Despite my bleery eyes after partying until the way early hours of the morning (a non-alcohol celebration of the end of the year and beginning of a new year), I woke up to watch the Packers win against Detroit (they're at 15-1 now and I still haven't figured out how they managed to lose that game) and then moved on to the Journal Sentinel where I read:
... 2011 was a year of big thinking in Wisconsin...
Voters have very strong opinions about Gov. Scott Walker, and for many it's because of his signature idea of 2011: He pushed to roll back more than 40 years of accepted practice by sharply curtailing bargaining rights for most of Wisconsin's thousands of public employees.
The results of this experiment in governance may not be known for years. Property tax bills certainly were moderated as a result of the governor's initiative, and the state's chronic structural deficit was tamed. But schools and municipalities complain that the accompanying budget cuts will hurt the state over the long term, and they may be right.
It's possible Walker may not be in office to see how all this turns out: It's likely that an effort to force him to defend his seat in a recall this summer will succeed. Whatever happens, this was one of the bigger ideas of the year - and one of the bigger political bets ever in Wisconsin.
I know the Journal Sentinel is RW leaning, but this is a WTF moment of monumental proportions.
Scott Walker hasn't just done the one thing they mentioned in their op ed as a gentle "roll back". He and his majority Republican allies have destroying public employee collective bargaining rights, freezing wages, and then massively pulling back those wages in costs for benefits like health insurance and pension. The JS seems to think that this is the only thing Walker and his cronies have done to this state.
They've benefitted multi national corporations and the wealthy through tax breaks and state subsidies, stripped environmental protections, devastated Badger Care and Medicaid funding, stripped a huge chunk of funding for our schools leaving school systems with classes of upwards of 47 students who have no art, music, remedial or college prep programs anymore because of the severe cuts. And those are just the ones, outside of firearm concealed carry "rights" that I can think of in my new years fuzzy brain.
Giles Goat Boy reminded me in the comments that my list, which I kew was far too limited also includes:
...voter suppression, unprecedented gerrymandering of legislative districts, appointing extreme partisans to non-partisan judgeships, and more recently the imposition of rules to squelch the free speech of the opposition. And he's only getting started.
Walker's idea is not original - it's called fascism - and I'm not surprised that the MJS seems to have some admiration for it.
But, hey, the Journal Sentinel argues, what he's done is just an "experiment" and it's a Big Idea so it must be good idea. And it's held the line on property taxes. It has done that only because part of the budget also prohibited local governments from mitigating the devastating cuts by raising the property taxes. Counties and municipalities have been left with the options of drastic service cuts or peeling off the backs of their own public employees and retirees to cover the losses of revenue. Since voters hate cuts, public employees are being squeezed as never before throughout the state.
The Journal-Sentinel is clearly trying to either rewrite our 2011 history or redefine the fight people are having with Scott Walker and our GOP legislators. It's not about collective bargaining alone. You don't have unions joined by community groups, churches, farmers, and concerned citizens just over union rights. It was an entire package of extremist legislation that affected the state in the wrong ways. It was a candidate for governor who promised jobs, jobs, jobs and not only delivered legislation that took from the many for the gain of the few, but is so unconcerned with jobs that Wisconsin is now Number One in job losses in the nation.
The media here in Wisconsin (with a few prized exceptions) is corporate, RW, or RW leaning. They are the primary reason Scott Walker, Ron Johnson, and many extremists state legislators got into office. Their failure to ask questions, demand answers, discuss past histories of the candidates, and look at who was funding the tens of millions spent on these elections in 2010 left most voters with the sense that there wasn't a lot of difference between the candidates.
They failed to point out that Walker had deliberately delayed a Milwaukee County budget report for several months (until after the election) to hide the huge budget deficit he created. The report delay came so late that the deficit, which could have been lessened, continued to grow and become nearly impossible to deal with after Walker washed his hands of it as he headed to Madison to become Governor. They also failed to publicize the ramifications (including legal ones) of his extremist actions as Milwaukee County Executive which added millions in costs to the taxpayers as he departed for his shiny new job.
For the love of Christ, they never even identified the close ties between Walker and Johnson with the Tea Baggers! I remember hearing people shocked at Johnsons victory speech where he boasted about the connection.
It isn't reporting when you ignore the facts It isn't reporting when you hold opponents of "your boy" to a higher standard and more scutiny. And rewriting history or redefining a conflict isn't a public service or just an opinion when it's clearly done as a service to a politician that the media outlet supports.
Traditional media is dying and this is one of the reasons why. Of course, one of the biggest lead stories today being about the doubling of the cost of Power Ball lottery tickets to $2 isn't helping to keep them alive.
Happy New Year! May the new year bring all the best to you.