If you are among the few human beings who like the snarky Windows 8 interface with its parade of icons and boxes, you're likely to appreciate the State of Wisconsin's latest revamp of its official web site under the administration of Gov. Scott Walker. The site's welcome page is simpler and more gaily graphic than in olden days, just like many of the political messages sent out by Walker.
Likewise the governor's own pages on the site are not particularly information-friendly, unless, of course, you think that non-stop slide shows of Scott Walker and his wife are valuable. That and more have been available for years now on the official state site's gubernatorial sub-pages, opening at http://www.walker.wisconsin.gov/ – an address that seems much more suited to a campaign web site.
Forgive me for remembering that bygone era when a public institution's web site mainly served to share non-partisan information of use to its constituents – for instance, the programs offered by service agencies or factual information about, say, health or environment. Wisconsin.gov certainly continues to share links to separate state agency pages that do still tend to emphasize such information, but the emphasis at the site portal isn't really about that any longer. Today, for example, the site's main page led with the state's slightly lower unemployment rate, old news in the world of journalism but a headline completely in line with the Walker campaign's repetitive messaging and advertising.
It gets worse when you drill down to the site's pages reserved for the governor's office. Those pages are, literally, a red, white and blue paen to Walker politics. Looking the pages over, you'd have to consider the possibility that the pages departed from tradition the moment Walker took office in 2011. I imagine a top aide sending out an email to the state's information technology team, insisting on a more personalized and, um, politically resonant site. The effective message: More cowbell!
And here's the result: The State of Wisconsin "Office of the Governor" page is really a thinly disguised commercial for Walker's re-election, with nearly verbatim recitations from his campaign platform. And it's all paid for not by Walker For Governor or one of those shadowy dark-money groups, but by the state's taxpayers, roughly half of whom don't like the guy, according to the polls.
On the governor's welcome page, Walker's name dominates in 46-point type. There's even a 'timeline of accomplishments' straight out of a campaign flyer. True, politics per se and party affiliation aren't overtly mentioned, so this set of pages might nominally be defended as non-partisan and legal, if unethical. But the pages still read like a Walker campaign position paper or stump speech.
Given that state criminal investigations uncovered a secret email system in Walker's office when he was Milwaukee County executive, and detected a pattern of illegal campaign coordination between his office and his own campaign, along with supposedly independent third-party political groups, it perhaps should come as no surprise that Walker's politicking and governing are, even wide out in the open, 100 percent coterminous.
Now, to be sure, Walker has merely accelerated a long-standing trend toward turning official government instruments into political instruments. His predecessor, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, had his picture on his official state page, too. And governors from Walker dating way back before the Internet uniformly lined up to have their photos taken for the cover of Wisconsin's official highway map. Heck, Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson's team arranged to name various Wisconsin buildings and other public infrastructure in his honor, before he even left office.
So, don't get me wrong. Some of this cross-pollination between public duties and politicking is inevitable. A little of it might even be reasonable. Many institutions, public and private, have tried to put a human face on their respective bureaucracies. And it's common practice for national elected leaders of all political stripes to join the cult of personality whenever they can get away with it. Wisconsin politicians like many others have long posed for holy pictures, smiling with arms open at groundbreakings or appearing in tourism ads. But where politicians used to limit themselves to stunts like kissing babies, lax campaign laws and modern technology have escalated the “permanent campaign,” to the point where Walker's political organization has now almost fully interpenetrated the functions of government.
More background below the puff of orange, back-room cigar smoke.
This might seem a non-story to people living in other states where it happened earlier, say in Illinois where Chicago Mayor Richard Daley Sr. used to stencil his name on virtually every major public work, even sometimes right on street corners, and in big type. But for many of us in Wisconsin, which has a history of strong legal firewalls between politics and governing, the practice is still rather new and still feels quite unseemly.
Rather than offering up a description of what duties the governor is constitutionally mandated to execute, or what's on the state's public policy plate, Walker's page focuses on his "priorities.” These amount to slogans, mostly. Among them: He's for environmental protection. Of course, his Department of Natural Resources has largely transmogrified from an environmental regulator into a business licensing unit where wetlands and groundwater protections come second to mining interests, but there's nothing about that on the Walker pages.
Another Walker priority: open government. Can't be against that, now, can we? Yet fresh batches of secret, craven emails from Team Walker still pop up in the news. As in his campaign ads, the pages also talk about how Walker has "reformed government.” Of course, all governors reform governsupment, in one way or another. Few if any are mere stewards who do nothing. But the implicit message here is that Walker is the one, true reformer. Hallelujah! And you can believe that claim, because it's printed right there, on the official, supposedly non-partisan State of Wisconsin web site.
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) has for years touted his anti-social safety net proposals, packaged into what he calls the "Path to Prosperity." Walker's own official government web page banners his re-purposing of Ryan's theme. Walker touts his "Blueprint for Prosperity." A truly consistent Walker might, based on his lame critique of an economic development policy paper from Democratic opponent Mary Burke, cite himself for plagiarism.
Lots of prosperity talk there at walker.wisconsin.gov, too, but it doesn't overcome the fact of little actual prosperity for many Wisconsin constituents. But, hey, these are just plans and blueprints, after all, and if they don't work, well, hey, Walker merely borrowed them from one-percentric outfits like the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservative think tanks. It's working, Wsconsin! But if these ideas don't work, we'll appropriate more of 'em!
Meanwhile, Gov. “We Don't Have a Jobs Problem in Wisconsin, We Have a Work Problem” offers up a button on his official state page labeled "Apply to Serve Wisconsin," but this does not as you might expect take users to an official, civil-servants jobs bank. Rather, it's a link to "appointed positions in the Administration." Which is to say, political appointments to state boards, courts, and agencies. Fill out an application, and we'll check to make sure you're Republican.
Back on the State of Wisconsin portal page, a prominent feature offers links to “frequent searches,” one of which ironically takes users to a list of documents on obtaining a Wisconsin birth certificate. Apparently someone in the Walker administration didn't stop to think that a federal judge would nix as unconstitutional the Walker-supported "Voter ID" law, which is now under injunction pending further appeals.
Yes, if Walker and the GOP legislature have their way, Wisconsin citizens wishing to keep on voting will need officially approved ID. But if you're among the estimated 300,000 state residents who don't have a driver's license, a gun permit (!) or various other ID accepted under that onerous law, you can apply for a special ID simply by showing your birth certificate to a state motor vehicle office that is seldom open or near your home.
Don't have a copy of your birth certificate? The state web site provides a list of tips on obtaining one. But – and this is prominently mentioned in the search abstracts – you are advised that “any person who willfully and knowingly makes a false application for a birth certificate is guilty of a Class I felony, a fine of not more than $10,000."
Quite the implied poll tax, that. But it's just more of the usual fear, uncertainty and doubt, laced with "this is the best of all possible worlds" rhetoric, that comes courtesy of Scott Walker and the State of Wisconsin's official web site.