Politically, Republicans Think and Act Long Term
The legislative session is nearly over. Governor Walker, with large majorities in both houses, has or will sign into law nearly everything that he has requested. Newspaper columnists and analysts have suggested that these legislative victories may spell eventual electoral defeat for the Governor and his legislative allies.
Governor Walker and Republican legislators have compiled a record that has Democrats quietly smiling because they believe the great majority of Wisconsin voters will not accept that record. But the GOP is playing a different game.
Much of what Republicans have done is outside the mainstream. Democrats have good reason to believe that they will be successful at the polls, despite the almost certain reduction of Democratic votes as a result of the voter suppression tactics enacted in the “voter identification” bill, destruction of Democratic allies, and newly gerrymandered reapportionment maps that surely will help the Republicans.
Are Republicans committing political suicide with their extremist agenda? Having enacted radical legislation opposed by a majority of Wisconsinites, Republicans risk defeat that could have been avoided if they had moderated, compromised, been more bipartisan. But no matter.
The current crop of Republicans have a different game plan. As he opened debate on the budget bill, the Republican Speaker said that nearly half of his caucus are first term legislators who have pledged to enact a revolutionary agenda regardless of the damage it may do to their reelection prospects. Secure in the knowledge they can return to the private sector or get a position in the Walker Administration, they are willing to shoot for the moon.
To their credit, today's majority party does seek to win the next election. That is the standard we have come to expect from elected officials.
Their cause is to return Wisconsin to the gilded age, that time before Bob La Follette wrenched control of our government from the corporate lion's paw, before open and government were uttered in the same sentence, before effective unions, before the poll tax was prohibited, before the eight hour day, 40 hour week, child labor laws, credit unions, before environmental laws and regulations controlled business, before senior care, to the time when advanced education was the privilege of the upper class. Some have suggested they wish to repeal the 21st century. No, their desire is to repeal the 20th century. They wish to eliminate the idea of community in our statutes and escort us to the fantasy land of Ayn Rand.
They have no desire to do it piecemeal. Wisely they have chosen to put us on a non-stop, high speed rail back to 1890. If they don't make the whole 120 years, that is all right with them. If they only turn back the clock 50 years it will be a great success for them and the corporations they serve. They are eliminating years of progress in months; progress that can not, will not return for decades.