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.

Karl Rove, the ultimate outside agitator, shows up in Milwaukee

You know, when I hear the gov, Scott Walker, or others of the extreme right talk about outside agitators coming into the state to stir things up, union thugs and all that, I scratch my head because these guys would be nothing without outside agitators and their money. We know, for instance, that recalls of some of the Wisconsin 14 are being organized by a secretive right-wing group in Utah, the American Recall Coalition. We know that Walker received big contributions from the Koch brothers, whose Koch Industries is based in Wichita.  We know that the Koch-founded and funded Americans for Prosperity brought outside agitator Sarah Palin and organizers into the state to try to drum up some passionless reaction to the massive protests of February and March.

Karl Rove. Master outside agitator with lots of money to throw around. Spoke last night at UWM. This guy loves to stir things up. It's a voice we don't really need here in Wisconsin right now in a state where honesty, integrity, truthfulness, compassion, a toning down of nasty rhetoric, a calming of emotions, and all that, are needed if we are to carve a path through our political crisis - one brought to you by subterfuge, less-than-honest campaigns, ideological rigidity and hidden agendas, TV ads intended to stir things up and keep us from talking to each other.

Union thugs, one of his favorite terms for organized public sector workers. You gotta be kidding me. Show me the thugs, Karl!!! Rove loves to show images of these dangerous people. His organization, Crossroads GPS, sponsors ads on TV showing you these made-up thugs. Here's how the Journal Sentinel article describes these ads:

Crossroads GPS...launched a $750,000 national cable television ad campaign that portrays government unions as self-serving bullies collecting mandatory dues to influence liberals such as President Barack Obama.

Photo: Margaret Swedish

Wow! friends, what an accusation! I just didn't know that all those families and teachers and firefighters and students and farmers in the streets of Madison were such lackeys of these bully unions. I didn't know they were forced so jubilently into the streets by their oppressive union masters!! I didn't know that my fellow yoga student who works at UW-Waukesha, or my friend of 40 years who is a social worker at a public middle school, were such agitators of social disruption!!!

Good God, do people really believe this stuff?  Karl Rove need only look in the mirror to find a perfect example of the political bully, who deceives and lies and manipulates, and throws around millions and millions of dollars, to effect the strategy of the far right wing that has a great distaste for popular democracy. His version does indeed harken back to our founding days when democracy belonged to rich white landowners.

He defended Walker as "courageous" for busting unions. What in the world is courageous about using your power, achieved by misleading voters, to crush public sector unions?! Courage is what happens when 14 State Senators, not able to live with their consciences if they don't do something about this assault on worker rights, take off for Illinois having no idea what happens next, but putting their fate in the hands of the people.  That's real political courage.

And when, oh when, did 'agitating' for liberal policies become a matter of thuggishness, or come to have this taint of illegitimacy, while agitating for rightwing policies is somehow permissible and patriotic? That alone represents very well the kind of destructive, negative, nasty political discourse that Rove fosters.

Rove has become a multi-multi-millionaire doing this stuff, and that should speak volumes about how far to trust his politics. We know who he represents, and it ain't you and me.

Those in the cheerleading section for Scott Walker tell you a lot about what he has in store for this state.

Learn more about Crossroads GPS from the link in the JS quote above, and from here.

Photo: Margaret Swedish

The sad thing about having Rove and his operations, along with Koch Industries lobbyists, Ams for Prosperity, and their ilk coming into our state is that it bodes ill for the future of our politics. Look for election campaigns to get uglier and nastier, for discourse to break down even more (they intend this as part of their strategy since polarization serves their interests) - unless we reject these groups and their efforts to divide and conquer us for the sake of their corporate backers.