I want to thank Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his recent actions.
Don't misunderstand me: I am as horrified as any of you, as horrified as any thinking and feeling person must be, at the monstrous proposal he has made, at the stunning rhetoric he is using to advocate for his proposal, and at the arrogance and imperiousness that his actions manifest.
And that's why I am very sincerely grateful for what Gov. Walker has done.
It's obvious that in seeking to destroy the public unions in Wisconsin, Walker is not acting alone. This is part of a much larger agenda by the right. In recent months they have concluded that the day has finally come when they can actually speak their dark dreams -- union-busting, repealing child labor laws , killing the abortionists , eliminating the minimum wage -- out loud, and attempt to make them a reality.
And the recent mid-term elections helped them assemble the troops to do the job. Scott Walker is a member of the Association of Newly-Elected Wackadoodle Wingnuts (ANEWW). ANEWW members currently occupy the statehouses of states that have traditionally spanned the political spectrum: from Florida to Ohio to Wisconsin, to name just a few.
It is no coincidence that several states headed by ANEWW members are considering legislative proposals to limit benefits and collective bargaining rights of public unions. Destroying unions is one of the top priorities of our corporate overlords.
And that, more specifically, is why I'm grateful to Walker. Because as horrific as the Wisconsin situation is, imagine how much more horrific it would have been if Walker had waited to unleash his plan until after similar legislation had already passed in Florida and then in Ohio.
I do not by ANY means intend to diss Florida residents. I well remember how the Florida teachers rose up en masse and convinced Charlie Crist to overturn offensive anti-teacher legislation passed by the Republican legislature. But you know, and I know, that the kind of uprising we are seeing in Wisconsin would not have occured in Florida. We here at DK would have been up in arms about it, but there wouldn't have been 40,000 Floridians spending a week at the state capital protesting. The level of public support for the unions would not have been anything like what they are getting in Wisconsin, with its proud history as basically the birthplace of the American labor movement.
If Walker could have just contained his enthusiasm for a few weeks or months, legislation like this could have passed in several states before he tried to ram it through in Wisconsin. Elimination of the public unions could have succeeded in becoming the latest rage -- "All the cool states are doing it."
But Walker wanted to be a hero. He believed all the ridiculous right-wing hype about how the mid-term elections were a mandate to turn America into Dickensian England. And he thought he was just the man to get the ball rolling.
As it stands, I don't know how this will turn out. But I'm pretty sure Scott Walker will not have a second term as Wisconsin's governor, and in fact will be lucky to finish out his first term. And I know that millions of progressives throughout the country have been fired up and millions of moderates and independents are wishing they could have re-do's of the November elections.
And so, Scott Walker, for your arrogance, your stupidity, your overreaching, and your failure to understand the people of the state you aspire to lead, I thank you.