10 years after the David Koch call, WisGOP is all about lies and tricks these days

10 years ago today, we got a look inside the mind of Scott Walker. And we saw just how much of an self-important and amoral lowlife this guy was.

Walker: The other thing is more long-term, and that is, after this, um, you know the coming days and weeks and months ahead, particulary in some of these, uh, more swing areas, a lot of these guys are gonna need, they don’t necessarily need ads for them, but they’re gonna need a message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to do for the economy and a good thing to do for the state. So to the extent that that message is out over and over again, that’s obviously a good thing.

(this is soliciting an illegal in-kind campaign contribution, folks).

"David Koch"/Murphy: Right, right. Well, we’ll back you any way we can. But, uh, what we were thinking about the crowds was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Walker: You know, the, well, the only problem with that — because we thought about that. The problem — the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this. The teachers union did some polling of focus groups, I think, and found out that the public turned on ’em the minute they closed school down for a couple days. The guys we’ve got left are largely from out of state, and I keep dismissing it in all my press conferences saying, ‘Eh, they’re mostly from out of state.’ My only fear would be is if there was a ruckus caused is that that would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has gotta settle to avoid all these problems. You know, whereas, I’ve said, ‘Hey, you know, we can handle this, people can protest. This is Madison, you know, full of the ’60s liberals. Let ’em protest.’ It’s not gonna affect us. And as long as we go back to our homes and the majority of the people are telling us we’re doing the right thing, let ’em protest all they want. Um, so that’s my gut reaction, is that I think it’s actually good if they’re constant, they’re noisy, but they’re quiet, nothing happens, ’cause sooner or later the media stops finding ’em interesting.

Hmm, planting troublemakers in the crowd, and causing a "ruckus" so that the people in power have to back down from what they plan to do? This sounds like something I heard another WisGOP talking about today.

Ron Johnson is using his questioning time during the Capitol security hearing to promote a conspiracy theory that the January 6 insurrectionists weren't actually Trump supporters, but were "provocateurs" and "fake Trump protesters" pic.twitter.com/t72QkHDbaG

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2021

And no matter what reality says, Walker and Johnson have learned GOP strategy well. Keep hammering "a message out reinforcing" the Big Lie, so it gets drilled into the brains of low-info rubes, and forces media to talk about the BS under your frame.

The benefits of public sector employees were never a real problem that hurt the state's economy or budget. But GOPs felt they had to do something about these "issues" (to gain political advantage by handcuffing Dem-leaning groups of people). And so you got GOP austerity through Act 10 and Walker's related budget cuts to public services.

Likewise, large numbers of voters deciding to vote absentee during a pandemic isn't problem either, but Senators like Ron Johnson promoted Trump's Big Lie that there was some kind of sketchiness with the votes in Wisconsin. So WisGOPs in the gerrymandered Legislature run with that Big Lie, which allows for plenty of coverage on race-baiting AM Radio as they try to "solve" the problem of too many people voting (Dem).

Republican lawmakers seek to overhaul voting in Wisconsin https://t.co/w9sGwwVKT9

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) February 22, 2021

The package of bills released Monday would put in place new rules for absentee voters, a voting group targeted by attorneys representing the former president who unsuccessfully sought to change the outcome of Wisconsin's presidential contest that President Joe Biden won by just about 21,000 votes.

The effort, being led by Sen. Duey Stroebel of Saukville, would require absentee voters to provide an ID for every election (even if the ID is current and on file), limit who can automatically receive absentee ballots for every election and create more paperwork for those who vote early in clerk's offices.

The proposals would also put new limits on when voters are considered indefinitely confined because of age or disability. Under a long-standing law, confined voters do not have to show ID to receive absentee ballots and do not have to regularly reapply for ballots.

All of these items are indicative of a Wisconsin GOP that knows they can't win on their ideas, so they scapegoat these people to try to stir up resentment and dupe mediocre white people into voting Republican to "stick it to those people.", and then try to grab any political advantage they can.

It's transparent and desperate, and the WisGOPs deserve to get drilled in elections for decades for what they've done. And we can't allow this scumminess to get memory-holed over the next 20 months.