Gov. Walker: Wisconsin has its own "Dubya" now

Gov. Walker

President George W. Bush

 You recall that George W. Bush’s middle name is Walker. That’s right - just like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s last name, a coincidence that may have inspired Ken Lonnquist’s rally song for Wisconsin protesters: We’ve got our own W now.

 

William Cronon, professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, doesn’t mention the affinities between Gov. Walker and the 43^rd president in his op-ed in this morning’s NY Times.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy

Cronon reaches back further in history to effectively tie Walker’s style to that of the late Joseph McCarthy, the notorious Republican senator from Wisconsin who broke with the state’s bi-partisan progressive legacy. Cronon asks Gov. Walker the same question posed to McCarthy that ultimately brought the senator’s downfall: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

Cronon writes:

NOW that a Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a state law that would strip public employee unions of most collective bargaining rights, it’s worth stepping back to place these events in larger historical context. 

Republicans in Wisconsin are seeking to reverse civic traditions that for more than a century have been among the most celebrated achievements not just of their state, but of their own party as well. 

Wisconsin was at the forefront of the progressive reform movement in the early 20th century, when the policies of Gov. Robert M. La Follette prompted a fellow Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, to call the state a “laboratory of democracy.” The state pioneered many social reforms: It was the first to introduce workers’ compensation, in 1911; unemployment insurance, in 1932; and public employee bargaining, in 1959. 

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