The real problem in Racine
We can’t tell from Saturday’s Racine Journal Times story whether Mayor John Dickert thinks Governor Walker did a bad thing by narrowing the scope of public union collective bargaining, or whether he wishes the Governor had gone even further.
One thing that seems pretty clear is that the
Journal-Times reporter, or at least whoever wrote the headline, is itching to convey the idea that Walkers reforms are very bad things indeed.
One thing not found in the story is that Mayor Dickert understands state budgets better than most people, including most legislators. He was a top aide to a former Democratic co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, which writes the state budget.
Dickert complains that the budget repair bill didn’t give him everything he needed to balance his city budget without cutting services. The Mayor also said he tried, and failed, to win concessions from police and fire unions. Maybe what we’re seeing is not so much the implied criticism of the Walker reforms, as a cry for more of them coming from an elected official with a Democratic Party pedigree.
The truth that simply refuses to be obscured is that Mayor Dickert’s real problem is with unions that were exempted from the collective bargaining restrictions, and who expressed their gratitude by forcing cuts on other people.
Chaos is the objective
Last Wednesday’s recommendation from the Government Accountability Board (GAB) staff guarantees confusion and voter anger when and if people are summoned to the polls for another round of recall elections next year. The GAB staff says the old district boundaries—those used in the 2010 elections—will apply for any recalls, even though new district lines created to reflect the results of the 2010 census, will become effective in August for purposes of incumbent lawmakers seeking re-election.
Recently we warned about the virtual certainty of 2012 recalls triggering a blizzard of litigation. Here’s one way that will happen: Some of the Legislators planning to seek re-election on the normal election schedule and in the new districts, may first have to run again in the old district. It will be expensive for local taxpayers forced to pay for never-ending elections. It will be miserably confusing for local officials forced to administer serial elections with shifting boundaries. And the confusion will ensure at least some of these frivolous contests—and quite possibly ballot access for candidates in the regular elections next fall—end up being decided by lawyers, not the voting public.
The Saul Alinsky school of political vandalism holds that if normal people are subjected to continuous chaos, they’ll throw up their hands in disgust and let the radicals take what they want. Restoring sanity to our public affairs is not going to be easily or quickly done.
At least they’re professional…
It’s one thing to suspect deep down inside that some of the people who squatted in the State Capitol, filled the streets, messed with Wisconsin’s spring elections, ginned up the recalls, and now make up an activist core for the noxious “occupy” movement do this sort of thing for a living. It’s quite another thing to actually see the evidence build.
That’s why it’s especially satisfying to have a group like Media Trackers on the job.
Media Trackers, a conservative watchdog group, have zeroed in on Occupy Milwaukee protester Austin Thompson and are finding lots of
interesting things.
For instance, Thompson has more than one home address—one at a Milwaukee-area hotel for purposes of voting in Wisconsin elections, and another in Georgia for purposes of identifying himself when, for instance, he’s stopped by police for traffic violations.
And before he was an Occupy Milwaukee “activist” he was working with the same outfit that was running the still-unresolved ribs for votes operation to help State Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) in her failed attempt to take down State Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).
What’s sobering is how this illuminates the difference between a civilized political controversy and the present situation. This is no dispute between one set of Wisconsinites and another—friends and neighbors in many cases—who have differing priorities for their government and will settle things in an orderly way at the next scheduled election. This is an attempt to seize control of government by people who refuse to recognize any election they don’t win and regard radical mayhem as a full-time career.
Austin Thompson is just one guy. But where there’s smoke…
