Scott Walkers escapes recall with an election night victory (June 2012)
CHICAGO, IL (June 7, 2012) – Whether it’s the huge spending advantages that President Obama had enjoyed over his presidential campaigns or the lack of results huge spending has in some races (see Meg Whitman in California), complaints about “buying” the Walker recall is shallow at best.
Somewhere in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin Tuesday night, I’m sure that CNN’s Ted Rowlands took a step back and shook his head.
During one interview, there was a tearful pro-recall supporter, shedding tears as he explained to the veteran reporter that “…democracy died tonight…” because of the huge spending advantages enjoyed by still-Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
During another, the sounds of bitterness over the recall loss were trumpeted – literally – as Rowlands merely attempted to report the results in Madison. Pro-recall supporters, complaining about the loads of pro-Walker money that came into the Badger State for Tuesday’s election, rudely stuck “money bags” in Rowlands’ face while reporting the news. Of course, none of their protests or cries about “outsiders’ money buying the election” seemed to mention the thousands of dollars coming in from outside organizations in support of recalling Walker. No one mentioned President Clinton’s appearance in Wisconsin to stump against Walker; (how much are his time and experience worth on a campaign trail these days as one of the most popular Democratic presidents ever?)
No one noted the money, volunteers, and resources from unions and other states to get the recall effort to a vote in the first place. It was never mentioned that this effort reached an apex Tuesday night after a Wisconsin border state hid legislators in order to avoid a vote consistent with their constitutional duties in the Badger State.
If democracy did die in Wisconsin, it was not because of Walker out-spending Tom Barrett in 2012. The money orgy that now dominates political parties during election seasons is just one of many symptoms of the sick nature of political discourse in America today…(i)f democracy is truly dying in America, it is dying off because the continued heightened nastiness that has overtaken American politics. It is now infused with all of the worst displays of poor sportsmanship that most of us would scold our 10-year-old children for displaying during a Little League baseball game.
Catch more of Lenny McAllister’s “Total Lack of Recall” on Politic365
