Walker Is Out

~ Clarissa

I fell asleep and woke up in a beautiful world where Scott Walker dropped out of the race. I was really afraid of this one, people. His face of a stubborn, clueless fanatic kept reminding me of Dubya in a disturbing way. He’d get this inward – looking expression that you see in people who have lost contact with reality, and that freaked me our every single time.

This is real democracy, my friends. Everything is so beautifully unpredictable. Just a few months ago everybody  (me included) were certain he was a major possibility, and now he’s out.

This is a great development.

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Published by Clarissa

30 thoughts on “Walker Is Out”

  3. I am so happy about this. I almost let out an audible triumphant whoop in my office but I managed to restrain myself. 🙂 This is very good news.

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    2. Are you being sarcastic Dreidel? Do you think the systematic dismantling of Wisconsin’s once excellent system of higher education is commendable? Or perhaps you like Wisconsin has one of the worst systems of public transportation in the country and that he gave up free money for a rail system (and is paying millions of dollars in fines for renegging on a transportation contract)? That Wisconsin went from having reasonable gun laws (i.e. no guns in bars) to the wild west (guns and alcohol are a great mix!) and has consequently seen a gigantic spike in gun violence since he took office? That his administration created a system of bizarre food stamp laws that prevents people from buying dried beans or potatoes? I could go on and on but what do you like about him?

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    1. The excessive powers of teachers in Wisconsin who make between 40,000 and 50,000 a year? In what world does that represent “vastly excessive power?”

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      1. Teachers’ income isn’t the issue. It’s the stranglehold of teacher’s unions in many locations that make it virtually impossible for state and local governments to take any steps to improve the quality of public education. (Chicago is a perfect example.)

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        1. I thought Republicans were against Big Government, and now you are saying they want to expand the government to manage school teaching. Logic has left the building.

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          1. No, we want to reduce government size, and a good start would be to abolish all public unions. (Even the ultimate Big Daddy of expansive government, FDR, was opposed to public sector unions.)

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              1. Abolish unions and put nothing in their place except a simple hire at will, fire as required system. Simply hire the teachers the same way you’d hire a maid service or find a doctor, let them do their work if they’re competent, fire them if they aren’t. Doesn’t take a bureaucracy to do that.

                Logic falling from the heavens like a spring rain.

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        2. It’s sounding a bit like you are just uttering talking points. What specific piece of governmental legislation did the scary Teacher’s Union oppose that would have saved Wisconsin schools? And Wisconsin schools are (or were) quite successful in general. The so-called “failing” schools were almost exclusively located in urban Milwaukee. And expecting public schools to sole the problem of urban Milwaukee seems a bit unfair.

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          1. I don’t live in Wisconsin and you’re right, don’t know the specific local details.

            But the Internet news sites contain very detailed information about how the Chicago teachers’ union fought tooth and nail against every reasonable change that Rahm Emanuel tried to make in that school system, such as closing obviously failing schools and holding teachers accountable for the quality of their teaching — and the few articles that I saw back when Walker was fighting the good fight in your state indicated that the unions there were up to the same tricks.

            And if you think Wisconsin is the “wild west” because of changes in its gun control laws, why don’t you come out here and visit Arizona?

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            1. Chicago teachers’ union was opposing governmental overreach and telling government officials that they should limit their need to insert themselves into everything. So who’s against Big Daddy government? Those who say that teachers can decide on their own how to run their classrooms or those who want government officials to step in and assume control?

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              1. Hey, the government is going to run education, with or without unions standing in the way. How in the world can you claim that adding unions to the mix decreases the size of the government?

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              2. When people get together and self-govern, there is less space for government officials to micromanage. There is zero logic in saying that Walker – who’s a government official – can manage a classroom better then a teacher and then claim you are opposed to big government.

                I don’t mind difference of opinion but I don’t get this anti-logical reasoning. Spreading the rule of the state’s governor into a classroom, a grocery store, a university’s mission statement, a person’s internal organs even is small government? That makes no sense. If this isn’t extreme governmental overreach, I have no idea what is.

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              3. “When people get together and self-govern, there is less space for government officials to micromanage. ”

                The self-governing people of a democracy consists of voters in a voting booth.

                Teachers’ unions — like all public unions — aren’t “the people” separate from the government. They’re a massive intrusion into government function, and they aren’t replacing any public function that the government necessarily regulates through legislation.

                This isn’t a debate about logic, just about the philosophy of government function. Neither of us is getting anywhere in convincing the other, but I’ll keep pace as long as the true believers with different opinions want to keep running laps.

                And when this harmless tempest in a tea-cup is over, I’ll go to bed with no hard or hurt feelings. It’s already four AM in Arizona, anyway. 🙂

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            2. ‘don’t know the specific local details.”

              Ok. So why are you pro Walker again? Walker has nothing to do with Chicago or Illinois.

              “And if you think Wisconsin is the “wild west” because of changes in its gun control laws, why don’t you come out here and visit Arizona?”

              So you think it’s a good idea to have concealed weapons in bars? There is somebody who thinks this is a good idea? And ir has proven demonstrably to be a bad idea. Again, gun violence has spiked since Walker took office.

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              1. I already answered your question about Walker. The teachers’ union situation is analogous. (See my comments above.)

                Chicago (sorry, but it gets all the news) has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, and one of the worst rates of gun-related violence. In Arizona, we have essentially no gun control laws, and we’re one of the most peaceful, progress states in the U.S.

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              2. And let’s not even start with Illinois where Republican Rauner has been doing nothing else since his appointment than hire crowds of ultra – expensive bureaucrats. He is literally not doing anything else, the state has stopped functioning. He’s refusing to talk to anybody, to compromise, to look for solutions. All he wants is to sit in a mansion surrounded by a swelling crowd of paper-pushers.

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  9. “Let’s agree that it’s time for the Republican field to start narrowing anyway. And good night! ”

    Good night, Clarissa. I’ll see you tomorrow, whenever the sun comes up in Planet Arizona.

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