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What’s the Real Lesson of Wisconsin for Progressives?
Despite coming up short of retaking control of the Wisconsin Senate, yesterday's recall elections sent a clear signal to conservative politicians who are using false pretenses to slash social safety nets, scapegoat public employees and immigrants, and take away the rights of working people. The message: Beware. The public will no longer accept your abuses of power.
The fact that there were recall elections at all meant that voter anger overcame the typical inertia of off-cycle, special elections. Contrary to conventional assumptions, turnout in some areas was nearly 60%. Democrats were victorious in recalling two Republican senators and they were competitive in every single recall district, which is even more significant given the fact that when Obama carried Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, Democrats did not win any these seats. In fact, the GOP carried those districts with 55%.
Democrats may have won just two more seats, but they should not see that as the end. It should just be the beginning. Beyond the message sent at the polls, I believe we need to concern ourselves with another question: What lessons will Labor and its community allies take away from these recall races? This question is vital. We miss a key opportunity if we measure our success based only on Election Day results, and not also on our ability to build permanent progressive infrastructure at the state and local levels.
Currently, many things are going well on that front. Under the umbrella of an impressive political action committee called We Are Wisconsin (WAW), a coalition of unions, community groups, and outraged citizens in the state have joined together to undertake voter education, grassroots lobbying, and media advocacy activities. While Progressives are often fractured, this organization has demonstrated an admirable degree of coordination among varied groups.
We Are Wisconsinis also innovative because of its independence from the Democratic Party. Labor and its allies have built a field operation functioning outside of party structures. They have raised money independently, tying funds first and foremost to progressive values, not to individual candidates. They have done so with a mission not solely of supporting any candidates who put a "D" next to their names, but rather of promoting an agenda that stands up for civil rights, essential public services, and the ability for people to have a voice in their workplaces. Short of nominating candidates on their own ballot line, they have operated very much like a separate party in their campaign around the state senate recalls.
The question for We Are Wisconsin now that the recall elections are over is where to go from here. Thus far, the coalition has primarily—and necessarily—waged defensive fights, battles around the state budget and around ousting conservative senators who aided Governor Scott Walker's power grab. But now they have an opportunity to build in a more proactive way.
Their challenge is taking the impressive work they've done so far in building community-labor alliances and making sure it does not fall apart now that the polls are closed. Their challenge is to become more than just a conventional electioneering operation and instead, looking to the future, create a real organizing program on the ground.
Over the past several months, the focus of We Are Wisconsin has understandably been the recall election. But already they have planted seeds of what should be a strong, ongoing organization. They have gone door to door and talked with countless Wisconsinites. They have asked neighbors to vote but also to get engaged in opposing the assault on workers' rights and defending the middle class. If done right, the energies of Election Day can be channeled into an organizing program that will continue to advocate for working people in the state. There will be a loud voice helping to ensure that politicians "do the right thing" once in office.
The people working most closely with the organization recognize that it would be a shame for We Are Wisconsin to disintegrate and then have to be recreated for the 2012 election cycle. Their challenge is to convince a wider set of allies to stay invested for the long haul. Inevitably, the operation will lose some funding, staff, and attention when the high-profile recalls are over. To lessen the potential for a wholesale shutdown, those of us outside Wisconsin must continue to extend our support and enthusiasm. We must continue to spread the word that this is a fight that affects us all—and that it is not over.
Within the state of Wisconsin, public sector unions will have to face the responsibility of rebuilding their own organizations. The need will be to convince officials in these unions that maintaining an investment in their neighborhoods through community issues is not a distraction from internal union organization or from building political power. Rather it is an essential asset in these tasks. Community-labor involvement and worker organizing cannot be seen as "either-or" options; they must be recognized as mutually beneficial.
A "day-after" evaluation of the recall efforts should go beyond the traditional analysis of races and districts where campaigning was or was not successful. It should involve assessing how many future leaders were cultivated out of door-to-door mobilizations and how these people could be integrated into a long-term political operation. The product of such a review should include plans for leadership development, outreach, and organizing connected to local and statewide issues. It should mean developing, among leaders and activists, a shared analysis, a shared vision, and ultimately a shared program that people can take into 2012. Working for the future, together, is the best way for this newborn coalition to demonstrate that all of the work of the past months was not a one-time occurrence but something that has the potential to be a positive force in shaping the future of Wisconsin politics.
The people of Wisconsin have made amazing progress in taking back their state. Yet they still have plenty of work ahead of them to build a model for a new kind of political action based on independence, values, and collaboration. All of us have an interest in seeing this model built—so we can defend the interests of working people from future attacks and we can take the offensive in advancing them.
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37 Comments so far
Show AllI don't understand this attitude that just assumes elections are clean and weren't rigged. How many times have they stolen elections and yet we just blithely keep playing the same game and acting like that the elections are valid and not rigged.
Where's the investigation?
This is one benefit of the democracy movement in Wisconsin: it has forced the GOP to play its Waukesha County card before 2012. We are onto them now.
Elections are clearly rigged. That doesn't mean we should vote - in fact, we should vote in greater numbers because they can only fudge elections or even FOX viewers will catch on.
GoingGreen,
You are correct. We should vote in greater numbers to get rid of Obama and the "DEMOCRATS". The key words “Remove ALL Democrats”.
If your Congressional Rep. is part of the Progressive caucus you need to contact him or her and recommend that they leave the Democratic Party and continue to serve their district as independents or members of a third party.
The Democratic Party has been too toxic for progressives for decades.
raydelcamino,
I am in a Blue State. My Congressional Reps is a DEMOCRAT so are the two Senators. If I contact them, they will email me for $$$$. The last time I email my senator, she shared it with the other DEMOCRATS. Lesson learned!
I can't understand why losers always claim the game was rigged? You sound like little kids..."cheater", "not", "uh-HUH!", "NUH-uh".
Unions went from being necessary and relevant a 100 years or so ago, to being greedy and corrupt for much of the rest of their history. If you think NAFTA, etc, was responsible for us losing jobs to foreign countries look at why moves to make it easier to "globalize" were so popular. REMEMBER who jammed NAFTA down the country's throat..."Bill Clinton".
Do you really think for ONE minute that they didn't know how this would effect jobs in the USA? But unions were out of control, people were making ransom wages for jobs any twit would do for 1/10 of that price in foreign countries.
And the reason union hacks like the writer of this article are so dug in now is because they know that public workers are the only jobs left worth unionizing. If they lose on this front, they've lost for good.
So go ahead, Pollyanna, spin this into a "moral victory" if'n it makes you feel better or sleep better.
There were severe bits of unethical acts related to the elections. Consider the mailing for absentee voters - wrong mail in address, wrong due date.
Many unions have fallen to what all institutions do - the need to maintain the institution as opposed to supporting its mission. Here though we are seeing the big unions trying to catch up with the workers and new union leaders coming forward.
I agree that this is just the beginning of a democracy/labor movement in Wisconsin. To keep up the momentum, we need to try to recall Scott Walker. If California could recall Gray Davis, Wisconsin can recall Walker and put an end to his abusive one-party rule of the state.
I agree. There should be an effort to recall Scott Walker next year once he is eligible for recall.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court election campaign, which was pumped into high gear towards later in the campaign by the showdown with Governor Scott Walker, featured a relatively unknown Democratic challenger and probably considerable ignorance or ambiguity on the part of some voters and potential voters regarding the election as a referendum on Scott Walker. In don't think the outcome was not a good indication of what might happen if Scott Walker himself is put on the block.
The California recall of Gray Davis actually featured two elections the recall of Davis which was a "Yes" or "No" type vote, and then simultaneously a standard Plurality Voting election to elect a successor if Davis was recalled.
The Wisconsin recall process seems to just set challengers against the current office holder in a Plurality Voting election.
That would mean that eligible voters - who might want to see Scott Walker or one of the Republican State Senators ousted from office but who refuse to cast a Plurality Voting vote for the most credible challenger, probably the Democratic candidate, as many people who post here on Common Dreams might refuse to do - effectively box themselves out of the effort to recall the governor or state senator. Some Republicans who have become disgusted with their Republican governor or state senator also might not be able to bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.
If this is the case, how many Wisconsinites did not participate in the state senator recall elections for these reasons?
The California recall process would be consistent with the fundamental democratic principle of the consent of the governed if Plurality Voting were replaced by a consent / dissent grading scale based voting procedure such as Yes No 'Maybe So' Voting or Category Scale Power Voting in the election for choosing a successor. If fact the "Yes" or "No" recall election and the election for a successor could occur on the same ballot with no need to cast a separate recall vote.
The Economist reported poll results that indicated that before Gray Davis was re-elected, both Gray Davis and his Republican challenger Bill Simon had higher negatives than positives. If a consent / dissent grading scale based voting procedure such as Yes No 'Maybe So' Voting or Category Scale Power Voting had been used, maybe there would have been no need for a recall election because neither Gray Davis or Bill Simon would have been elected.
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Governor Gray Davis 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall Election
California gubernatorial recall election, 2003
Vote on recall Votes Percentage
Yes 4,976,274 55.39%
No 4,007,783 44.61%
Invalid or blank votes 429,431 4.56%
Totals 9,413,488 100.00%
Voter turnout 61.20%
The top twelve of many, many candidates.
Party Candidate Votes Percentage
Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger 4,206,284 48.58%
Democratic Cruz Bustamante 2,724,874 31.47%
Republican Tom McClintock 1,161,287 13.41%
Green Peter Camejo 242,247 2.80%
Independent Arianna Huffington 47,505 0.55%
Republican Peter Ueberroth 25,134 0.29%
Democratic Larry Flynt 17,458 0.20%
Independent Gary Coleman 14,242 0.16%
Independent George Schwartzman 12,382 0.14%
Independent Mary Carey 11,179 0.13%
Democratic Bruce Margolin 9,188 0.11%
Republican Bill Simon 8,913 0.10%
Invalid or blank votes 755,575 8.03%
Totals 9,413,490 100.00%
Voter turnout 61.20
Wisconsin
State Senate elections:
Democrats pick up two Senate seats:
Shilling defeats Kapanke
King unseats Hopper
GOP keeps control of Senate [1] as Cowles, Darling, Harsdorf and Olson fend off recall challenges. Vote totals below with called winners in bold. [marked as winner]
District 100% reporting
Robert Cowles R 27543/60% [winner]
Nancy Nusbaum D 18039/40%
District 8 100% reporting [2]
Alberta Darling R 39471/54% [winner]
Sandra Pasch D 34096/46%
District 10 100% reporting
Sheila Harsdorf R 37099/58% [winner]
Shelly Moore D 27250/42%
District 14 100% reporting
Luther Olson R 26554/52% [winner]
Fred Clark D 24365/48%
District 18 100% reporting
Randy Hopper R 26937/49%
Jessica King D 28187/51% [winner]
District 32 98% reporting
Dan Kapanke R 26724/45%
Jennifer Shilling D 32192/55% [winner]
Source: wisconsinvote.org
Webpage URL: http://wisconsinvote.org/
- - - - -
[1] "That one-vote GOP majority becomes significant from an organizational and policy standpoint. That's because one Republican senator, Dale Schultz, voted against the governor's assault on collective bargaining -- which he referred to as 'collosal overreach.' Schultz has been highly critical of the governor in recent weeks, and the extent to which he decided to work with the Democrats could tip the balance on labor, education and public services issues where the moderate Schultz has differed with his fellow Republicans, a Republican stalwart, fail to report the results until late in the evening. Nickolaus stirred a national outcry in April, when she reported two days after a hotly-contested state Supreme Court election that she had discovered more than 7,000 additional votes for the candidate favored by the GOP and Governor Walker."
[2] "A fourth Republican incumbent, Alberta Darling who has for many years represented a suburban Milwaukee district, was declared the victor over Democrat Sandy Pasch early Wednesday morning after a messy count that saw controversial Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus."
Footnotes source: See "Wisconsin Recalls Replace Two Republican Senators in a Rebuke to Governor's Anti-Labor Agenda" by John Nichols, Article URL: www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/10 or other sources.
Only problem with your Footnote 1 is that there are two more upcoming recall elections, and in both cases Democrats are targets. So the Republicans could come out of this with a greater majority than this week's elections preserved for them.
Excerpt from "Democrats routed in Wisconsin recall elections" by Jerry White, 11 August 2011
Despite the multi-million dollar campaign by the unions and election-eve predictions by liberal publications like the Nation and other media outlets that there would be “presidential level” turnouts in some areas, the Democrats failed to generate popular support. Around 43 percent of voting-age adults turned out, compared to 69 percent in the 2008 presidential election and 50 percent for last fall’s gubernatorial race.
In two districts, where Republican incumbents Luther Olsen and Robert Cowles retained their seats—in central Wisconsin and the Green Bay area—the turnout was even lower, with 39 and 34 percent of voting age adults turning out respectively.
Article URL: www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/wisc-a11.shtml
- - - - -
My Questions:
Why was the turnout so low? Who didn't turnout and why?
Was Robert Cowles at 60% vs Nancy Nusbaum at 40% of the vote with only 34% turnout expected to be a blowout?
What about Luther Olsen at 52% vs Fred Clark at 48% of the vote with only 39% turnout?
More importantly in the long run would the first part of the two part recall process used in California to actually recall Gray Davis have worked better in Wisconsin in terms of turning state senators out of office than the Wisconsin recall process?
Wouldn't replacing Plurality Voting, in the second step of the California recall process where a replacement for the recalled government official is elected, by the consent / dissent grading scale based Category Scale Power Voting voting procedure, which requires that a candidate would be elected to office only if there is a candidate on the ballot who is actually supported in significant numbers by more voters than oppose that candidate, improve the chances that elected officials and representatives would in fact be accountable to their constituents?
Wouldn't replacing Plurality Voting, in Wisconsin recall elections and in Wisconsin's regular primary and general elections, by the consent / dissent grading scale based Category Scale Power Voting voting procedure, which requires that a candidate would be elected to office only if there is a candidate on the ballot who is actually supported in significant numbers by more voters than oppose that candidate, improve the chances that elected officials and representatives would in fact be accountable to their constituents?
Put another way would more potential voters join with Democratic voters and supporters of other challengers, if there were any other challengers on the ballot, in voting directly against Scott Walker if they could actually directly vote against Scott Walker in a recall election in 2012 without voting for a Democrat or some other challenger candidate for governor?
Would you?
The people in WI were faced with the monster head on. They had to fight. They had to come together. They'd literally watched their veins being opened and their life blood draining away. Guess that's what it'll take to get the rest of us up and organizing.
The real lesson is that Progressives are a minority. Progressives are the new blacks of the (D) party. Look what 50 years of devotion has gotten the blacks - an Obamanation.
Progressives have been given this lesson over and over with increasing intensity for quite some time now.
If the author of this article, Amy Dean, knows what she is talking about, it looks as if many of the people who make up "We Are Wisconsin" have learned this lesson.
Let's hope so.
Who cares how many seats the Democrats win.
In Wisconsin and elsewhere, the Dems have used unions to help implement pay cuts and benefit cuts, while the Republicans prefer to simply crush the unions outright.
Either way, the result is pretty much the same for the union membership.
eyerag,
Right "ON" the button, brother. :-)
eyerag wrote:
Who cares how many seats the Democrats win.
In Wisconsin and elsewhere, the Dems have used unions to help implement pay cuts and benefit cuts, while the Republicans prefer to simply crush the unions outright.
Either way, the result is pretty much the same for the union membership.
- - - - -
My Comment:
See "When You Play the Plutocrats’ Game, They Win: On Civility and Half Measures" by Kristine Mattis for a somewhat more accurate, realistic, balanced, and therefore more practical critique of (Wisconsin) Democrats than offered by eyerag. The devil is in the details and so are the clues to exercising political and economic power particularly when you appear not to have any power.
Article URL: www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/11-4
I suggest reading http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/wisc-a11.shtml
Democrats routed in Wisconsin recall elections
By Jerry White
11 August 2011
The Democratic Party lost four of six races in the recall election in the US Midwestern state of Wisconsin Tuesday, leaving the Republican Party in control of the state legislature.
The results are a damning indictment of the unions and their pseudo-left allies, which shutdown mass protests against Republican governor Scott Walker last March, claiming workers could halt the attack on workplace rights and social programs through recall votes.
While popular opposition to Walker and the Republicans is widespread, the effort to present the Democrats as a “pro-worker” alternative fell flat, particularly a week after President Obama and congressional Democrats voted for trillions in spending cuts on a federal level.
[...]
"I suggest reading http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/wisc-a11.shtml"
Good suggestion. Here's a couple more quotes from it:
Nichols, the unions and their pseudo-left backers continue to perpetrate a monumental fraud against the working class. After working diligently to suppress the resistance of the working class, they are now promoting the recall campaign as a “template” to get out the vote for the Democrats in 2012.
These organizations are allied with the Democratic Party because they speak for a privileged upper middle class layer that directly profits from the destruction of the jobs and living standards of the working class being carried out by both big business parties."
During the Wisconsin protests I recall Michelle Chen from In These Times writing here at CD that protesters should trade in their protest signs for clip boards and create "change" at the ballot box.
Not at all deterred, I see Chen has another piece today about the repression of youth in the UK (Chen doesn't quite refer to it as that--I borrowed that phrase from yet another article at wsws.org)
I got only this far in Chen's piece:
"Though the unrest initially grew out of a protest against police brutality in the poor, racially mixed enclave of Tottenham (where another famous riot took place in the 1980s), it's escalated to a level that many people couldn't imagine: So much breaking and burning happening in one of the most prosperous nations in the world."
Actually the protests are the result of savage austerity measures enacted by the unions and their pseudo-left allies in the UK.
As far as prosperity goes, I think Chen is referring to the elite class of citizens she and her fake-left cohorts most closely identify with.
Of course, if the people of Wisconsin hadn't put these loons in office in the first place, they wouldn't need to recall them now. I guess elections DO have consequences! Something to think about in 2012 ...
GENERAL STRIKE: that's the lesson.
And what will a strike accomplish? The demonstrations in Wisconsin accomplished nothing fruitful - Walker and his cronies are still in charge.
www.peoplescongress.org
Narrow view I think.
Any time the people come together, even in a losing effort, something good has occurred. Sheepherder or sheep?
And through all this from last winter to now, the Wall Street/MIC errand boy in the White House was silent. One more of many proofs that BHO has not the slightest interest or concern about what happens to ordinary people. He is a full blown, very slick, tool and agent of the oligarchy who clearly intend to impoverish us all and sit in their Manhattan apartments and multi-million dollar homes in the Hamptons and Aspen and figure out how to gather more of whatever loot is available. Meanwhile much of the population is lost in showbiz drivel, sports, and whatever consumerism they can still muster while letting Fox, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly shape their notions of reality.
And through all this from last winter to now, the Wall Street/MIC errand boy in the White House was silent. One more of many proofs that BHO has not the slightest interest or concern about what happens to ordinary people. He is a full blown, very slick, tool and agent of the oligarchy who clearly intend to impoverish us all and sit in their Manhattan apartments and multi-million dollar homes in the Hamptons and Aspen and figure out how to gather more of whatever loot is available. Meanwhile much of the population is lost in showbiz drivel, sports, and whatever consumerism they can still muster while letting Fox, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly shape their notions of reality. In the face of this, it is indeed encouraging to see what people in Wisconsin have started in the way of resistance and new organizations and actions. It may well be a model for more and more of us.
There's no LEFT left in DC. We have been LEFT behind. We have been LEFT out in the cold. Our cake has been LEFT out in the rain. We need a new party to represent us. We can be called the LEFTovers.
the good guys lost again:
http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/did-the-gop-steal-the-wisconsin-recall-elections-a-true-vote-analysis/
Losing is part of the shift. I'm reading from this recall effort that the Dems in Wisconsin aren't that popular, which isn't a surprise. The whole country needs strong third-party representation (really second-party representation, given the closeness of Dems/Repugs).
I'm not sure if there was a third-party alternative on the ballot there. Even still, losing is what has to happen until the country shifts.
Also, the other lesson is that the crazies do show up to vote. The milieu in this country is almost at the goose-stepping point or maybe it's at the flesh-eating zombie level. It's probably the right-wing media control that's taken hold, but there also seems to be a profound lack of empathy, generally speaking, among people, plus a willingness to punish those who are already down.
The coming economic malaise might shake things up, but you never know. Repugs are pretty much as the level of savages that can't be reasoned with. Dem loyalists are just mindlessly pushing buttons for their team, which doesn't represent them. All told, people should never seek protection under the Dem Party wing, which doesn't represent its constituents. Maybe that realization was reflected by the polls. If so, it's a good thing, and a necessary part of a slow shift.
Thoughts_Into_Action wrote:
I'm reading from this recall effort that the Dems in Wisconsin aren't that popular, which isn't a surprise. The whole country needs strong third-party representation (really second-party representation, given the closeness of Dems/Repugs).
I'm not sure if there was a third-party alternative on the ballot there.
* * * * *
My Reply:
No there wasn’t a third party alternative.
Given Plurality Voting elections a third party alternative probably would not have helped. Divide and conquer "vote splitting" and the "spoiler effect" are characteristics of Plurality Voting after all you know.
See the election results posted in this thread at PuffinThrush Aug 12 2011 - 9:49am courtesy of wisconsinvote.org (Webpage URL: http://wisconsinvote.org/).
Also, please note that the Gray Davis California style recall election featured an up or down “Yes” or “No” vote on the current office holder following by a Plurality Voting election for a successful if the actual recall was successful. I suspect this increases the chance that the current officer holder is thrown out of office.
See Gray Davis recall results California comment courtesy of Wikipedia and commentary at PuffinThrush Aug 11 2011 - 6:07pm and reply at PuffinThrush Aug 12 2011 - 12:33am.
Yes, the whole country does need strong third party representation as well as the replacement of Plurality Voting by Category Scale Power Voting and laws that overturn Buckley vs Valeo and Citizens United vs FEC and auditable paper ballots for all elections.
The constant conflation of Progressives with Democrats is disgusting and must end since the actual benchmark for determining who is really Progressive is quite high: Anti-War, Anti-MoneyPower, Pro People--ALWAYS. When those criteria are used, the true number of Progressives shrinks rapidly, and few Democrats can claim to be such.
I doubt that conservatives will take any message away from this other than that they kept control of the government, especially if a democrat or two is recalled in the next round.
I really hope that those in Wisconsin concerned with restoration of our nation continue to organize, continue to break away from the fraud of Duopoly Party elections too.
Progressives should take the results of the recall elections in Wisconsin as nothing but a great victory. We met the enemy on his own ground and took a third of his territory. Some may see it as a defeat because we failed to take control of the state senate, but I tell you, there is blood in the water. The gulls cry out to eat their fill, we circle like sharks, waiting for the kill. Gov. Walker, your boat list and takes on water; we wait, with the patience of predators.
You can't talk about Wisconsin without talking about election fraud.
Why does this article mention NOTHING about the incredible battle of WI citizens against the election fraud that got Scott Walker and his cronies into office and is being used to keep them there? It's unacceptable to be writing on this topic without including this centrally important issue.
The Dems very likely won much if not the entire recall yesterday.
Please people, get educated. Go to Facebook and join WI Citizens for Election Protection, and also Election Integrity.
Here are some resources, read these first so you're not totally ignorant when you start posting.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Jonathan-Simon-of-Election-by-Joan-Brunwasser-101027-150.html
http://www.votescam.org/Votescam/Dont_Let_Them_Rig_the_Recall.html
Without real elections we have no Democracy. NO HUMAN EVER COUNTS 97% OF OUR VOTES. The machines come from the monied interests, and have secret proprietary programming that not even the top election officials are allowed to see. This is to do the job of an adding machine. There is no honest reason for this. There is no honest reason not to have transparency and public vote counting. We must move forward out of our denial about this, because we really have no way of knowing what the real vote counts were, who really won these, or any of our elections. But we know that the working class people are NOT being represented, and barely have a place at the table at all.