The news came down yesterday that Scott Walker won in the Wisconsin recall election. Needless to say my progressive friends are livid, my neocon friends jumping for joy, and I don’t recognize the state as a legitimate entity so I gave no shits. What’s interesting to me is watching the reaction of my progressive friends.
After both the Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton vs. Tom Emmer election results rolled in the neocons start claiming voter fraud. Expensive time wasting recounts were held, which put the Minnesota Republican Party into a rather precarious financial situation. In both cases my progressive friends were demanding the neocons just conceded and stop acting like whiny children. Now that the tables have turned, now that the neocons have won a round, my progressive friends are starting to scream voter fraud. I’ve seen this link circling. It was written before the recall election but makes a case for possible voter fraud occurring due to one company’s tight control over the voting machines used in Wisconsin.
As additional evidence my friends have been putting forth the fact that more Republicans showed up than is traditional. No shit. You guys were moving to recall their team’s governor, you can guarantee they’re going to show up. It’s like the increase in Christian voters when gay marriage bans are up for vote, there is a vested interest in the group winning so more of them show up to vote than normal. It’s not a sign of fraud, it’s a sign of self-interest.
Worrying one’s self over these matters is very stressful, which is partially why I gave it up (even though I do admit to having a relapse once in a while).
The funny part of the election was that Barrett actually hadn’t agreed to reverse anything Walker had done and actually had proposed massive cuts for public employees.
http://reason.com/archives/2012/06/05/scott-walker-challenger-tom-barrett-call
So like most elections there was really only the illusion of choice being presented (like when one considers McCain vs Obama where they both are Bush’s 3rd term or when one considers Obama vs Romney (not much difference)).
But, but, Walker is the devil incarnate! In fact I heard he eats small children.
Seriously though that link made me laugh. During the entire run up to this recall election my progressive friends have been spouting about all the evil things Walker did and it appears their guy is no different. This really does show the entire race was about the party, not ideals.
Yep the recall was on ideals and even that was probably faked to a degree considering it was union members and the judge who made the decision was one of the petition signees. This was one of those situations where the unions felt hurt and then everyone else reminded them that nobody but a union boss likes the union system.