“When a college drop-out with 6 friends and staff members found guilty of corruption wins against a Harvard graduate from a proud Wisconsin family with global name recognition – there is simply no amount of snark or cleverness to make sense of this reality.
No photoshop magic can make it palatable or amusing.”
I enjoyed reading Root River Siren over the years, and I’m sad to see her go. Wisconsin’s progressives need all the help they can get right now, given the state of things here in Wisconsin.
“Voters respect boldness. Republican leaders have figured out that this is the way to win. Why can’t Democrats? Conservatives have the Tea Party. Where is our extreme left? What do we have? Nothing, because the Democratic Party (State and National) are simply too scared to embrace “the fringe”.”
I filled in the line on the ballot by walkers name, but I didn’t vote for him. I voted for ACT 10. I don’t know if there is enough space here to explain my position. First some background. Prior to 2010 I never voted. Not once. I am a small business owner struggling. For the past ten years it has infuriated me that my local democrat politicians will announce in the local press “We didn’t raise your taxes!!! Love us!!!” Well taxes on homeowners might have been held in line, mine went up by a high single digit percentage. Back in 2009 they went up by a double digit percentage. I went to my city hall to talk to the assessor and my fifteen minutes of time turned into 2 hours with the assessor telling me no (as no we cant lower your assessment or taxes). I then went to the city manager. He told me “Boy you aren’t much of a business man. Just raise your prices to make up for the tax increase.” I said “But what about my competition that doesn’t raise their prices??” It was then that I was asked to leave. Walking down the hall I vowed to myself that if Walker was on the ballot the following fall I was going to vote for him. You people are out of touch with most small business people and people in general. Want proof?? Look at the vote totals and the Wisconsin map you put up. I could vote democrat if I felt the democrats understood where I am coming from. They don’t. I have public employees in my family. They have no idea how hard it is to make a payroll, pay health insurance costs, liability insurance, advertising, taxes and on and on. I want to pay my employees better. They are good people. But how can I when my costs like taxes keep going up faster than inflation?? And just to be clear, I pay way way above the minimum wage. It has been my experience most liberals have no clue how a business operates. Many think every dollar that comes in is profit. We business people just want to cheat and screw everybody. And my public employee relatives have no idea how much their benefits cost or how they compare to the private sector. My insurance has a $2500 deductible and $4500 out of pocket. When I ask my relatives whats your deductible or co-insurance they have no clue. When I ask how much has to be put away to fund their pension, they have no clue. I then turn on the television to see people in orange shirts protesting how they are getting screwed because now they have to pay something towards their once free benefits. I then see the capitol singers ruining weddings in the capitol building because they cant take no for an answer. Do you people ever look at yourselves and ask how you look to somebody like me. We have nothing in common. So how can I vote democrat when that’s how I perceive your average democrat and your message???
And just to react to the above comment on Mary Burke being a “Harvard” graduate. That sounds snobbish to me. I went to Marquette and graduated with my BS in less than 4 years. I don’t brag about it. As I understand, liberals think rich people have too much and don’t like the one percent, yet you pick a one percenter (that’s what she is) to be your candidate. You like unions. I have no problem with unions in the private sector. But you pick somebody whose family company isn’t union. You don’t like jobs being shipped overseas. Neither do I. I want the jobs to stay here. Yet Mary Burkes family company shipped most of their jobs to China. Worse yet, I read in a Milwaukee Journal article that when the laid off U.S employees asked that Trek pay for their retraining through their unemployment benefits (as required by legislation signed by Bush and supported by both democrats and republicans), Trek said no we wont because your jobs weren’t shipped to china. The employees sued in court and Trek was forced to pay. I printed that article out and had it in my desk. When ever somebody would say they were thinking about voting for Burke I would take that article out and show them. I would say this is the business Mary Burke is bragging about being a part of. I think I turned several possibly democrat votes into republican ones just with that. If you would get a “real” person that I could relate to, not see tax increases as a God given right that I should “just raise my prices” to cover, and not have these people doing these idiotic protests like singing during somebodies wedding so it can be ruined (and have those people represented as your average democrat) then maybe we could talk.
Money TALKS period!!
R.I.P RRS
Herein from RRS is the consequence upon the public of a failure who is a zealot with a false conscience, who has mastered the art of deception in speech and written statement posing half truths, falsities, the misleading, unsubstantiated, and speculative as factual or truthful. Walker is a grand master at the art of deceit in part or the whole.
I am reminded of a question/accusation from a classic movie based upon a Agatha Christie book, appropriate for Scott Walker, when a perjured witness is confronted by the barrister with the statement, “…are you not in fact, a chronic and habitual LIAR?”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Witness_for_the_Prosecution