A Guide to Scott Walker's Hyperpolarized Home Base
February 5, 2015 2:32 PM   Subscribe

He has succeeded in the sort of environment least conducive to producing a candidate capable of winning a national majority. Over the past few decades, Walker's home turf of metropolitan Milwaukee has developed into the most bitterly divided political ground in the country—"the most polarized part of a polarized state in a polarized nation," as a recent series by Craig Gilbert in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it.

Thanks to a quirk of twentieth-century history, the region encompasses a heavily Democratic and African American urban center, and suburbs that are far more uniformly white and Republican than those in any other Northern city, with a moat of resentment running between the two zones. As a result, the area has given rise to some of the most worrisome trends in American political life in supercharged form: profound racial inequality, extreme political segregation, a parallel-universe news media. These trends predate Walker, but they have enabled his ascent, and his tenure in government has only served to intensify them. Anyone who believes that he is the Republican to save his party—let alone win a presidential election—needs to understand the toxic and ruptured landscape he will leave behind.
Wisconsin's governor will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States in any... day... now. Last summer, TNR published a lengthy profile of his politics and persona: The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker.

Walker's recent State of the State address included the official announcement of his intent to start drug testing all recipients of health care, nutrition, welfare, and unemployment benefits, a plan that has already received garnered pushback at the federal level.

Walker's 2015-2017 state budget [PDF] also reduces state funding for the University of Wisconsin system by $300 million, which comprises 13% of state-provided funding and 2.5% of UW's overall funding. The UW System budget cuts will be coupled with a two-year tuition freeze.

At a recent GOP rally, Walker offered up some advice to UW's enervated budget administrators, suggesting that "they might be able to make savings just by asking faculty and staff to consider teaching one more class a semester."
posted by divined by radio (97 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
*in 2016, that is!
posted by divined by radio at 2:34 PM on February 5, 2015


CAN I JUST SAY

CAN I JUST SAY THAT HE IS ATTEMPTING TO DISMANTLE OUR GOTDANGED HIGHLY RESPECTED UNIVERSITY SYSTEM'S VERY SOULLLLLLLLLLL

(impossible to speak quietly about this btw I am speaking as a private citizen and alumna here)
posted by Madamina at 2:40 PM on February 5, 2015 [28 favorites]


Drug tests for UNEMPLOYMENT? WTF? Christ, what an asshole.

I forget what Charlie Pierce calls him: is the the Goggle-Eyed Homunculus? Or is that someone else?
posted by suelac at 2:44 PM on February 5, 2015 [7 favorites]


The chart in the Craig Gilbert piece comparing the area's presidential vote to its racial distribution is fucking stark, man.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:45 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


It's like, how much more worse could a person be? And the answer is none. None more worse.

I couldn't put this in the FPP for obvious reasons, but this page sums up my feelings nicely, although they're considerably more sedate than I am when it comes to talking about ol' Scotty IRL: Shit Scott Walker Is Doing To My State.
posted by divined by radio at 2:46 PM on February 5, 2015 [10 favorites]


oh no, an evil warlock cast a wicked spell and transformed the comments section of your local newspaper website into a meat golem
posted by theodolite at 2:48 PM on February 5, 2015 [30 favorites]


Wisconsinites: what can we do to help you get rid of this fuckwit?
posted by RakDaddy at 2:48 PM on February 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


Scott Walker looks exactly who'd you cast as a cartoonishly evil politican who is secretly an alien or something.
posted by The Whelk at 2:50 PM on February 5, 2015 [8 favorites]


no no no no no no no.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:53 PM on February 5, 2015


He'll get the cheese vote.

(cheddar)
posted by sammyo at 2:56 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Wisconsinites: what can we do to help you get rid of this fuckwit?

Let's not ask that question again.
posted by Etrigan at 2:56 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Noah Millman had a great piece today on the possibility of Walker: "I Killed Latin. What Did You Do?"
Unlike Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Rand Paul or the various also-rans, Scott Walker picked a high-profile battle over a core issue that both the establishment and more insurgent types care about – the status and position of public sector unions. His opponents rose to the challenge, and threw everything they had into the battle to defeat him – to the point of trying to get him recalled before the next scheduled election. The showdown went down in a purple-to-blue state. And Walker won, unequivocally.

Jindal and Perry can point to very conservative things they did as governors – but Louisiana and Texas are very conservative states. Could they do the same in Washington? Ted Cruz can tout his purism – but he’s accomplished literally less than nothing, with his antics having demonstrably backfired in multiple instances. Chris Christie and Jeb Bush can tout their own records – but their opponents can turn around and point to things in those same records that offend the faithful, including not merely compromises but issues that they ran on and advocated forcefully. Rand Paul . . . well, Rand Paul is Rand Paul.

Scott Walker can say to anyone touting their conservative bonafides: “you talk the talk, but I walked the walk.” But he can also credibly say, “you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em,” without sounding like a moderate squish – because in one very high profile situation, he held ‘em, and he won.
I.e., what MetaFilter (and Wisconsinites who disagree with Walker) sees as a weakness may be his strength, at least in a primary with a bunch of me-toos.
posted by resurrexit at 3:04 PM on February 5, 2015 [11 favorites]


Maybe it's from weeks slogging through all those perennially disappointing Wisconsin politics posts back in 2011, but I have a very bad feeling about Scott Walker. Bush and Christie are too moderate, most of the rest of the GOP field are jokes. But Walker, as dopey-looking and politically toxic as he is, has continually won out over outraged Wisconsin Democrats time and time again, both in sketchy legislative maneuvering and in multiple high-profile recall elections. And in an ostensibly blue state. They marched, they protested, they mounted ambitious recall elections. And he still got exactly what he wanted. He's earned an aura of smug superiority and triumphalism that the base is going to eat up.

Clinton might be riding high now without even having announced a run yet, but recall that her campaign team was pretty dysfunctional and squandered a comparably large early lead in the 2008 primary. Pit that potentially shaky campaign against Walker's ugly, divisive tactics, backed by a Koch-fueled GOP starving for the White House, and I shudder to think of the aftermath. The idea of the Supreme Court alone in the hands of a Koch/Walker White House and Republican Congress is deeply frightening.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:07 PM on February 5, 2015 [43 favorites]


Dammit, Metafilter. Here I am trying to be productive today. But, living in Wisconsin, I've been pretty distracted with the Walker budget and fallout this week. I decide to take one little itty bitty break and check out MeFi and look at who's the top story.

Now I am again too rage-infused to get anything done and have to take a 10/20/30 minute break to cut myself off from any media and punch the wall over and over and over again until my mind clears.
posted by pugg at 3:09 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


At this point, I think people have just given up on Wisonsin and decided that in 15 years it'll be the Northern equivelant to a deep red deep south state with any one/thing of cultural importance moving to Minnesota.
posted by pugg at 3:12 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Welcome to Wississippi.
posted by transitional procedures at 3:19 PM on February 5, 2015 [20 favorites]


I am a recent graduate from UW who was present during the initial collective bargaining protests. I voted for the recall and watched history slip through our fingers as his power held on.

It seems fitting in retrospect that the first I heard of Walker was a flyer in a bathroom stall in my dorm room. That was early on when all he'd done was turn away a $800 million high speed rail project that would've placed Madison right in the center of a vital economic conduit from Chicago to the Twin Cities.

I used to think I wanted to raise kids in Wisconsin some day... With the way things are headed, I'll find somewhere else. Or I won't raise kids at all because I don't want them to grow up in a world where people like Walker make decisions about their lives.

Meanwhile the degree I earned in Madison will gradually decrease in value over the next few decades as its issuing institution slowly suffocates from the creeping vines Walker planted in its soil.

He exemplifies every possible way in which American capitalism and individualism have failed the country's people. And he, along with every other republican in the state, is proud of it.
posted by an animate objects at 3:21 PM on February 5, 2015 [46 favorites]


Should he be nominated, I wonder:

- Will a bloc of voters be uncomfortable electing someone who never graduated from college?

- Should Hillary face the same issues courting blue collar/union Democrats as Obama did, will union hatred and fear of a Walker presidency negate that?

There is something very strange about Walker that I can't put my finger on - especially in that TNR article's description of his early life before entering politics. He seems incredibly fanatical in a way that will come across as weird on a national stage, maybe.
posted by sallybrown at 3:22 PM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


Has Walker actually achieved anything he can run on? Is life for Wisconsinites better by any tangible, quantifiable measure since he took office? Even this rather generous Milwaukee-Sentinel editorial admits to seeing "no evidence that Walker's policies have made more than a marginal difference, for better or worse, on Wisconsin's economy."

Eventually he's going to have talk about something that's not busting unions, right? Or does he actually plan to run an entire campaign based on his hatred for teachers?
posted by Iridic at 3:22 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Has Walker actually achieved anything he can run on?

In this day and age, sticking it to the godless hippie Democrat scum counts as an achievement amongst the more extreme elements of the Republican electorate.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:24 PM on February 5, 2015 [14 favorites]


Thanks to a quirk of twentieth-century history

"Quirk." Ha.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


Iridic, I fear a president who's self assured enough to openly hate slimy, greedy public workers is exactly what half the country wants
posted by an animate objects at 3:25 PM on February 5, 2015 [12 favorites]


Any thread about this jackass requires a link to Koch Whore.
posted by madamjujujive at 3:27 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


He ran on pissing off liberals and he has succeeded at that.

The reason he seems 'strange' is that he is not a true tea party fanatic, or a member of the actual elite, but a bootlicking toady willing to sell out and sell off public goods and the public interest to make himself feel loved by and a part of the wealthy and powerful.
posted by Zalzidrax at 3:27 PM on February 5, 2015 [11 favorites]


There are many politicians whose policies I dislike. My dislike of Scott Walker's policies, however, is extremely personal. He is literally the reason I do not now live in the United States.
posted by kyrademon at 3:28 PM on February 5, 2015 [12 favorites]


I have this vision of Walker, Santorum and Perry all entering Thunderdome.

Except no one leaves.
posted by Thistledown at 3:30 PM on February 5, 2015 [12 favorites]


Minnesota is pulling ahead of Wisconsin economically and that trend has been accelerating. (The reporter who did that comparison doesn't think you can blame Walker, but I would suggest his policies hurt the economic sectors that are helping Minnesota. Gutting the University is just stupid.)
posted by Area Man at 3:35 PM on February 5, 2015 [9 favorites]


The GOP Governor class of 2010 (Walker, Snyder, Scott, Brownback, Corbett, and maybe a few I'm forgetting) has been something to behold. What Walker's doing in Wisconsin isn't really much different from what Brownback's been doing to Kansas, or what Tom Corbett tried to do here in Pennsylvania.

The reasons I think Corbett ended up failing here were (a) charisma, of which he had very little, and (b) a tendency to put his foot in his mouth. Walker, to me, doesn't have a ton of charisma, but others seem to disagree, and he certainly has more than Corbett. Meanwhile, he definitely seems to be good at staying on message, which has helped him avoid having a real Youtube-able moment that will turn off moderate voters.

I think too many people fall into the trap of treating the Tea Party and the theocrat factions of the GOP as distinct entities when there's really a lot of overlap between them, but there aren't many credible Presidential candidates in the GOP field that have managed to craft their image in a way that checks all the right supply-side/libertarian boxes while still invoking all of the cultural signaling and dog whistle appeals to the religious right. He'll have some liabilities when he has to get out and sell himself outside his own state, but if there's someone I genuinely worry about threading the needle and uniting the Rand Paul and Rick Santorum camps within the GOP tent, he's the guy.
posted by tonycpsu at 3:35 PM on February 5, 2015 [11 favorites]


Last week Scott Walker got in trouble for playing The Dropkick Murphys as entrance music. Considering the band's position on unions it seems almost too perfectly wrongheaded a move to be an accident. The only thing that would have trolled harder would be if he used Which Side Are You On?
posted by ckape at 3:49 PM on February 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


Walker scares the hell out of me, and I have Mike Pence for a governor (who is probably going to make a presidential bid himself. A Walker/Pence ticket would surely be the end of days )
posted by Thorzdad at 3:54 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


Should he be nominated, I wonder:

- Will a bloc of voters be uncomfortable electing someone who never graduated from college?


nah. it'll just mean he's "good country people."

but maybe if he runs someone will find out exactly why he dropped out one semester from graduation... dropping out of college to go into politics (like the article suggests) makes zero sense.
posted by ennui.bz at 3:59 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


At this point, I think people have just given up on Wisconsin and decided that in 15 years it'll be the Northern equivalent to a deep red deep south state with any one/thing of cultural importance moving to Minnesota.

This is probably deeply true. Wisconsin was a very successful state. Lots of heavy manufacturing, steel production, some of the world's largest breweries, thriving paper industry, etc. And that afforded it the opportunity to be very progressive, focusing on education and workers rights. It was a neat social experiment, the state had a very large,well to do blue collar population and they became the political hub of the state. Milwaukee even had three Socialist mayor in the 20th century,the last one in the early 1960s.

But Wisconsin never recovered from the 1970's . All the jobs moved south or offshore and nothing has come in to take their place. It tried to become a banking hub but that never took off. Minnesota recovered faster and became a more attractive spot for new business if a company was thinking about moving to the Midwest. Unemployment is very high, and more importantly, the percentage of the population below the poverty line is massive.

So, sad to say, but maybe Walker is just sweeping clean the remnants of the old progressive Wisconsin to make it look a lot more like the deep South. If you wipe out the unions and decrease funding to education and everything else, maybe it becomes a state that can survive. Nothing else has worked.

[Spoken as a downhearted Wisconsin liberal who has seen nothing positive happen to his home state in a very long time]
posted by rtimmel at 4:02 PM on February 5, 2015 [7 favorites]


Drug tests for UNEMPLOYMENT? WTF? Christ, what an asshole.

If you can't take drugs when you are unemployed then when the fuck are you supposed to take them?
posted by Meatbomb at 4:06 PM on February 5, 2015 [38 favorites]


This is a picture I took in April 2011 (less than four months after Walker became Governor). He had already poisoned the name "Scott Walker".
posted by Etrigan at 4:13 PM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


I loathe this man - he is very dangerous. He's already shown that he will steamroll anybody to get his warped agenda through.

I live many states away but sent as much money as I could to the sadly-failed recall effort.

Walker hires two conservative operatives

Scott Walker: States Should Decide Whether Vaccinations Are Mandatory
posted by madamjujujive at 4:20 PM on February 5, 2015


Noah Millman had a great piece today on the possibility of Walker: "I Killed Latin. What Did You Do?"

I guess The American Conservative (and Republican Party) is living in some kind of alternate reality, because they seem to believe Walker's success is born from the strength and appeal of his platform alone. Their world is also curiously lacking any acknowledgment of the fact that he had a 2:1 funding advantage over his most recent opponent, more than half of which came from out of state donors. And it ignores the fact that Walker has only ever won an election in Wisconsin, which is, as the TNR profile lays out in spades, a state that is currently uniquely demographically suited to ensure victories for Walker and people like him. So where is his national success supposed to come from? If your answer is, "More filthy Koch money, duh," hey, fair enough.

Feel free to take this with a truckload of Morton, because I (duh) flat-out hate the dude and I've been volunteering for his opponents' campaigns since the first time he ran for Milwaukee County Executive, but this idea that he's some kind of principled, strong-minded leader bravely championing his conservative ideals rather than the physical embodiment of Guy Whitey Corngood as a bought-and-paid-for shill for the Adelson/ALEC/Belling/FOX crew is frankly ridiculous. But maybe I've been giving America too much credit in thinking that it can't possibly be as poisonously divided and flagrantly, viciously racist as my own home state, or at least not racist and divided enough to put this beady-eyed fucker in the Oval Office come next January. I guess we'll find out!

To be fair, I am starting to seriously yearn for some kind of dual citizenship arrangement, not to mention the warm and winsome days of toothless partisan bickering over the milquetoast maundering of (Wisconsin's previous governor) "Diamond" Jim Doyle...
posted by divined by radio at 4:28 PM on February 5, 2015 [7 favorites]


I asked the question "Does America really want a President who didn't graduate from college?" of friends/acquaintances/family not long ago, and the consensus on and off FB was that while the answerer might not personally support Walker as a candidate, not only would Walker's lack of a college degree not be a liability for much of the U.S., they thought it would likely be an advantage. It's "I want a President I can relate to, have a beer with" all over again. I don't know whether they're right, but I devoutly hope they aren't.

Also, a small percentage of my friends/acquaintances/family now regards me as an overeducated elitist for even asking the question.
posted by gillyflower at 4:35 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


He exemplifies every possible way in which American capitalism and individualism have failed the country's people. And he, along with every other republican in the state, is proud of it.

I find this odd, given the social democratic sort of impulses in the upper midwest. MN, WI, and ND have traditions rooted in farmer/labor politics and germanic/scandinavian orientations towards education, political integrity, and social policy that seem to have been diminished or run over by big spending.

From Chicago, I used to think of WI as the Vermont of the midwest - our own left-leaning dairy reserve.
posted by C.A.S. at 4:37 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Walker is, among other things, too weird to win a national primary. He's got that Wisconsin-y mild, yet might probably be a cannibal vibe (sorry WI friends). It's houses Targaryen and Lannister again... :(
posted by batfish at 4:40 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wait, nobody has mentioned Greg Stillson yet?
posted by localroger at 4:41 PM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


If you can't take drugs when you are unemployed then when the fuck are you supposed to take them?

Apparently while reposing in office as governor.
posted by weston at 4:41 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


"I want a President I can relate to, have a beer with"

More and more prophetic every day.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:46 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


Walker was "called by God" to cut taxes and ban abortion? Seriously? What kind of person believes this shit?! Ugh. Yet people vote for him, out of fear or greed, I don't know. But I'm not sure what we can do about it.

We should've known something was up when Feingold walked away.
posted by droplet at 4:50 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


He shouldn't be a candidate for anything. If he is allowed to go out in public at all, he should be wheeled around in one of those Hannibal Lecter rigs with the face mask.

I always thought Bush was more dumb than evil. Sure, he was evil, but mostly dumb. McCain was more evil than dumb, but he had weird little lumps of decency mixed up in his black stew of evil. Palin was 60 percent dumb, 40 percent sneering mean girl evil. Romney was 10 percent evil, 10 percent dumb and 80 percent weird android. It was like he'd staggered away from the assembly line before they'd finished downloading all the emotions into his chip.

Walker is just evil. Maybe we thought Nixon was our most evil president, but that guy had a weird little heart beating somewhere deep inside. Walker doesn't. If he got elected, the whole planet would be screwed. He'd mostly ass-rape America, but the whole planet would get screwed too.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:50 PM on February 5, 2015 [32 favorites]


He had already poisoned the name "Scott Walker".

...in Madison, anyway.

But Wisconsin never recovered from the 1970's . A

I believe there's truth in what you say, but this isn't really correct. Wisconsin is a state where manufacturing still matters:
More than 18% of Wisconsin’s employees worked in manufacturing in 2012, more than in all but one other state. Additionally Wisconsin was among the nation’s leaders in durable goods manufacturing... among the largest producers of fabricated metal products... and a leader in machinery manufacturing.

The unemployment rate is also below the US average as of now^ (although it was definitely very high during the Great Recession's worst), as is the poverty rate^. Our recovery has stabilized over the last year despite lagging behind some other states such as Minnesota. Much as I'd love to tout our state's poor economic performance as evidence of Walker's idiocy, we've mostly tracked with the national recovery in a general sense.

Walker is just sweeping clean the remnants of the old progressive Wisconsin to make it look a lot more like the deep South.

This is the crux of it. The billionaires like Diane Hendricks [that famed clip will no doubt become very familiar to all Americans], the Koch brothers (who have funded many local pro-Walker, anti-union/progressive outfits like the Club for Growth) and our local Kochs, the Bradley Foundation, all want the unions not just on their back foot, but destroyed as a political force. They make dubious claims about the "greed" of, you know, teachers driving ten-year-old cars, while eagerly handing as much taxpayer money as possible to for-profit voucher schools. They insist on privatization as a tax-revenue-reducers, but won't allow it for the DNR because science is liberal. And so forth. I really believe this is all about political power and not the professed fiscal conservatism. The tax cuts he enacted are suspiciously similar to this budget cycle's deficit numbers, which he hopes to close by flat-out decimating programs beloved by liberals, even while making bald-faced lies to people who specifically inquire beforehand, like the Bike Fed which found out he is cutting Complete Streets legislation AND funding while slashing a long-running state Stewardship program dating back to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson. This is a tactic familiar to those paying attention in 2011, as he did not campaign on union-busting, then told supporters he was "dropping the bomb" and using a "divide and conquer" strategy, then his supporters spent the next couple of years claiming he had done what he promised when he had made no such overt promise. There isn't even much trace of a dog whistle -- he just managed to appear to be that guy who would do that thing when in office, so his backers are certainly happy.

Wisconsinites: what can we do to help you get rid of this fuckwit?

I wish I knew, but he seems to have the demographics sewn up, and the 2010 census and redistricting has given him unquestioned control of the legislature. There's not much that can be done to stand in the way of the steamroller, alas. He doesn't even need to pick and choose between running for President and running for Governor due to our "midterm" election cycle.

My city and county did what they could to stop him (our GOTV was spec-frickin-tacular), and although I actually agreed with the Dem party's initial reluctance to mount a recall, I started to believe when supporters delivered box after box of petitions. The recall election "keep" campaign didn't even seem to have much momentum to it -- just a lot of mostly-rural ginormous "I stand with Scott Walker signs" -- and then the votes were counted, and it turned out that even in union households he had 40%.

I guess The American Conservative (and Republican Party) is living in some kind of alternate reality

Just remember that these are paleo-conservatives (Pat Buchanan &c.) and somewhat skeptical of the neo-con/Tea Party program. They're sort of acknowledging he has a chance at the nomination is indicative of something within the GOP party dynamic, although I'm not even sure the paleos have that much of a claque anymore -- they're sort of stuck watching and squirming much like the rest of us, even if for markedly different reasons.

And it ignores the fact that Walker has only ever won an election in [home state]

A quality shared by 44 Presidents thus far, so take that as far as you can throw it. The thing is, Wisconsin is pretty middle-of-the-ground demographically, and his supporters do have the benefit of the point that we've been a blue state, presidentially, for decades now, and he's been winning here. We're no outlier, and the places that aren't like us are places that are already confirmed red or blue.
posted by dhartung at 5:03 PM on February 5, 2015 [11 favorites]


From Chicago, I used to think of WI as the Vermont of the midwest - our own left-leaning dairy reserve.

So did Wisconsin, until Walker.

Until Walker I remember thinking I lived in a state that valued democratic discourse, solving problems collectively and making compromises for the greater good. Then he made it very clear that those are not "values" and do not matter.

Where there was purple, now there is red. Wisconsin is bleeding out.

I'm glad I moved away. Do you know how fucked up that feels?
posted by an animate objects at 5:15 PM on February 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


rtimmel: “So, sad to say, but maybe Walker is just sweeping clean the remnants of the old progressive Wisconsin to make it look a lot more like the deep South. If you wipe out the unions and decrease funding to education and everything else, maybe it becomes a state that can survive. Nothing else has worked. [Spoken as a downhearted Wisconsin liberal who has seen nothing positive happen to his home state in a very long time]”

Good lord! Do you even like Wisconsin? Seriously, this is some sort of insane silliness.

I mean, I'm a goddamned New Mexican, and proud of it. We have police brutality coming out our ears. We're consistently ranked near the worst for poverty, for drunk driving, heroin (!), you name it. And I still want to see it come out all right. I'll still say as much as I can against Susana la Tejana and hope that she gets voted out of office at the nearest opportunity.

And here you are literally saying that Wisconsin is to be counted out, that it's the worst of the worst, and that maybe it would be better off if run like a southern state. Seriously?

You can't possibly believe that. Wisconsin is #21 in median and per capita income, better than any southern state that isn't Virginia or Maryland. That's pretty damned good. Unemployment is at 5.2%, which is also quite good comparatively.

I'm not saying Wisconsin is a fabulous dreamworld, but I guess I have to ask – what exactly is the nightmare you're talking about?
posted by koeselitz at 5:24 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


dhartung: “The thing is, Wisconsin is pretty middle-of-the-ground demographically, and his supporters do have the benefit of the point that we've been a blue state, presidentially, for decades now, and he's been winning here. We're no outlier, and the places that aren't like us are places that are already confirmed red or blue.”

The TNR article in the post makes a case – which sounds pretty good, though I don't know Wisconsin that well – that these victories have been extraordinarily polarized. You can say that he's been winning in a place that's "a blue state, presidentially," but do you really believe that's because Scott Walker has succeeded at appealing to a broad range of voters and bringing in a big undecided liberal electorate to support him? As the article argues, it seems much more likely that he's done what he's done by kicking up support in the conservative base more than anyone has before in Wisconsin whilst simultaneously limiting voting by those who are against him – and anybody to the left of Ronald Reagan seems to be against him.

That isn't really how things play out on the national stage. Nobody's won with that kind of strategy on the national stage since (I would argue) the 1990s. The demographics of the nation at large are simply very different from the demographics of Wisconsin – and even in Wisconsin, it seems that Scott Walker has relied on some very fine distinctions and some careful strategies surrounding where he gets his support and how.
posted by koeselitz at 5:34 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


On the subject of his unelectability, he's also dirty as fuck. I don't think there's any way he could survive the scrutiny of a national election.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:35 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


He had already poisoned the name "Scott Walker."

That's the other thing I can't forgive him for. Always been a huge Scott Walker fan and he's just soiled it. Over Wisconsin, you could even say, "the Sun ain't gonna shine anymore."
posted by octobersurprise at 5:38 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


I work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and it's hard to convey how depressing the Walker years have been. Budget cuts have followed budget cuts; our union is dead; my take-home salary is down almost 20% due to the shifting of benefits costs to public employees; every year employees do more with less--except at the top, where administrative salaries have grown. Now comes this massive budget cut and the threat to the tenure system. Morale is terrible and a whole lot of good people have left the university and the state.

But the thing that has been most disheartening has been to listen to the constant lockstep repeating of soundbites generated by conservative talk radio. The conservative talk radio audience in Wisconsin is huge, as the Journal-Sentinel article in the OP notes. And as the New Republic piece states, Walker is tightly tied to state talk radio outlets, which repeat his racist dogwhistles, bashing of state employees, and endless "makers versus takers" rhetoric.

Yesterday I attended a modest noon rally of staff, instructors and faculty against the budget cuts on the campus central plaza. As students walked by on their way to classes, a number of white male students yelled at the attendees to "get a job." It was nonsensical--and totally emblematic of the "reasoning" they hear over and over on the radio--that those who oppose Walker and his programs are "urban" people with no work ethic who want to live large off the hard work of others. A lecturer hired semester-by-semester for paltry wages was informed by two students that she earned $87,000 to teach two classes. When a professor told me he'd had a student tell him the was making $87,000 for a few hours work a week I realized this was some talk radio soundbite making the rounds. (How it is supposed to apply to the librarians and janitorial staff and secretaries and techs who don't teach classes I certainly couldn't tell you.)

For a long time, Wisconsin was a state that loved its public institutions. Now we live in a state split 50/50 with people who want to privatize everything, kill the social safety net, cut corporate taxes, and live in all-white enclaves. And due to gerrymandering, while we'll remain a purple state for national elections, we're stuck in the red on the state level. No matter that Walker's policies haven't led to the job growth he promised--his goofy-smiling union-bashing and politely understated racist affirmations have made him a local hero to many, and a source of despair to the rest of us in our very divided state.

It's all very meh.
posted by DrMew at 5:50 PM on February 5, 2015 [35 favorites]


If any other union folks are barfing at the thought of Scott Walker running, I think I've found our collective uniform
posted by mostly vowels at 5:53 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Compared to Jeb, he just doesn't seem like a presidential-caliber candidate.
posted by fraxil at 6:11 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


I believe that may well be MeFi's greatest ever damning with faint praise.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2015 [9 favorites]


That's not the worst comment you've ever made, fffm.
posted by uosuaq at 6:28 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


A lot of Mefites were very laudatory of Obama's use of "prosecutorial discretion" to effect amnesty for illegal aliens without the consent of Congress. Just imagine how far a President Scott Walker will be advance the conservative agenda with that power...
posted by MattD at 6:29 PM on February 5, 2015


Well played, uosuaq.

Please don't say 'illegal aliens.' It's dehumanizing. Undocumented immigrants is more acceptable.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 6:33 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Just imagine how far a President Scott Walker will be advance the conservative agenda with that power

Look! Walker's plan is working! Already people are getting dumber and more inarticulate!
posted by octobersurprise at 6:34 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


it turned out that even in union households he had 40%.

This. This. The Left flagellates itself for not reaching the white working class, but sometimes the white working class wants to shoot itself in the foot, no matter how many times you try to knock the gun out of their hand.
posted by jonp72 at 6:35 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


MattD, the subtext of your comment is that Obama's action represents some kind of major escalation in the use of the executive branch's long history of using its discretion to prioritize its resources, when it's not even the most significant use of executive authority on immigration.
posted by tonycpsu at 6:37 PM on February 5, 2015 [8 favorites]


Walker me talk pretty one day
posted by octobersurprise at 6:38 PM on February 5, 2015


"Is that you Scott Walker, is this me."
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 PM on February 5, 2015


Wisconsinites: what can we do to help you get rid of this fuckwit?

Well, there's one thing, but I don't think you'll like it.
posted by gerryblog at 7:00 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


"You keep saying, you got something for me
Something you call law but confess
You've been messin' where you shouldn't have been messin'
And now all of us are getting all your best
These votes are made for Walker
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these votes
Are gonna walk all over you
You keep lying where you shouldn't be lyin'
And you keep thinkin' that you'll never get caught
Ah, I've just found me a brand new batch of voters, yeah
And what they know you ain't had time to learn
These votes are made for voting
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these votes
Are gonna Walk all over you
Are you ready, votes?"

Stop Walker.
posted by clavdivs at 7:03 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Governor Walker
Is missing
With a number of men
Don't expect to
see him
again
posted by octobersurprise at 7:11 PM on February 5, 2015


A lecturer hired semester-by-semester for paltry wages was informed by two students that she earned $87,000 to teach two classes.

Wow, my wife should stop lecturing at UW-Madison and head down to Milwaukee, stat!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:13 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Walker is just evil

100% evil and 100% dumb
posted by theredpen at 7:16 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


scott walker wants to be president
is he presidential material? hell no he ain't
dude be hatin' on knowledge, like we don't need no colleges
breaking up unions and all that they've done for us
you wanna be president? yo, sit and spin
deep down you know you ain't gonna win
posted by uosuaq at 7:21 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


The problem comes down to this: there are a lot of people out there that would rather someone be wrong, but unwaveringly so, than actually consider different interpretations and weigh out a reasoned opinion.

I work for my fireman brother-in-law (all firemen have second jobs. They all have that "my worth as a human being is tied up in how many hours I'm not enjoying life!" thing.) It's amazing to hear all the firemen whose cars we work on come in and bitch about government, taxes, unions (even while they all call each other "brother")...all things that are part and parcel of their jobs! More to the point, respect is given to being able to make a decision and push it through, even when it's become obvious it was the wrong decision.

These people voted for Bush, the resolute moron, because he was resolute. Shitfucks like Walker are perfect candidates.
posted by notsnot at 7:23 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


SO NOBODY MENTIONED GREG STILLSON YET EXCEPT ME?
posted by localroger at 7:33 PM on February 5, 2015


The problem comes down to this: there are a lot of people out there that would rather someone be wrong, but unwaveringly so, than actually consider different interpretations and weigh out a reasoned opinion.

You have just described how, I think, basically the rest of the world views the way the USA is governed these days.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 7:36 PM on February 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


feckless fecal fear mongering: "Has Walker actually achieved anything he can run on?

In this day and age, sticking it to the godless hippie Democrat scum counts as an achievement amongst the more extreme elements of the Republican electorate.
"

Reading comments on FB and shit, that is precisely what it is. "Liberal Madison eatin' our taxes... Sick em boys!" (and these dickheads run roughshod over every single thing I thought was good about Wisconsin).

Looking at these fuckers, it is absolutely 100% based on spite and hate for the "liberals" in the Madison (and Milwaukee areas, primarily... other large/college towns to some lesser extent, except for the fucking Fox Valley. I fucking HATE the Fox Valley with a passion; they're half the reason we have this problem -- the other half is the rest of us for not fighting hard enough against them).

I had my last day at my job today. Well if they won't let me smoke dope for unemployment, guess I'll just fucking get drunk as fuck and piss all over Scott Walker someday and make the national news or something.

WHY WHY WHY WILL YOU FUCKERS NOT MOVE TO TEXAS OR FLORIDA OR ALABAMA OR MISSISSIPPI if you fucking love that shit so much. Why do you have to taint this state. We had problems, and we had division, sure. And there were corrupt Dems (Kvala, much?), but there was still some good shit now and then, but it seems we are seriously going off the rails (no pun intended -- or, I guess it is, now that i think about it).
posted by symbioid at 8:15 PM on February 5, 2015 [9 favorites]


100% evil and 100% dumb

Well, by saying Walker was pure evil, I didn't mean to suggest that he's super smart. But if we're talking about what motivates these creeps, Bush (for example) was maybe 60% confused and incompetent and 40% smug, nasty frat boy. I don't think Walker's confused or incompetent. He knows what he's doing, and if what he's doing hurts people that's fine and dandy. If it hurts the right people, that's a special treat.

I'd like to think Walker would get trounced in a nationwide election... but this is the nation that elected Bush in 2004, after pretty much everybody admitted that he'd stolen the election in 2000. I mean, even the conservatives just kind of giggled up their sleeves about that whole thing. By 2004 he'd been president for 4 damn years, more than enough time for people to get wise... and he got in again. And then in 2008 Palin showed up and people were really high on her for a while. It took way, way too long for America to get sick of that awful woman.

So, I don't put much past the US these days. You think the last few decades have been rough? Hoo boy, just wait until one of the real swine gets in. We may end up missing W, as impossible at that seems now.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:30 PM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


Is anyone else thinking that the title of this article is a Joyce/Aristotle reference? Or is it just me: "The ineluctable modality of the visible" --> "the unelectible whiteness of Scott Walker". Maybe?
posted by Makwa at 8:37 PM on February 5, 2015


localroger: "SO NOBODY MENTIONED GREG STILLSON YET EXCEPT ME?"

Greg Stillson was a charismatic psychopath who thought he was answering a divine calling. Stillson is villainous evil; you catch a creepy something-or-other in his eyes and know he's dangerous.

Scott Walker is an empty-suited yes-man whose only function is to do what rich Republican donors tell him to do. Walker is banal evil; his eyes are too sleepy to do anything except enhance the punchability of his goddamn face.
posted by savetheclocktower at 8:42 PM on February 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


WHY WHY WHY WILL YOU FUCKERS NOT MOVE TO TEXAS OR FLORIDA OR ALABAMA OR MISSISSIPPI if you fucking love that shit so much. Why do you have to taint this state.

I'm not completely sure that exporting asshats to already shitty places to make them worse is a net gain for anyone.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:42 PM on February 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


Walker is unelectable as president. I think it's cute he thinks he can run, but he aint got the brains. He ain't got W's friends in high places either. Hillary would mop the floor with him. He's got Sarah Palin's grasp of foreign policy, and none of her charm or wit. And he's always had a legislature that votes in total lockstep with him - not to mention a State Supreme Court that never disagrees with him on anything.

Point is, he's never actually had to fight, and never actually been tested. He also has had the benefit of running in 2010, and 2014 - not great years for turnout, and traditionally good elections for republicans in general.

Really though - the real reason Walker continues his nonsense in Wisconistan is that the Dems are feckless. Cowards. Wimps. Nincompoops. Schmucks and Schnooks. We had 100,000+ people on the streets and the Dems did their best to be quietly embarrassed about the whole affair. In the main, Dems don't want to defeat Walker or any republican. That would mean standing for something and then voting like they meant it - and they don't want to stand for anything. Democrats are truly the lesser of two weevils.

It's better in Colorado, anyway.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:48 PM on February 5, 2015 [7 favorites]


"The ineluctable modality of the visible" --> "the unelectible whiteness of Scott Walker". Maybe?

The unbearable whiteness of being.
posted by Wolof at 9:17 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Let's put aside Walker's policies for a moment. The original claim of this post is that Wisconsin has become "hyperpolarized" under Walker.

It's interesting that polarization doesn't appear to be an issue when Obama Administration policies engender social division.

Nonetheless, why is social solidarity preferable to polarization?

Throughout our history, social solidarity has usually been engineered by political leaders for ostensibly good, but in fact nefarious purposes (Red Scares, Japanese-American Internment, '68 Democratic Convention Police Riot, anti-German sentiment whooped up by Wilson, Patriot Act & Iraq War following 9/11, etc)
posted by alacrity at 9:44 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Uhhh so there's this whole thing where Walker's policies are dependent on support from social division from people whose primary social division is "fuck 'em" and where Obama's policies cause social division from saying "hey, 'fuck 'em' isn't useful for anyone" so the polarization isn't actually comparable.

Also, look at electoral maps. Hyperpolarized is absolutely a useful descriptor here.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:49 PM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I have this vision of Walker, Santorum and Perry all entering Thunderdome.

Oh, can't we just get beyond Th--

Except no one leaves.

--on second thought, leave 'em there.
posted by JHarris at 11:01 PM on February 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


The UW system is one of our nation's great public university systems. And this asshole is trying to destroy it. Walker is dumber than a bag of hammers. But he keeps failing upward.
posted by persona au gratin at 1:34 AM on February 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


feckless,

Quadrupling the size of TARP bailouts to banks, and the subsequent billions going to already-wealthy cronies at the helm of automakers, insurance companies, and "nonprofit" hospital chains are not examples of "f*** them"? The pseudo-bankruptcy of the automakers is a particularly glaring example, since it endangered the financial position of several pension funds. In fact, the Indiana State Teacher's Association pension fund (operated for the benefit of non-cronies) became insolvent, and had to be taken over by the NEA.

What about guaranteed government loans to foreign corporations like Petrobras ? One can't make a claim that these Obama subsidies benefit "American workers"- quite the contrary.

What about the Obamacare waivers handed to a favored few? There are slightly over 1000 waivers out of hundreds of thousands of businesses that could benefit from them. If they didn't help Obama's re-election, then "f*** them", eh?
posted by alacrity at 1:50 AM on February 6, 2015


Jeezus. If Scott Walker ends up being the next POTUS, I will start studying hard for the 1st level Japanese test so that I can turn my permanent residency into citizenship. Fuck that guy.
posted by snwod at 2:15 AM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


A lecturer hired semester-by-semester for paltry wages was informed by two students that she earned $87,000 to teach two classes.

And therein you see illustrated the right's utter victory in controlling the message and spreading their propaganda far and wide, high and low. The truth may have a liberal bias, but it's been effectively silenced by the constant, daily flood of lies and disinformation, from seemingly every possible quarter.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:05 AM on February 6, 2015 [7 favorites]


I know an adjunct in the SUNY system in NY who teaches 7 classes (between 3 colleges). He makes close to 30k I believe. Course, since they're all comp, he spends 20+ hours a week grading papers. He also believes it's important to engage with his students, so spends upward of 14 hours a week on office hours. He's pretty old hat at this by now, or the time spent would be much higher. The realities of the high paid, stress free lifestyle students think professors have, right there.
posted by triage_lazarus at 6:04 AM on February 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


We had 100,000+ people on the streets and the Dems did their best to be quietly embarrassed about the whole affair.

I agree that the Wisconsin democrats are a feckless lot, but what's with this bizarre obsession their opponents on the left have with getting people into the street? U.S. states are not governed based on which side has the most colorful or long lasting public protests. Scott Walker is able to make laws in Wisconsin and appoint the people who carry out those laws because he and his allies in the legislature win elections. All the political theatre from the left probably annoyed them on a personal level, but it didn't hurt them politically. It may have even helped them. And where was that energy when it was time for elections? Why didn't we hear that the Wisconsin left had put together the most amazing political machine the U.S. had seen in decades? Is it because electoral politics isn't as emotionally satisfying as singing songs in the capitol building?
posted by Area Man at 6:11 AM on February 6, 2015 [9 favorites]


batfish, you forget this other famous Wisconsinite with a weird vibe...

--
An old friend of mine recently started professoring at UW-Madison, and her FaceBook page lit up like a pinball machine the other day. Usually it's pretty tame, so I was horrified to see what she was posting. As a native Minnesotan I was trained from birth to pick on Wisconsin, but man, no one deserves treatment like Walker is dishing out on those poor cheeseheads. :7(
posted by wenestvedt at 7:06 AM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


And where was that energy when it was time for elections?

That's sort of my point. The Dem Establishment does not want to fight against republican political initiatives. So many of the people I know are as fed up with the dems as the republicans, and largely because the Dems refuse to capitalize on this energy.

Or to put it another way, if you get 5200 white folks to wear trifold hats and wave gadsden flags for 2 hours on a sunny afternoon, every republican in the state will get on the TV talk about how people are fed up and aren't going to take it and so on. Get 100,000+ people out for a week in the dead of winter, and Dems are all well, gee, golly, gosh, do they have to make such a fuss ?

I mean, look at the last election. Give people a choice between a Republican and an Actual Republican and they will choose the Actual Republican. Maybe if some Actual Democrats ever ran, they might win something.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:28 AM on February 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


After 15+ years of this bullshit, it puzzles me that some people who oppose people like Scott Walker claim that he could never in a million years win a general election because he's a brainless turd, or a comical sociopath, or a banal dimwitted loser, missing or forgetting that of the last four presidential elections, two (well, one, but for all practical purposes two) were won by a man who was and is all of the above and more, along with a cadre of hand-rubbing villainous deranged geniuses who had all the ruthlessness, money, connections, and influence to put him over, and then some.

God help me if I know what Walker's appeal is -- he seems like a barely cognitive wall-eyed gray-scaled coelacanth wearing a bad set of plugs from Bosley Hair Treatment who got butthurt in a stupid college council election at Marquette some 25 years ago and has been taking revenge on the rest of the world in the form of scorched-earth back-alley dirty politics since then -- but I'm not his demo, in any way, shape, or form, so I know nothing.
posted by blucevalo at 10:40 AM on February 6, 2015 [11 favorites]


The reporter who did that comparison doesn't think you can blame Walker, but I would suggest his policies hurt the economic sectors that are helping Minnesota.

The reporter may say that, but if you've successfully implemented every policy that right-wing ideology says should amp up your economy and a neighboring state with a very similar makeup implements godless liberal policies, then you jolly well better outgrow them, don't you think? I say this as though it will make a difference, but as we saw with Bush, the actual performance as governor takes a back seat to the right-wing noise machine's manufactured reality every time.
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


You know the famous title, "The Banality of Evil".. Here it is. Pure Evil. And of course he won because of his flawless propaganda campaign. He may very well win the national election if he is given enough money to do the same thing nationally. Who will he appoint as his Minister of Propaganda I wonder?
posted by anguspodgorny at 4:16 PM on February 6, 2015


All the political theatre from the left probably annoyed them on a personal level, but it didn't hurt them politically. It may have even helped them.

Very much so. His is the politics of ressentiment, as seen so many times before, from Italy to Chile. Seeing people in the street only convinced his supporters that they were in the right because dirty fucking hippies, that's why. Or the term du jour, union thugs, who were just one white knuckle away from overwhelming the brave Capitol Police and, I dunno, pulling off a coup d'etat.

(We got Romney to come to our chamber of commerce dinner, thanks to being Ryan's home town, and our community page denizens largely panned him. But two of our, shall we say, dissatisfied customers got ABSOLUTELY LIVID on their own personal FB about the "hatred" shown to Romney, as if we all owed him the respect of a veteran (he isn't) or an elected leader (he isn't). They can't stand that there are *gasp* dissidents in our society who get mad when they're called greedy moochers and takers. Classic ressentiment behavior.)

and anybody to the left of Ronald Reagan seems to be against him.

Oh, you only wish. I can't explain it, honestly I'm as baffled as bluecevalo here, but in 2014 -- in our heavily Democratic county which went 60% for Obama -- Walker got 43% versus Romney's 39%. To some extent that's the older, mid-term electorate. To another it was the weakness of Mary Burke as a candidate. (Aside: a poll found that the "most polarizing" politician in the state was Burke, not Walker, which is insane -- because she barely poked her periscope above water, let alone became any sort of firebrand. This is the fruit of that talk radio closed-circuit politics.) The other thing to keep in mind is that he got similar percentage of the vote in union households, so four out of ten people who OUGHT to know that union rights are critical to the survival of the middle class still threw in their lot with the goggle-eyed homunculus [NOT HOMUNCULUS-IST].

Dems are feckless. ...
And where was that energy when it was time for elections? Why didn't we hear that the Wisconsin left had put together the most amazing political machine the U.S. had seen in decades? Is it because electoral politics isn't as emotionally satisfying as singing songs in the capitol building?

Pogo and Area Man, I don't know what you're seeing from where you sit, but I'm close to our local operation, and we DELIVERED THE SHIT out of our county, especially our city. We flipped an Assembly seat red to blue (well, it would have stayed blue except for someone's zipper). We defeated Walker here. We even defeated Paul Ryan in his county, in his city, and in his city ward. I know here (we're just a 40-minute drive from Madison) the overlap between marchers, singers, and volunteers including phone jockeys, door knockers, and especially tedious data enterers was pretty substantial. But we were helpless in the face of the red counties, and even the red wards carefully gerrymandered into Ryan's First District. I don't think it's possible to reach those people using the "machine". They are going to have to be personally affected by the botched surgery on the state in some way before the light will dawn.

As I said above, I think the party was right to be skeptical of the recall operation. They had number crunchers -- including no small number of interns parachuted in like Army Rangers trying to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail -- who could tell them what was going to happen, and I don't think there were any illusions at that level. The national party kept Obama as clear of all this as possible, because THEY KNEW and THEY WERE RIGHT. Even Feingold declined to come in as savior despite fairly obvious favorite-son entreaties.

There's a divide in this country, and I don't think it's a matter of working harder or better candidates. It's the What's the Matter with Kansas question writ large and national. Wedge issues have been exploited that carve away even those once-true-blue union households; no amount of leafleting or messaging is going to just flip that switch.
posted by dhartung at 11:46 PM on February 6, 2015 [10 favorites]


I am a UW Madison grad and I lived in Madison for 8 years, coming there from Illinois. I loved Madison and would have stayed if every other UW graduate didn't want to stay there too. The market is saturated for employment. It's a great town, so very much to be said for it. Man I loved it for the farmers' market alone. It hurts my heart to see that monster destroy a state that I love. It's so crazy, I lived through the Tommy Thompson years and I never thought there could be a worse governor in WI than him.
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 12:25 AM on February 8, 2015 [3 favorites]


Walker's presidential run is terrifying in itself but also because -- Rebecca Kleefisch.

I would like to believe that he couldn't be competitive nationally. His economic record is terrible. He's awkward and dufus-y. But I keep hearing from Republicans in other states, including the few remaining "moderate" Republicans I know, how much they admire and respect him. So I guess we'll see.
posted by gerstle at 1:46 AM on February 8, 2015 [2 favorites]




Milwaukee even had three Socialist mayor in the 20th century,the last one in the early 1960s.

This fact we learned from Wayne's World.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 7:44 PM on February 19, 2015


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