the roof isn't leaking and the house payments are met on time and numerous other things. I know that.

Yes, it's also because I don't cling to every word out of the mouth of rush limbaugh and the inhabitants of Pox Noise as though all of it is some sort of gospel, either. And writing, petitioning, emailing, blogging, debating with CON-leaning friends, and making sure that I've gone up to every lunch counter, bank desk, car-repair waiting room, and dentist's office where I see Pox Noise, and asking that the channel be changed. Do YOU do that, too, I hope? Cuz we need you there, too. Actually, I hope EVERYBODY here does that. I think THAT is the key. WE ALL have to take up where the system leaves off, because so much work has been accomplished to erode the system. And our friend scott walker is a big part of that accomplishment - at least in Wisconsin.

[Lefta Dissenter]

10. ummmm, we've got a pretty damned active and hardworking base

who collected a million recall signatures in the dead of winter. After three elections in four years, we're a little battle-weary. So we might be a wee bit defensive when it sounds like people are telling us we haven't worked hard enough.

We've been screwed by the system, the money, the elections that are probably rigged, the fact that the rightwingers will lie through their teeth, and lazy media. But Walker doesn't represent ME any more than Bush represented YOU when he was elected two times.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Fortunately, you're not such idiots

as to elect a Ronald Reagan or an Ahhnold as governor--

and, if you did, I'm sure you would immediately see your error and dump them if they had the temerity to try to fool you a second time.

[calimary]

14. Proud to say I never voted for either of them.

Wish I could have said the same for the gullible majority.

What I DON'T understand was - there was precious little info in the news, to cover protests or objectors to either of these "gents." But there was HUGE coverage of what walker was doing with his ill-conceived plans to screw the firefighters, teachers, and police. There were tons of protests, the Capitol building in Madison was overrun by protesters - anybody remember the Ian's Pizza sidebar - where many of us donated money for pizza orders to be delivered to the protesters? They had a blackboard set up out front, documenting every state, US territories, and other countries, from which donated orders came - including Iran and China! I think there were 60 countries on the list by the time it was over. There was a TON of coverage, and TONS of citizen activism that couldn't be ignored.

And STILL... Wisconsin stuck by this asshole.

Back in our day, especially with reagan, there was no such coverage. Some of us objected and protested but we got no attention, either locally, state-wide, or nationally. The majority of EVERYBODY was enthralled with ronald reagan and his "aw-shucks" schtick, and then again with Ahnold and his movie-star schtick. Nobody paid our objections any attention AT ALL. The protesters in Madison, on the other hand, got all kinds of coverage. Their grievances got tons of attention. They made all kinds of noise that was unavoidable and impossible to ignore - and STILL. We had the cone of silence and willful ignorance clamped down over us. We got NO attention. No coverage. I wasn't surprised that nothing got done. There are STILL people who worship ronald reagan to this very hour - something I will NEVER understand. It's taken this long for even a little bit of his so-called "legacy" to even begin to be exposed for the massive heist it all really was. I'm not surprised at what happened. It's gonna take YEARS before most of the nation finally wraps its collective brain around what ronald reagan did to this country. People in CA finally do realize, I think, what a joke Ahnold turned out to be. Many of them are unfortunately still in a reagan-induced coma, though.

But I thought it was different in Wisconsin. You good folks with your protests and loud objections and hundreds of activists crowding into and taking over the Capitol building - you got LOTS of attention. AND STILL scott walker survived. THAT is what I don't understand. How can Wisconsin still be okay with this? How can this bastard do what he did, with the lights shining on it and the cameras remarkably focused on the protesters and their objections, and he still survived? WE in California were hollering into a vacuum. In space no one can hear you scream. Well, that's where we were. Those fighting the good fight in Wisconsin were not in that vacuum. And STILL this bastard survived.

That's what I don't understand.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Your last sentence brings you exactly to my point.

Those of us watching the trainwreck happen from 'way close up don't exactly understand either. That's why I think if one had money for that sort of thing, it would be valuable to do a post-hoc study of what happened, to compare reasons voters offered for voting for Walker or Barrett with campaign themes & ads, etc. to see which campaign points the people still echo (as a measure of the staying power of those points), etc.

[demigoddess]

3. k&r

[summerschild]

9. I look into Scott Walker's blank, soulless eyes and I always

think of Richard Nixon.

Walker makes my flesh crawl.

[hue]

12. Again we are preaching to the choir here at DU.

Too many Wisconsinites are yet committed to having "one of them" become president.
These folks are not mobilized by reason but by vindictive emotions such as hatred for welfare "leeches" etc.

The Kochs well know this and use this to mobilize their base. The top RW 1%'ers have legions of industrial and political psychologist researching & paving the way for them. Their modus operandi is well planned & tested. Accuracy is not & need not be a factor. This has worked well for ALEC for over 40 years. That's how we got here! That's how the rich got richer. But I don't think they figured that Barack Obama would win the presidency twice. They seem to be OK with Obama winning the 1st time so they could dump their tanking economy on an African American to "clean up the mess" & take responsibility for. But I don't think they expected a second term.

[Lefta Dissenter]

13. Of course we're preaching to the choir here,

and it's up to the choir to sing it everywhere they go!

[snacker]

16. Amen!

[midnight]

18. Didn't Texas Molly Ivins worn us similarly about Bush?

http://www.texasobserver.org/423-molly-ivins-deregulation-fails-all-over-again/

I know during the election, I read similarly about Bush, but this is a good one too.

[alterfurz]

19. shorter version: 4 things you need to know about Scott Walker

Scott Walker's every action/inaction is based entirely on these considerations, and in this priority:
1. Will it further my political ambitions?
2. Will it benefit my dark money donors/masters?
3. Will it impair government's ability to promote the common good?
4. And just for Nixonian ratfucking fun: Will it harm those on my "enemies list"?

[Lefta Dissenter]

20. One of my favorite protest "signs!"

I wonder how many of us have photos of that thing!

And yes, that's a good bullet-pointed summary... sadly.