Off with their heads!

Those who think having to face a recall election is too stiff a penalty for political crimes against the people of Wisconsin should reflect that, in some societies, some political crimes are or were capital. Now I don’t want to resurrect Joe Stalin and run him for governor, but I do want to re-emphasize the kinds of outlawry as such certain people are being held to account for in these elections.

One and all these are crimes of fraud and manipulation in favor of narrow, partisan, and merely political interests, and against public interest and good. It was possible to commit them because an anomaly gave Republicans complete control of the legislative process. After that: no amity, no consensus, no compromise…nor even consideration nor communication. Finding no other worthy interests, they consulted only their own. There’s the crime.

Most of these arguments have already been made, some by people in an official capacity. My purpose is to shed a different light both on the arguments and the actions themselves.

Here are the several counts in the indictment, in rough order of notoriety and abuse.

Collective Bargaining: The right of unions to exist was paid for in blood, even on the streets of Milwaukee. Predicated on that right, the rights to bargain and to strike make a double-edged sword. The Republicans blunted the one edge – without cause or need, ignoring offers of compromise on the point essential to the public good, which was the budget. It was pretence: the obliteration of rights was unnecessary to the stated purpose of the scheme of legislation. So: notorious abuse of the first order.

Voter Identification: Again, in some countries offenses against fundamental law are or were capital in nature. The courts, more than one of them, have found this legislation so offensive they granted a preliminary injunction, without a full hearing of the case, against its enforcement. For purely partisan reasons, to prevent a wrong merely imagined to exist, the Republicans placed an unconstitutional burden on a fundamental right – a poll tax, notoriously unconstitutional since the days of Jim Crow.

If the right to vote is sacred, what kind of outlawry is this?

Secret Redistricting: …was also roundly criticized by the courts – the federal courts – both the secrecy and the result. So far were the Republicans from an attitude of political amity that they refused to correct their error, and left it to the court to restore the voting rights their redistricting plan had infringed.

For people who may not understand what they did that was wrong, let me explain a bit. When they moved the Senate district lines, some people, hundreds of thousands of them, lost their votes in the next Senate elections. They were put in districts where the vote does not take place until the following cycle, and they have to wait until then to cast them: four years instead of two. So their votes were taken away, delayed, solely to advantage Republican candidates by giving them more Republican voters in the some of the affected districts.

Politics always obtrudes on the redistricting process, but in this case the abuse was egregious and ran afoul of constitutional law.

Again, if the right to vote is sacred…?

Fake Candidates: …were nominated by the Republicans to run fraudulently as Democrats, in their own words, to “level the playing field.” A notorious case of advertising a weak point! The real intent is to give their Senate candidates the advantage of Walker’s coattails in the general election. This isn’t spin: it’s an open lie. It might be higher on the list, but the public cost of this particular abuse is hard to measure and may not be particularly much.

Mining Legislation: …is last on the list, but only because it was an attempted abuse. See my post at the time the legislation failed.

Now Mr. Walker wants to revive the legislation on a “bipartisan” basis. But this only proves my point: up to now, in none of these instances were anything other than partisan interests ever considered.

I’ve already characterized The Outlaw for what he is. Too bad his Senate seat is secure. At the very least, the recall election will make him attempt to justify, if not answer for, his crimes. In fact, he’s the chief conspirator, isn’t he? I’ve permitted myself to wonder what leadership role Mr. Walker himself played, if any, but from here it’s impossible to tell. I don’t know what he’s telling his big bourgeoisie friends either. I do know Ms. Kleefisch made a phone call or two; she says so on television. That is enough to implicate her in the conspiracy.

And so the verdict, and the sentence, mild as it must be, lie in the hands of Wisconsin voters.

Fortunately not in the hands of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The grounds for their endorsement of Mr. Walker are disingenuous. The question is not whether Mr. Walker deserves to face the recall – that is, it’s not about whether the paper’s editorial position on that point was correct. Now it’s about who should be governor of Wisconsin.