One of the great things that Scott Walker has done for my home state of Wisconsin is reignite the sleeping giant of progressivism that has been part of our political fabric for a century or so. There's a great streak of iconoclastism (is that a word?) that permeates the identity of all Wisconsinites. After all, The Onion was born there. As were the creators of the Airplane! movies (I know Jim Abrahams is now conservative but he was funny then). Hand in hand with that sense of irreverence is the tendency to deflate the pompous and show up the emporer who is wearing no clothes. Thus, 100,000 people will gather in Capital Square on a cold February Saturday to stick it to Gov. Walker. And 700,000 plus voters will turn out to vote for a hitherto unknown assistant attorney general who one day decided that she would make a better Supreme Court justice than that horse's ass Prosser.
Then there's Paul Ryan. Today's news is abuzz about how he was booed at a town hall in his district yesterday. And there's this article from the Tomah Journal that eviscerates the Ryan Medicare plan better than anything I've seen this side of Paul Krugman.
Here's the money quote:
If Ryan and the Republicans actually believe vouchers can save money without leaving senior citizens destitute, they have an obligation to implement the entire program sooner rather than later (Jan. 1, 2014, is a fair startup date) for everyone 65 and over. If not, they have an obligation to stop sugar-coating Ryan’s vouchers with terms like “choice” and admit that Medicare will be a much worse deal for those unlucky to have missed the cutoff.
Read the whole article and be amazed that a small town Wisconsin newspaper can take down the latest darling of Washington's Very Serious People set.
H/T to Jim Rowen's Political Environment blog, an insightful blog covering Wisconsin's politics with an emphasis on the environment.