I'm reasonably sure I don't need to establish my credentials for being firmly and completely against Scott Walker's abolition of collective bargaining for public school employees, which is already starting to show negative effects in Shorewood. But I certainly don't think we should be talking about recalling either Walker himself or the state senators who supported his bill, never mind the ones who fled the state to prevent it from initially passing.
My reasoning is simple: I believe that the recall process should only be used in cases of gross incompetence by the recallees, or if they are convicted of criminal charges and sentenced.* And despite all the partisanship in Wisconsin at the moment, I don't think that what Walker and his posse did deserves a recall effort. Is Walker grossly out of touch with the people of Wisconsin? I think so. Did he just pass a bill that will seriously hurt Wisconsin, as a state? I think he did. But I don't think he can be considered incompetent to hold the office of Governor, nor are the senators in question unable to carry out their respective duties.
The current spirit in Wisconsin is one of punishing the other side. Republicans want to fine, disempower or evict the Democrats for fleeing the state and holding up the legislative process; Dems want the Repubs' heads for passing budget repair and hurting the state in the process. But there's a time and a place for showing the other side that you disapprove of their actions while in office, right? It's at the ballot box. We can and will throw the bums out if they aren't serving the state well, but shouldn't we give them a chance to lead first? It seems to me that punishing politicians who displease us before they've had a chance to serve out their term is counterproductive at best and openly partisan at worst.
And punishing the other side doesn't just extend to the politicians. Whether through vandalism, boycotts, Facebook disapproval or... more boycotts, Wisconsin citizens are attempting to punish businesses-or in the case of Sendik's, individual citizens-who voted for or contributed financially to The Other Side. Of course, people are perfectly within their rights to do so, and maybe even have moral justification for doing so. But you'd have to explain to me how such actions are anything more than a reactionary impulse, born out of resentment over Walker's union-busting. I don't think that kind of action serves either the Democrats' political agenda or the good of Wisconsin as a state, nor is it intended to do either. It's about sticking it to the other guy because he just stuck it to us. And that's just wrong.
Boycotts and recalls won't help the state and they won't help what the Journal Sentinel called a "chasm of mistrust" that seems to have split Wisconsin. If we do nothing but punish the other side because they passed a bill we dislike (or from the other perspective, held up democracy), how are we supposed to put Wisconsin back together? In three years and change, voters will have a chance to tell Walker to go pound sand. Or if you believe that Walker will do too much damage in that time, he'll be eligible for a recall vote after one year in office. But I believe that all the recall efforts will do is to drag out this issue for another year, and make it harder for the state government to actually function as a government. I think what we're seeing now is lines of partisanship being drawn that won't be undone by a recall election, and that's bad for the state as well.
-Andy Tisdel
*Yes, of course 'gross incompetence' is a broad charge. I define it as when the Governor (for example) is no longer able to function as Governor, whether through a medical condition or a conflict of interest, or his or her committing criminal acts. And of course, if he morphed into Qadaffi or criminally abused the powers of his office, we would be within our rights to impeach or recall him. I just don't think it should be done simply because we disagree with him. Having the power to recall is a good thing, but I don't see using it for this reason.
Showing posts with label Scott Walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Walker. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Reconstituting the Budget Repair Bill: This is a Blatant Political Ploy
I'd like to draw the attention of the discerning reader to something that was buried at the bottom of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's most recent coverage of the ongoing budget repair hullaballoo in Wisconsin.
At the bottom of the article, the paper describes how before the no-longer-a-budget-repair-bill passed the Senate, Senate Republicans voted through a measure to fine each absent Democratic senator $100. Under what authority, you might ask? Under a measure they apparently voted through earlier this week, without the Democrats, that gives the Senate the authority to levy fines on Senators who miss consecutive legislative sessions.
On one level, this is no more than the Democrats deserve; if they abdicate (however temporarily) their voices in the Senate, they can hardly complain when business is conducted in their absence. But the idea of 'we're going to make up a new rule that didn't apply before and then punish you for violating it' is absurd. It's on the same level as a game of punch-buggy-no-punch-back. Those measures were passed in a spirit of undercutting the other side and nothing else.
It's important to keep that spirit in mind when you're thinking about the tactic Republicans have employed to break the stalemate. Whether or not they violated committee rules in getting the bill through the Senate, as I think, isn't the most important point. They have violated every semblance of a bipartisan process by rushing the measure through and not giving Democrats time to come back and debate the bill. And throughout the last few weeks, while Democrats and union leaders have offered to soften their views on the budget if the rollback of collective bargaining rights was eliminated, Walker has stuck to his original proposal. There is no spirit of compromise, concession or anything similar in the Republican mindset on this bill. That is wrong.
It's also important to keep in mind that the collective bargaining part of this bill is now legislatively, as well as symbolically, separated from the actual budget. This is fitting, if you believe as I do that it was always a blatant political move that was made primarily to reduce the power of unions and secondarily to have an effect on the state budget. This becomes more apparent when you consider that Walker passed $117.2 million worth of tax breaks that will apply to the next budget after this one immediately after he took office. Apparently, even in an era of massive budget deficits that must be closed, raising taxes or even holding them steady is politically impossible.
Now the modified union-busting bill has passed the Assembly and will soon be signed by Governor Walker. I cannot express just how strongly I feel that this is the wrong direction for the state to go in, no matter what our budget deficit is. The way this bill was passed and the unjust action it takes are, to me, disgusting. This will most certainly go to court, and I hope it is found unconstitutional.
But remember this, as recalling voters and opinion pollers certainly will: Scott Walker and the Republican majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature are not passing this bill to close a budget gap. This is about achieving a political goal and scoring points off of the other party, which had repeatedly shown that it is willing to compromise. This is union-busting, not solely an attempt to balance the budget. This is a huge step backwards in Wisconsin workers' rights, and that's exactly what Scott Walker has been aiming for all along.
At the bottom of the article, the paper describes how before the no-longer-a-budget-repair-bill passed the Senate, Senate Republicans voted through a measure to fine each absent Democratic senator $100. Under what authority, you might ask? Under a measure they apparently voted through earlier this week, without the Democrats, that gives the Senate the authority to levy fines on Senators who miss consecutive legislative sessions.
On one level, this is no more than the Democrats deserve; if they abdicate (however temporarily) their voices in the Senate, they can hardly complain when business is conducted in their absence. But the idea of 'we're going to make up a new rule that didn't apply before and then punish you for violating it' is absurd. It's on the same level as a game of punch-buggy-no-punch-back. Those measures were passed in a spirit of undercutting the other side and nothing else.
It's important to keep that spirit in mind when you're thinking about the tactic Republicans have employed to break the stalemate. Whether or not they violated committee rules in getting the bill through the Senate, as I think, isn't the most important point. They have violated every semblance of a bipartisan process by rushing the measure through and not giving Democrats time to come back and debate the bill. And throughout the last few weeks, while Democrats and union leaders have offered to soften their views on the budget if the rollback of collective bargaining rights was eliminated, Walker has stuck to his original proposal. There is no spirit of compromise, concession or anything similar in the Republican mindset on this bill. That is wrong.
It's also important to keep in mind that the collective bargaining part of this bill is now legislatively, as well as symbolically, separated from the actual budget. This is fitting, if you believe as I do that it was always a blatant political move that was made primarily to reduce the power of unions and secondarily to have an effect on the state budget. This becomes more apparent when you consider that Walker passed $117.2 million worth of tax breaks that will apply to the next budget after this one immediately after he took office. Apparently, even in an era of massive budget deficits that must be closed, raising taxes or even holding them steady is politically impossible.
Now the modified union-busting bill has passed the Assembly and will soon be signed by Governor Walker. I cannot express just how strongly I feel that this is the wrong direction for the state to go in, no matter what our budget deficit is. The way this bill was passed and the unjust action it takes are, to me, disgusting. This will most certainly go to court, and I hope it is found unconstitutional.
But remember this, as recalling voters and opinion pollers certainly will: Scott Walker and the Republican majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature are not passing this bill to close a budget gap. This is about achieving a political goal and scoring points off of the other party, which had repeatedly shown that it is willing to compromise. This is union-busting, not solely an attempt to balance the budget. This is a huge step backwards in Wisconsin workers' rights, and that's exactly what Scott Walker has been aiming for all along.
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