Wisconsin's Political Split Hardens Into Great Divide
This is what happens when partisan legislators throw away the rules of "government by the people" and decide that the way to make policy is "my way or the highway."
Let's face it, folks...we have forgotten how our own government works. How it was designed to work from the very beginning. All this flap about what "the founders" had in mind when the Consitution was created... James Madison was one of those hallowed founders. And this is what HE had to say about the process of forming that document:
"No man felt himself obliged to retain his opinions any longer than he was satisfied of their propriety and truth, and was open to the force of argument." (Italics mine.)
There WAS no "my way or the highway" built into the foundation of our government. There never was intended to be. The Founders knew that government by the people promised to be a laborious process of proposal/debate/compromise. It took them four months of that precise process to create the document that now has everyone arguing which side has more honor and reverence for it.
Evidently, in someone's mind, Wisconsin wasn't adequately engaged in the partisan battle sweeping the nation. It appears that Governor Walker took it upon himself to rectify that situation. So now, the renegade actions of one strong-arm petty dictator have significantly deteriorated the quality of life in the state of Wisconsin.
Putting aside all the accusations and counter-accusations, not considering who might be wrong and who might be right in this situation, the people of Wisconsin should be asking themselves, "Is this what we elect a governor to do? To set us at each others' throats? To turn neighbors into enemies overnight?"
I'm thinking the answer is probably a resounding, "NO!"
1 comment:
I never did finish that four parter on American folkways and their ties to our beliefs about freedom. Mostly because when I got to number four it was too depressing to continue. These were the borderers. They came out of the border country of England and Scotland, scared the crap out of the orderly settlers of Pennsylvania and squirearchy Virginia and the Tidewater. They were encouraged to settle in the back country of the colonies. They took with them what came to be known as natural liberty. I’m not going to go into the details, but at it’s most basic it boils down to “I’m free to do what I want and you don’t have the freedom to interfere or even criticize.” It doesn’t really seem to allow a respect for others to be free to do what they want if it interferes with what I believe to be right. Prime examples are Patrick Henry and Andrew Jackson.
I got depressed when I realized how prevalent this philosophy has become. Crowding out the other philosophies that the colonists brought with them. Patrick Henry may have been admired but for some reason he didn’t end up in the Continental congress. And I think that when it came time to choose men to consider the remaking of the Articles of Confederation representatives of the borderer view of freedom seem to have been very thin on the ground. I’d love to know what part of the country the families of some of the most rabid “my way or the highway” reps came from. I know I was raised with a combo of New England’s the freedom of the group is primary and Pennsylvania’s “if you respect my rights I’ll respect yours as long as nobody gets hurt.” You don’t see this with the “my way or the highway” crowd.
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