I was extremely surprised about what happened in the Wisconsin election when I should not have been. Sixty seven percent of blue-collar workers voted for Scott Walker, a man that has destroyed the public service unions and promises to destroy all unions; he borrowed money in the name of the State and gave a tax break to industrialists; he denied women equal pay for equal work, he has the worst job creation record in the Nation, and he is well on his way to destroy public schools and turn them into money making charter schools for the blue-collar workers. It goes on-and-on. It makes no sense. Why would they elect a government that wants to treat them as a commodity: with lots of unemployment, they will work for less to support their families; high unemployment pays them not you. Paying women less pays. Removing pensions Pays. Not providing health insurance pays. OSCA cost money hence cuts profits, etc, etc, etc.
So what did happen? The first point is that they are ignorant. It should be surprising and shocking to read the following in Winner-Take-All Politics written by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, two well-placed political scientists. These highly respected professional suggest that most people do not vote from a knowledge base.
“This is the dirty little secret of our profession, among political scientists, that most voters are woefully ignorant about politics is completely uncontroversial, and has been for decades. The survey evidence on this subject is overwhelming.
Which begs the question, “If this is true, then on what do these people base their vote?” The premise of these two scientists trashes the often-heard proclamations made by a successful politicians, which is that the people who voted for him or her are the “smartest” people. You do not have to go far to hear them say this on radical rightwing TV or talk radio. Perhaps what it means is that voters’ genes dictated their politics and the issues do not matter. I believe genes play a part but that is only a small part. The bigger part is that the voters were a blank slate because of their ignorance and the Supreme Court allowed billionaires to fill the slate with their view something common people could not do partly because the do not have money but mostly because the do not have a view.
Millions of out-of-state dollar allowed Walker to write his message on that blank slate. It was hard to find any information outlet that was not filled 24/7. It makes no difference that Scott Walker failed to tell the truth because they had no background to evaluate what he said. It is true that a few had succumbed to 30 years of union bashing but most didn’t even have this much. They did not understand the only protection they have from big business, the people who employee them, is the union. They voted against the democratic philosophy, which is the only reason they have a affordable schools, pension, Social Security, Medicare, and all the regulations that protect them from big business: EPA, FAA, FDA. They stopped CFPB. If you borrow money, the only way you can do it is to enter a den of wolves. Look what happened to your dream of buying a new home, or even owning a home. Democrats created FEMA to provide lower income workers with guaranteed mortgages. Republicans serendipitously used this good idea to rob mortgage holders, working men and women. Scott Walker represents that party. So you really don’t care about all of that but just want to go deer hunting, you are going to have to pay some big money game farm $700 to do so: the public lands a will be closed to hunters. So, where are you going to get it? Many cannot afford that amount of money now and before long, even you will not be able to earn it! Average income follows union membership and you just voted to bottom out union membership. Are you the smart voter Scott Walker says you are?
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