Wisconsin Meets The Machine

I have spent the better part of the last week pondering the results of the Wisconsin recall and have come to some conclusions. The recall of republican state senators failed in its ambitious goals. The democratic party failed to grasp what was really at stake at both the state and national level. The state party was disorganized and couldn't get out a coherent message and instead treated the recall as a group of local contests with no common thread. The national party continues to fail by having no values or principles that distinguish them from the republicans except by degree of complicity. The debt ceiling debate was a perfect example. My representative, Tammy Baldwin, demonstrated as much courage as any democrat by voting against this travesty for reasons of principle, namely the lack of sacrifice from the oligarchs and the national security state. President Obama was nowhere to be seen or heard on the subject. He has become a caretaker, holding the place down until the real owners show up. If I would have known this I'd rather left the the presidency in republican hands and let them suffer the consequences of a decade of misrule. In the end I have to agree with the World Socialist Web Site:

"In the end, the recall campaign boosted the fortunes of the Republicans in Wisconsin and nationally, along with their right-wing corporate backers who flooded the state with millions in campaign funding. Going into another recall vote next Tuesday—this time for two Democrats—the Republicans could extend their majority in the state senate, which is currently 17-16.

Even if the Democrats had won the election, workers in the state would have seen no fundamental change. Like the Republicans, the Democrats on every level of government have insisted that the working class must pay for the economic crisis, tax cuts for the wealthy and other supposedly “job-creating” incentives for big business.

In Wisconsin, the Democrats boasted that they had made the deepest cuts in state history, including public employee furloughs and other concessions, under Walker’s Democratic predecessor, Governor Jim Doyle."

In the words of anarchist David Graeber:

"WE FACE A GIANT MACHINE DESIGNED TO DESTROY ANY SENSE OF POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE FUTURES"