dagblog - Comments for "Wisconsin, Don't Despair. It's not You, it's Them"

Calculations of the dollars

Peter Schwartz — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:48:03 +0000

In reply to and for the rest of the year

Calculations of the dollars spent seem to be shifting...

and for the rest of the year

Flavius — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 01:25:23 +0000

and for the rest of the year he has a Democratic Senate (unless they can bribe some dem to cross over).

There's probably an equation that could be calculated along the lines of 'a $30M Republican financial edge produced a 5 point plus at the poll, actually not bad for our side.' Except that anything other than winning is always bad. Moral victory=s defeat.

Or as Leo Durocher put it "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser'

?Money doesn't change men, it

chucktrotter — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 21:00:15 +0000

In reply to So here are my thoughts in no

“Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.”

Henry Ford

No reason not to keep hope

Richard Day — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:40:37 +0000

In reply to Wisconsin, Don't Despair. It's not You, it's Them

No reason not to keep hope alive.

Wisconsin Senate (by 800 votes?) goes to the Dems.

I suppose there will be recount; but it is going to be hard for Walker to walk all over the proletariat without the Senate.

And the polls still demonstrate a strong Wisconsin urge to re-elect the Prez.

Plus, it seems, the Democrats

Peter Schwartz — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:55:32 +0000

In reply to So here are my thoughts in no

Plus, it seems, the Democrats did retake the Senate.

That's good.

Well, nothing

Michael Maiello — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:21:38 +0000

In reply to Wisconsin, Don't Despair. It's not You, it's Them

Well, nothing ventured...

...And, you know, there is something to be said for taking the better part of the year away from a sitting governor by making him have to unexpectedly defend his position.

So here are my thoughts in no

Peter Schwartz — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:37:16 +0000

In reply to Wisconsin, Don't Despair. It's not You, it's Them

So here are my thoughts in no particular order. Some may be off base, but they are:

• The fight against the anti-union law in Ohio was an overwhelming success. The laws in Wisconsin and Ohio may be too different to use the same tactic in both places, but it seems there is considerable--conservative, in the best sense of the word--feeling against uprooting labor institutions in this way IF it is channeled in the right way.

• So Wisconsites might have been saying: We don't like the way Walker is tearing the fabric of our society, but we don't want to inflict another tear trying to correct it. I don't know when Walker is up for re-election, or the dangers of letting him have his way for that long, but defeating Walker at re-election time might have great success. Or putting some of these edicts on the ballot.

• All that said, I think Bruce was right in saying that when the unions are attacked this directly, they have to fight back and take a stand. So I supported it.

• It seemed to me that Bartlett didn't have a lot of time to campaign. Maybe a less rushed effort would have been better to give him time to make the case for Bartlett and not just against Walker. In the US, you have to be for something to win.

• So given all the things working against this effort, it revealed HUGE public support for maintaining union and collective bargaining rights against big money's attempt to kill them off. Especially in the face of a general distaste for recalls. Winning-winning would have been better, but getting as close as they did shows there's public sentiment to be tapped, especially when done the right way.

In short, time to take hope from the results and refocus efforts going forward.

• I keep thinking there must be a way to neutralize the money advantage conservatives have. And their advantage is not just in the amount of money, but in its concentration in a few hands. I imagine there's relatively little squabbling over how and where the money will be spent, so they can compound its impact by focusing a lot of money on a few key targets.