“Reasonable checks on the incoming Democrats”
The Republican coup in Wisconsin is complete.
Scott Walker, the outgoing Republican governor of Wisconsin, on Friday signed into law measures that diminish the power of his Democratic successor and expand the authority of Republican lawmakers who teamed up with him over the last eight years to move the state firmly to the right.
Those Republican lawmakers? They’re still in the majority only because Wisconsin is so gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. The vote for Dems was much larger.
Mr. Walker signed the measures over the objections of the incoming governor and despite vehement protest in the State Capitol as Republican lawmakers rushed the bills through in a hastily-called session last week. Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Mr. Walker in the November election, has suggested he may file suit over the changes.
Walker is a “screw the underlings” Republican.
Mr. Walker, a former legislator and county executive who then was little known outside of the Milwaukee area, won a crucial advantage when he became governor in 2011: Voters not only flipped the governor’s seat to Republican, but also both chambers of the Legislature.
Results came immediately. Within weeks, Mr. Walker announced the plan that would define his tenure and make him a national name. He wanted to shrink collective bargaining rights for most public sector workers in a state with deep roots in the labor movement.
Outside Mr. Walker’s Capitol office, protesters marched and drummed and chanted fury at what they saw as an effort to weaken unions and diminish Democrats. But Mr. Walker pushed through the measure, survived a recall election and went on to guide Wisconsin on a conservative path, adopting a concealed carry law, expanding private school vouchers, enacting so-called right-to-work legislation, passing voter identification rules and setting work rules for Medicaid recipients.
More guns; more private schools and thus worse public schools; weaker unions; voter suppression; no health insurance for the poor. What a glorious vision, huh?
To Mr. Walker’s supporters, the bills Mr. Walker acted on Friday were pragmatic ways to shore up Republican policies and establish reasonable checks on the incoming Democrats. Signing the bills would secure his legacy, they say, not sully it.
Excuse me, one party is not supposed to put any “checks” on a rival party. That’s not how this is supposed to work.
I think it’s about time for the Reign of Terror 2.0… seriously.
Well I think you might have a point BKiSA.
Lets just say it would be fitting if Walker does not get to live to regret that concealed carry law, even as his rabid supporters do.
Just as a matter of interest, what is considered accaptable when the democratic process is rendered otiose?
Are the electorate supposed to link arms and sing cum by fucking ya or what?
All I can think is desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps we need to understand that although reasonable people can disagree, when a group moves to stymie the constitutional processes they should be regarded not as opponents but enemies. And treated accordingly.
Hey its put my picky up. Not done that before. Do you suppose that spoils my chnces of identifying as a transexual frog on Friday evenings?
I’m sure Republican governors will have no issues a Dem legislative body doing the same to them… right?
Not an issue, because the state is so gerrymandered that there will never be a Democratic legislature again.