July 23, 2012
California GOP vs. Wisconsin Democrats
The NY Times reports that the California GOP is in decline and, in fact, is now a minority party or well on its way to that status. Why? Because the California GOP has turned control over to the extreme-right ideologues. One Republican said his party is becoming a party of enthusiastic young social conservatives run by southerners. As the Republican Party becomes more white and Anglo, the Hispanic population is exploding.
In describing the situation, one Republican consultant says, “It doesn’t do any of the things that a political party should do. It doesn’t register voters. It doesn’t recruit candidates. It doesn’t raise money. The Republican Party in the state institutionally has become a small ideological club that is basically in the business of hunting out heretics.”
Meanwhile, Wisconsin has Charlie Sykes and other right-wingers searching out "liberals" they call RINOs: Republicans in name only.
And the self-anointed candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle are on their own to raise money, build a staff and articulate issues. That leads to wealthy candidates who will reluctantly take the Democratic stamp of approval and, if elected, slide right on most issues of importance to the base.
La Follette did not want strong political parties that could be manipulated. He thought the direct primary would produce the best candidates. It is time for a change.
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So, why doesn't the Wisconsin Democratic Party recruit and nurture people for political office? I know several candidates who have been abandoned. The state Dems have thrown them to the wolves. How can the state party expect to put Democrats into office if they do not recruit, nurture and support?
I bet the chair of the state Democratic party pulls in a good salary and lives the good life. Until the state Democratic party pulls together, none of the rest of us will ever have that good life.
Now is the time for other parties to form and step forward. The current system is set up for one party rule with Democrats and Republicans as subsets of that one party. Neither represent the people. The Tea Party certainly represents nothing more than the bullies of the Republican subset.
Bob Fest is great. Speakers are wonderful. But we need to shift gears and move away from the rhetoric and euphoria. We must start formulating a people-based third party, a genuine political dynamo capable of taking on the status quo, the money, the wealthy, the corporations, the industrial-military complex, pharmaceuticals and all the others who now have us shackled and struggling. Get people excited and interested enough to run for office. Nurture them. Support them. Get them elected. Anything short of this is empty puffs of air leaving us with no reasons to complain.
-Pietr Haikuu | Hurley, Wis | July 23, 2012
We have ended up with a professional class of Dem + Rep politician who all follow the "plan". Lately it's been pushing austerity so they can cut the social + safety net programs; programs, funded with our tax dollars, so they can then do tax cuts for the wealthy and big business, who then hide it in offshore accounts to the tune of $32 trillion (http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/22)
Both parties are pretty bad. If you've been following Washington's Blog ( http://www.washingtonsblog.com/ ), you'll know that California has been saying they have a $32 billion deficit, yet in their annual CAFR report they list a $600 billion surplus. Last weekend, the State Parks department got caught for claiming they had a $22 million deficit, yet they were hiding a surplus of $55 million. The chief and her second-in-command got canned over that.
My guess is this is going on in more states and at the federal level so they can keep pushing austerity and social cuts.
We don't need anymore millionaires running for office. We need everyday folks.
-Mad Hemingway | Heart of Wisconsin | July 23, 2012
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