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So Scott Walker won the recall in Wisconsin last week...
The question is what does that say? Is it as Walker claimed in his victory speech last Tuesday night, "Tonight, we tell Wisconsin, we tell our country and we tell people all across the globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions?"
For some Wisconsinites I'm sure that's true. But I think for most, it was something else. I think it was a repudiation of knee jerk,
reactionary, self-serving leadership.
A million signatures on a petition aside, the recall should never have happened. And I think many Wisconsin residents knew that and voted against the recall as much as for Walker.
Do you know that if the recall had succeeded, Walker would have been only the third governor in American history to be recalled? And for what? A policy disagreement?
Do you know that this was the most expensive election in the history of Wisconsin with over 60 million dollars spent-most of it in out-of-state money streaming in to both sides? This doesn't include the millions of dollars in tax money squandered to prepare for and hold this special election...all for a policy disagreement.
The founding fathers had a remedy for policy disputes...it's called the ballot box on a regular cycle. If one doesn't like the policies of an elected governor, one has the right to vote him out in four years. That's the system.
But our political climate today has been overrun by reactionary, extreme histrionics. Leaders in mass hysteria, not leading, but grasping and negating. It's all so silly.
Did the leaders of the recall think that Scott Walker was going to destroy Wisconsin in his final two years? No one governor has ever destroyed a state (not even in my native state of Illinois-have you seen some of those guys?).
This knee jerk extremism is bi-partisan to be sure. Just listen to Republicans blather on about how Barack Obama is going to destroy America if he's elected again.
The ebb and flow of American life and history puts opposing politicos in charge at certain intervals and somehow it all works to keep us on a reasonable path somewhere down the middle. Somewhere down the road, the Democrats will have their day in Wisconsin and they'll be able to balance out some policies they are unhappy with.
That isn't to say we don't have serious problems...we do. We always have. But hysteria is never the answer. I love passion. I'm a big fan of people who make strong arguments for important causes they feel passionate about. But when passion turns to lustful demagoguery, I tune out.
Hysterical leadership solves few problems, but it does a great job of creating them. Most Wisconsinites seem to agree.
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