If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then Wisconsin union leaders may be clinically insane.
Their suicidal idée fixe is on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his labor law reforms. You may remember how the rude, narcissistic, and counterproductive intimidation tactics employed during the Walker’s recall election backfired on them.
Indeed, it was the recall election that made Scott Walker what he is today:
The ferocity of the anti-Walker attacks during the recall attempt cannot be understated: no stone was left unturned, no “scandal” or slip of the tongue left unmentioned, and this may only help candidate Walker going into 2016. The Democrats spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours digging, scooping, ad-cutting, and hammering. They threw the kitchen sink at the guy in 2012, threw their neighbor’s sink at him in 2014, and now nobody on the block will let them inside to pee. Out of useful topsoil, what do they do now?
Had the Democrats not targeted Walker with a recall, that massive fundraiser network, the national profile, the party unity, and his highly developed get-out-the-vote team almost certainly wouldn’t exist. He may have still won re-election, but he would be just another Midwestern Republican governor who enacted reforms and faced push-back, not the conservative folk hero of a party longing for a win. He would most likely resemble Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a reformer but hardly a man with a cult following. There would still be plenty of new problems with the governor his opposition could cite, instead of leaving him mostly vetted for 2016.
They shot the king and missed, making a balding, sleepy-eyed executive into a god among a growing horde of followers. That’s bad enough for the Progressive set. In the unlikely event he wins the Republican nomination and the presidency? They struck the match that ignited their own national hell.
And what happened after Walker’s reforms went through and public employee unions could no longer force people to join? Union membership plummeted. Over 100,000 workers availed themselves of the opportunity to escape union clutches when they were finally allowed to. That’s why unions will never forgive Scott Walker: his reforms proved that workers hated the unions that supposedly represented them.
And Walker’s success has emboldened Republicans in other states to take on unions, which has the Democratic Party terrified. “Public-employee unions are a mechanism for the involuntary transfer of taxpayers’ money to the Democratic party.”
Now Walker and the Republican legislature aim to make Wisconsin a full right to work state. Naturally, Democrats and unions (the latter being an extension of the former) are gearing up to fight it.
Strategically, I understand why Democrats and unions have to fight this fight. What I don’t understand is why the anti-Walker crowd continues to employ the same “stuck on stupid” tactics against Walker that have lost them the last three elections.
Loud, annoying protest in the capitol rotunda guaranteed to alienate swing voters? Check.
Packed hearing in Madison, WI to #DefeatRTW & many more ppl on their way! @SEIU_WI_SC #RightToWork #WrongForWI pic.twitter.com/wDQjQAvCfQ
— SEIU (@SEIU) February 24, 2015
Marches? Chants? Check.
Chanting united we stand divided we fall #DefeatRTW #WIunion #RightToWork pic.twitter.com/oAWTv2ZxLu
— Defeat Right to Work (@DefeatRTW) February 24, 2015
Clenched fist Socialist Realism iconography? Check.
We stand in solidarity with #WIUnion families standing up for the middle class, fighting anti-worker #RighttoWork. pic.twitter.com/vFe2E4Qriz
— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) February 24, 2015
About the only thing they’re missing from the recall circus is the drum circle.
They even sent union goons to harass Walkers’ parents at their home. Because that’s such a sure fire way to win over people.
Now word comes that Wisconsin Unions are contemplating a general strike. Presumably because they couldn’t think of anything else so likely to: A.) Fail, and B.) Lose the supporting of those few remaining independents their previous tactics hadn’t already turned off.
It’s like Wisconsin unions are doing everything they can to get Scott Walker elected President in 2016…