(photo by me of The Ed Show stage prior to the recall election results on August 9)
I'm sure you're aware that Democrats failed to pick up the required seats to flip control of the Wisconsin State Senate. They won only two of the six races yesterday, meaning Republicans hold the Senate with a 17 to 16 margin. Oh, sigh.
It's a slender majority, but when political parties don't listen to one another, where issues are legislated with a brand-loyalty hivemind instead of attempting to find a consensus, any majority will suffice.
I keep waffling between utter despondence and a kind of spunky silver-lining I-will-continue-to-fight mood now. It's something I'm going to struggle with all day today, and for a good long while probably.
The silver-lining to me is that these six districts were Republican held and on Republican turf (except for LaCrosse). All of these senators withstood the Democrat wave in 2008, so their districts were, for the most part, solidly Republican. In fact, Walker won these six districts in 2010 by an average of 13 points. So the waters we were fishing in for progressive change were shallow already. Many of these Repubs didn't even face challengers in their last election, so the chance of pulling this off was always slight. It never felt like they were slight here; no one ever uttered those words that maybe, just maybe, going after these six seats would be excruciatingly difficult and a little bit like tilting at windmills. No one ever admitted that and saying so now sure looks like rationalizing away a bad outcome, but what else can you do? The facts are the facts and Republican districts vote Republican which is why they are Republican districts after all. (Thank you, gerrymandering.) And why would you ever say, right from the start on this recall fervor, that, hey, this more than likely will just be a lost cause in these districts? Hard to motivate people if you're looking concrete hard odds right in the face, hard to make people feel the nearly impossible is possible talking like that.
And strides were made in these districts. And the fact that the Pasch/Darling race was close is good news. The Clark/Olsen race sure turned out disappointing, but Olsen's been running unopposed, and this underlines why that was happening. And two seats were taken for God's sake. No small feat. In one night, the the number of people successfully recalled in Wisconsin history doubled. And, if anything, this stands as a call for moderation in our state politics instead of the far right wing agenda that has less to do with benefiting Wisconsin than a vision of a complete profit-based, light caste system, corporatized society.
Also, this was not a statewide election, which everyone should note who is calling this a kind of failure or thinking that the recall Walker campaign will fail. The recall will happen, bank on it. The actual election will be tough though, which leads me to my greater disappointments here.
First, is the money in this election. Around $35 million or so was spent in this election. Alberta Darling, Repub from the billionaires club of northern Milwaukee & parts of Waukesha, had something like $9 million all to herself (counting outside spending & her own campaign dollars combined).
I know this had national attention and so on. I get that, but nine fucking million dollars? There's all kinds of things that money could be better spent on, like, say, a start up business that would employ some people.
The ads throughout the state were constant. The phone calls were constant. The door knocking was constant. On that note, there was record turn out, but it probably also tested the saturation/irritation level of the entire state of Wisconsin all because this unchecked money just flowed in from all over.
When I talked to people on the phone during my phone banking shifts, if they were pissy about the dozen phone calls, visitors & ads, I was quick to remind them that thanks to Citizens United, this is the world in which we live. Money, gobs of it, will be spent constantly and each time an important election happens, it will be like this. This total saturation will be the new normal so long as Citizen's United stands.
And if you think it is bad now, just wait until 2012 here in Wisconsin. Presidential election, Paul Ryan campaign, an open US Senate seat, state Assembly seats, state Senate seats (including people who just survived & won recall tonight) and a Walker recall. Are you kidding me? Political spending in Wisconsin next year will, undoubtedly, top $100 million easy. Very easy. It seems silly to suggest it will be under $100 million. We won't see a regular television ad all year. The blitz will drive people insane, dull people & the turnout, or some grand unplugging rebellion against all media sources.
My second disappointment is the idea that these are Republican districts in the first place. Yes, I don't understand Republicans in general with their fealty to wealth over country & state, and their manipulation of people with strong Christian beliefs into buying their trust-and-obey totalitarian aspirations for government, but the idea that there are districts that traditionally vote one way is downright absurd to me.
For example, Robert Cowles is a Republican in a Republican district that has been Democratic for 12 out of the last 100 plus years. There might be a reasonable explanation for this kind of brand loyalty, but over time party philosophies shift. Nixon era Republicans are probably closer to your modern era Democrat than the Republicans running around cheering the decline of the United States. The Republicans who cheered along with Reagan for workers rights are the same ones cheering their demise now. How is that possible?
So have the people of Cowles district changed so the party changed, or has the party changed and they changed with it? Which is the tail and which is the dog here? My inclination is to believe that the party announces a position, or takes up a particular view on an issue and the people follow because they identify themselves as a Republican. And in order to keep that self-identification, they vote with their party, or their being. And it's a loyalty that's disturbing. How can so many people, consistently, decide they'd rather vote party than their best interest?
For example, who can honestly be against clean water? How can anyone in their right mind be okay with wanting to loosen clean water regulations to make certain companies don't (further) poison our drinking water? How can a person stand up and say, "Sure, I trust you, Monsanto. There's no way gross negligence on your part would result in poisoning my water. Why would you ever allow gross negligence to happen? Safeguards. bah. Who needs them!" Actually, that's exactly what they would say, which defies all logic to me. They could say that while complaining loudly that they need concealed guns to protect themselves from danger. Well, dipshit, you can't shoot the cancer out of your water, so fat lotta good that gun's gonna do from actual danger. And you can't avoid cancer water, especially if you do things like shower or shave, but if you have even a little bit of sense, you can avoid situations where a gun is necessary. Regulations is the equivalent of concealed carry legislation. It's about protection, but it's protection that actually fucking works and no one needs to get murdered.
Whew, sorry about that digression, anyway, stand a Republican up and have him rail against clean water regulations and Republicans will vote for him like Pavlov's dog because he is a Republican and they're a Republican, so there you go, he's right. Logic & self-preservation be damned, they're Republican through and through. I know I'm underselling the point of political messaging and how you could spin revoking something like clean water protections a thousand ways to make it seem not that bad or even perhaps better for you & the ECONOMY* but when it comes down to it, agreeing with this political party is agreeing with poisoning water.
Why is that we get so attached to political parties & political figures like this that we're willing to make that kind of sacrifice? Makes you feel sad for humanity in that sense that we're essentially willing to poison ourselves for the sake of a shred of consistent personal identity.
But, with all that said, after all that bitching, I'm still hopeful that there is a dawn after all this night. There must be. Better angels of our natures must exist, somewhere, dormant under all this mess, confusion, and divisiveness. Even if there isn't a dawn or our better selves, even if all this is a fool's errand and we're caste system bound due to this slow motion totalitarian coup we're suffering through, what better fight is there than the good fight.
I have two phone bank shifts scheduled this weekend, and I might trade one for a road trip to a district to knock on doors. And I know my contribution is small. Minuscule even, so I shouldn't flatter myself or try to make what I'm doing to amount to anything special. But, this fight will go on. This fight goes on. As Fighting Bob LaFollette said, "We are slow to realize that democracy is a life, and involves continual struggle." Damn right, Bob. And I'm not stopping now.
viva wisco!
*yes, all caps, like how God gets a capital letter, but the ECONOMY is that much more more important, so that bitch is all caps.
