Did Democracy Die In Wisconsin On Tuesday?

Perhaps the highlight of Scott Walker’s win in Wisconsin Tuesday was a weepy union liberal on CNN declaring it was the “death of democracy.” Howard Dean largely said the same thing, declaring this was the beginning of the undermining of democracy. This is so typical of Democrats. When they win it’s proof that democracy works, when they lose democracy has died. We’ll ignore the fact that we have a republic, not a democracy of course. The point of course is that America is a country to be proud of only when the left wins. When the left loses, they blame the people for being fooled by bogus scapegoats.

Democracy died according to the left because we’re told Scott Walker spent anywhere from seven to ten times the money Tom Barrett did. It is true that Scott Walker spent around $30 million on his recall election compared to around $4 million spent by Tom Barret’s campaign. But that’s not all the money that was spent on this campaign and thus if the liberal talking heads are listened to you’ll have a skewed view of spending on this race. What they haven’t told you is that unions spent $21 million on Barrett’s behalf. Around $63.5 million was spent on this campaign, nearly $30 of it by unions and the Barret campaign. Walker  and the Republicans hardly outspent Barret and the unions by ten times or even seven times. They didn’t even double them up.

Last year when State senators, a Supreme Court Justice and other officials in Wisconsin were recalled, the unions outspent the Republicans $23 million to $20 million. Yet the unions still lost. In 2008 Obama more than doubled the spending of John McCain, the liberals didn’t seem to mind that at all. In fact they highly praised Obama’s fundraising capabilities. The left wants to blame Citizens United for the Walker win but that case doesn’t even apply in Wisconsin. Wisconsin didn’t have to change any laws, PAC’s were already allowed.

What underlies all of the left-wing complaining about money in Wisconsin is a general distrust of not hatred for voters. They basically believe you cannot think for yourselves and will be swayed by slick television commercials. For all the money Walker spent, ten times more according to the left and not even close to double in reality, it only gained him one percentage point. People weren’t swayed by money or ads on television. It is insulting to the people of Wisconsin to assume that they were.

The difference in the election is that Walker was able to get the people who voted for him in 2010 back to the polls for his recall election. It shouldn’t be surprising that 18 months into a new governor’s term that the people who voted for him will vote for him in large numbers again. Especially when he’s largely balanced a problematic budget that was over $3 billion in the red when he took office.

The unions grossly overplayed their cards, they’re living in a world that died 30+ years ago, a world where large numbers of people were unionized and those who weren’t wanted to be or at least cared about the plight of unionized workers. The unions believed this world still exists, it’s clear that it doesn’t. Especially when we’re talking about government employee unions, no one likes them or has any sympathy for them whatsoever. This is why Tom Barrett lost. He got the same people who voted for him in 2010 and no more. His message doesn’t reach to the people in the 7 point gap between him and Walker.

The left loves to whine about money in politics but the fact is money played no role in the election on Tuesday. The complaining about money is really insulting to voters, as though they’re incapable of thinking for themselves. Voters aren’t as dumb as the losers of elections want to think they are. The people of Wisconsin were informed on the issues and chose Walker over Barrett. The results nearly mirrored the 2010 election. Hardly a shocking result. Democracy didn’t die on Tuesday. An informed electorate spoke and they decided they didn’t want unions and Democrats to control Wisconsin. The only thing that died Tuesday is government employee unions stranglehold on the Wisconsin treasury.