Wisconsin and Michigan Act, Election Repercussions

       If you haven’t been following the chaos in Wisconsin from the past few weeks, check out this article from the Washington Post detailing what the Senate GOP pulled there this past Wednesday to get collective bargaining rights for unions stripped.

       There is also the fiasco happening in Michigan with Governor Snyder attempting to take away the meanings of elections.  He is trying to get a bill pushed through that would allow the Governor to decide if  a community is in a financial crisis and then appoint a person or corporation to come in and take over.  Not only that, but this financial manager would have the ability to void any contract the town has agreed to AND would give this “manager” the ability to essentially dismiss any elected officials.  Check out this video from the Rachel Maddow show to get the full story.  I’m glad to see elections still mean something in Michigan.

       What occurred in Wisconsin Wednesday night will have serious repercussions, not only in Wisconsin, but across the entire Midwest.
But there is good news,the continued shenanigans of the GOP has all but sealed their own fate in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.  Why these states?  They all have a very strong history of union activism.  The democrats will use these maneuvers of the GOP to pound into the electorate that the Republicans are not out to help the people, but they are after their own self-interest.

       Now, I won’t go so far as to say this has sown up major democratic gains all over the Midwest and all but assured President Obama’s re-election but it is pretty close.  Pennsylvania and Ohio are swing states in every presidential election, Michigan and Wisconsin consistently go democrat but they are still not states the President can lose, and Indiana has been trending blue but still usually goes red.  What is fact though is that if the presidential election was held today, four of these states, with Indiana being a wild-card, (Indiana, by the way, is trying to get rid of collective bargaining rights as well and went blue in 2008) would be soundly in the blue column paving the way to President Obama’s re-election.  But with the election not happening for 21 months yet and no clear Republican nominee or front-runner a lot of things will change.  

       However, this is an excellent starting point for the Democrats to start mobilizing their forces in the Midwest.  There will be a strong recall effort in Wisconsin, Michigan is having massive budget problems and fights, not that the democrats there can do anything to stop it, and I can’t wait to see what Indiana tries to pull once summer gets here.  Look for heavy fundraising totals, canvassing campaigns, and continued protests to come from the democrats throughout the Midwest.  All of this will most certainly pave the way to gains throughout these states on the local, state, and national levels.  The degree to which these gains occur will rely on the democrat’s ability to message properly.  I’m still holding out hope that they will learn the technique eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later.

       Be on the lookout in the coming months for full breakdowns for the 2012 election cycles as the field takes shape.

Onward to Victory in 2012