Madison360: Walker's scorched-earth start nearly complete

PAUL FANLUND | The Capital Times | pfanlund@madison.com
Posted: Monday, June 13, 2011 6:30 am



Call it round two.

Soon, we will start to learn the consequences of governing Wisconsin as a de facto right-wing dictatorship. Round one is finally winding down with the imminent passage of the most partisan budget in state history.

This next round will feature nine recall elections against state senators (six Republicans and three Democrats) that will play out over the summer. Furious progressives and centrists must wait a bit longer -- until Republican Scott Walker has been governor for a full year next January -- before trying to recall him.

Walker, of course, has become the nation's most polarizing governor for his stunning, scorched-earth style. In national polling by Public Policy Polling, Walker's approval rating among state Democrats was 9 percent, not only lowest of any governor with the opposition but even 2 percentage points lower than President Obama's 11 percent approval among state Republicans.

Given Walker's robotic and scripted bearing, it's hard to know what he's really thinking, unless maybe you're a blogger posing as a billionaire donor. He seems to revel in being reviled by so many.

Let's be clear about what we are witnessing.

There was no crisis that merited Walker's unprecedented, over-the-top actions. He could have tried to build upon his GOP base by attracting independents and moderates, a now-discredited approach that kept fellow Republican Tommy Thompson as governor for most of a generation.

No, Walker and his legislative cronies chose instead to cater to any right-wing interest with deep pockets: Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, charter school advocates, mining interests, payday loan sharks, the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth, social conservatives. The apparent goal has been to raise so much campaign money that Walker and allies can buy their way out of any messy electoral fix.

A New York Times story last week was headlined: "In Wisconsin, legislative urgency as recall threat looms." In it, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican Senate leader, said: "You want to make sure there aren't things undone. If some major issue hasn't been taken care of, voters wouldn't be as motivated." Just substitute "right-wing contributors" for "voters" and you have it.

As a parallel strategy, Walker and team have tried their best to cripple Democrats' capacity to compete in all future elections -- recall votes or otherwise -- by destroying public employee unions as a political force, enacting a radical vote-suppression law and changing the rules on redrawing political maps. The reasoning seems to be, if you can essentially destroy your foe, what difference does it make whether you win over hearts and minds?

Meanwhile, Walker's propaganda machine continues spinning the daily fiction that -- but for their guy's resolve -- no new job would be created nor any school cost concession realized. Like talk radio, I suppose, if you repeat it enough, somebody will believe it.

All the while, you have conservative opinion writers lecturing Democrats about refusing to compromise. The Republican says: "I want to kill your dog." The follow-up editorial: "What can't you guys compromise? Just let them rough up your dog a little."

Most of our state's national notoriety in 2011, of course, has been around Walker's efforts to destroy the state's public employee unions.

But the list of other extremist proposals is staggering, even if all of them don't go through: extravagant corporate tax breaks; boosting private schools with vouchers while slashing public education; attacking environmental protections that touch stewardship funds, recycling laws and phosphorus bans; attacking crucial health programs including SeniorCare, Family Care and a broad range of services offered by Planned Parenthood; passing tort "reform" that's shorthand for reducing consumer rights; passing the heavy-handed voter identification law; a gun-promoting "constitutional carry" law; rejecting wind energy and almost anything that touches on urgently needed, future-focused mass transit.

In interviews, the two Democrats who lead the minorities in each house use sweeping language to frame the extremism. Sen. Mark Miller of Monona says the unprecedented partisanship exploded on the first day of the new Legislature, when Republicans refused to approve hiring lawyers to represent Democrats in legislative redistricting, reversing a bipartisan practice going back years.

Rep. Peter Barca of Racine says he quit having regular meetings with Walker months ago because the governor made it clear he was unwilling to negotiate anything. Barca recalls that Walker told a congressional committee that his goal is to not be bipartisan.

Miller says the current "agenda has been promoted for 20 years by think tanks funded by the Bradley Foundation and the Koch brothers and others." What is different, he says, is "this time, they have been coached to go for broke."

Miller says Wisconsin tradition is one of cooperation between parties for incremental progress on human rights, access to health care, quality education. "What we are seeing is an extremist agenda turning its back and thumbing its nose at that tradition."

"They are pursuing an agenda that strips away progress back to World War II and before," Miller says. "It doesn't matter what the facts are; it's whatever (special interest) Kool-Aid they have been served."

Barca is equally blunt. "This governor not only does not care about the middle ground, he does not care about the middle class," he says. "Everything he comes up with is the most extreme version of anything you can bring forward."

A keen observer of state politics scratches his head. "It's interesting that the GOP Legislature is willing to dig itself deeper in a hole -- and perhaps be committing political suicide" with its rigid partisanship, observes Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic legislator who teaches government at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"It has displayed no interest in re-passing a softer version of the union bill, no interest in holding off on enacting some other highly ideological bills and budget items that appear to turn off Tommy's centrist voters. Their apparent goal is to pass as much as possible devant le deluge rather than surviving the recalls." His French translates to "before the flood," as in: before all hell breaks loose via voter retribution.

"I might be wrong and they retain the majority-ship after the recalls, but why risk it?" Lee asks. "To me, the political logic in the run-up to the recalls would be to back off, soften up, move to the center, and bury anything controversial. I guess I'm a dinosaur in thinking of that as a political strategy."

If Lee is a dinosaur, those of us who fondly recall political history way back when, say, before Christmas, would happily join him in Jurassic Park.

Looking back, there must be some GOP think tank or special interest not yet fully serviced by Walker, but if so, they must have failed to RSVP. Walker has dragged all the Republican legislators along on this voyage and now he has burned the boats.

In times ahead, we will see how they fare in this brave new world they've created.

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