Thoughts on the Wisconsin recall election

The Democrats fucked this up badly.

First, because of this recall, they have solidified Scott Walker's place as a national Republican leader and made it very likely he will win re-election in 2014.

Second, they demoralized their base.

Third, they wasted a ton of money...both their own and the state's.

Now for some truths that should have told Democrats that they shouldn't have even bothered with this recall...

• Don't try to vote someone out of office by having him run against a guy that he already beat once. 
• The primary election last month should have been a huge warning flag when the Republicans, in a virtually uncontested race, had almost as many people voting as the Democrats in a hotly contested race. 
• The number of recall petitions had a crap load more invalid signatures on them than anyone is be willing to admit. I personally know about 10 people who said they sign petitions more than once. To Scott Walker's credit, he let it go and went through this recall without bitching about it in any way. 
• Money had little to do with Scott Walker winning. Most voters were already decided on this race long before it really began. Walker's 8 to 1 financial advantage had little to do with this win. 
• Democratic polls were pretty wrong on this. Conservative and independent polls had this race almost exactly right with a 7 point margin. 
• The Democrats tried to recall someone because they were angry about a policy. A recall on such a high office doesn't work strictly due to a policy disagreement. There has to be a legal reason, or it has to be a policy that affects a large majority of the people. This was neither. 
• Madison is not Wisconsin. 
• Public unions are not private unions...there is a big difference and it is time Democrats start to realize that. 
• Even though it wouldn't have made much difference, Barrett ran the wrong campaign. The recall revolved around one issue, collective bargaining for public labor unions, and he pretty much ignored that. He ran on a jobs platform. If 1 and a half years of performance on job creation is to be criticized, we should have recalled Barack Obama too. 
• Everyone that complains about the corporate money being donated in this campaign is being a hypocrite if they don't also complain about public labor union money being donated in this campaign. Two wrongs don't make a right. 
• Scott Walker knew he was going to win.  He knew he was going to win months ago.  That was probably part of the reason he didn't bother contesting the recall petition signatures.  I believe, if he wanted to, he could have gotten them all thrown out because there were such a huge number of invalid signatures submitted (despite popular belief to the contrary). 
• On that same note, Walker never sweated this recall campaign.  He could have tried to resist the recall effort, but he welcomed it and he coasted to victory.  Now he has something to use to justify everything he's done.  

And some final thoughts...

• To the Wisconsin Democrats...YOU GOT PLAYED!
• I don't believe this election gives any indication on where the fall Presidential election or the US Senate election will go. Yesterday's results only confirm that most people believe Scott Walker deserves to finish out his term. Wisconsin will likely still favor Obama in the fall, and Herb Kohl's senate seat is a wide open race at this point.
• The Wisconsin state senate appears to have flipped over to democratic control. I hope that is spawns some compromise, but based on the actions of the Democrats in that chamber, I fear it will lead to gridlock more than anything else, and that's not a good thing.

Yes...your member of congress is part of the problem too

One of the problems with our government right now is the fact the so many of these clowns get re-elected year after year after year.

We keep voting the people into office yet the congressional approval rate is approaching single digits. This makes no sense.

The problem is that people believe that their own congressman (or congresswoman) and senators are not part of the problems in Washington.

Why do people thing this? Well, the most likely reason is that it has to do with all the money that these incumbents have to coax people into thinking that they are different than all the other jokers that are in Washington.

Whatever the reason we need to stop electing these people.

Yes, your congressman and senators ARE part of the problem. Vote them out! Don't worry about throwing away your vote by voting for someone that is perceived as unelectable. You are throwing away your vote if you vote for these incumbents. You are throwing away your rights by reelecting these people.

Get rid of them all.

Republicans...Democrats...it doesn't matter. These people don't have the best interests of the nation at heart. All these people want to do is keep their jobs. Why? Because so many of these public officials have grown dependent on these jobs. They can't see themselves as anything else. They have been corrupted by the power...the power to create laws that are entirely to their advantage.

So vote your members of congress out of a job next year.

Yes, it's your elected officials that are the problem.

The Tea Party doesn't get it.

I share many of the beliefs of the Tea Party...especially when it comes to government finances.

The Tea Party is on the verge of killing itself for two reasons...its inability to compromise and its perception that they represent the majority of Americans.

We currently live in an era of split government. That means that in order to get anything that you want, you have to accept something that you don't want.

The current debt ceiling debate is about the stupidest thing you will ever see in politics.

You want to see the simplest explanation of what is happening right now?

Here it is...

A little over a hundred members of congress don't want to raise the debt ceiling, and are willing to suffer the consequences of that in hopes that they can get their way by forcing the government to cut spending in all ways possible. Every one of the other members of Congress wants to increase the debt ceiling and do nothing else. This group includes both Republicans and Democrats.

It's as simple as that.

As of right now, because of the bullheadedness of a relatively small minority in Congress that refuses compromise at all, instead of substantially moving the nation in a direction toward the goals you envision, they will get nothing.

At this point one of two things will happen:

There will be a single vote on a one page bill that will raise the debt ceiling that will include no other legislative initiatives to cut spending and reducing the deficit.

Or...

President Obama will increase the debt ceiling by executive order with the interpreted backing of the 14th amendment.

And the Tea Party will get nothing.

The Tea Party will be more villanize by the independents and the left than they already are.

Instead of being able to move the country closer to what their loud minority wants, they will get nothing. That's not how government works. Even if they had majorities in both houses of congress and had a president with their views, they still would need to compromise a bit...just look at Obama's first two years in office.

But instead, they would rather have nothing.

This is just stupid.

The federal budget...the worst of both worlds.

Last week, Republican Paul Ryan unveiled his budget plan which had tax cuts and significant spending cuts in all areas of the government except, well, defense.

Today President Obama unveiled his budget plan (or outline for a plan) that pretty much revolves around letting the Bush tax cuts expire and raising some other taxes and cutting spending in various areas including defense.

There are two plans on the table...and if I had my way, medicare would be adjusted as Ryan outlined as well as some other spending cuts, including defense.  On top of that, I would want the Bush tax cuts to go away as they are the #1 contributor to the debt...more than spending increases and more than the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya. 

What will we get instead?  The worst of both worlds.  These negotiations will occur as the country builds up to the 2012 elections.  As a result, no one will be willing to actually make an unpopular choice and instead of a budget that is moved more into balance, we will have a budget that will be even more out of tilt than ever.

Medicare will not be touched because older Americans will be scared into thinking someone is taking away their benefits.  The Bush tax cuts will be extended yet again because you never raise taxes in an election year.  Defense spending will continue to escalate because we'll probabably get caught in a couple more wars and those defense contracts put people to work. 

This whole thing is just typical political bullshit.  These career politicians on both sides of the aisle need to go.

Madison...oh good grief

This is the reason I started this blog.

Madison.

Protests.

Good grief.

Living and working in the Madison, Wisconsin area has been, quite frankly, a severe headache for me for years.

I grew up in an extremely conservative area of Cook County, Illinois.  Quite frankly, I never quite fit in.  Oh, I tried.  My dear Lord, I tried.  In fact, I tried harder to fit in there than I have anywhere else since I left that area. 

Then I went to college...an extremely liberal college.  Quite frankly, I never quite fit in.  I kinda tried, but within less than two years, I gave up and left that school.  I went to a different school, which really had no political leanings.  I fit in...and fit in quite well.  Granted, it was an engineering school, but still, it was a college and my belief meant nothing to how people thought of me.  I can honestly say, I probably felt more comfortable with my surroundings there than I have ever before. 

But then I graduated and I moved to Madison, Wisconsin.  Quite frankly, I've never quite fit in.  In fact, I've given little effort to fit in. 

*********************

The news if filled with coverage of the protests occurring right now in Madison.  A number of my friends and family around this area are quite liberal.  And I some of my friends and family in this area that are quite conservative.  In fact, I would have a hard time finding too many people that I know that would truly be classified as moderate.  Oh, there are some that would say they are, but they really aren't.

So then it comes back to me.  Where do you place someone that is pro-life, anti-gun, pro-taxing the rich, anti-death penalty, pro-health care reform, anti-big government, pro-tort reform, anti-social security, pro-unilateralism, anti-war?

I'm a contradiction.  I'm a paradox.  And I believe I'm with a majority on a good number of these issues.  So why does it seem that more often than not, I'm surrounded by people who I absolutely don't fit in with?

So Madison is now pretty much at a standstill as the country watches the negative feedback toward the recently elected (and elected by a fairly large margin) governor. 

I've been in some heated discussions with people about this to the point where someone that I have worked with and gotten along with for 10 years threatened to fight me this past week.  (This was quite some turnabout for me as I tend to be the aggressor and short to anger.) 

I can honestly say that Madison has brought out the worst in me over the last 10 years.  At the same time, this past week has been quite an eye opener for me.  I have seen these issues bring out the best in a number of people (the protests have been wonderfully peaceful) and then the worst in people as people who do understand the issues have decided not to listen to any alternate viewpoints, while people who don't fully understand are just being followers and are unwilling to truly delve into the issue to really understand it. 

When I lived in the Chicago area, while I tried to act extremely conservative, I was pointed out as being anything but.  When living in Madison, I've been accused of being conservative.  I have a handful of friends who live in Wisconsin who are indeed conservative and the open hostility toward their viewpoints is, honestly quite appalling, especially considering that the left wingers claim to be more educated and compassionate. So when something comes up that I might have to disagree with a majority in Madison, you begin to see how uncomfortable things become for me to say anything. 

In the end, I suppose I've found it more comfortable to live in a conservative community.  We recently moved from Madison to a town over 30 miles away.  I still work in Madison, but the town I now live in is quite the opposite. 

I probably disagree with many of my neighbors on a good deal of issues, but I don't feel any threat at being labeled by these people.  Maybe it's because they don't care.  Maybe things are just simpler here.  But I think they are just more accepting. 

It makes me happy to think that, for the first time since I graduated college, I might finally be in an area where I can be comfortable in what I believe it. 

As far as the rest of what's going on in Madison right now...that will have to wait for another post. 

Oh what a tangled web we've weaved.

Hi.

This is the third blog that I have created.

One lesson I learned from my first blog was that when creating a blog, you need it to be focused on a subject.  That blog was not and I have since discontinued it.  My second blog is very focused, but I learned that I wasn't able to express my feelings and opinions on a number of issues that weren't really related to that blog's subject.

So, I've created this blog.

This blog needs to have a focus, and it's focus is the sad state of this country.  I'm not going to spout off about what is right and what is wrong and how to fix this or that, but I'm going to basically release my frustrations mainly as an outlet to keep me sane.  I am going to guess that I'm not going to say anything really new or eye opening to anyone here, but I would hope that my lunatic ravings might be somewhat entertaining to you.

Enjoy,
-DB