Alberta Darling is the highest profile Wisconsin Republican facing a recall election on Tuesday. As the co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance, she has been the author of much of the legislation that led to the recall elections. Earlier this week, she was surprisingly honest when explaining the basic philosophy behind that legislation. It's class warfare:
I just went to a woman today and she said, “Why are you giving tax breaks to the wealthy?” I said, “What do you consider wealthy?” She said, “$250,000 and above.”
And I said “that is small business.” Those are small business people. Those aren’t wealthy people. We are not interested in raising taxes on the quote “rich.”
Darling doesn't think it's right to raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year, because they aren't rich. However, she had no problem pushing through legislation that reduced the take home pay of public employees by 7% and also stripped them of their collective bargaining rights.
It doesn't get much more straightforward than that. Strip workers of their rights and cut middle class salaries by 7% in order to give people making over $250,000 a year more money. That's what happening in a nutshell in not only Wisconsin, but around the country.
In another moment of candor this week, Darling also accurately described why the Wisconsin recalls are important:
She said the reason she's being targeted is that her opponents believe that if they can oust her and the other GOP senators, others around the country will be afraid to make the same choices.
Actually, yes. Around the country, policy makers like Alberta Darling have decided to cut middle-class salaries and rights in order to make the rich richer. Our hope is that by using the recall elections to defeat the lawmakers who did this in Wisconsin, we can use it as a springboard to start reversing this trend everywhere.
That's why this is turning into the most expensive state legislative campaign in history. Both sides know how much is at stake, and that there are no moral victories. Please, fight back by contributing $1 to all of the Democratic recall candidates in Wisconsin.