Scott Walker at bat for Alberta Darling

My wife just received a fundraising letter from Scott Walker.  Given that she’s a registered Democrat now, but WAS a GOP donor some ten years ago in Pennsylvania, this is a fundraising letter with a national appeal, and maybe a cheap one, as the lists my wife still appears on are comprised of long-lapsed donors — surely those lists are the cheap ones at the donor list clearing house.  (In my wife’s case, until three years ago she was the last pro-choice member of the Republican Party, and while she is fiscally conservative, there’s no going back.)  So we got this letter because Walker could buy our address cheaply, but also maybe because my wife is a woman just like Alberta Darling. 

Anyway, there are lessons to learn from the letter, perhaps chiefly from the identification of heroes and villains.  Darling, of course, is the hero, for helping to “take a bold turn in the right direction by standing strong for less government spending.”  Walker’s letter doesn’t mention the giveaways to big business Alberta Darling bravely championed.  She’s “tough” and “smart” and “brave,” and is a “tremendous conservative leader.”  (All of that is dramatically underscored in the letter, besides being bold.   No mention of ramming the union provisions through with little notice. 

The villains?  Darling faces off against “the Labor Bosses and the Madison Liberals,” which I can only assume to be Wednesday night softball league teams, right?  She’s also had to defend against the “Obama Organizers” and the “DC Labor Boss Bullies.”  Boy, that softball league sure has some killer teams?  And let’s not forget the Public Employee Labor Bosses!  The use of hyperbolic and breathless capitals is juvenile and witless, but doesn’t rival the inept use of scare quotes in the letter. 

One uses scare quotes to delegitimize.  So, if I were to write the “Honorable” Alberta Darling, one would immediately figure out I don’t think her honorable at all.  This fundraising letter tries that same tactic with “Recall Alberta Darling” and “recall election,” thereby implying that the democratic process that brought Alberta to her time of need is somehow illegitimate.  So why, then, also put the quotes around “Friends of Alberta Darling?”  Sure, I understand that organization is laughable, but I don’t think the writer of this letter was trying to lead me to that conclusion.  No, the letter writer here is simply a poor letter writer. 

Hey, they sent it to our house.  That says a lot about their knowledge of their own lists.  My wife used to take the entire contents of such letters and stuff it into the SASE and mail it back to them, forcing them to pay the postage.  You’d think they’d figure she’d gone off the reservation some time back. . . you know?  Alas, this one doesn’t include return postage.  I suppose I’ll just grin at the thought that they aren’t going to raise a whole lot of money on this national campaign if they’re using this stupid appeal and a really lousy list. 

But there’s some real conclusions to be made about this letter and how it encapuslates the struggle in Wisconsin.  The Walker faction seems to still think of themselves as heroes, or at least they think enough people will buy that line that it’s got value.  The recall elections will prove whether they are right, but I doubt that these folks will ever think recalls are legitimate, as they seem wholly full of themselves, at least if they believe the Walker rhetoric.  Yes, it is disturbing that they see themselves as heroes despite the corporate giveaways and cuts to vital programs.  I suppose they have to see themselves as that.  But is Walker fooling himself that the only opposition to him is Obama and the unions?  We know that’s not true, but I’m hoping he never finds out it isn’t true until too late.