About this time, a lot of people around the country are wondering, "Why did those idiots in Wisconsin vote for Scott Walker, not just once, but three times?!" I mean, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times, shame on...me? Not me personally, but a slim majority of my fellow Wisconsinites. This is because Walker really only has six talking points, focused around two broad issues. He's used the same ones over and over again as he ran for the state assembly, Milwaukee County Executive and governor. The man is a very shrewd politician on local issues; however, his knowledge base and worldview are much too shallow and narrow for the national stage. More below.
The first broad issue is making very rich businessmen like the Koch brothers very happy (I will use the Kochs to represent rich business people in general). After being involved with ALEC for years, he knows exactly what they want, and he has promised he will deliver for them. "Wisconsin is great for business!" he says, and then rattles off a bunch of made-up numbers about job performance. He really has only four talking points related to this issue:
1. "Lower taxes!" - People love to hear this. Of course, they want their roads repaired and their very own personal public schools to be great, but they love them some lower taxes! Especially the Koch brothers.
2. "Lower government spending!" - This is closely related to #1. Lots of people think the government spends way too much money. So what a great opportunity to reduce spending for public schools and universities! Educated people think WAY too much anyway, especially about their earning power. Besides, those public school teachers are just a bunch of union thugs (see #3 below). This pleases the Koch Bros because they can have an undereducated workforce that can't and won't demand higher wages. Instead, Wisconsin is giving more money to religious schools via the voucher program, which pleases the religious right. And we're giving taxpayer money to help the billionaire employers of the millionaire Milwaukee Bucks build a new arena. Entertain the masses, and they won't care about anything else the Koch Bros are trying to shove down our throats.
3. "Smash the unions!" - Since most people nowadays are not in unions, they really resent the wages and benefits that union people have fought for. But instead of thinking, "Gee, I deserve to have better pay and benefits, too," they have let right-wing pundits and politicians convince them that their own lower wages and decreased benefits are the fault of the union thugs, i.e. teachers. So let's all earn less and give up our benefits! The Koch brothers love this. They also love right-to-work laws. They REALLY love repealing "prevailing wage" laws that require companies with state and municipal contracts to pay their employees the prevailing wage, instead of paying lower wages in order to low-ball bids. So Walker and the Republicans just repealed Wisconsin's prevailing wage law. Lower wages for everyone! Happy Koch brothers!
4. "Environmental regulations hurt business and job growth!" - Ya know, Wisconsin would be swimming in new jobs if only we didn't have to protect those icky wetlands. So Wisconsin passed legislation barring local communities from having any say in protecting their property from corporations like Gogebic Mining. And the Koch Bros, whose inherited fortune came from coal, love it when companies like WE Energies burn a lot of coal! That's why Wisconsin is fighting the new EPA regulations for coal-burning power plants. And candidate Walker has said he'll just get rid of the EPA, just like he just got rid of Wisconsin's water division at the DNR . He's moving some of those jobs to the new and improved DNR Business Support Division! FACT: Wisconsin lies next to the world's largest supply of fresh water. So of course we don't need a special department just for water. What we really need is a special department for the Koch Bros.
The second broad issue involves appealing to the other vitally important constituency of the Republican base, ultra-conservative Christians. As someone who was raised by a minister, Walker doesn't have to think too hard (phew!) about this.
5. "No abortions!" - First, women now have to have a medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasound if they want to have abortions. Vaginas are icky (see "wetlands" above), so this should deter women from getting abortions. In addition, Wisconsin has now banned abortions after 20 weeks, or five months, gestation because women were frivolously and irrationally deciding to have late-term abortions for no good reason - other than to save their own lives or end problem pregnancies. (I'm still waiting for the legislation that will require the state to pay for these women's and children's medical care, special needs, etc.) Now that they've taken care of that, they can go after Planned Parenthood because they're all a bunch of godless feminists anyway.
6. "We need a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage!" - Because marriage is between one man and one woman, no matter how many times they get married...as long as it's only one at a time. Just ask Kim Davis in Kentucky. This is based largely on Old Testament passages that have nothing to do with anything Jesus said. I'm often surprised by how many "Christians" prefer Old Testament teachings over things that Jesus actually talked about, like love, forgiveness, healing the sick, helping the poor, etc. Those things are too damn hard to do anyway. It's much easier to promote hatred and disdain for people who are different from you and appeal to other people's basest fears about them. Walker is an expert at divide-and-conquer politics, and he uses Christianity as an excuse to pit people against one another.
So there you have it, folks. Walker is an expert at helping rich business people and appealing to ultra-conservative Christians, the two prime constituencies of the Republican base. If a topic is not related to lower taxes, reduced spending, union thugs, environmental roadblocks to business, abortion/contraception or gay marriage, he is totally clueless. This hasn't hurt him on a state and local level. But presidents have to deal with so much more than that.
More and more, Walker is showing people that he has limited knowledge about most things that a President must deal with 24/7. He cannot think on his feet about complex issues. In non-scripted situations, he often says things that are inappropriate or foolish. He will TRY to say what he THINKS people want to hear, but he often then flip-flops or says, "That's a distraction from the real issues [i.e. the six things I know how to talk about]." Sometimes he'll totally evade the question. For too long, the Wisconsin press gave him a pass on his inconsistencies and evasiveness. The national press seems much less willing to play that game.
The only job he has ever had - or wanted - as an adult is as a politician, spending his entire adult life on the government payroll. He ran for his first statewide office shortly after dropping out of Marquette University, leading to speculation that he dropped out to pursue politics. Others speculate that he dropped out because he wasn't a very good student and was much more interested in campus politics than his classes. He denies both of these accusations. However, the more that he displays his ignorance about national and international issues, and the more he acts like he deserves to be president anyway, the easier it is to believe the speculation.
In the meantime, Walker will continue to struggle and fumble and flip-flop and lie about anything that is not related to his six talking points, until he hopefully fades completely from the national spotlight. This is good news for anyone who doesn't live in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, there is still a solid 40% of Wisconsinites who approve of the "job" he is doing. Fool me four times?