Blogging for America

Okay, I will admit it, I was hoping that all the money flowing into the Wisconsin Recall was not going to trump the votes of/voice of the democrats. But it did. Walker raised over $30 Million to Barrett's $3.9 million. Big Money won. As one of my former students tweeted this morning: money corrupts politics. This is a result of the Citizern's United SCOTUS decision. The money allowed for the Republicans to get their message out loud and clear. The money allowed for the money'd to protect their interests: halting collective bargaining, attacking workers rights and public unions, demonizing teachers.. . The Democrats did not have a clear message, or get their message out clearly. While the "We Are One" movement did deliver the 40% of voters' signatures necessary to hold the recall, 40% did not translate to the necessary majority. The Dems needed a more focused Get Out The Vote campaign... So what this protend for the future? It means that if labor unions are going to survive they need to educate everyone about why they are necessary--from historical "we gave all of you the weekend, 40 hour work weeks, etc..." to "we helped create the middle class, and social mobibility" to the future... The messages have to be clear and hit home. They have to be aimed at public and private unions... It means that the Dems have to reconnnect with the voters that they have lost over the past 30 years to the Republicans, and to those who are not affiliated with a political party...(Reagan, who started the voter move from Dem to Rep, would not be all that electable today, BTW, His positions would be considered much further left than Obama's!) What I would like to see is Campaign Finance Reform, but I would bet the house that we will see the Dems & Unions & those other liberal causes scrambling to raise more money to spend on elections rather than on providing services, education, & sources. So, we will see each side become more entrenched; compromise, if it already has not become a thing of the past, will become even more rare; and our Republic will be exactly what Rousseau had predicted: counter to the general will.