I remember when Republicans Scott Walker and GOP legislative candidates won the Governorship and Legislature in 2010, and Mark Belling crowed the day after, with emphasis, "they can do whatever they want."
I saved it - - November 4, 2010:
The overall diminution of the public sector and the public interest in favor of well-heeled, well-connected special interests, tax favors and other big benefits to the 1% and tax increases for lower-income Wisconsinites, the effective end of Civil Service hiring, an end of public sector collective bargaining, the installation of right-to-work rules in private sector union shops and the end for working people of higher, 'prevailing wages' on public projects, the sell-off of public lands and eased pollution enforcement by the state natural resources department along with the giveaway of public groundwater enabled by that department and an equally ideologically-hard-edged GOP Attorney General, the closing and financial starvation of Planned Parenthood clinics, mandatory drug-testing of public assistance recipients, the reduction of food stamp availability for the poor, campaign coordination with Koch/related interests to takeover and harden control of the State Supreme Court, the monkey-wrenching of Obamacare, cuts to public transit, rollbacks of multiple local control matters, easier development on shorelines, etc. etc.
So substitute "America" in all matters Wisconsin above: a rightist US Supreme Court for years and years and years; National Parks for Wisconsin public land; a monkey-wrenched Obamacare on the state level wiped out nationally; remaking tax law in one state with larger benefits to upper-earners in all 50 states included in something nightmarish called "The Ryan Budget,"...and you get a whiff of what can happen when "they can do whatever they want."
Shorter version:
America becomes Wisconsin, which became Waukesha County.
I saved it - - November 4, 2010:
"They can do whatever they want."
Mark Belling, Nov. 3rd, on his WISN-AM 1130 talk show, describing Republicans' history-making sweep of the Governor's office and both houses of the state legislature.We've documented many of the consequences of that truism on this blog for years:
The overall diminution of the public sector and the public interest in favor of well-heeled, well-connected special interests, tax favors and other big benefits to the 1% and tax increases for lower-income Wisconsinites, the effective end of Civil Service hiring, an end of public sector collective bargaining, the installation of right-to-work rules in private sector union shops and the end for working people of higher, 'prevailing wages' on public projects, the sell-off of public lands and eased pollution enforcement by the state natural resources department along with the giveaway of public groundwater enabled by that department and an equally ideologically-hard-edged GOP Attorney General, the closing and financial starvation of Planned Parenthood clinics, mandatory drug-testing of public assistance recipients, the reduction of food stamp availability for the poor, campaign coordination with Koch/related interests to takeover and harden control of the State Supreme Court, the monkey-wrenching of Obamacare, cuts to public transit, rollbacks of multiple local control matters, easier development on shorelines, etc. etc.
So substitute "America" in all matters Wisconsin above: a rightist US Supreme Court for years and years and years; National Parks for Wisconsin public land; a monkey-wrenched Obamacare on the state level wiped out nationally; remaking tax law in one state with larger benefits to upper-earners in all 50 states included in something nightmarish called "The Ryan Budget,"...and you get a whiff of what can happen when "they can do whatever they want."
Shorter version:
America becomes Wisconsin, which became Waukesha County.