Wisconsin soundly rejected most of the idea of mulligans in politics. I say “most” because they gathered a million signatures to cause the do-over and may have allowed the state senate to change hands as a result of the recall. Recalls are for boobs and can lead only to chaos – it’s the same concept as government by referendum.
Walker campaigned against the problems of government workers bankrupting the state, corruptly demanding that the state buy insurance from the union company regardless of price and imposing their own “work” rules on state institutions. He won; he did what he promised; and he closed a $3.6 billion state budget deficit. His democratic opponent imposed the Walker insurance reforms in Milwaukee where he is mayor.
The great Midwestern state of Wisconsin has given us both the original progressive, Robert La Follette and the commie hating, Joe McCarthy. In the older “progressive” years, they initiated unions for government workers against the better judgment of almost everyone, including FDR.
George Will brilliantly describes public employee unions as: “government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself”. Public employee unions are corruption and conflict of interest by definition.
If you are wondering about my quotation marks around progressivism, Robert La Follette style, consider this:
La Follette “is best remembered as a progressive and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations”. Does that sound like any progressive we know today? It sounds like Ron Paul.
Unions are worried that the Wisconsin results may embolden more state governments – Republican and Democrat – to address the estimated $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities owed to state employees. They also fear more right-to-work laws. We can only hope that their fears are well founded.
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