They're never gonna keep us down!
OK, we took a hit last night. But democracy won.
One of the enduring chants heard by the Wisconsin protesters was “this is what democracy looks like”. That was always true, irrespective of the outcome of the recall election. Had Tom Barrett prevailed last night, there would have been well-deserved triumphalism on the part of the progressive movement about the voice of the people; but the same holds doubly true when you lose, as long as you played by the rules. In a way, the entire point of the recall was the recall itself – the ability of an electorate to hold its politicians accountable.
and Scott Walker himself agrees with us! In 2002 he said:
“You know the folks that were angry about this started a recall and they were told they needed to collect 73,000 signatures in 60 days. Well, not hundreds, not thousands, but tens of thousands of ordinary people did an extraordinary thing. They stood up and took their government back. In less than 30 days they collected more than 150,000 signatures. It was at that moment I realized the real emotion on display in my county wasn’t just about anger. You see, if it had been about anger, it would have been about people checking out and moving out or giving up. But instead what happened was really amazing. You saw people standing up shoulder to shoulder, neighbor to neighbor and saying we want our government back. And in doing so the real emotion on display was about hope.”
I couldn’t agree more – the Wisconsin recall wasn’t just about anger, it was also about hope – that democracy still has meaning, that ideas and people matter, not just cash on hand and ad campaigns. Multiply that sentiment by a factor of ten for June 5th, and savor it.
As the progressive movement recoups from its loss yesterday, it’s important to remember – this was a battle, not the war. Instead of focusing on effects, we need to focus on causes: money in politics, electoral reform, and true persuasion of the liberal viewpoint to all those folks and neighbors of ours who voted for Walker (and 17% of whom will vote for Obama in November). That’s how you build a movement – by people-power, one person at a time. And one step at a time. This was just the first step.