Milwaukee’s own Der Angriff endorses Scott Walker.
No governor in recent memory has been so controversial. No governor in America is so polarizing. Everyone has an opinion about Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Here’s ours: We see no reason to remove Walker from office. We recommend him in the June 5 recall election.
Walker’s rematch with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was prompted by one issue: Walker’s tough stance with the state’s public-employee unions. It’s inconceivable that the recall election would be occurring absent that. And a disagreement over a single policy is simply not enough to justify a vote against the governor.
There is so much bullshit in this editorial it’s hard to know where to begin. They actually list reasons why Walker’s been such a failure.
We think his limits on collective bargaining went too far. We think Republicans generally took an unfortunate sharp turn to the right on social issues. That led to bills in the Legislature promoting abstinence-only education, limiting women’s health options and creating a concealed-carry law with insufficient training requirements.
They claim that Walker’s broken promise to create 250,000 jobs was no big deal.
Walker came to office promising that 250,000 new private-sector jobs would be created on his watch. But even considering the more favorable statistics released by the Walker administration last week, job creation has been sluggish.
There are several possible reasons for this: 1) Walker overpromised, forgetting that there is only so much that any one politician can do to promote private-sector job growth; 2) the political turmoil in the state is inhibiting job creation (Walker’s argument); or 3) Walker’s policies are killing job growth (Democrats’ argument).
We think choices 1 and 2 are the most likely reasons. Walker’s policies simply haven’t been in place long enough to know whether they are to blame. Our view is that global trends, including the turmoil in Europe, have much more to do with whether Wisconsin’s companies succeed than the policies of a single politician. We also believe that, at the margins, the yearlong tantrum over Walker has been harmful.
I struggle to see how they can give him a pass on this failure. If the citizen actions caused the problem, it was his policies that caused that turmoil in the first place! And now he gets a pass? Without Act 10, we would not be having a recall. It was Act 10 and the stripping of collective bargaining that triggered these events. Walker and the GOP are the only ones responsible for this situation. Are the editors arguing that citizens should just roll over and take it? I believe they are.
If the problem is “global trends, including the turmoil in Europe,” how does that explain why Wisconsin is last in the nation? Are we so much more export focused than every other state, including California? Why are other states doing so much better creating new private sector jobs than Wisconsin? The editors simply give Walker a free pass on what has been his biggest policy failure.
Even using Walker’s phony jobs numbers, Wisconsin is still far below the national average.
What is killing job creation are Walker’s policies including Act 10! Why is this so hard for the editors to understand? If you kick a hornet’s nest don’t be surprised when the hornets try to sting you.
Of course there is a long list of additional reasons to recall Scott Walker. I’m amused that the Editors at Der Angriff The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel picked on the one issue, the catalyst issue no doubt, that impacts the fewest number likely voters: Public Sector employees. There are 175,000 public sector employees in Wisconsin, yet nearly 900,000 people signed the recall petition.
- Never mind that Walker’s economic policies have been a catastrophic failure for the state. Wisconsin trails the nation in private sector job creation.
- Never mind that his DOA tried to lock the citizens out of the Capitol.
- Never mind that the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters gave him an F.
- Never mind that he has set up a legal defense fund, an act which indicates he’s in serious legal jeopardy.
Color me shocked (but unsurprised) that the MJS came out for Walker…
Once a hack paper, always a hack paper.
The Journal Sentinel won’t miss my puny subscription, they’ll be too busy dealing with the huge inundation of new subscriptions from grateful Waukesha County residents who finally appreciate the JS for the quality publication it really is.
The sad thing is, if Walker wins and I don’t have a subscription, I will miss the “wait – what?” editorials that come out after Walker screws the state in some new but obvious way. You know, like after the last election when the board was so surprised that Walker would cancel the train contract.
I hate the idea that the actions of the editorial board jeopardize the jobs of reporters who (at least some of them, anyway, well, maybe one) are doing serious work to expose and explain the mess that is Fitzwalkerstan, even if I’ve already read about it a month beforehand in blogs like this one. You can’t bring in subscribers who appreciate clear investigative journalism when you’re pissing off entire segments of the community with editorials that miss or ignore huge swaths of obvious information. I just can’t stomach the schizoid mess that the Journal Sentinel has become. I’m done, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
You are right, Sue – they won’t miss you one bit.
Der Angriff it is, indeed. If there is any single force that has served as a destructive and corruptive influence in Metro Milwaukee (and the state as a whole) it is our own Der Angriff – and long, long prior to the rise of Fitzwalkerstan. They are the primary source about Wisconsin events for all other news agencies outside of the state. I cringe every time I see them cited. They are a blot, a blight, and a scourge. This editorial comes as no surprise – I’m certain the story of how this editorial made it to print is in keeping with their egregious doings behind closed doors. Wouldn’t it be nice if that glorious free market principle of competition would make its way to the Milwaukee media market?
Who else did Der Angriff endorse? And long, long before not only Fitzwalkerstan but also Joe McCarthy?
The Journal endorsed HITLER! Just sayin’. . . .
Hitler Arrives
Adolf Hitler, the Austrian born house painter, becomes chancellor of Germany. Two years ago the news would have shocked the rest of the world and been marked by a heavy fall on security exchanges. For Hitler then stood for instability. His “program” was a collection of bait to catch the minds of the discontented and suffering. It had patches from the Italian Fascists and the Socialists, proposals that could never be reconciled. The German government under Hitler’s program at that time would have become either crazy or a return to monarchy, threatening economic stability, threatening the peace of the world.
Today we can look calmly on the accession of Hitler. For one thing, it had become inevitable; the man had to be tried to end his constant threat to every other ministry. For another thing, Hitler is better understood now. His talk often reached the emptiness of mere raving, but he was putting himself on the political map. He needed a following to make him at all important. Now he uses that following, as many another has, to make deals and trades. Hitler attains position as a result of fusion with the Hugenberg Nationalists, the Seldte Steel Helmets, the somewhat hazy Van Papen group. It is a tamed and compromising Adolf Hitler who takes office.
Germany may suffer from this change. Her burdened people may be appealed to in a spirit of swashbuckling patriotism to make further sacrifices and pay for an army and a navy. Saber-rattling may be used to distract attention from internal evils. A monarchy even may be attempted, or actually set up. Such are the growing pains of democracy. But the cooling power of responsibility, coupled with the dampening power of having to compromise, may be counted on to sober Hitler – or else produce a reaction that will displace him.
Hitler had enough of the peculiar quality of magnetism to make him inevitable. It is strange, when we come to think of it, that we can recount the experiments of nations and still each nation must try its own. France has fluctuated between the supposed radicalism of Herriot and the Poincare conservatism – and not found a great difference. Britain has tried first Baldwin, the MacDonald and compromised on both at once. Ireland was granted everything except De Valera, but had to have De Valera, too, without any great gain or loss apparent. Germany has to try Hitler, without much prospect that his accession to power will mean great changes.
“Hitler Arrives.” The Milwaukee Journal, 30 January 1933, p.8.
Fucking awesome. Thank you so much for that reference to the MJS and their endorsement of Hitler.
Yer welkommen. Now, remember those who pointed out last year that Herr Youknowwho’s early move was to go after the unions? Have fun replacing Herr Youknowwho’s name with Herr Walker’s name, Wisconsin for Germany, etc., here. It’s sorta scary.
I.e., “Walker is better understood now. His talk often reached the emptiness of pure raving, but he was putting himself on the political map. He needed a following to make him at all important. Now he uses that following, as many another has, to make deals and trades. . . .
“Wisconsin may suffer from this. . . . Her burdened people may be appealed to . . . to make further sacrifices. . . .”
For anyone else, like me, who did not get the “Der Angriff” reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Angriff
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t546586/
@ Migosh
Just wanted to say, thanks. An excellent and meaningful comment.
Achtung! The Milwaukee Journal was a great and independent newspaper which I delivered a long time ago. But its reputation has been zeroed out of late by the zany Zeitgeist of what may be laughingly be called its Editorial Board. Heil everyone.
Boy, you liberals love to throw the “intolerance” label around, but when you disagree with something what do you do? You come up with Hitler references, that’s what. Any reasonable liberal should strongly condemn these ridiculous comparisons, but so far I’m not seeing any.
Paul, go back and read Migosh’s comment again. Then think about the context. Then post your well reasoned rebuttal here. This isn’t simply painting a mustache on an Obama poster.
It was the failure of the Journal in the ’20s to see the big picture contrasted against the MJS’s failure to see the big picture today. Or do we have to spell it out even more?
Actually, der Angriff is also a war-years Germany reference, but it’s tied to the clip I used.
So using der Angriff is just as much a classic movie reference as it is a Nazi reference… But both work, really, when you’re talking about The Urinal-Sentinel. Or Republicans in general…
Because Republicans would never ever never use Nazis as a metaphor…
Paul,
It may behoove you to seriously examine all criticism put forth by your opponents. What is occurring here is called drawing a parallel. It is what thinking people do. People who think examine the world around them by looking at history and historical precedent. Now, you may find contentment in lumbering blindly among the bitter sheep with your uncritical bleating and your puerile regurgitations. Chew the conservative cud and you’ll never need to reflect upon anything ever again. But, maybe for a moment brush the wool back from your eyes as you are herded along with all the other un-ruminating ruminants. Maybe you could be that one pondering ungulate in the wayward herd that recognizes you’re getting fleeced.
If the contours of right wing extremism demonstrated by the rise of Nazism in the first half of the 20th century is just too distant in time for you to fathom, here’s another parallel, more recent and equally demonstrative of contemporary right wing extremism: The Marianas Islands. Perhaps even the mid-90’s is too distant for you to recall, but the architects of indentured servitude and slave labor exemplified by uber-pure capitalism were none other Scott Walker’s compatriot ideologues.
If Hitler is too hyperbolic a parallel for you, then by all means look to what modern right wing extremism is capable of accomplishing. Look to those innocuous ideas sported by the Karl Roves, Grover Norquists, Ralph Reeds, Jack Abramoffs, and Tom DeLays. By all means look at the what those ideas culminated in: look at the forced labor in Saipan with its barbed wire fences, squalid shacks, and its immigrant workers so desperate as to sell their own kidneys to raise enough money to escape.
Or just keep chewing your cud.
Ruminants are doubleplusgood!
Just substitute “Republican party” for “State” and you’ll understand the extent of their bellyfeel.
So all of these folks piling on with Walker references to Hitler were NOT shameful? Oh boy, thanks for setting the record straight, Rich – and I rest my case.
Paul, do you find it hard to stay on topic?
…says Paul as he strokes his short mustache and admires his brown shirt in the mirror.
Paul, you made no case at all. You had your chance and you failed. A weak non sequitor was all that you could manage. Thanks for playing.
If the Swastika fits…
So Paul, now you’re defending MJS? You fellas really need to get your talking points straight.
No serious discussion here I guess – have fun playing with each other guys, I’m sure it’s fun agreeing with each other. Enjoy the ride and best of luck on June 5th.
While I really hope that my side comes out on top, no matter who wins I pray that the state that I love can finally get this nonsense behind it.
Hopefully we can at least agree on that.
I think we hurt his fee-fees…
This from the guy who wrote several content-free comments.
Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
I think you’re right. Amazing isn’t it, how quickly conservatives flee when they must confront right wing continuities? It’s ugly to be sure, which I suppose is why they so often retreat, as Paul has done, into a numbing state of blackwhite.
MJS has ceased even a pretense of journalism. It erodes the very fabric of our society just as Der Angriff had. I agree with John Nichols when he calls for a media transformation in this country – for a functional democracy we need public funded journalism with integrity.
Hi PJ, I’ll debate the issues with you for sure and maybe we can still be friends when it’s all done. No retreat at all. However, some of the name calling and innuendo on here is ridiculous and I sure don’t need to put up with it.
Maybe I’m not as well education or sophisticated as you all – and I sure can’t use as many big words! However I am very comfortable with my beliefs in politics, religion, life. I suppose that’s all any of us are looking for, and I’m very happy and at peace. I wish the best for all of you as well.
Paul – Proud Milwaukee Resident, Proud County Government Employee and Proud Conservative
Hello Paul! Maybe we can discuss rather than debate. Our tone may prove less adversarial. If I offended you by implying you were a ruminant, I apologize. I’m open to hearing your objections to this post. My admittedly catty retort was in response to your allegation that associating Der Angriff to MJS was not an apt comparison. Correct me if I’ve misinterpreted you. Shall we begin there?
Sounds good. Well the MJS endorsement of Walker – while a headline and talking point for the right – was “tepid” at best, loaded with criticisms and disagreements with his methods and tactics. One gets the feeling that they endorsed Walker with their nose plugged, grudgingly doing so only because they had done so just 18 months ago. One also gets the feeling that if Walker wins they will endorse whoever runs against him in 2014.
I have not read the Der Angriff or studied anything about it, but I’m guessing that any type of articles or opinion pieces in there were 100% behind the Nazi party. In fact, I’m guessing the party actually funded the paper.
While provocative and even a bit fun, I think the comparison between the two is ridiculous.
By the way, I’ve spent almost my entire life in the Fox Valley and the influence of the JS up there is not nearly as strong as suggested above. It has a much bigger presence than any Madison paper, but the local dailies up there rule the roost.
By the way, had Sen. Feingold gotten in this race, the MJS would have endorsed him for sure. I’d bet my last Reichsmark on that!
First, in their own words, MJS writes: “… a disagreement over a single policy is simply not enough to justify a vote against the governor.” But they continue with an incomplete shortlist of reasons for precisely why the state’s largest paper should not endorse him. And their reasoning entirely dismisses the position that Act 10 is not a single issue. Embedded within it are a suite of issues with long lasting and dire implications, decades of consequences, for all state workers – not only public employees. Act 10 is union busting legislation with consequences that extend beyond the economic realm and into the political realm. Union busting severely weakens the Democratic base. It is, in effect, an attempt to abolish the opposition; Act 10 is not a simply a policy. Act 10 is political warfare. Political warfare is not good government. It is the worst possible kind of government.
MJS fails to point out the myriad points of what I would consider pathological dishonesty exhibited by a preacher’s son who claims to be a man of God. Walker’s is a long list of lies, his fabricated job numbers, and his bald faced falsehood about balancing the budget didn’t make it into the MJS list of his abject and moral failures.
MJS unashamedly succumbs to Walker’s intended divisiveness when they blame the victim – Walker’s legitimate opposition – for Wisconsin’s abysmal job numbers. They conclude with a similar invalidating sentiment which absolves Walker for employing his “divide and conquer” strategy: “It’s time to end the bickering and get back to the business of the state. We’ve had our differences with the governor, but he deserves a chance to complete his term.” In essence, they’re suggesting that Walker’s opponents should abandon the recall; they should simply acquiesce to being steamrolled – as if the recall isn’t a matter of getting back to the business of the state.
That’s not impartial journalism. It’s propaganda by virtues of mischaracterization/minimization of one side and by misrepresenting the other with lies of omission. Der Angriff was a vehicle for disseminating right wing extremism – making it more palatable. In that regard MJS mirrors it. I’ll give you this – Der Angriff was not intended to support democratic institutions, rather its intent was to dismantle a republic. The founding of MJS may not have been to subvert democracy, but given its lack of journalistic integrity it is part of the corrosive media process occurring in this country that is doing just that.
A side note:
In 1928 Goebbels wrote in Der Angriff that in order to abolish the Weimar democratic structures the Nazi Party armed themselves “with democracy’s weapons.” This is precisely what right wing extremists like Scott Walker are doing today – using democracy to undermine itself. Goebbels had another insight in 1928: “When democracy is near its end it will resort openly to the terror of capitalist dictatorship that it ordinarily uses covertly.” Just something to think about.
From the same essay:
“If we do not succeed in making our dangerous men immune to legal prosecution, they will all find themselves behind bars sooner or later.”
Just something to think about.
Hi PJ, Well I think we can both agree very wholeheartedly that the Journal-Sentinel is not a pillar of journalistic integrity! That being said, much of what you state in this essay is your opinion – you have yours, I have mine, and the MJS has “theirs”. However, it is a heck of a stretch to compare them to a Nazi Propaganda paper.
Some would call me a right-wing extremist – not totally sure what that means – but I can assure you that I am not attempting to undermine democracy – far from it. I love this county and I love our system of government – warts and all. That is important to remember especially this weekend, as we honor the many thousands of men and women who fought and died for our freedooms and our right to discuss issues like this. God Bless their souls.
Rest assured that if Mayor Barrett wins next week I will wish him well, hope he does a great job, and go on with my life. If Walker wins, I will be happy, hope he does a great job, and go on with my life. Either way, I know that I myself am most in charge of my destiny. Isn’t that what democracy and freedom is all about??
Hello Paul,
Absolutely, let us remember in love and gratitude all those who have fallen in battle. Let us remember, too, that each day in the USA 18 returning veterans commit suicide. And let us remember all those regarded as “enemy” who died in armed conflict while fighting against us. May we also remember the families who struggle and suffer when a loved one is lost in (or from) combat.
Dirge for Two Veterans
Walt Whitman
(1819-1892)
The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the Moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery and round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
For the son is with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)
Now nearer blow the bugles,
and the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d.
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)
O strong dead-march, you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face, you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
I will respond to your most recent post, Paul. But not just now.
Excellent thoughts, PJ – I was at Arlington Cemetery last weekend and it is a beautiful, haunting and powerful reminder of these sacrifices.
Remembering words like Whitman’s can hopefully help us to forget some of the present day differences. After all, we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
All the best to you and yours!
Hello Paul,
I was at Arlington for Memorial Day many years ago. Arlington is an overwhelming experience; your words capture the moment perfectly.
Reading Whitman’s words I was reminded of how similar contemporary political conflicts are to those that spurred America into savage and bloody war one American against the other. And to the dispute over the role of government that transformed the friendship of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson into a rivalry marked by bitter enmity. But they did eventually reconcile and died as dear friends within hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the nation – on July 4, 1776.
Thank you for your blessing – All the best to you and yours as well!