LOL Next up, SCOTUS and Obamacare. I predict that will be a good day for me too. Cheers!
You don’t have to be a liberal to be excited for the SCOTUS ruling. That’s gonna be a great day for me as well and I would generally be considered a liberal. The only uninteresting result would be them upholding everything. If they scrap the whole law it’s gonna be fascinating seeing what happens with the hospitals that have already started implementing some of the changes mandated in the law. And it’ll be fun watching the Republicans try to get insurance companies on board as they push to re-pass the various parts of the law that were popular without the guaranteed money from the individual mandate.
If they just drop the mandate, well that’s not quite as interesting. My understanding is that the law provides for specific ‘open enrollment seasons’ each year, which would avoid the potential issue of people ignoring insurance until they get sick, picking it up at that point, and then dropping it again as soon as they’re healthy. Dropping just the mandate would mean that a certain portion of people would continue to freeload on the backs of the people who actually have insurance by using ‘free’ emergency services. The only interesting result of that case might be seeing the response of insurance companies who were counting on that income.
Final result looks like 7%, all of the GOP state senators survived.
Edit: Spoke too soon! One of them lost, so the Democrats have the state senate.
At least Wisconsin has paralysis now. Paralysis will mean Walker can’t do anything more, and Wisconsin may now have a government shutdown that will force his hand (Wi Dems: advice, offter Walker about 25% of what he wants so you look reasonable, make him look like the bad guy, you got a good chance at getting him next year)
I’m really worried for the future of the US- not because Walker won (though I do think he’s the wrong guy), but the sheer amount of hate- it’s not going to take much for this country to go into a low-scale civil war over politics right now.
The only times in US history where it’s been this bad were the 1790s and 1850s.
Given that about 95% of people made up their minds before the election, and modern campaigning, I have to agree with you, even though it stings a bit. The money helped, but 8 to 1 is huge, and something you generally only see in banana republics/gerrymanded districts. I suspect the same political environment will be in place in 2014 when Walker runs again, maybe more polarized, and he can’t use that rule there, so we’ll see what happens then.
You might be onto something with the union hatred- though I wonder what the reason for that is. Jealousy? A plutocratic politician’s most effective tool is splitting the have-nots, it worked well in the Gilded Age. I’ll admit- I do think middle-class unions are very strong, perhaps too strong in some cases, but I don’t like seeing this hatred towards middle-class unions seep down into lower-class unions, where they are necessary. The most powerless do need a voice.
I don’t think voters are low informed, they just get to choose how they are informed, and self-reinforce their beliefs. We all do it. I’m not as angry at this vote as I am NC’s Amendment One (then again, I am from NC), because I can sorta see how someone can believe Walker is right- even though I disagree, whereas I can’t just say any rational reason for bigotry.
The money was largely wasted by the Republicans. CNN was reporting that 85% of the voters made up their mind before May, so the barrage of last minute commercials had minimal effect. Walker did better than he did in the regular election but only by a few points.
I’d be very suspicious of exit polls which said the election was neck and neck when clearly it wasn’t nor have exit polls been at all accurate the last few Presidential elections. I suspect that polling methodology is flawed.
You might be onto something with the union hatred- though I wonder what the reason for that is. Jealousy? A plutocratic politician’s most effective tool is splitting the have-nots, it worked well in the Gilded Age. I’ll admit- I do think middle-class unions are very strong, perhaps too strong in some cases, but I don’t like seeing this hatred towards middle-class unions seep down into lower-class unions, where they are necessary. The most powerless do need a voice.
I am not sure you what you mean by lower vs middle-class unions. Pretty much all union members are in solidly middle class except for garment worker,and some service workers like hotel maids. Public employee union member are definitely middle or upper middle class.
There is definite dislike of public employee union, especially their leaders. They have saddled taxpayers with pension funds which are underfunded by a least $1 trillion dollars, and even worse situation for medical benefits. I also don’t think most citizen are particularly happy with the level of service provided by government employees. Yes, there are exception but I doubt the average citizen, walks out of the DMV, building permit office, or meeting with the school principal, and thinks boy McDonald’s could sure learn something about customer service from the government.
…but atleast you all got guns right?
To qualify that quip, i don’t think the level of hate that has been encouraged over political choices has been without reason. That senator lady getting shot in the head was kind of the writing on the wall for the New America that has been lovingly crafted in the dark secret back halls of wherever.
Groups like retail workers are the types who need unions the most, but where union-busting is the strongest. Retail workers are very lower-class, it’s unsustainable wages, even in the South where it’s cheaper.
The sad thing is those public agencies like the DMV are underfunded, so service suffers, which self-perpetuates. Yet society would rather have bad service then higher prices, which makes economic sense.
I think the only reason we haven’t seen guns yet is that the left has been traditionally opposed to them. If that changes due to radicalization of the left, we’re in for some real trouble, especially if a large portion of the public gives it popular support. This has happened before in US history, so its not unprecedented.
Congresswoman Giffords was shot by a a garden variety certified crazy guy. Everybody knew Loughner was crazy, he had no connection to any political organization or political goals.
Loughner is considerable different than Norwegian guy who shot 85 people and had a political agenda. Trying to use Loughner to project anything about US politics is just plain stupid. Lunatics exists everywhere some are dangerous, especially if they get their hands on guns.
Alstein - Untrue. The Great Depression in the 30’s is also a parallel. When things get this unequal, they break.
While i think everyone hates the DMV, that is likely just an example of the tax payers getting what they pay for. You can’t pay people shit for an absolutely shitty job and expect them to give a damn. Although to be fair the DMV has improved a lot over recent years, but of course this isn’t saying much.
What about teachers, fire fighters or police officers?
In most cases the hate for public unions is just a combination of scape goating and class warfare. For some reason republicans believe that everyone in the public sector makes tons of money with tons of benefits, when really more often public sector jobs sacrifice direct income for benefits (the same benefits that are being slashed).
Also, do you seriously want mcDonalds level of service holding key government service jobs like teachers, fire fighters or police officers?
Exit polls, courtesy of the thread over at BF. As I said there, I think the most telling number is: 60% think recall elections are appropriate only in cases of official misconduct, and that group went 68% for Walker.
Since Walker has already pushed through the bulk of his agenda, the paralysis isn’t that meaningful. There aren’t a lot of controversial issues left on the table.
There are a lot of plausible theories in this thread regarding the reasons for the result, but as someone who lives in a solidly Republican Milwaukee collar county, I’m in the camp that it wasn’t the money, if for no other reason than there weren’t a lot of undecideds from the beginning.
Look at the turnout and vote percentages in the collar counties. My neighbors were solidly in the Walker camp from the start. They were pissed off at the recall effort and they voted in droves. The money didn’t get them to the polls.
I think the poll results fishbreath posted show a lot. Many people just didn’t think this is how a recall effort should be used and voted how they felt.
Clay
2054
If Romney loses the election, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see Walker as the 2016 GOP candidate for Pres.
Right-to-Work, which is an issue platform that they tabled until after the recall election, or so said the (now) minority leader Fitzgerald.
I voted for Barrett in the recall election because I’d rather not see a sitting Governor of our state be indicted and sent to prison. We could handle a “former governor” having those sorts of problems.
What is Walker going to be indicted for and sent to prison over? If something like that was going to happen it would have been huge news for the recall.
“Voted agin recalls in general” is a stupid position. I don’t give a shit what your thoughts are on the validity of recalls and when they should be used. If the mechanism exists in your state and is followed correctly, then there you go–valid recall election! But no, let’s say nothing of the policies of the people running, let’s just express our contempt that they would have the gall to expect you to vote in an off-year. But then, let it not be said that I am surprised when old conservative white men vote stupidly.
Obviously there are people who just hate recalls who also voted for Walker because they, I don’t know, are idiots for other reasons. Still, there are no doubt some who just went and voted Walker because I DON’T THINK RECALLS SHOULD BE USED LIKE THIS RAAAAR, and fuck those guys.
This is a bad day for Wisconsin. Anything that makes Huzurdaddi happy is generally a bad thing. Sorry Wisconsin progressives, at least you tried. The senate thing is a good consolation prize. I’m sure a lot of people were decided before the ads came rolling in, but I think it takes monumental naivete to think that a 8:1 (?) funding disparity had no effect.
At least it’s not just North Carolina taking a flogging anymore. Condolences, guys.
This Forbes article might shed some light on that.
Yeah. It did make big news, although perhaps not nationally as I suspect many of those outside the state have grown bored with news involving the governor. Charges have already been brought against several individuals who have been afiliated with him, although not Walker as of yet.
