It is a known fact what Walker's agenda is. Tom Barret will make a great governor. He actually sacrificed his own well-being to stop a violent crime.
What do you mean by Sharpton reflecting our own values and perceptions?
Do these values include standing up for women's rights, equal pay protections and access to quality education and health care for all Wisconsinites and their families?
Originally Posted by: dhpackr
I'm curious. Suppose you are right, that his agenda is clear.
Was it not clear in the original election? And if it was clear, then what's the justification with throwing out the idea of "you stick with the corrupt/incompetent/idiotic person for his constitutional term of office and if you don't like what he does, it's your job to get enough votes next time around to replace him?
And even if it wasn't clear ...
As an anarchist, I have little problem with any rule that keeps politicians susceptible to being thrown out. So I don't object to a recall option per se. But anarchists are few and far between in Wisconsin as they are everywhere. As an outsider (who doesn't know enough about the previous campaign to know what Walker said/was elected for), I see an awful lot of the "recall" arguments being the same sort of arguments that are made in every election: "He did X and we need a governor who will do Y," or "He promised to do X, and he didn't," and "His actions/plans harm this group" or "His actions/plans help this other group." In short, it's officially named a "recall" election, but it's exactly the same as every other election.
I would love to have seen a recall election for any of the last three US Presidents midterm. But short of redoing the Constitution, it seems to me that a "recall" should be something more than the usual campaign type arguments.
The reason people get elected is because some of the people voting want the elected officials help in coercing other people to do things they don't want to do. Anti-union people get elected because more people want the politicians to force unions to go away than want them not to do so. Pro-union people get elected because more people want the politicians to force non-union people to have to deal with union power. "Democratic processes" legitimate the coercion of minorities (the losing side) by the victorious majority. Majority rule is, by definition, coercion of minorities.
Bitch about that coercion all you wish. Bitch about the bastards all you can. Use all the internal legislative and executive and judical rules you can to frustrate it. But, right or wrong, the national and state constitutions of this country have usually chosen
not to operate under "votes of no confidence" and other "elections can happen anytime" institutions of a Parliamentary system.
To be sure, the Wisconsin constitution does explicitly call for a recall-type re-election. And my understanding is that those calling for a recall met those constitutional requirements. The "alter or abolish" clause of the Declaration of Independence makes this clear, to me, anyway.
However, that Declaration also has that cause about not abolishing governments for "light and transient causes." To my mind, the extraordinary cases that allow for trumping the primary provisions regarding elections of representatives, the cases that give rise to extraordinary remedies like impeachment and recall or, arguably, even judicial review of the sort first used in Marbury v. Madison, have to be "bigger".
IMO, a recall should be reserved for the Blagojeviches, for the people found to have been elected by the cemetery vote, for those who have committed treason, for judges who ignore pre-existing law on a whim, and the like.
Whatever happens in this particular election, IMO this whole Walker process is just one more illustration of how little care we have given to the principles of that Declaration in our incredible co-dependence on know-nothing Populism and know-it-all-Progressivism.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)