As the dust continues to settle from Tuesday’s recall elections in Wisconsin, here’s what I think I think about it:
- When 60% of the electorate agrees that recall elections are only appropriate for cases of official misconduct, it’s nearly impossible to recall an elected official.
- If the results from Wisconsin’s 21st Senate district hold up, the “Walker Revolution” in Wisconsin is dead in its tracks. Democrat John Lehman appears to have unseated incumbent Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard, flipping control of the state senate to the Democrats. (This is an unprecedented 3rd successful recall of a Wisconsin state senator since 2010.)
- Public sector unions are shrinking islands of job, health and retirement security surrounded by a rising tide of corporate power. A growing number of private sector workers—who are drowning in that tide, unaided by the labor movement—resent them for it.
- The curse of the Citizens United decision upon our democracy continues to be revealed.
- Hidden loser of the night: centrist pundits who remain convinced that politicians like Mike Bloomberg and organizations like Americans Elect are what’s need to reinvigorate our democracy. The high voter turnout in Wisconsin for a bitterly partisan and polarized election is yet more evidence that partisan politics (and not consensus-oriented centrists driven by an aversion to robust public debate) are vital for the health of a democracy. (Alas, this lesson will probably remain hidden from the willfully obtuse and irrational “centrists” who occupy so much of the real estate of our nation’s op-ed pages and screens.)
What are your thoughts?
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
1. On the idea that it’s nearly impossible to win a recall because people are opposed to the idea of recalls, absent criminal activity.
I frankly find that to be a weird mindset. If you have the worst governor in the state’s history, and you have the opportunity to get rid of them, why wouldn’t you want to avail yourself of the opportunity? It’s bizarre to think that there are people who object to everything that Scott Walker has done since he became governor and yet went to the polls on Tuesday and voted for him.
Many of my conversations over the last month were frustrating. There was a friend of mine who opposed the recall because all the money that the state was spending on the election could better be spent on education. Doesn’t she get anything? If she’s sincerely concerned about education in Wisconsin (and she is, with three kids in public schools), then doesn’t she realize that Scott Walker is destroying Wisconsin’s schools by his budget cuts and his attacks on teachers.
I am also not sure why suddenly people are against recalls on principle. They weren’t against recalls they voted in the Terminator in California (sorry, I can never remember how to spell his name). They weren’t against recalls in Wisconsin when the state senator who cast the decisive vote to approve a tax increase to fund Miller Park was removed by his furious constituents.
I think people who say they disapprove of recalls probably mean something else. They mean that they don’t like politics to be a constant activity, as it has been in Wisconsin for the last two years. There has just been too much politics in Wisconsin.
2. On the silver lining of winning the state senate.
Massappeal, there is no silver lining. The Walker Revolution is not “dead in its tracks”. It hasn’t even been slowed down. The legislature has already adjourned for this session. By the time it reconvenes, it will have Republican majorities in both houses. This has been guaranteed by the partisan redistricting that the Republicans pushed through this session.
4. On the impact of Citizens United.
I’m inclined to agree with you. I’ve heard the argument that this election shows just the opposite, because the huge spending spree had no effect; Walker and Barrett got essentially the same percentage of the vote that they got 19 months ago. I would counter that the percentages may be the same, but turnout was a lot higher. You are never again going to see the level of grassroots activism that the Democrats mobilized in this election. The unprecedented level of spending neutralized the unprecedented level of activism.
Wisconsin in June was a dry run for what will happen in every contested election in November. I don’t think any Democrat who is ahead by less than 10 percentage points now is going to withstand that kind of money. If the Republicans win every seriously contested Senate seat, and that’s what I think will happen, they enter the next Congress with 55 or so seats.
5. Losers of the night.
I still think Obama is the loser, at least as far as Wisconsin is concerned. He didn’t win any friends here by ignoring the recall effort. I don’t think a lot of the activists will be putting in a lot of hours to help his re-election campaign after the way he stiffed them. The Democrats here are demoralized, the Republicans are triumphant. I expect that will carry through into the fall.
Thanks for this. It’s a model for comments that combine keen analysis with on-the-ground experience.