Thursday, November 10, 2016

Barca statement shows why Dems lose, need new leadership

You want to know why some rural Wisconsin voters decided to “drain the swamp” with Donald Trump at the presidential level, while keeping all GOP representatives in power at the Capitol, and actually throwing out 1 Dem in the Assembly and 1 Dem in the Senate? Read this pathetic post-election response from Assembly Dem leader Peter Barca today.
"I hope we can work together [with the Assembly Republicans] to solve our transportation crisis, let’s fund our public schools, let’s grow jobs and wages, let’s tackle student loan debt – and let’s end this endless cycle of power grabs and special interest influence that has made people in Wisconsin feel like the system is rigged against them. Here in this state, protecting clean open and transparent government is especially vital at this time of complete one-party control," Rep. Barca said. "We hope all citizens will join together by staying engaged in our communities, in our state and in the country we love."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THAT WEAK SHIT? You know the GOP won’t listen or care about one thing you say, except to suck you and other Dems in to some scheme of theirs that they can’t pull off on their own (see Bucks arena, additional road borrowing).

Barca and the rest of the Dem minority members in the Legislature shouldn’t be wasting their time reaching out to these destructive fuckheads. Instead, they should telling voters what they’re really going to get for deciding to not change things at the Capitol, because I bet it isn’t going to be what those folks thought they were voting for.

Here’s how I would have stated it.

“We just had an election where much of the state feels like they have been let down by leaders of all parties that have refused to deal with the real problems they face. These include stagnant and declining wages, a political system that seems beholden only to the specialized interests of the rich, corporate, and connected, and needed services that continue to fall apart and not deliver for the taxpayers that count on them.

These voters are desperate for help, and I do not think they will look kindly on a Wisconsin GOP that continues to give away lavish tax breaks to the few who are doing well these days, while refusing to do a thing for the many people and communities that are in need. The voters of Wisconsin want their schools to be strong, their roads to be safe, their streams and landscapes to remain scenic and useful, and to be able to provide a decent quality of life for themselves and their families.

Democrats believe in these principles, and we will call out any attempt of the Wisconsin GOP to further threaten these sacred values and needs. If the Wisconsin GOP wants to change their self-centered direction and start focusing on the real problems of everyday Wisconsinites, we are here to help. But either way, the Democrats will be the voice for the Wisconsinites who do not have the time or money to lobby their local legislator on rigging the system in their favor.”


That wasn’t so hard, was it? I imagine many of you could say something similar and probably better.

Peter, you did some great things during the Act 10 struggle 5 ½ years ago, but this “let’s work together on solutions” crap needs to be left in the 20th Century where it belongs. The WisGOPs do not care about solutions to real problems facing Wisconsinites, they care about grabbing as much political power and money that they can for themselves and their donors. THE END. And being seen as a contributor to that system doesn’t make you the nice guys in the eyes of a voting public who have a lot of bigger things to worry about than day-to-day politics, and it doesn’t get rewarded at the polls in less-educated, rural parts of the state that Dems need to win back.

No matter how naïve I find their decision to be, it seems to me that these voters picked Trump and the GOP because they felt that they could “shake things up” (along with doing their bidding on self-absorbed personal shit like guns and abortion). To these voters, the appearance of action and the appearance of hearing their concerns is more important than the destructive results, especially if those destructive results aren’t able to be seen on a daily basis (like messing up city schools or the slow erosion of local government services).

It’s well past time that Dems talk about people’s everyday concerns and connect those problems to the horrid GOP policies that made this state an economic laggard for the last 5 years. Talk to the anger first, and stop trying to win the intellectual debate- thoughtfulness doesn’t get rewarded with much of the voters you need to win. Peter Barca’s press release illustrates why the Dems continue to lose in this state, and the Assembly Dems need to pick a new person to head up their tiny, 35-person caucus, because Peter hasn’t gotten it done.

Hell, we couldn’t even win Peter’s usually-blue home county of Kenosha on Tuesday! That’s completely unacceptable, as unacceptable as the DPW’s record of timidity and failure in the 2010s. This includes lame statements from its “leaders” all the way down to the failure of a centralized, strong message for pretty much any time since the Act 10 protests ended. THAT ROUTINE HAS TO BE OVER NOW.

2 comments:

  1. Along the same lines, read this great column from Janesville's Lou Kaye where he dissects Russ Feingold's concession speech to his supporters.

    "For starters, I saw Russ Feingold's polling margin shrink from 11% to 9% to 7% to 5% to plus one or two points, to too close to call to eventually losing by three. I saw statement after statement on social media and ad after ad from the Johnson campaign against Feingold go either unanswered or with the wrong response. I saw messaging and ads from the Feingold campaign that, to me, with six years to prepare, were either off-topic from the issues, unexciting or just too soft for today's political climate.

    In a nutshell, I saw a very good candidate and person in Russ Feingold much like Tom Barrett and Mary Burke - and with the same weak campaign."

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  2. You're in the wrong part of the state to primary him, aren't you Jake? Ah well.

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