Stacy McCain writes, “Joan Kloppenburg has declared victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election – apparently winning by a margin of 204 votes – and thus dies whatever hope there had been for the state’s economic and political future:
It appears that nearly 400,000 people who voted for Walker in November simply stayed home on Tuesday. With their state’s future on the line, they were MIA.
Thus ends — gone! gone forever! – all hope of liberating Wisconsin from the job-killing government-union stranglehold.
AdvertisementGood-bye, Wisconsin!
UPDATE: Ace is remarkably stoic about the End of Wisconsin, while The Rhetorican foresees a Greece-like future for the Land O’ Cheese.
In contrast, John Podhoretz is a glass half-full kind of guy, as he watches America’s two political parties achieve an NFL-style parity that Pete Rozelle could have only dreamed of.
But yeah, Wisconsin’s likely still screwed.
If Prosser does indeed lose, the Wisconsin Legislature could simply make the age limit 70 for SC justices and say bye-bye to liberals Crooks and Abramson on July 31. The Wisconsin Supreme Court would then be split 3-2 with a conservative majority and two vacancies. Pretty simple, really.
We’re definitely screwed. Though the issues are different, we’re at the same point California was at the end of the Pete Wilson era.
Look, all reasonable props to Stacy McCain, but this kind of wailing and hand-wringing is immensely frustrating.
I am going to follow-up post here with something I posted elsewhere as to why I disagree with McCain, but right here, this point must be made:
The reason the left has been so trimphant over the right over the past four decades is simple – They NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER stop!!!!!!!
Neh – ver.
And unless the right thinks similarly, and is prepared to rise in defense of liberty and conservative values always and forever until the end of time, they will lose ground. Period. The reason the right does not in general do this is obvious. The very DNA of leftism is that state power is the be-all, end-all, and absolute end-authority of all. Conservatives entire ethos is to be able to compartmentalize the state, get it out of our lives, and just not have to think about it all the time. Maybe consider other dumb worthless things like family, church, community, business, etc. Gee, which side do you think will tend to be more relentlessly politically effective in directing the state, long-term?
Does mean conservatives have to be relentless until they die? Yup. Does that suck? Yup. But, that doesn’t mean we are losing or will lose, as McCain seems to be sounding like here. It just means we can stop fighing when the left does, which is NEVER EVER EVER… and that’s our world. Live in it, fight the battle, and WIN. We are doing rather well at the moment.
Wisconsin is far from over as the next post explains. But enough with the “Oh, 204 votes, what a crushing defeat, it’s all over….!” Please. We are better, and we are doing better, than that.
All true. Contrary to the way conservatives are portrayed in pop culture and in the media (by projecting liberals), cons are generally normal people who would rather go about their daily lives without obsessing over politics 24/7, obsessing about forcing their religious values (whether such values belong to an actual organized religion, or are merely religiously held secular beliefs) on everybody else, and obsessing about “sticking it” to ___________ (insert name of group/constituency). Normal people who lead normal, balanced lives are at a severe disadvantage when they’re up against zealots who view the world in terms of oppressors and the oppressed (and who pride themselves on being angelic avengers for the oppressed). Insofar as the Leftist’s self worth comes from her/his devotion to fighting the oppressor, she/he is of the same mind as a Jihadist fighting to establish the worldwide Umma.
OK, maybe God is on our side here. (I’m spinning mightily, but I am also quite serious).
This Wisconsin outcome, like winning Senate seats but not the Senate (thus keeping Democrats squarely in a responsiblity position, rather than be the “ousiders with a heroic President defending against the Visigoths”, a la 1995) may be a genuine blessing in disguise.
As I and others have been saying, it is amazing the progress that has been made in this battle outside of Wisconsin. I’ve compared it to Grant and Lee in the streets of Madison (Virgina), locked in the highest profile of mortal combat that is largely stalemated, sucking huge amounts of resources and media, while behind Lee’s back, Sherman marches through state after state, tearing the guts out of Lee’s rebellion.
And now, Wisconsin…… continues!! It ain’t going anywhere. The union Dems won a “victory”, literally by .00008% of the vote. Oooooohhhh, we’re really scared now! Now we have recounts, we have recusal challenges, possibly months long, etc etc…. and the Dems are all in. They can’t declare victory and move resources elsewhere, and to call this “victory” tenuous is to understate the matter.
What they needed, and were clamoring for, and threw everything but everything into the battle to achieve, was a BIG victory, one that would rattle republicans across the land, and that was denied them. They should have won big, by their own analysis of the landscape, and they didn’t. They didn’t even lose so they can move on. They have gained…. very very little here, after a huge expense of effort. And all the more effort is going to be needed to hold it.
And the conservative movement, which would have taken a body blow from a Kloppenburg whupping, marches on unmolested.
If this is a defeat for us, I’ll take it.
I dunno, even if the Wisc SC rules against Walker, maybe he should just ignore it. That’s what Obama does.
This could end up being one of those “win the battle, lose the war” deals for the Democrats, if their plan is to simply have the Wisconsin Supreme Court try to slap down everything the Republican-controlled legislature passes over the next 18 months. Excessive and ongoing judicial activism at the state level and attempting to subvert actions by the legislative and executive branches of the state stands a good chance to gin up conservative turnout for state races in 2012 even more than it would anyway with the presidential election on the ballot.