In the past 100 years before yesterday, there were only 20 state recall elections, and only 13 officeholders were removed.
Yesterday, in Wisconsin, in reaction to Republican Governor Scott Walker’s anti labor, anti education, and anti public worker legislation forced through the legislature, we saw six Republican state legislators in the state Senate face a recall, and two were defeated, narrowing the Republican edge to one vote, 17-16.
While it was disappointing that the Democrats failed to win control of the state Senate by one vote, needing three seats, and only winning two, one must recognize the massive amounts of money brought in by corporate interests, including the Koch Brothers, and the fact that the six state Senate districts had been solidly Republican for years, in some cases more than a century.
So winning two seats was close to a miracle, and it shows that the labor and progressive movement in Wisconsin begun more than a century ago by Robert La Follette, Sr. is alive and well.
It is a sign that when people organize and fight, progress can be made, and the hope is that the recall movement can lead to an election to attempt to force Governor Scott Walker out of office next year, instead of completing his term at the beginning of 2015.
It is also a warning to John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Scott in Florida, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Paul LePage in Maine, as well as Chris Christie in New Jersey, that the middle and working class will fight their reactionary, fascist like attack on ordinary citizens and workers!
What good liberals need to do is give up the lattes and white wine for coffee and PBR. All of you who fled your backward communities, move back home to your conservative districts. Stupidity breeds where there is no one to counter with facts.
Think: a mere 500 more progressives in Milwaukee county would have given us a win.
100,000 liberal voters would give us a majority in in four states, guaranteeing a Senate majority. The problem isn’t in the Koch Bros propaganda, it is in our desire for art, music, culture and economic opportunity that large liberal cities offer. We need to take one for the team.