Last winter in Wisconsin, we saw the start of a pushback by the middle class against the rich overlords who had just abducted our government by proxy, a theme that continued later that year on a national level with Occupy Wall Street and all its local derivations. Finally the Americans who were being hurt by the right-wing policies of our government the past 10 or 30 years (depending on how far back you want to go) were speaking up en masse about the inequality of opportunity and the tilt in our political system that gives all the tax breaks and all the wealth to the people who are already rich and have just gotten richer. But it all started in Wisconsin, a politically middle-of-the-road cheese-loving state that unwittingly voted in Scott Walker as governor in the tea party wave of 2010 (by a bare margin) and had some severe buyers' remorse almost immediately. One of Walker's first acts -- with a Republican State Senate and State House eagerly rubber-stamping his actions -- was a massive tax cut for corporations. His next act -- eliminating 100 years of collective bargaining rights for public employees. Yeah he also cut education funding by $800M and has tried to gut environmental legislation and tried to supress voters' rights -- you know, standard Republican governing -- but it was the collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public employees that began the outrage, particularly since it was a fight being repeated all across the country. Ohio recently voted to repeal their collective bargaining elimination law enacted by its brand-new Republican governor. Indiana is having a fight right at this moment between protestors and Republicans in charge who are trying to pass the "end the rights of all public unions to break them and any and all opposition against GOP corporate power" (in fact, some Republicans are even coming out against Mitch Daniels' draconian bill this week). In Florida the same fight is happening under its new governor. A fight between the people and the far-right kleptocrats they (and the rich people supporting them) elected in 2010. And all of these governors are horribly unpopular, polling at massive unfavorables in their states, and all their policy positions are universally disdained, even among Republican voters. All kinds of buyers' remorse. But again, it all started with Wisconsin. And last week, United Wisconsin handed in 1 million signatures in a petition to recall Scott Walker just a year after he was elected. Bravo, Wisconsin, bravo.
There are about 4.3 million voting age citizens in Wisconsin. They got 1 million signatures to recall the governor, or about a quarter of all potential voters in the state. The million signatures is 46% of the total that actually voted in the election in 2010, or just shy of the 1.1 million that voted for Walker. Without even an election, he's got close to the number of people who want him out of office as who actually went to the ballots to vote him in just on year ago. That's how hated this slimy fucker is. And how dedicated the signature-gathering force was, these dedicated citizens who literally stood out in the freezing cold of Wisconsin the past 2 months and collected 1 million signatures in 60 days to end the reign of this horrible governor.
This is all on the heels of an impressive reversal of US Senate opinions on PIPA and SOPA by a single day of protest from Wikipedia and Google and other Internet sites. Seriously, when you think of the great strides that Americans are making to take the country back from the powerful and the moneyed and the downright evil that have controlled our policies for at least the last decade, these past few months are quite heartening to see. Congrats, Wisconsin. If it weren't so damn cold there, I'd fly out and give you all a big hug.
And this is the best video I've seen this year ... Scott Walker sitting mere feet away from civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill's impressive speech about Dr. Martin Luther King, when she brings up the fallen leader's concern for the poor and for unions and for workers and for voting rights... you know, everything Walker has aggressively legislated against as governor. Just really hard-hitting stuff by Ifill, again, mere feet away. Whoever decided to focus their camera on Walker and keep it there is just awesome. He doesn't really react, he does seem shamed (if that is possible) but his lieutenant governor (to his left, also being recalled) seems less able to hide her rage. The guy in the uniform to Walker's right keeps glancing over as if to say "hey, this is all about you... you realize that right?"
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