Walker throws facts and history to the wind as he talks up a fantasy
GOP with common sense that nowhere exists and has no chance of existing…
After being booted to a smaller room at the Republican Leadership Summit at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, Scott Walker
talked about
how Republican common-sense can fix everything in Washington, that
“there is no end to how much better things can be” with “common-sense”
GOP leadership in the Capitol.
Yes, Walker throws facts and history to the wind as
he talks up a fantasy GOP with common sense that nowhere exists, and
furthermore, has no chance of existing.
“If you put
common-sense Republican, conservative leadership in place, if that team
works together, there is no end to the good things that can happen. If
we do that in Washington — with a Republican House, Senate, and
president — there is no end to how much better things can be.”
He says that while the GOP controls two-thirds of
the federal government – the legislative and the judicial. This is a GOP
that has, since 2009, made nothing but bad decisions when they can be
bothered to make any decisions at all.
Not enough for you?
Then remember that it was Republican common sense
that got us into two un-funded wars, destroyed the world economy, and
paved the way for the rise of ISIL in the ruins of Iraq, and country
Republican common sense destroyed.
Remember the last time Republicans controlled the
House, the Senate, and the presidency, back in 2005-2006 (The 109th
Congress): We had George W. Bush as President, Dennis Hastert as Speaker
of the House, and Ted Stevens as Senate President pro tem.
Things were far from better in 2005-2006, and were well on the way to getting much worse.
Yet, ignoring the lessons of history both national
and local, Walker cited among his own Bush-like accomplishments,
destroying Wisconsin’s economy, attacking workers’ rights, and putting
women’s health at risk because “We no longer fund Planned Parenthood.”
Walker bragged that, “I got together in the capital
with all the Republicans, those in office and the newly-elected,” and “I
said, ‘It is put up or shut up.'”
He did neither. He neither put up any accomplishments nor shut up about lying about it, as you can see:
I said: ‘We need to go
big and bold. We need to show we are different than the party we
replaced.’ I don’t think anybody would doubt that we went big and bold.
The reason it sustained us during the attacks and
protests because we knew it was because of my sons,” Walker said,
referring to his two now-adult sons, Matthew and Alex. “All the others
of their generation. Sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters.
We knew it was not acceptable to have a state that was better than the
one we inherited.
It was not just about taking on protests. We had to
bring together Republicans in both houses. Sometimes, there are people
who like the status quo, even in our own party. They don’t want to
change things.
We had to make the case for why reform was necessary.
Which is no doubt why, while he is popular with NH Republicans, he is losing to Hillary in his own state by a margin of 52-40.
The guy who has massive school layoffs, healthcare, food stamp cuts populating his Koch budget, claimed,
When we not only grow
the economy, but put people into better jobs and raise wages, we put
ourselves in a position where we lower the deficit problem by raising
the amount of revenue — not by higher rates but by spreading the volume.
Raise wages? To what? Scott Walker says $7.25/hour is a living wage. Does he plan to ante up an extra nickel?
Walker proved his policy platform is anchored
solidly not on actual ideas of his own, but opposition to Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton, claiming that “Americans need to realize that. This
isn’t a third term of Bill Clinton. This is a third term of Barack
Obama.”
When I think about the
president and people like Hillary Clinton, they seem to measure success
in government by how many people who are on Medicaid and food stamps and
unemployment.
We should measure success on the opposite: by people
who are no longer dependent on the government. Freedom and prosperity
do not come from the mighty hand of the government. It comes from
allowing people to live their own lives and control her own destiny
through the dignity that is born of work.
Because being paid a pittance, lacking healthcare,
losing your home, your car, and starving with your family is so
dignified. Republican ideas about dignity are as bizarre as their ideas
of religious freedom.
And of course, Walker, who has said if he can defeat a bunch of peaceful labor unions
protesting against having their rights illegally taken away that he can
defeat a bunch of heavily armed terrorists like ISIL, and who compared ISIL to a computer virus, who dodged questions
about how HE would defeat ISIL, attacked Obama’s foreign policy, which
in a round-about way amounts to an endorsement of Obama’s foreign
policy:
It is so frustrating to
think that we have a president that a couple of years ago drew a line
in the sand — and a lot of people crossed it. We have a president that
called ISIS just a year ago the JV squad. But called Yemen a success
story and Iran as someone that we can do business with.
I guess this means tough old, common-sense Scott
Walker would fight himself a couple of he-man wars to destroy parts of
the world missed by earlier Republican wars. Iran beckons. And Syria.
The man who dropped out of college can demonstrate his GOP bona fides by
laying waste to vast swathes of real estate and killing thousands of
people no Republican cares about in the process.
This is something that will no doubt endear him to
the un-thinking Republican base. It will be a much harder sell to people
who disagree with his statement that,
“We are not going to wait until they bring the fight to us. We are going to fight on their soil and not ours.”
Because thinking people realize we have invaded
enough countries for a while. That more unfunded wars are maybe not good
ideas; that maybe more young Americans don’t have to give their lives
to prove how tough chickenhawks like Scott Walker are.
After all, he’s not going to take a bullet for his
beliefs. But he fully expects you to, or your sons and daughters, or
your mom or dad.
That’s the Republican way. And that’s why if they
handed out rooms based on a grasp of real-world facts and common sense,
Scott Walker would barely rate a broom closet for his next speech.
