The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Scott Walker's intentions, presuming no underlying plans, are admirable. In fact, my first impression of the prank call played on the Governor was the stark realization that he genuinely believes in what he's doing. However the methods he has chosen to enact this agenda have overshadowed those goals and sent Wisconsin down a destructive road.
Here's how we got where we are in short.
The Budget Repair Bill was introduced with the heavy taint of deception: Assembly Democrats being given no warning for the 144 page document that would be dropped in their laps for a same day vote on its introduction. The plan was to rush sweeping changes to government employment through the Legislature in five days to avoid backlash from the unions.
Wisconsin Republicans legislators didn't come to the legislative process to create a law fixing the budget, it was already written. Instead they were essentially told in advance how the process would go and what was expected of them. What this meant was that the efforts of the minority party to be included in that process as well as the pleas of the public in the one day of hearings allowed were essentially irrelevant leaving those people feeling ignored.
One of the first rules of legislative politics is you do not alienate the other sides - even the minority. The finesse of being a politician in the majority is to minimize the ability of the minority to affect your agenda without ever totally isolating them - throwing them enough incentives and inclusion in government to have meaningful participation in the process and to prevent them from deciding they have been utterly excluded from it. The reason for this is simple: Almost every legislative process has weapons available that neither party wants to see used. These weapons tend not to GET used unless the majority fails in their political task and leaving the minority feeling powerless.
One such tactic is the Vanishing Minority.
14 Senators, feeling utterly excluded from a freight train of a process from a governor who swore not to negotiate fled the State to stop an attack on one of the fundamental groups the Democrats are sworn to protect: Labor unions. While stunning in many ways, in retrospect it is not that surprising. The process of moving this legislation forward was never inclusive of the people affected by it or the people expected to come on board with it.
This remedy by the Democrats, however justified, was not free. If the bill started with a procedural low blow, the use of the vanishing minority by the Democrats opened wide the war chest: No weapon available was now too uncivil, whether it was the Governor planning to lie and trick Democrats in bad faith to return and open a session that could create the quorum he needed, recall efforts on both sides, a crank call tricking the governor into revealing his plans, passing Democrat-abhorrent non-financial legislation concerning restricting voting rights while they were away, holding a vote in the Assembly for seconds without warning, or putting pressure on the staffers and protesters and launching media campaigns deliberately distracting the viewer form the union issue. There were no tactics too vile for this battle anymore.
When walker later announced his budget, it became clear that the interests of the minority party had again been utterly excluded. With the precedent set by Walker's relentless march on the repair bill as the backdrop for the budget, the Democrats were left without any reason to believe that Walker would act any differently this time around and modify any positions in that document that were particularly troublesome to them. The normal political art of offering minority concessions to keep legislative consensus was dead, dismembered, and hidden ineffectively in Walker's political basement.
So where are we?
Walker destroyed good faith in his administration with the minority party in the first month of office. Without taking the time to show that he was leading more than a single party oligarchy, he enacted a MEANS of leadership that was totally exclusive of any point of view except his own.
This has made everyone nervous including many conservatives. This isn't about Democrat or Republican, per se. It's about a leadership style that ignores Walker's responsibility to act as steward for the nearly 50% of the population that did not vote for him and expected that despite the election he would represent them as well. Such is the conventional wisdom the democratic process. Of course as a Republican governor in charge of a Republican legislature, his agenda would in some form prevail as it should, but not as a pure expression of authoritarian will.
I don't know how Wisconsin moves forward after this kind of a fight. It feels like Scott Walker's good intentions became tainted by how he chose to transform them into policy. The price these policies exacted on his reputation, on his legislature, and on the Wisconsin people poisoned the dialogue and public trust leaving our state politics toxic. The bad feeling hanging in the air right now is not just anger, it's a total lack of faith in the governor's intentions and goals that more importantly his word: He has proven he will stoop to nearly any tactic if necessary to get his way. Is there any assurance he can give to an opponent that wouldn't ring hollow today?
It is my opinion that Scott Walker should step down or be recalled. My reasons are not as political as they are structural. I genuinely believe that this battle has cost him the legitimacy and trust he would need to be effective in his position AFTER this fight is over. Bad choices related to HOW he did what he did have left a good percentage of his State thinking he cannot be trusted, he won't negotiate, and he do anything to forward his unilateral agenda no matter what evidence is shown to the contrary. Even if this isn't objectively true, it is the shape of the political landscape he has crafted for himself and the image he carries with his a good number of his colleagues and a rising number of Wisconsinites.
Scott Walker's intentions, presuming no underlying plans, are admirable. In fact, my first impression of the prank call played on the Governor was the stark realization that he genuinely believes in what he's doing. However the methods he has chosen to enact this agenda have overshadowed those goals and sent Wisconsin down a destructive road.
Here's how we got where we are in short.
The Budget Repair Bill was introduced with the heavy taint of deception: Assembly Democrats being given no warning for the 144 page document that would be dropped in their laps for a same day vote on its introduction. The plan was to rush sweeping changes to government employment through the Legislature in five days to avoid backlash from the unions.
Wisconsin Republicans legislators didn't come to the legislative process to create a law fixing the budget, it was already written. Instead they were essentially told in advance how the process would go and what was expected of them. What this meant was that the efforts of the minority party to be included in that process as well as the pleas of the public in the one day of hearings allowed were essentially irrelevant leaving those people feeling ignored.
One of the first rules of legislative politics is you do not alienate the other sides - even the minority. The finesse of being a politician in the majority is to minimize the ability of the minority to affect your agenda without ever totally isolating them - throwing them enough incentives and inclusion in government to have meaningful participation in the process and to prevent them from deciding they have been utterly excluded from it. The reason for this is simple: Almost every legislative process has weapons available that neither party wants to see used. These weapons tend not to GET used unless the majority fails in their political task and leaving the minority feeling powerless.
One such tactic is the Vanishing Minority.
14 Senators, feeling utterly excluded from a freight train of a process from a governor who swore not to negotiate fled the State to stop an attack on one of the fundamental groups the Democrats are sworn to protect: Labor unions. While stunning in many ways, in retrospect it is not that surprising. The process of moving this legislation forward was never inclusive of the people affected by it or the people expected to come on board with it.
This remedy by the Democrats, however justified, was not free. If the bill started with a procedural low blow, the use of the vanishing minority by the Democrats opened wide the war chest: No weapon available was now too uncivil, whether it was the Governor planning to lie and trick Democrats in bad faith to return and open a session that could create the quorum he needed, recall efforts on both sides, a crank call tricking the governor into revealing his plans, passing Democrat-abhorrent non-financial legislation concerning restricting voting rights while they were away, holding a vote in the Assembly for seconds without warning, or putting pressure on the staffers and protesters and launching media campaigns deliberately distracting the viewer form the union issue. There were no tactics too vile for this battle anymore.
When walker later announced his budget, it became clear that the interests of the minority party had again been utterly excluded. With the precedent set by Walker's relentless march on the repair bill as the backdrop for the budget, the Democrats were left without any reason to believe that Walker would act any differently this time around and modify any positions in that document that were particularly troublesome to them. The normal political art of offering minority concessions to keep legislative consensus was dead, dismembered, and hidden ineffectively in Walker's political basement.
So where are we?
Walker destroyed good faith in his administration with the minority party in the first month of office. Without taking the time to show that he was leading more than a single party oligarchy, he enacted a MEANS of leadership that was totally exclusive of any point of view except his own.
This has made everyone nervous including many conservatives. This isn't about Democrat or Republican, per se. It's about a leadership style that ignores Walker's responsibility to act as steward for the nearly 50% of the population that did not vote for him and expected that despite the election he would represent them as well. Such is the conventional wisdom the democratic process. Of course as a Republican governor in charge of a Republican legislature, his agenda would in some form prevail as it should, but not as a pure expression of authoritarian will.
I don't know how Wisconsin moves forward after this kind of a fight. It feels like Scott Walker's good intentions became tainted by how he chose to transform them into policy. The price these policies exacted on his reputation, on his legislature, and on the Wisconsin people poisoned the dialogue and public trust leaving our state politics toxic. The bad feeling hanging in the air right now is not just anger, it's a total lack of faith in the governor's intentions and goals that more importantly his word: He has proven he will stoop to nearly any tactic if necessary to get his way. Is there any assurance he can give to an opponent that wouldn't ring hollow today?
It is my opinion that Scott Walker should step down or be recalled. My reasons are not as political as they are structural. I genuinely believe that this battle has cost him the legitimacy and trust he would need to be effective in his position AFTER this fight is over. Bad choices related to HOW he did what he did have left a good percentage of his State thinking he cannot be trusted, he won't negotiate, and he do anything to forward his unilateral agenda no matter what evidence is shown to the contrary. Even if this isn't objectively true, it is the shape of the political landscape he has crafted for himself and the image he carries with his a good number of his colleagues and a rising number of Wisconsinites.
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