If you want progressive change, you have to VOTE

Now we’re stuck with Walker for another four years, despite all the dissension.  Now we’re stuck with a fully Republican Congress.

But I’ve seen the numbers: When everybody gets out and votes in this state, we elect Democrats.  And the elections were all very close.

So you’re out there.  And you say you hate Walker for all the crap he’s done to ruin this state.  Where were you?  The new Voter ID law was blocked for this election, so you can’t say you couldn’t get an ID.

Jezebel expressed it well, since apparently it’s not just a Wisconsin problem:

Election 2014 Postmortem: We f**king did this to ourselves

A Democratic president can’t do much with a Republican Congress who blocks everything he wants–even when they themselves came up with the idea (ie, Republican response to Obamacare, which was a Republican plan and a compromise to get them on board).  They’re doing this on purpose.

And now we still have public unions who have lost their rights to bargain over benefits and working conditions, health care coverage which is hamstrung by Walker’s refusal to take funds, and schools forced to slash budgets.

A lot of our teachers bailed after Act 10 passed.  Some of the effects of Act 10 are detailed here.

A lot of people are in a health care limbo because Walker dumped them from BadgerCare, but they’re not able to get coverage through ObamaCare.  This wouldn’t have happened if he went along with how ObamaCare is supposed to work.

Minnesota is doing far better than Wisconsin is, with their more liberal policies.

And now Walker is able to ram through everything he wants done, while we Democrats get nothing, even though we are half of this state.  And a Republican Congress gets everything they want, while we get nothing, even though we are half of this country.

And the Koch brothers have Walker in their pockets.  I did note that Burke was leading until Walker’s fat cat donors gave huge amounts to boost the campaign.

This is why Citizens United needs to go down: Elections should not be bought.  They should not be determined based on who has the biggest donors.  They should be determined based on who is the best candidate with the best ideas.  That did not happen here.

There is also corruption, which has been coming out in the newspapers lately: E-mails prove Walker’s past campaigns engaged in activity which is against state law, and that corporations were buying favors.

And now he’s talking again about running for president.

Just imagine: President Walker.  He’s encouraged now because he keeps winning despite opposition.  After he has so heavily damaged our wonderful state and turned brother against brother, so that even longtime friends and family barely speak to each other, do you want to see the whole country like this?  Imagine another Civil War…..

My husband is conservative from a conservative family.  He’s been saying things lately that make me cringe, wondering who he’s listening to and what he’s reading to get such strange ideas, so this even gets into households.

Yet his family treats him as if he’s abandoned the family’s religion, whenever he has a moderate viewpoint.  And whenever he sounds even remotely like he’s listening to the liberal side of things on ANY subject, his brother will scold him, stonewall, and threaten to unfriend him on Facebook.

My husband is more of a moderate, and doesn’t like pandering to corporations, Scott Walker, or eliminating the Common Core.  He sees the excesses of the Tea Party, which has taken over the Republican Party.

He detests the callous attitude of our Tea Party ex-friend Richard over how the poor would suffer for years if all the so-called “entitlement” programs are discontinued.  He even willingly watches The Daily Show/Colbert Report along with me.

But his brother treats him like the Antichrist for this.  It’s Groupthink on a family level, so you can’t even consider that liberals have good ideas.

(It also shows how ridiculous Richard’s wife was for treating me like a threat to her marriage.  Yeah, like I’d want to be married to an anarchist-Libertarian-Tea Partier.)

And, oh yeah, now my district has lost its retiring moderate representative, replaced by a raving lunatic.  We had a fiscally conservative Democrat running against him, a moderate who should’ve been able to win, and even our retiring Republican representative refused to back the raving lunatic Republican.

Petri was rather miffed by the guy’s remarks about Petri not being conservative enough:

“Why would I endorse a person who has said that if in two years people said he was ‘just like Petri’ he would be insulted?” Petri said. “I don’t want to smother him with love or anything like that.”…

“Grothman said if the GOP turns down the path Petri did, he will go against it,” Petri said. “I always feel you want to reach out and work with people — that has been my approach to both parties.” He said Harris has done “a fine job” as county executive. —FdL Reporter

There was a time when this wasn’t such a big deal: One party may win control of a state/the country, but still work with the other party.

But lately, “compromise” has become a dirty word.  So winner takes it all and the loser gets nothing.  That’s not how it’s supposed to be.

There are also comments that the Democratic candidates were trying not to be too Democrat, and distancing themselves from the President, which also turned voters off.

What the heck was that about?  Why abandon the President?  He’s no George Bush–He’s a good president, or would be if Congress still believed in compromise.

(I heard Boehner’s speech when Obama won re-election: To Boehner, “compromise” means “Democrats do what the Republicans want.”  Not the other way around.)

I’ve heard so much of the slander being thrown against this president, a smear campaign meant to get him out so a Republican gets voted in next.  “Dictatorship”?  Seriously?  And Benghazi is hardly the scandal Fox News makes it into.  It’s brainwashing from the conservative media.

(Such as the conservative media myth that the mainstream media is “liberal,” which sets you up to believe the conservative pundits instead.)

So now we abandon him, too, and let the bullies win?  If he weren’t getting so much pushback from Congress, we’d see how his policies can actually work well.

Scott Walker is counting on you to stay home. That’s because when you don’t vote, you’re saying that you approve of the way he’s running our state.

Not voting means that you approve of more low-wage jobs, drastic cuts to public education and BadgerCare, and taking away women’s and workers’ rights.

Republicans admit that their chances of winning are better when fewer people vote.  That’s why Scott Walker pushed his unconstitutional voter ID law.  That’s why he cut back early voting hours and eliminated weekends.

If you don’t vote, you’re voicing your approval of these attempts to rig the election.

Right now, we have the chance to show Walker and his corporate allies that they are wrong on voter ID, wrong on minimum wage, wrong on public education, wrong on women’s health, wrong on Badgercare, wrong on collective bargaining, and wrong for Wisconsin. But if you don’t vote, nothing changes.

You can’t predict the future, but you do have the right to vote today. Don’t let anything get in the way of casting your ballot.  Put the past four years behind you, and move Wisconsin toward a better future.  Vote now! –Jennifer Epps-Addison, Not Voting is a Vote for Scott Walker

Hopefully the results of this election will prove to the cynical just how important it is to exercise your precious right to vote.

Also see I’m Scared by Wisconsin Soapbox:

Reason why I’m up a creek is because now that the election is over, everyone is more than willing to discuss what they are planning, and with a four year agenda already under their belts, we know what it will look like. (Oh hey SB 286!)

Oh, and with those pesky moderates in the State Senate gone, this legislative session will be a blood-red tidal wave to anything the even resembles something that resembles Wisconsin’s progressive tradition.

From the Wisconsin State Journal: 
Walker says he hopes to fast-track the state budget process, expand the taxpayer-funded school voucher program, require drug tests for those seeking food stamps and unemployment benefits, and continue income and property tax cuts.

“We’re going to be even more aggressive now,” Walker told members of his Cabinet on Wednesday at the Capitol. “Because I think we’ve got an even stronger ally in the Legislature.”

Yep… All things that were mentioned to those of us who were paying close attention to the election. Not a damn thing joe or jane average voter probably know much about with any depth.

Oh, and let’s not forget the 45-ish% of people who could’ve voted but opted to sit on the sidelines and not give a hoot.

Vos said his priorities include continuing tax cuts, pushing for school accountability and expanding the state’s voucher program, overhauling the state Government Accountability Board, and changing how secret John Doe investigations are conducted in Wisconsin. 

Vos also talked about replacing Common Core with educational standards developed in Wisconsin and changes to campaign finance laws.

Time to screw over the teachers even more after all the work they’ve gone through getting ready for Common Core.  Time to fix things so John Doe investigations can stop nailing Walker’s people for illegal activities.  Changes to campaign finance laws?  You mean, so what Walker’s people did, is no longer illegal?

Some research into the Koch Brothers reveals where the Tea Party ideas, which have taken over the Republican Party, actually come from.  Voting is our best means of fighting this.

Now Ron Johnson says that Congress will compromise with the President.  That would be refreshing, and a glimmer of hope–but I will believe it when I see it.