Friday, October 23, 2009

Another Walker Flip-Flop, Forsaking Lincoln

Earlier this year, Scott Walker wrote a terribly done opinion piece, full of spelling and grammatical errors, in which he praised Abraham Lincoln.

In said opinion piece, Walker wrote this (spelling and grammatical errors his):
Specifically, Lincoln was talking about ending the evils of slavery, but more broadly, he was emphasizing the equality for each person in the eyes of God and government. The belief that every individual should be free to succeed, or as the Declaration of Independence reads, that all people are created equal, and that all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This sentiment that all men are equal is evidenced in the Republican Party’s current platform of equal taxes on all, and opportunity for all regardless of race, gender, or age.
Very nice ideals that I think anyone would agree are worth striving for. Anyone but Walker, that is.

Walker betrays his own words and forsakes Lincoln's ideology today, when he came out with his "Executive Report," in which he complains about a new resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Larson and passed by the Personnel Committee, which authorized a study into granting health care benefits to domestic partners of eligible county workers. From his report:
This morning, the County Board's Personnel Committee passed a motion (4 - 2) calling for the county to draft changes to include domestic partner benefits. The change would cost the county some $3.9 million per year.

[...]

We can't afford these changes that add millions in additional costs to the local taxpayers. If you share these concerns, please contact your County Board Supervisor at 278-4222.
If Walker was alive in the time of Abraham Lincoln, he'd probably argue against the Emancipation Proclamation, claiming that it would be too hard on the slave owners, and that the slaves' freedom wasn't worth the cost.

I don't know if there is anything left that Walker hasn't flip-flopped on. But he is half correct on one thing. Do call your County Board Supervisor, but tell them that you want Milwaukee County to stand up for equality for all.

And as a reminder to Scott Walker about who Abraham Lincoln really was:

7 comments:

  1. scott walker is a publicity hound.i can,t wait until someone from either party starts to run against his record of failure.on the other hand if he wins at least he.ll be out of milwaukee county.

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  2. Okay...I'm going to throw this out there because I am getting alittle tired of hearing how great these men were...sorry if it's off topic.

    I don't think Lincoln was all that great. From what I read he didn't agree with slavery but he wasn't about to lift a finger to end it...because he thought the individual states had the right to do what they wanted...that is until the civil war. Perhaps I have my history wrong...but I don't think so...if I do I'm sure I will hear about it.

    And the so called forefathers...same deal...they were all that great either.

    Why are men who thought women shouldn't vote and black people were less than human (among many other things) so great??

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  3. Dear Anonymous 1: I hope Walker has opponents too but ones who are capable of beating him and ending his political dream of running Wisconsin into the ground the way he has Milwaukee. Imagine the chaos if he is in charge of State funding and does what he has to funding for programs desperately needed to survive by many Milwaukee residents. Remember, in Madison he will be able to prevent the State funding that has kept Milwaukee a sinking ship instead of a sunken one. Once there, he has the power not only to influence what money, if any, comes into Milwaukee Co. and every other county, as well as taking his political appointees who have assisted him in ruining the county into the ground with him to assist in the destruction of the State.
    Annonymous 2: You are correct that Lincoln when he was first elected was not a supporter of emancipation for slaves.He did not support rending the fabric of the nation into tatters by setting brother against brother, father against son, uncle against nephew in a war that would be costly, increase taxes on all citizens and that we were not militarily prepared to fight. Lincoln was not a popular candidate precisely because of his views on slavery and was not expected to win because the wealthy slave owners were campaigning against him. The only way to relly understand history is to research in depth on your own because what you learn in school history books is skewed worse than most others. It is used as propaganda. Consider what you learned or had heard in school and were taight to believe about Native Americans and the settling of America as opposed to the truth you have hopefully learned since that time. Your comments were good, thought provoking words as you can see from the length of my response! :)

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  4. If Walker doesn't want to give benefits to the small number of employees who would apply for domestic partnerships, then perhaps he should be discouraging ALL county employees from getting married. How about a bonus for remaining single?

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  5. I support providing benefits for domestic partners, but it does raise the question: if it costs $3 mil as the benefits manager guessed, what $3 mil gets cut to pay for it?

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  6. Well, we could start out with the bogus economic development office that Walker wants to create.

    We could also rescind the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unearned raises Walker gave to his pals, and to the pals of his pals.

    We could get Walker to reimburse the County for his bike rides.

    We could not build a $12 million water park.

    We could not buy a single bus and establish a special route for a school that probably won't get built.

    Shall I go on?

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  7. "And the so called forefathers...same deal...they were all that great either."

    I meant to write "...they weren't all that great either.". Just wanted to correct my error.

    Beth...thanks much for you kind words. :)

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