Given the recent success Republicans have had in the Badger State, could a red state actually become the home of the progressive movement?
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When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker challenged government employee unions in February, threatening to withdraw Cadillac benefits and limit collective bargaining for their members, a reactionary leftist wave of protesters flooded the state Capitol in Madison and brought into focus the nation’s compassionate gaze on the plight of teachers and other government employees in the Badger State.
But three months later, Walker appears to ultimately prevail as he tries to break away from the union power base and set Wisconsin on a course toward fiscal common sense — a template that is already being emulated across states, in Flyover Country and elsewhere.
There is also a powerful tension of this recent “Wisconsin Idea” in the attack on federal spending in Washington by Wisconsinites such as Republican Paul Ryan of Janesville, Wisconsin, and Reince Preibus, the recent head of the national Republican Party and former head of the state GOP .
In the article “Is Wisconsin GOP Territory?” In the June issue of Townhall Magazine, veteran journalist Dale Buss looks at the many Republican victories in Wisconsin (and the Midwest) and examines the impact those victories could have on 2012.
Is it possible that Stan Badger is turning red? Could we actually see Obama lose in the home of progressivism?
Here are some excerpts from Dale’s insightful analysis of the Republican Party and flyover country. Get the full analysis Just in the June issue of Townhall magazine.
The potential for this recent movement to transform politics in the Midwest – and, by extension, the national sphere – could be enormous. Wisconsin Republicans must weather a predictable liberal backlash, including this summer’s recall elections targeting some GOP state senators and a powerless court challenge to the law itself. But it’s likely that the left has already fired a gun for Wisconsin’s fiscal reforms. Walker’s achievement also appears to take on even greater significance as his bill begins to generate an expected $330 million contribution to closing Wisconsin’s $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes.
“He’s doing exactly what we elected him to do: make the state fiscally responsible and try to make Wisconsin more attractive to business,” said Diane Hendricks, owner of ABC Supply, a $4 billion building materials company based in Beloit, Wisconsin. and an critical supporter of the governor.
And in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and even New York and Massachusetts, state government leaders, mostly Republicans, are moving toward Wisconsin’s fiscal direction at varying paces. “The handwriting is on the wall for government employee unions — that’s why they’re fighting as hard as they are,” said Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank based in Midland, Mich. “Taxpayers after “They simply do not want or are unable to bear the increasingly higher costs of salaries and benefits for public officials.”
In some ways, the latest drama is a typical example of how politics in Wisconsin has shifted back and forth over the decades, and how ideas and movements forged in the land of beer, cheese and the Green Bay Packers often end up being the vanguard for the rest of America. …
Most handicappers believe that next fall and with Walker seeking re-election in 2014, Wisconsin will resume its recent role as the nation’s weakest voting plant. Wisconsin leads all 50 states in the most presidential election results (seven) decided by less than five percentage points since 1968.
“Wisconsin is not a red state,” Walker told reporters in March. “It’s not a blue state. In many ways it is a purple state. And there is division on these issues.” The same is true in at least four other Midwestern states – Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania – where the GOP now controls the governor’s office and both legislative chambers after the 2010 elections.
In fact, the next telling electoral event is scheduled not in Wisconsin but in the Buckeye State, an even more critical swing area in national politics – with 20 electoral votes compared to 10 in Wisconsin. Democrats and Big Labor Plan a November Referendum on Reversing Governor Kasich’s Collective Bargaining Reform for Public Workers. Polls show they have a chance of overturning the law.
“The Labor Party is marching step by step, but supporters of the law are not as well organized and don’t know how to proceed,” said Matt Mayer, president of the Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based conservative think tank. He noted that “it is easy for highly motivated people to come together,” while “those who pay marginally distributed costs have a harder time getting them to move forward.”
But like Governor Walker in Wisconsin, Governor Kasich in Ohio believes the case for fiscal common sense will endure – this fall and again in 2012.
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