Saturday, December 22, 2012

Putting the Con Back Into Conservative

The other day, Jeff Simpson stole my thunder when he pointed out that the conservative propaganda site "Human Events" named Scott Walker as their "Conservative of the Year."

Jeff rightly pointed out the irony of this in the fact that Walker is an utter failure in all aspects. To say otherwise is pure denial. He has raised taxes on the poorest of the poor, killed tens of thousands of jobs, corrupted everything he has touched and has made the state the armpit of the country.

If one reads their drivel, and manages to keep their lunch down, it's obvious they've gone in full propaganda mode, make Faux News look like pikers. For example:
The Editors said Walker was chosen because he brought the benefits of conservatism to a financially troubled state, and survived numerous harsh encounters with a relentlessly hostile political environment. He was denounced, protested, and demonized to the point where he shared space with Adolf Hitler and deposed Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak on protest signs.

Big Labor unleashed a tidal wave of money and organizational power against him. His adversaries were willing to break every rule to take him down — from unionized teachers abandoning their classrooms so they could join protest marches, to Democratic officials literally fleeing across state lines in a desperate bid to shut down state government.

And yet, Walker beat them time and again, becoming the first U.S. governor to survive a recall election. Friend and foe alike testify to Walker’s sincerity and conviction. He is soft of voice, mild of manner, and has a steel spine.

In the years to come, as Americans deal with the consequences of the vote they cast in 2012, they’ll want to hear from leaders with a resume of both political and policy success like Scott Walker.
The tripe from Grover Norquist was just as bad, if not worse:
The next Republican candidate for president will have to pass the “Walker Test.”

Walker’s reforms changed the balance of power, the correlation of forces between taxpayers and statists in Wisconsin: a traditionally blue/left-of-center state. Walker showed those reforms could survive a counterattack by every union in the nation focused like a laser on crushing liberty in one state before it could spread.

Walker won his election in 2010. The Left tried to defeat him by winning a Supreme Court race that could have undone his reforms. They failed. The left tried to recall Walker himself—and failed. In 2012, Walker and his Republican majorities in the Wisconsin House and Senate remain in power. Stronger than ever. Tested by fire.
  • Walker did it first.
  • Walker did it in a blue state.
  • Walker defended his progress in three elections.
  • Walker kept his legislative majorities intact.
  • Walker’s model is scalable. His reform can be implemented in all of the 24 other states with Republican governors and a Republican legislature. He has a raised a standard that all Republicans can follow to success.
He has left no excuses for other Republicans who would offer themselves for state or national leadership.

By taking forced union dues off the table Walker has begun to correct an imbalance between taxpayers and the state. By allowing contracts to reform government worker pensions, Walker has ended the game where today’s politician gets yesterday’s dues money in payment for signing contracts that promise gold-plated pensions for a few at the expense of all taxpayers in a rapidly approaching tomorrow. The greatest source of unfunded liabilities at the state level has been reformed.
As the gentle reader surely noticed, both of these articles rely heavily on praising Walker's Act 10, the union busting bill.

This is where the first "con" comes in. They are pulling a con game on their readers by not telling them that Act 10 was responsible for sending our state's economy into a death spiral even as the rest of the country was recovering from the Great Recession.

They are also pulling a con game on their readers by willfully telling them that Act 10 is dead, having been found unconstitutional. Oh sure, Walker and his pet legal weasel, Attorney J.B. Van Hollen plan on appealing this, but right now, after more than three months, they can't even find a court to stay the injunction against it.

That got me thinking about why they would give Walker this "honor," if you can call it that. Judging by the other people they bestowed this on, it's pretty obvious they have low expectations and even lower standards.

The reason for their con game is simple. They're helping Walker run his presidential bid for 2016.

And this is where the other two cons come in.

Either Walker has not told them all about the John Doe investigation into him, his staff and his campaign, or he minimized it to the point where he has them believing, like so many Republicans in Wisconsin, that it is a non-issue. The fact that he is going to be a con (as in convict) himself is either below their radar or they think it is just a political stunt and not a real problem for Walker.

In other words, Walker, being the ultimate con artist, is pulling the ultimate con game on the other con artists.

Which leads me to the question, and I apologize for it ahead of time:
If a con can con con men, how many con men can a con con man con?
If you donate to support Cog Dis, I promise not to do anything like that again.

3 comments:

  1. Walker is playing a high stakes game of poker trying to con the voters of Wisconsin. When the DA calls him out all poor Scooter will be holding is a pair of jokers. Unfortunately the joke will be on the people who voted for this crooked politician not only once, but twice :(

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  2. I hear Keith Gilkes is next on the DA agenda...

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