Last night marked the darkest hour in all of human history. Humanity has seen pestilence, wars, famine, genocide, and atrocities of all shapes and sizes. But all of that paled in comparison to Scott Walker’s “surviving” a recall victory by a “narrow” 7-point margin.
Why was this the darkest day in human history? Because it was the day democracy died.
It’s the end of the USA as we know it, but strangely I feel fine.
According to Democrats, the recall election was either the moment western civilization marked its inevitable decline or a great sign that Barack Obama is going to roll to re-election. While the truth is probably somewhere in between, either way Democrats expressed tremendous outrage over this election that was bought by Scott Walker and the evil Rethuglicans. Evidently spending a lot of money on elections is a bad thing. Unless of course you’re Barack Obama.
The narrative shift demonstrates a couple of things about the progressive left, neither particularly positive. The first is the blatant dishonesty. It’s quite amusing to listen to these people complain about “the death of democracy” when they’ve spent the better part of the past 18 months organizing, busing people in from other states, staging rallies and sit-ins, ushering their representatives out of the state in the middle of the night to shut the legislature down, and basically just throwing giant hissy fits because they aren’t getting what they wanted.
More importantly, it highlights something that has been an essential fabric of the left since the Enlightenment: their utter contempt for people. According to their vision of how the world should work, Scott Walker would easily have been thrown out on his keister were it not for all the money funneling into Wisconsin on his behalf. The implication is that the people are so dumb that they forgot how angry they are supposed to be with Walker just because of a bunch of 30 second advertisements. I wonder if these people even realize how arrogant and snobbish they sound. Because there is a rather nasty undercurrent to all this talk that makes it seem that they don’t have too high an opinion of most other individuals.
As I said, this really dates back to the Enlightenment, particularly the philosophes of the French Enlightenment. As Gertrude Himmelfarb wrote, it was a common tendency among the philosophes to generalize the virtues and elevate “the whole of mankind” over the individual. The most striking example of this wariness towards real, live, human beings was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Throughout his writings, but especially in his Confessions, he continually wrote of other people in a manner that demonstrated his contempt for them. He felt so isolated from the world that he wrote:
I am now alone on earth, no longer having any brother, neighbor, friend, or society other than myself. The most sociable and the most loving of human has been proscribed from society by unanimous agreement. In the refinements of their hatred, they have sought the torment which would be cruelest to my sensitive soul and have violently broken all the ties which attached me to them. I would have loved men in spite of themselves. Only by ceasing to be humane, have they been able to slip away from my affection. They are now strangers, unknowns, in short, nonentities to me – because that is what they wanted.
And yet his entire philosophy was geared towards improving the lot of mankind.
This succinctly summarizes the attitude of much of the left throughout history: they love humanity, but they hate people. Much of what I have read and seen over the past 24 hours has made that abundantly clear.
Talk about narratives. Just curious, do you read anything outside your alternative universe? Walker and sycophants like yourself get to spend the past 12 months claiming outside interests and outside money are running the show for the union protests and then you have the gall to complain that people are pointing out that
1) national democrats and their affiliates eschewed the recall for various and assorted reasons and
2) Walker was given vast sums of out of state money and support.
That´s chutzpah.
Exhibit A proving my thesis: MZ Forrest.
Though I do appreciate the honesty here as MZ encapsulates the progressive mindset. Money being contributed from out of state: bad. Voters being bused in from out of state: democracy in action!
Nice try MZ. What really happened is that much of the Left exists in an ideological bubble where it was assumed that Walker could be recalled on a wave of popular outrage. The Left has been having a gigantic temper tantrum about Walker since his election, and it was assumed that the general public shared this outrage. The reality based community once again demonstrating that it is anything but.
You’ve put into words here the uncomfortable feeling I had when I identified as liberal. I wanted such good things for humanity, but oh how it annoyed me when other people just didn’t get it!
Democracy, like Compromise, means “doing what Dems want.”
He’s learnt well from his Obamassiah.
What a wuss!
In regard to Rousseau’s contempt for humanity, all you need to know is the way in which he abandoned his newborn kids:
“In March 1745 Rousseau began an affair with Thérèse Le Vasseur. She was twenty-four years old, a maid at Rousseau’s lodgings. She remained with him for the rest of his life—as mistress, housekeeper, mother of his children, and finally, in 1768, as his wife. They had five children—though some biographers have questioned whether any of them were Rousseau’s. Apparently he regarded them as his own even though he assigned them to a hospital for abandoned children. Rousseau had no means to educate them, and he reasoned that they would be better raised as workers and peasants by the state.”
The hospital for abandoned children had a very high mortality rate among abandoned infants. Rousseau knew this. That heartless charlatan wasn’t worth being spat upon.
If democracy makes people so unstable I am not sure we really want it. Aristotle says that democracy comes from a corruption of constitutional government.
Talk about narratives. Just curious, do you read anything outside your alternative universe?
Yes.
1) national democrats and their affiliates eschewed the recall for various and assorted reasons and
Optimization in the use of available resources.
Walker was given vast sums of out of state money and support.</i
1. The sums of money are subject to the effects of diminishing returns;
2. The demonstration of what Gov. Walker has been up to in Wisconsin affects the political dynamic elsewhere (New York, for example).
Also want to point out to MZ that the unions picked this fight and poured in resources from out of state to get the recall effort off the ground. They ought not be complaining when they got beaten in the fund-raising effort. (Liberals’ success at fund raising is, of course, proof of their popularity; conservatives’ success at fund-raising is proof of their greed.)
“Just curious, do you read anything outside your alternative universe?”
That’s exactly the question the reporter should have asked the guy in clip who insisted democracy died (unless the reporter feared for his safety). I suspect that guy has received nothing but affirmation from his colleagues that victory was at hand. In all seriousness, he may not anyone who supported Walker, he may have no idea how to reach out Walker supporters to get them to change their mind, and seems to think that Walker supporters are all stupid or greedy.
The reality is that Scott Walker’s opponents overreached to the point of buffoonishness and drove potential supporters (i.e., reliable Democratic voters) away. For instance, one set of exit polls (no link) showed most voters didn’t even think it was legitimate to hold a recall election for a governor unless a serious crime had been committed.
As always, they justify evil and hate by invoking their presumed moral superiority.
Obama definition of compromise, “My way or the highway.”
Gotta love it!!!
I’m uneducated in these things. Imus says Slick Willy is sabotaging the One’s reelection efforts.
AD is right. A. Cuomo is doing much the same (except he keeps the Unions funded with our tax money) as Walker, but he isn’t the devil.
Mac,
Don’t hold back, now.
Let us know how you feel.
“That heartless charlatan wasn’t worth being spat upon.”
Translation: “I wouldn’t pee on him if he was on fire.”
Aside from all of the rhetoric regarding the results of this recall election, when the gentleman proclaims that “Democracy is dead”, he is probably correct. As long as we allow money to “buy” elections in America (Super Pacs and other sources of campaign financing), then the every public office will continue to go to the biggest spender, with few exceptions. No wonder people believe that their vote no longer counts.
The money count that is tossed about may also not include union money spent.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/06/06/Media-Spin-Recall-As-Money-Suck
Bottom line – the common good won out.
The current narrative from the democrats is that republicans bought the governor’s election and they cite $34 million to $4 million (no cite) as proof. If it was true then we should be able to see a change in the polling data from before the money started getting spent to after the money was spent but there is no statistical meaningful change (no cite). The advertising had minimal impact if any. The best spin the republicans can put on spending that amount of money is that it shored up the base or helped hold on to what they had. The second problem with the number is that it does not contain what the unions and other private organizations spent. Once you look at the whole amount spent by everyone then the amounts are much closer (no cite). The real reason that Barrett lost is because he did not put out a viable alternative plans to Walker’s actions – here in Brown County there were just attack ads (non scientific research – when I watched TV & listened to radio). The best attack ads can do is suppress the other sides base but it does not attract voters. Attack ads are important but will not carry the day without a viable positive alternate plan/message. Barrett did not have such a message. Even one of my ultra far left democratic co-workers admitted that Barrett lost because he did not articulate a viable plan.
Y’know, MZ, I had a whole long, scathing diatribe written out but then it occurred to me that fascists don’t listen anyway.
Best of luck. Seriously.
@WK Aiken: Your attacks somehow lose their sting when I realize you pretty much cut and paste the same thing for anyone who disagrees with you.
Perhaps you should look the word up before you use it again: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fascism
The left is in retreat thanks to [fill in the blank].
Jenifer Rubin, “Not even Jimmy Carter did this much, I would suggest, to jerk his party to the left and hobble its electoral prospects. No wonder Clinton is on a rampage.”
I blame Clintion.
To all leftists, occupiers, unionists and malcontents:
Thank you! What an election! We couldn’t have done it without you.
Without your tantrums, outbursts and boorish behavior we might have
stayed home for this election. Without your filthy, pot smoking hemp
-headed minions occupying and violating the Capitol we might have been
complacent. Without your obnoxious protests, boycotts and other actions
from your union playbook, we might have sat this one out.
But you couldn’t hold back. You couldn’t restrain yourselves and behave
like adults. You couldn’t accept the 2010 election results. We sat and
watched as you erupted in a juvenile hissy fit that embarrassed
Wisconsin. The spectacle you created is what motivated us. And thanks
to your ill-mannered behavior, we won. We turned out. Big time! And now
we are organized and energized. Committed. “All in”. And we aren’t going
away. We now have our own organizations (no dues required), an army of
volunteers and the means to communicate. And countless new sources of
funding, including a donor base from all 50 states. And we have
“I verify the recall” to ferret out your infiltrators in our future local
elections.
So thank you Mike Tate, Graeme Zielinski, Fred “loonie” Levenhagen,
Ismael Ozanne, Maryanne Sumi, Noble Ray, Charles Tubbs, Joanne
Kloppenberg, Segway boy, John Chisolm, public employee union members,
UW TA’s, WEAC, SEIU, MTI, AFSCME Council 24 in Union Grove, and WI
prison guards,. Thanks for the death threats, the intimidation, the
bullying, belligerence, thuggery and goonish behavior. The lack of
ethics and the failure to enforce rules and laws. Thank you for putting
your selfish, greedy motives on display for all taxpayers to see.
Your antics might have made you feel good but they didn’t make you look
good. They sickened the rest of us.
Thank you Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley. Your petty politics
woke us up. Thanks you Miles Kristan for dumping the beer on Robin Vos’s
head. Thank you university doctors for writing the phony excuses;
Madison teachers for calling in sick or dragging your students to the
protests without permission. Thank you Katherine Windels for making
death threats against the Governor. The noontime capitol singers who
taunted Sheboygan high school students. Thank you WEA trust for raping
Wisconsin taxpayers. Thank you Gwen Moore for your embarrassing minstrel
show. And thanks all of you for harassing the Walker family at their
private home.
You have all been exposed. Your tactics have been rejected. Your bad
behavior has been forever captured on youtube.
Thank you Peter Barca and fellow assembly members for donning your
foolish orange t-shirts and screaming “shame” at legislators just doing
their jobs.
Thank you Mark Miller and all 14 senators for fleeing the state and
making fools of yourselves in the process. Illinois need a few more
village idiots. Thanks for showing us what democracy doesn’t look like.
And Mayor Barrett. How grateful we are that you chose one low road after
another in your issue-less campaign against the Governor. This was your
strike three. You are out. Take a seat on the bench and stay there. I
have a hunch this was your final at-bat.
All of you helped turn Wisconsin permanently red. Your Governor, Scott
Walker, will not just complete his first term, he is all but assured as
many future terms as he seeks. He will be your Governor for a long, long
time. Get used to it. And his national “rock star” status just might
lead him to be your President some day. Just think, it couldn’t have
happened without you! So to all of you blue fisters, thank you from the
bottom of my happy, red heart.
Sincerely,
A Wisconsin taxpayer
As another put it succinctly: The Dems start a fight and pull a knife then complain when we defend ourselves with a gun claiming it wasn’t fair. Classic.
“Democracy is dead”? People have been saying that since the Civil War.
OK, this is long after the fact -I can’t sleep (again!) it is Monday morning, and there are still “Recall Walker” signs around my neighborhood.
Because, gee, “when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.”
I was never so PROUD of my state as I was last Tuesday. No out-of-stater can comprehend how awful the last 18 months were for us “silent majority” Wisconsinites. I am so happy this is over! My Memorial Day weekend was ruined by an anti-Walker leftist from Madison who spit in my face and called me a “fascist” with imaginary sexual fantasies about Walker. I have no sexual feelings about the man – I admire his bravery and class. He and his family have suffered through death threats and the vilest insults were thrown at him every time he made a pulic appearance and yet the man never once lost this temper or responded in kind. He is not Catholic, he is the son of a Protestant minister, and I believe I have never seen such an example of a true Christian in public office.
MZ, doesn’t the hate, the bile, the sheer evil and ugliness on your side ever give you pause? The secular left would send you to the camps too – you are just a useful idiot for them.
SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!