Did Scott Walker and the Kochs overplay their hand in Wisconsin?
By DOUG THOMPSON
Angry voters rally in Wisconsin (Reuters)
With 100,000 protesters rallying in Madison, Wisconsin this past Saturday to protest the union-busting tactics of Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the cracks may already be showing in the great tea party takeover of government.
Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans didn’t like Walker’s tactics in Wisconsin. Sarah Palin‘s popularity is dropping while nutcases from the rabid right like Michelle Bachmann makes voters who fell for their “we’re gonna change things in Washington” line regret their decision last November.
Which creates a fascinating politicial conundrum: Voters aren’t happy with Obama and the Demorats, they don’t care much for Republicans and now they are having second thoughts about all those tea party “reformers” they voted into office.
Oh, the fickle American voter.
The problem, of course, is that the typical American voter is just plain fed up with government, politics and the people they elect to office.. The dissatisfaction crosses party lines. Democrats aren’t happy with Obama, Republicans wonder what happened to their party and the tea baggers realized they drank a witch’s brew.
Meanwhile, the Koch brothers sit in their palatial offices back in Wichita, high-fiving each other because all they disarray appears to be playing right into their hands to seize control of the American government for their own profiteering.
But the Kochs and the conservatives and the tea baggers may have overplayed their hand. With a growing number of voters already starting to show signs of buyer’s remorse and excesses like Scott Walker re-energizing the Democratic union base, the voter anger in 2012 just might be directed at them.
When a governor’s action brings 100,000 protesters to a state capital, those who deal in using voter anger to their advantage start to take notice.
The Kochs are used to operating in secret but their involvement in the tea party movement and debacles like Wisconsin have brought them into the public eye and they can’t stand public scrutiny.
As owners of one of the largest privately-held conglomerates in the world, they aren’t used to having to answer to anyone but themselves. That could change because of Wisconsin and — if it does — it is change that is long overdue.
Their involvement and agenda are out in the open now and a growing number of Americans realize that the phony grassroots operation called the tea party is nothing more than a sham organization fronting for two billionaires who are nothing more than modern-day robber barons who want absolute control of the American government.
I know this because I once worked for the Washington consulting concern — The Eddie Mahe Company — that created Citizens for a Sound Economy, the phony grassroots group that morphed into Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and — ultimately — the Tea Party. I created newsletters for Citizens for a Sound Economy.
I helped create other phony grassroots efforts, like Citizens for Rural Broadband Internet Access — a front group for Corning designed to help get funding so rural telephone coops could buy fiber-optic cable from the company.
I’m not proud of that period of my life. I was in it for the money and the money was good but creation of such sham outfits subverts Democracy and we’re seeing the results of the Koch brothers subversion now in Wisconsin and other states where similar attempts are underway to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
It’s just the beginning of a master plan by the Kochs and other corporate fat cats to control government and it won’t stop until they are stopped.
Related articles
- Is the Scott Walker Story Just the Tip of the Koch Brothers’ Political Iceberg? (jonathanturley.org)
- David Koch and Rupert Murdoch have plenty of water boys like Scott Walker (iflizwerequeen.com)
- How the Koch Brothers Remade Wisconsin Politics by Billy Wharton (dandelionsalad.wordpress.com)
- The Future of America (pinkbananaworld.com)
- “The Shock Doctrine in Wisconsin (and America)” and related posts (vagabondscholar.blogspot.com)
