In the wake of Governor Scott Walker's
resounding victory in Wisconsin's Gubernatorial Recall
Election on Tuesday, those of us on the
left side of the political ledger are left to lick our wounds
and ask ourselves several questions.
Was the Badger state's recall effort worth it at the end of the day,
after all many efforts have been made
over the years to recall Governors who have driven the train off the
tracks, yet only two prior to the Walker case have even made it to a
ballot. There is no doubt that Scott Walker misrepresented himself as
a candidate for the office in 2010, but thinking that Tom Barrett was
going to pull off a 1980 “Miracle on Ice” type upset may have
been asking too much.
The effectiveness of labor union
leadership in this country might also be called to the carpet. A
mesmerizing stat from Tuesday's exit polling revealed that 37% of
union workers in the state cast a vote for Scott Walker. If there is
a greater example of a group voting against it's own interests
someone would have to point it out to me. The question is however, Is
union leadership conveying the message that Republican Governors
really aren't looking out for them.
The biggest question of all however
brings us back to one we've been asking all year long. What will be Citizens United's impact on the 2012 Presidential Election. For
Democrats if Wisconsin is any indication the impact will be huge and
not good.
As of late last month almost $46
million had been spent on Scott Walker's candidacy compared to almost
$18 million spent on Tom Barrett's. When all was said and done
Walker, with the aid of the Republican National Committee and their
cast of mega rich conservative reliables like Charles and David Koch
wound up with a seven to one advantage in cash.
Whether it's the Koch's who will stop
at nothing in terms of spending to advance their right-wing wetdream
of lower taxes and less regulation, or billionaire clowns like Shelly
Adelson and Foster Friess who kept alive Newt Gingrich and Rick
Santorum respectively in the Republican primaries, long after those
two campaigns should have been taken out back and put out of their
misery, conservative sugar daddy's have been given a license to be
big players in this political cycle.
According to Politico, GOP groups are
planning to spend $1 billion on November's campaign. Koch related
spending alone adds up to about $400 million, which is $30 million
more than Sen. John McCain spent on his entire Presidential campaign
in 2008. There are also groups like “Restore Our Future” Mitt
Romney's SuperPac and Karl Rove's American Crossroads and Crossroads
GPS all spending somewhere north of $200 million. Compare that to
Priorities USA Action the SuperPac supporting President Obama that is
expected to raise only $100 million.
The fact that the President of the
United States is a black man who in the eyes of the right is somehow
illegitimate has forced Republicans to empty the coffers in terms of
campaign spending and Citizens United has aided them in doing so,
throwing the entire political system out of whack.
Barack Obama is now forced to scrounged
for political contributions wherever he can find them because of his
reluctance to initially embrace SuperPacs, this has caused some
friction between the White House and Congressional Democrats who are
up for re-election over the amount of limited funds. There is only so
much steak to go around and The Obama team's insistence that they eat
first may also help Republicans in the long run.
If the GOP can't achieve their ultimate
goal of ousting the President there ability to outspend the Democrats
may give them the next best thing, having possession of both chambers
of Congress. If that somehow happens the amount of bad legislation
that will be placed on the President's desk will make your head spin,
never mind the fact that anything proposed by Obama and the remaining
Dems in D.C. won't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing either
chamber. When the money and congress is on their side what incentive
would there be for John Boehner and Eric Cantor to play ball?
So let's all raise our glass to
Citizens United and the five conservative justices on The Supreme
Court that gave us it's existence, The ability to take the voices of
120 million people and give them to a select 450 is quit impressive.
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