Pierce writes: "On May 16, 2012, I wrote this about Scott Walker, the
goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest
subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. At the time, Walker was
facing a recall election after a year in which 100,000 people regularly
camped on his front lawn."
Scott Walker. (photo: Getty)
Scott Walker: The Assassination of Wisconsin Democracy
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
15 July 15
In which coward Scott Walker makes his campaign for president official
tonight.
On May 16, 2012, I wrote this about Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus
hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known
as the state of Wisconsin. At the time, Walker was facing a recall election
after a year in which 100,000 people regularly camped on his front lawn.
I predict that he will have an "exploratory committee" set up in Iowa within
the month, and he will suddenly discover a deeply held desire to spend a lot
of time in places like Nashua and Manchester. Make no mistake: If he hangs
on, he will be the biggest star in the Republican party. Chris Christie
yells at all the right people, but has he ever faced down the existential
threat that schoolteachers and snowplow drivers brought to bear on Walker?
Marco Rubio? Has he withstood the wrath of organized janitors and professors
of the humanities? If Walker wins in June, it wouldn't take very much effort
at all for Fox News and for the vast universe of conservative sugar-daddies
and their organization to decide that Walker should be the odds-on choice
for 2016...It's not idle speculation to say that a lot more is riding on
this than who gets to be governor of Wisconsin. This is the first real fight
of the 2016 presidential election.
That all becomes official in Waukesha tonight, when Walker formally kicks
off his campaign. I know some things have changed. Walker's bungled a bit on
the stump, and the campaign flyer that passes for his 2015 budget has pissed
off both parties in Wisconsin, a state about which he cares very little at
this point. And it seems that the rise of Donald Trump -- and, to a lesser
extent, the presence of Jeb (!) -- has cost Walker in the national polls and
has shaved his lead a bit in Iowa, where he really must win. But he is still
formidable enough, as the elite political press is already engaged in
whitewashing his record for him. Here are two profiles -- an old one from
the National Journal and one that appeared on Monday in Tiger Beat On The
Potomac. You will note that in neither piece does the phrase "the Koch
Brothers" appear, and you will also note that the penny-ante corruption that
has surrounded every campaign Walker ever has run is soft-pedaled in NJ and
absent completely from TBOTP. Hey, why should Chris Christie be the only
Republican running for president while under criminal investigation? And
Rick Perry's indicted, so he's still in the lead by that important metric.
Step up your games, people.
(My favorite part of the National Journal profile is how the nearly unbroken
strain of petty grifting that has sent so many of his aides to the sneezer
is merely Walker's unfortunate habit of trusting the wrong people: In
interviews with dozens of Wisconsin Republicans, none of whom would speak on
the record when asked about Walker's weaknesses, one consistent criticism
leveled at the governor is that he has not, over the years, surrounded
himself with good people. That's just too, too adorable for words.)
Since his approval rating in Wisconsin is headed south, and since he can't
point to having accomplished much there except winning three elections, and
since the budget he just signed demolishes Wisconsin's public universities
while bestowing more goodies on the extraction industries, Walker's entire
campaign is going to consist of how he stood up bravely to schoolteachers
and firemen and elderly grandparents back in 2011 and 2012. This man can
stand up to ISIL because he was able to beat back hordes of angry guidance
counselors. We are going to hear about alleged death threats -- and a lot
about the one that allegedly threatened to gut his wife like a fish -- and
about how he bravely went to work each day. (You should keep in mind that at
least one of those stories that he peddles is pure moonshine.) And then
there's that business about the "teacher of the year" that Walker uses to
make the case that the wreckage he's made of public education in the state
is really the construction of a palace. (Go Warriors!) Nothing the man says
can be trusted. If you work for him, and you are instructed to do something
ethically dubious, rest assured that you're on your own when it hits the
fan. But Walker's invocation of his own courage as a campaign trope is
perhaps the most fraudulent thing of all. Because, throughout his career,
Scott Walker has been nothing if not a political coward.
During the protests back in 2011 and 2012, he hid in his office. A hundred
thousand of his constituents were there on his lawn and he declined to hear
what they had to say. He used a tunnel to get back and forth to the state
capitol. He empowered the Capitol police to roust legitimate demonstrators
from a building that had a proud history of open protest and open political
activism. He lit the capitol's Christmas tree in the early morning hours in
a closed ceremony instead of opening the proceedings to the public. In
January, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled that many of the tactics that were
used against the demonstrators -- and, in particular, against the Solidarity
Singers -- were unconstitutional. This was what Unintimidated Scott Walker
hid behind while he was dismantling progressive democracy in the state where
so much of it was born and selling the state off wholesale to whoever wanted
to buy a chunk. And, last week, when it was discovered that there had been
slipped into the budget an item that would have gutted the state's
open-records law, one of the last remaining elements of progressive
government in Wisconsin that Walker hasn't shredded, the state exploded in
bipartisan outrage. True to form, Walker and his people tried to fob the
responsibility off on the Republicans in the legislature until Senate
Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald blew the whistle on who really was to
blame. Unintimidated! Leadership!
Walker has spent his time as governor cosseted by (until very recently) a
docile legislative majority and insulated by millions and millions of
dollars of out-of-state money. If he were any deeper in someone's pocket,
he'd be covered in lint.
In 1897, in a small town called Mineral Point in Wisconsin, the governor of
the state came to give a speech about the state's economy. His name was
Robert LaFollette, Sr.
These corporations, not content with taking royal tribute daily from the
private citizen, shift upon him the chief support of the government. The
same disregard for the rights of others, and of all obligations of the state
is shown in a determined resistance to bearing a just share of the burdens
of taxation. Corporations exacting large sums from the people of this state
in profits, upon business transacted within its limits, either wholly escape
taxation, or pay insignificantly in comparison with the average citizen . .
. Owning two thirds of the personal property of the country, evading payment
of taxes wherever possible, the corporations throw almost the whole burden
up on the land, upon the little homes, and the personal property of the
farms. This is a most serious matter, especially in the pinching times the
people have suffered for the last few years. . .
It is LaFollette's legacy that Walker has made his mission to dismantle root
and branch on behalf of the modern plutocrats who have funded his remarkable
rise in the country's politics because, if they can do it in Wisconsin, they
can do it everywhere. It continues tonight, in comfortable Waukesha, where
Scott Walker will announce that he is running for president. He has spent
his entire political life punching down and leaving the people who do his
dirty work twisting in the wind when they get caught. Christ, what a mess
this can make of democracy.
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Scott Walker. (photo: Getty)
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a36378/watching-scotty-bl
ow/http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a36378/watching-scotty
-blow/
Scott Walker: The Assassination of Wisconsin Democracy
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
15 July 15
In which coward Scott Walker makes his campaign for president official
tonight.
n May 16, 2012, I wrote this about Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus
hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known
as the state of Wisconsin. At the time, Walker was facing a recall election
after a year in which 100,000 people regularly camped on his front lawn.
I predict that he will have an "exploratory committee" set up in Iowa within
the month, and he will suddenly discover a deeply held desire to spend a lot
of time in places like Nashua and Manchester. Make no mistake: If he hangs
on, he will be the biggest star in the Republican party. Chris Christie
yells at all the right people, but has he ever faced down the existential
threat that schoolteachers and snowplow drivers brought to bear on Walker?
Marco Rubio? Has he withstood the wrath of organized janitors and professors
of the humanities? If Walker wins in June, it wouldn't take very much effort
at all for Fox News and for the vast universe of conservative sugar-daddies
and their organization to decide that Walker should be the odds-on choice
for 2016...It's not idle speculation to say that a lot more is riding on
this than who gets to be governor of Wisconsin. This is the first real fight
of the 2016 presidential election.
That all becomes official in Waukesha tonight, when Walker formally kicks
off his campaign. I know some things have changed. Walker's bungled a bit on
the stump, and the campaign flyer that passes for his 2015 budget has pissed
off both parties in Wisconsin, a state about which he cares very little at
this point. And it seems that the rise of Donald Trump -- and, to a lesser
extent, the presence of Jeb (!) -- has cost Walker in the national polls and
has shaved his lead a bit in Iowa, where he really must win. But he is still
formidable enough, as the elite political press is already engaged in
whitewashing his record for him. Here are two profiles -- an old one from
the National Journal and one that appeared on Monday in Tiger Beat On The
Potomac. You will note that in neither piece does the phrase "the Koch
Brothers" appear, and you will also note that the penny-ante corruption that
has surrounded every campaign Walker ever has run is soft-pedaled in NJ and
absent completely from TBOTP. Hey, why should Chris Christie be the only
Republican running for president while under criminal investigation? And
Rick Perry's indicted, so he's still in the lead by that important metric.
Step up your games, people.
(My favorite part of the National Journal profile is how the nearly unbroken
strain of petty grifting that has sent so many of his aides to the sneezer
is merely Walker's unfortunate habit of trusting the wrong people: In
interviews with dozens of Wisconsin Republicans, none of whom would speak on
the record when asked about Walker's weaknesses, one consistent criticism
leveled at the governor is that he has not, over the years, surrounded
himself with good people. That's just too, too adorable for words.)
Since his approval rating in Wisconsin is headed south, and since he can't
point to having accomplished much there except winning three elections, and
since the budget he just signed demolishes Wisconsin's public universities
while bestowing more goodies on the extraction industries, Walker's entire
campaign is going to consist of how he stood up bravely to schoolteachers
and firemen and elderly grandparents back in 2011 and 2012. This man can
stand up to ISIL because he was able to beat back hordes of angry guidance
counselors. We are going to hear about alleged death threats -- and a lot
about the one that allegedly threatened to gut his wife like a fish -- and
about how he bravely went to work each day. (You should keep in mind that at
least one of those stories that he peddles is pure moonshine.) And then
there's that business about the "teacher of the year" that Walker uses to
make the case that the wreckage he's made of public education in the state
is really the construction of a palace. (Go Warriors!) Nothing the man says
can be trusted. If you work for him, and you are instructed to do something
ethically dubious, rest assured that you're on your own when it hits the
fan. But Walker's invocation of his own courage as a campaign trope is
perhaps the most fraudulent thing of all. Because, throughout his career,
Scott Walker has been nothing if not a political coward.
During the protests back in 2011 and 2012, he hid in his office. A hundred
thousand of his constituents were there on his lawn and he declined to hear
what they had to say. He used a tunnel to get back and forth to the state
capitol. He empowered the Capitol police to roust legitimate demonstrators
from a building that had a proud history of open protest and open political
activism. He lit the capitol's Christmas tree in the early morning hours in
a closed ceremony instead of opening the proceedings to the public. In
January, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled that many of the tactics that were
used against the demonstrators -- and, in particular, against the Solidarity
Singers -- were unconstitutional. This was what Unintimidated Scott Walker
hid behind while he was dismantling progressive democracy in the state where
so much of it was born and selling the state off wholesale to whoever wanted
to buy a chunk. And, last week, when it was discovered that there had been
slipped into the budget an item that would have gutted the state's
open-records law, one of the last remaining elements of progressive
government in Wisconsin that Walker hasn't shredded, the state exploded in
bipartisan outrage. True to form, Walker and his people tried to fob the
responsibility off on the Republicans in the legislature until Senate
Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald blew the whistle on who really was to
blame. Unintimidated! Leadership!
Walker has spent his time as governor cosseted by (until very recently) a
docile legislative majority and insulated by millions and millions of
dollars of out-of-state money. If he were any deeper in someone's pocket,
he'd be covered in lint.
In 1897, in a small town called Mineral Point in Wisconsin, the governor of
the state came to give a speech about the state's economy. His name was
Robert LaFollette, Sr.
These corporations, not content with taking royal tribute daily from the
private citizen, shift upon him the chief support of the government. The
same disregard for the rights of others, and of all obligations of the state
is shown in a determined resistance to bearing a just share of the burdens
of taxation. Corporations exacting large sums from the people of this state
in profits, upon business transacted within its limits, either wholly escape
taxation, or pay insignificantly in comparison with the average citizen . .
. Owning two thirds of the personal property of the country, evading payment
of taxes wherever possible, the corporations throw almost the whole burden
up on the land, upon the little homes, and the personal property of the
farms. This is a most serious matter, especially in the pinching times the
people have suffered for the last few years. . .
It is LaFollette's legacy that Walker has made his mission to dismantle root
and branch on behalf of the modern plutocrats who have funded his remarkable
rise in the country's politics because, if they can do it in Wisconsin, they
can do it everywhere. It continues tonight, in comfortable Waukesha, where
Scott Walker will announce that he is running for president. He has spent
his entire political life punching down and leaving the people who do his
dirty work twisting in the wind when they get caught. Christ, what a mess
this can make of democracy.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
