"If you don't agree with me, you are an enemy to be vanquished."
Sigh. I tire of writing about my governor, there are so many other things I would like to write about. Like the fact that there are
no more union coal miners in Kentucky. I would love to write about
Buzz Aldrin's recent testimony to the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, or
Paul Allen's new plane, "Roc," which opens new doors in commercial space exploration.
Instead, I have to write about the stupid shit my governor says. It is bad enough he prides himself on "dividing and conquering" the state of Wisconsin. Now I have to listen to his bullshit comparing protesters with ISIS. Yes, he really did go there.
Jump below the fold for more.
And there he goes:
I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists do not wash up on American soil. We will have someone who leads and ultimately we'll send a message not only that we'll protect American soil but do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. We need a leader with that kind of confidence. If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.
First things first: the people in the photo below are not members of ISIS, nor are they terrorists. For the most part, they are citizens of the state of Wisconsin, and as such are constituents of Gov. Scott Walker. They do not behead people, they do not burn people alive. They plow our streets, teach our children, collect our garbage, and serve the public in many other ways. They are your friends and neighbors, and their goal is to ensure that everyone is treated equally, and they like eating cheese.
Not bad guys
The photo below is a photo of ISIS. They are terrorists, they behead people, and burn them alive. They are pure evil. If you do not agree with them, they will kill you. If you do not have the same religion as them, they will kill you. Their goal is to establish an Islamic state using a very harsh, twisted version of Islam, by force. They do not care who you are, or if you "were tough on unions," and they don't like eating cheese.
Bad guys
I can see how Walker could confuse the two groups. After all, on the one hand you have a group of AK-47-wielding bearded men who want to establish a religious state and who brutally kill anyone they don't like, and on the other you have a group of public servants protesting legislation that took their rights away. I get the confusion—they are so similar, and at least one protester likely has a beard and doesn't like cheese. In Walker's world, everything is black and white, you are either with him or against him, and if you are against him, he views you as the enemy.
What Walker and the GOP cabal that is currently in power here in the Dairy State have forgotten is that they do not just represent those Wisconsinites who lean to the conservative side of the political spectrum. They do not represent just those who voted for them. They represent all of the citizens of Wisconsin, whether they agree with with those citizens or not.
Comparing peaceful protesters from Wisconsin to a terrorist army in the Middle East does not help smooth over the rift that Walker created in Wisconsin with this divide-and-conquer strategy, and with his latest actions, it is doubtful that rift will ever be healed. He cares little for the people that he represents—his ambition is all that he serves, that and his corporate masters.
His base may eat up statements that he is a big tough guy for standing up to protesters, even though he never did; he was so afraid of us, that he slunk into the capitol like a coward through underground tunnels.
Some hero. He's afraid of the very citizens he was elected to represent.
