The Wisconsin Recall Elections

The results are in from Wisconsin's recall elections. Of the six state senate seats contested, four of them remain in the hands of the Republicans who won them in the 2010 regular election. This is considered a victory for the Republicans, who retain control of the state senate.

The concerted effort to undo the results of the last election was sparked last spring. The newly Republican legislature joined forces with the Republican governor to roll back benefits and limit union rights on benefit negotiations for state employees, including teachers. These moves sparked a firestorm or criticism, including massive demonstrations from union members.

The remaining Democratic members of the state senate actually left the state in an attempt to prevent the legislation from passing by denying a quorum. People are criticizing the tea party conservatives in the US House for not negotiating, but at least they stayed in town. Deserting your post to prevent the majority from passing legislation is bad enough. But then some chucklehead had the bright idea "hey, let's try and undo the results of the election."

It's important to remember the difference between a pure democracy, which we don't have at the state and Federal levels, and a representative democracy, which is our form of government. In a pure democracy, the populace votes directly the issues of the day. Think of a ballot referendum as an example.

In a representative system, we pick representatives for a set period of time. After their term is up, we get to decide if we want to keep them, or throw the rascals out and bring in a fresh set of rascals. If you're in the party that is on the outs, you organize, you fund raise, and you get ready for the next election. But you wait your turn.

The recall effort was the worst kind of cynical politics. The senators selected were not guilty of malfeasance. With one exception, they were not involved in scandal, and had won their elections fair and square. They were guilty of voting for the party platform they had campaigned for, and of having won by narrow margins in their districts.

The voters of Wisconsin wisely rejected this attempt at an end run around the electoral process. In a little over a year, the Democrats will get another, more legitimate chance to swing the pendulum back in their direction.

The Debt Ceiling: The Aftermath

Proving that when the chips are down, our elected representatives can craft a deal that nobody likes, the debt ceiling was successfully raised before the government ran out of cash. So, unless you’re working for the FAA, let the good times roll.

I have been stunned by the outpouring of scorn that has been heaped upon tea party Republican freshman in the House of Representatives. One op-ed piece in the New York Times actually compared them to terrorists. They have been called irresponsible for creating a crisis in Washington. How dare they threaten the full faith and credit of the US? The insolent nerve, to demand spending cuts and refuse to increase taxes! Didn’t they understand how bad a default would be? If government spending had forced to be reduced by 40% overnight, that would have been like running into a brick wall!

The attitude of the tea partiers seems to have been that it was better to run into the brick wall with $14 trillion in debt than wait ten years and run into the brick wall with $28 trillion in debt. And by run into the brick wall I mean have the Chinese government impose austerity plans on us in exchange for continued access to credit, ala the IMF and Greece. Created crisis? Certainly. Crisis that needed to be created? Maybe.

Looking at the deal that finally got done, I’m not entirely sure that it would not have been better to hit the wall now. At least that would have forced some tough choices. As it is, the deal that got signed does nothing to address entitlements and transfer payments. And the increase in the debt limit pushes the issue down the road two years, until after the next election. In two years we are going to go through all of this all over again. Only next time, the national debt will be $17 trillion, not $14.3 trillion.

So after all the Sturm and Drang, what we ended up with is pretty much business as usual. So much for hope and change.