Need for serious recall

So the campaign to recall Scott Walker is now underway, and there will be others yet to come, making for a wild political year. It's Recall Season in Wisconsin. Some of my friends and colleagues know I have at times expressed a certain skepticism - not because I don't think Walker needs recalling - he played politics of deception to get elected and politics of exclusion once in office, and the trail of money supporting him over the years has yet to be fully explored - but because of concerns about its prospects for success.

If this does not succeed, please, Wisconsin friends, do not become demoralized. This is a hard thing to do when even many Walker opponents are uncertain about using recall as an expression of political disagreement, however profound. He was elected, the wisdom goes, so let him serve his term and oust him in the next election.

But then others say, but just look at all the damage after only one year in office...

So we'll see how this goes. Most news pundits continue to focus their coverage on the elimination of collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and the undermining of the union recertification process itself. We do have a fiercely anti-union politics in this country right now, and this really ought to have surprised no one. Follow the path from Reagan to now. The politics of the corporate right has been taking over our national politics from the bottom up and using slick media tools to ramp up this anti-labor sentiment - along with bogus emotional issues like gun rights, abortion rights, and gay marriage, great tools of manipulation that hide the real agenda of the corporate right.

But if this remains the heart of the public debate, I fear this will not only not succeed but erode the politics of the state further. Because what is really needed is a politics of solidarity that centers on the situation of our state's most threatened populations - the poor, the discriminated against, the disabled, the elderly, immigrants, students, and all sorts of 'marginal' populations (only marginal because our culture puts them on the margins - not only Repubs do this). The advocacy work of the unions themselves needs to be about this solidarity, not only about protecting the interests of their members. The more labor joins with others in that solidarity, the more positive impact this campaign might have on Wisconsin's political culture.

Let's remember, please, that most public sector workers actually work on behalf of these very populations. That's why their demands matter. It's a question of putting the interests of those they serve at the top of their publicly expressed concerns. Many people think of these workers as spoiled or over-compensated, rather than providing vital services that meet the needs of the populations that, you know, have those needs.

The problems this state faces are abundant and frightening. Our state is in the hands of people who have little regard for the majority of us, especially workers and poor people, or for the lands, forests, and waters that make up the beauty and wonder that is Wisconsin. Collective bargaining rights may be the least of our worries if we allow mining companies, developers, and corporate polluters like Georgia-Pacific and immense industrial dairy farmers, to run our state politics, to write our laws and then hand them to the Fitzgerald brothers for passage in the statehouse. Think about the clash between environmental groups and unions over the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline extension. Unions want jobs for their members. Ecologists and climate scientists see the pyrrhic nature of this demand, knowing how the oil tar sands pose a threat to the planet whose consequences are beyond imagining - though we are beginning to imagine it.

There won't be any good union jobs in a world facing ecological collapse.

Or, closer to home, think iron ore mine in the Hurley area - unions also see good jobs while the Bad River Band and environmentalists see the imminent ruin of land and forest, and grave threats to a watershed relied on by many for drinking water.

We need a serious recall - a recalling of values and principles, a recalling of a social contract that understood that inequity and injustice is built into the capitalist system and therefore a strong publicly funded social safety net is required to keep those injustices from tipping into social unraveling and chaos.

We need a recall of the interrelationship between humans and their eco-communities, and how if you unravel those communities, if you ruin and toxify them, you threaten the future of the human as well.

I hope this campaign will focus on the corruption of our politics by billionaires like the Koch brothers who use Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and their vast wealth as tools of deception and manipulation of our people. I hope the campaign helps people realize that all this passionate focus on issues like gun rights have been part of that manipulation, great distractions that keep the public focus away from the concentration of wealth and erosion of democracy itself that is what is really at stake here (I get to carry my gun in my belt, who cares if my water is giving me and my children cancer?).

I hope the recall is a recall of what democracy really is and that it will promote a renewal of democratic culture by helping people realize what is really happening here, and how Wisconsin has become a political center for the most anti-democratic tendencies in the country, a testing ground, if you will, for how far these people can go.

I hope it is a recall of the value of dialogue, mutual respect, cooperation and compromise, the supremacy of the right to human well-being within healthy eco-communities over the right to wealth generation and corporate profit-making, the importance of neighborhood and community if we are to return to a social and cultural sanity that is being lost amidst the noise being fomented by these rightists to keep us from caring about one another.

Yes, we need a recall - a really profound one.

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All photos: Margaret Swedish

Giving power to reshape Medicaid to a guy who disdains Medicaid

The front page article says what is true, of course. Our rightist anti-poor legislature (you know, as Paul Ryan has said, giving people access to government assistance makes them indolent and lazy, something that echoes in our state legislature and the gov's office) has handed Walker the power to reshape Medicaid without the involvement of the legislature, not even hearings to probe the impacts of his changes.

This is the kind of government these people want. There is something abhorrent to me about rich and powerful people reshaping programs that serve the poorest and most vulnerable among us. The outcome is usually not so good - for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.

Which is why so much this administration has in mind is gaining increasingly vocal concern and opposition from churches and other faith-based communities. From the article:

"We don't know exactly what will be coming down the pike," said Bob Jacobson, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families. "And we don't know how we can have a voice in those decisions when the Legislature has been taken out of the picture."

But that's the point, of course, to take the legislature, the bodies most representative of the people, out of the picture. It is yet another anti-democracy move on the part of our one-party state government - which is trying to remove access to its most controversial decisions from the people whom they most impact and hand them to our autocratic governor.

Walker does not like the messiness of democratic governance.  Ryan, Ron Johnson, and their ilk are the same - followers of Ayn Rand who believe in rule by the elite over the ignorant masses. What has happened to the old GOP is really quite sad. That was the party of the family in which I grew up, and while I left those tendencies behind long ago, I know the party of Ike and Goldwater and Nixon would look with disdain on the corporate rightist ideologues who now rule it.

This is a vent this morning, pure and simple. I wish it was also hyperbole. Sadly, it is not.

Take from the poor to give to the rich

Some days the headlines prove my point: we are in an era when it has become okay to take from the poor to give to the rich, to take from the vulnerable and struggling and enrich corporations further, to use government as a tool to accelerate the growing gap between rich and poor.

And so today. I pick up my morning paper and see this headline: "Panel votes for corporate tax break," and the sub-head below it, "But GOP-run committee further cuts credits for working poor."

Our fearless governor keeps telling us the state is broke. It ain't broke. But in these days of tighter budgets caused by the financial collapse of 2008, money is being moved around, that's for sure. The corporate right, which pays for campaigns like Scott Walker's, has an opportunity right now to convince the public that the poor simply must suffer more because of budget problems. Meanwhile, corporations and their CEOs are making enormous profits and executive payouts while tax policy and government subsidies are being increased for the corporate sector.

The mantra is that we must create jobs. And people fall for it - or at least many do.

The story in the paper describes how Repubs voted yesterday to further cut taxes for corporations and investors while slashing tax credits for the working poor. Very moral, these guys.  But poor people aren't able to contribute much to political campaigns.

Earlier in May I was struck by this headline: "State may lose food assistance funding; Federal officials cite privatization efforts."  You see, in this case, Walker & Co. want to hand over more of the administration of the FoodShare program, including the process of deciding who gets the assistance, to the private sector. The feds are saying, um no, not with federal money. If you go as far as you want to go, you will not only lose federal money, you will have to pay us back.

The feds have seen the results in states that have taken such steps, and it ain't a pretty picture.

But it reveals priorities, doesn't it? See, the thing about government is this - while it is fine to use some public funds to give businesses needed boosts, emphasis on the word needed, it is not the role of government to be at the service of corporations, to be a servant of them, to give them whatever they want to make a profit. The role of government is to represent the concerns of all its citizens, to defend political and civil rights, to promote justice and the Constitution equally for all, and to protect the most vulnerable among us.

Government is not a business and should not be run like one. It is at the service of the people to help promote the dignity and well-being of its citizens, and to protect the common good and the good of the commons.

Right now, these libertarian, Ayn Rand, types of very, very rich people (like the Koch brothers, Paul Ryan, or Rand Paul) who control the Repub party, especially in this state, are trying to force on us a very different idea of government - as an instrument for a survival of the fittest kind of economics. They do not see government as a service and look with scorn on those who need government services to get by in hard times.

Paul Ryan speaks often of people who don't want to work and how government programs promote laziness and indolence - and I wonder if he gets at all what it's like to be poor, and, in this city with deep-seated racism still at work, to be African-American, trying to survive these bad times, raise your kids, find a job in this time of high unemployment and lingering discrimination.

But it doesn't matter if he gets it, because he is a follower of Ayn Rand and the poor are just the social detritus, those left behind while the superior among us go off and run businesses and get wealthy, rising to the top, deserving because of their superiority. They want to rule the world.

This lack of compassion runs through many of these policies and, if we follow this path, our future will be grim indeed. As long as there is more emotion around concealed carry than programs that support poor communities and families trying to feed their kids or find a job, we are a morally and ethically impoverished, compromised society.  As long as we see struggling people, poor people, as other-than-us and deserving of their lot, instead of our sisters and brothers whose fate we share, we are on a road to moral bankruptcy as a society.

One more thing to share, this very good essay by NY Times Editorial Observer Eduardo Porter, A Budget Without Core Purposes, Taxation Without Compassion. He says it. He really lays it bare.

The budgetary policy of the United States has been the least generous in the industrial world for a very long time.

And that ought to make us embarrassed and very ashamed. I urge you to read the rest.

After holiday weekend, Walker is still governor

Did you have a good weekend? Personally, after 2 days of this heat and humidity, I'm starting to feel nostalgic for cold, wind, and rain.  Imagine! the rest of the week is supposed to be something resembling normal!

Which is more than I can say for our dinosaur era state politics. The race backwards continues, except the race forward to the strengthening of the corporate state.

If anyone still questions my contention that the heart of the rightist corporate agenda is to shift more public funds - those funds that are accountable to you and me and our elected politicians - to the private corporate sector for their profit, I could hardly have better evidence than the recent news - CAPCOs.

If you took time during these busy days to read the newspaper, you've been learning about them on the front page. Gov Walker, undoubtedly at the behest of his corporate backers (because he would not by himself even know what 'certified capital' companies are), has been planning to offer $200 million of your tax dollars (right, as most of us slip into greater insecurity and even impoverishment) towards a program called the Jobs Now Fund (this is getting really, really cynical, with names like that) as tax breaks to insurance companies, and control of a $250 million fund to outside management firms called 'certified capital companies' (CAPCOs).

I don't want to take space in a blog post to explain what these are so urge you to read this Journal Sentinel article which does it pretty well. Not only would we dole out these hundreds of millions of your money to these insurance companies, but it would allow the insurance companies to recoup 80% of their investment - in other words, they don't have to pay us back.

He says this is for job creation. But there is very little evidence that this program will create many jobs, and certainly few with decent pay, while there is a lot of evidence that these private companies will make out handily.

So loud was the outcry - even from some Repubs - that Walker's fearless spokesperson Cullen Werwie was forced to acknowledge that Walker may need to rethink his plan.

Here's another example: Repubs in the legislature are considering a bill to lower energy rates for big companies in the state - mind you, big ones, like Mercury Marine which has already used state funds and tax breaks as part of its profit margin, thanks to Gov Doyle), not small businesses or family farmers - to (really, it's actually hard to write this with a straight face or without tearing my hair out) help the economy grow.

Cynicism does not even say it. They want us to be stupid, to not get what's going on.

Who will pay the overall energy costs in this state when you lower them for the big firms?  Right - another transfer of public money to big corporations.

To put this in a larger context, a few days ago a federal judge in Virginia, appointed by Reagan, just ruled that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money directly to political campaigns.

I cannot put write any clearer what is happening here than by simply reporting the news. Meanwhile, MPS is planning to cut 21 nurses from its schools, the JS reports that dental care for poor kids in this state is so woeful that we are among the bottom of the 50 states in delivering care. Private and public benefits have been cut or disappeared in recent years, wages are falling, and good-paying jobs are being replaced with MacDonalds. We are in a downward spiral in terms of well-being for all, aided and abetted by the policies of these rightist state governments.

Paul Ryan is trying to do this at the national level. This is not just Walker. He is a tool, one of many being used around the country to dismantle the public sector for the good of the corporate right.

We need to understand this. We are in trouble in any case, but if we don't know this, or refuse to know this, we are in big, big trouble indeed.

Courage, Scott? Really?

Sometimes when the gov is quoted, I just cringe. Really, it can be quite embarrassing.

Here's Walker speaking at the annual Repub convention about the coming recall elections: "I'm convinced this isn't just about the (Republican) majority in the state Senate. This isn't just about where the Legislature is headed in the state of Wisconsin. This is ultimately about courage."

Oh please, get a grip. This is no more about courage than it was to bust unions and open the state for business. Being a tool of the corporate right hardly takes courage. Standing up to them - and to you Repubs who are their tools - that does take courage in the face of the relentless money and media assault against those trying to mount opposition to your anti-democratic agenda.

The word 'courage' is reserved for those working in the face of extraordinary odds to provide a life of dignity for their families as you rip apart their social safety nets, their plans for retirement, their good-paying jobs, and replace them with, well, poor-paying jobs, as you make a fierce full-out assault on public education, mass transit, environmental regulations and a whole host of programs that have to do with our quality of life.

Courage is what it will take to win back the civil and political rights (including the right to vote) that you have put under assault with your mania to achieve power for the corporate right over our government.

When your Repubs in the legislature take away rights, close down debate on legislation, attempt quick votes sometimes in the dead of night, yell at your opposition and try to stifle their voices - what you show is cowardice, not courage. And you know what it's really about, gov? It's not about courage, it's about the Repub majority in the state Senate. It's about politics, gov. You know it, and we know it. It's about where power will rest in this state, in the hands of the corporate right and their paid-for politicians, or in the people who are the rock bottom foundation of any real democracy.

Stifling broad democratic participation reveals fear and cowardice, reveals awareness that what you are trying to do cannot face up to broad democratic participation. Courage - that's what it will take to win back the rights taken away by the fearmongers and those with dubious or hidden agendas.

Once again, the only way to win back what is being taken by the right not only in Wisconsin but around the country is by way of a new civil rights movement with an umbrella big enough to embrace all the vulnerable populations that are being marginalized, impoverished, and disenfranchised under the current regime.

Losing our democracy

Wisconsin's democracy was significantly eroded last night with the passing of the Voter I.D. law in the assembly (note to opponents of the bill: 2 Democrats voted with the Repubs. All assembly members who voted for this need to hear from constituents, but especially Peggy Krusick of Milwaukee and Tony Staskunas of West Allis).

Here's what I want to say about this: rightist racists in this country, some of them very powerful corporate political actors (yes, I do mean you among them, Koch brothers), some of them politicians in state and federal government, are stunned that we have an African-American president, that he remains popular no matter how much they try to demean or discredit him (the reaction to the appearance of Common at the White House is beyond revealing of the racist undertones of much of the opposition).

What I want to say is that this voter I.D. law and others like it around the country are intended to make sure something like this does not happen again. Two of Prez Obama's biggest constituencies are African-Americans and students. In our state, in part because of our long history of racism (I grew up with this, so I know what I am talking about), poverty has affected African-Americans most especially in this city of Milwaukee.

So, voter I.D. - make it harder for people who are poor to vote, and make it harder for students to vote.

And, really, this is about stopping voter fraud, that nearly nonexistent problem?

What do I say to my poll volunteers when I go to the same table with the same people and they have to ask for an I.D. and none of us believe in this violation of our voting rights?

I hear these Repubs say that it will make us all feel more confident in the voting process. Really, guys who are trying to weaken and limit democracy, you guys who try to pass laws by bypassing rules, quick votes when you hope no one is noticing or can create a ruckus, you who right now walk right around the overwhelming opposition to many of your policies now that people know what they are - and you care neither for this opposition or even for creating the spaces for it to be expressed - you're going to lecture us on trust in the democratic process?

I'm going to say this because it is true - certainly there are people who sincerely believe in this agenda thinking it might make a better world, but that is not what Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers are about. To understand what they are about, all one need to is a little reading and research on the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Cato Institute (another Koch-funded group), Americans for Prosperity, Heartland Institute - the list is long - rightist corporate backed groups who are trying to steal our public money, eliminate government, and undermine democracy itself in the cause of a global market running rampant and free for their benefit.

For a one-stop website to look at the background of these and other such groups, visit SourceWatch. You will find plenty here to unnerve and alarm you.

The first step in exercising one's demoratic rights is to be well-informed, well-armed, if you will, with information. The first step is to know what's really going on so that we aren't manipulated by media messages of the same people behind these rightist groups and their anti-democratic agenda.

The rally on Saturday needs to get to the heart of the matter. The assault on collective bargaining rights is symptom, not the fundamental cause. The fundamental cause is the attack on democracy itself so that the corporate right can have its way with the national and global economy - and trust me, friends, not for the betterment of the common good or the good of the commons.