Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss

Such is life. I learned the lesson that new bosses are worse than the old pretty early. Same in the workplace as in government. There are historians today that judge Richard Nixon as the last liberal President we ever had, myself included. Nixon objectively governed to the left of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and now Obama. Watergate, COINTELPRO, and invading Cambodia and Laos? Chickenfeed compared to the vile crimes perpretrated by the bush administration. And I have a feeling now, after watching scotty not so hotty's bile filled lie fest about how badly he's going to harm all the children in this state and their teachers, librarians, etc. that someday very soon we're going to look at the bush years as paradise compared to the fascist hell awaiting to be inaugurated by the next psychopath in chief.

I never understood why the crybaby conservatives had such a problem with Governor Jim Doyle. It may just have been simple partisanship. Federalism is all well and good but as goes the nation, so go the states. In fact, states get hit far harder than the nation because they have more social responsibilities and must balance their budgets. The mobility of capital and ease that business can hold state governments hostage make governing very difficult for even capable statesmen. People are rightfully angry, life has been getting nothing but harder for a long time but when they vent their rage at the wrong target, the one party we have that actually believes in government and society, then it shouldn't be suprizing that what we get is worse. Republicans do go out of their way, and spend incredible amounts of money, obscuring this fact but there it is. This is the first time that I have seen it up close and personal just how much damage they can do at the state level. While they haven't won yet in crushing public sector unions, I don't hold out much hope that we the people can stop them.

When bush was squatting in the white house and working all of his evil, it seemed so remote. And for good reason, he was implementing fascism in a rather lowkey way, only politically aware people were threatened with being traitors and only those actually engaged were shouted down with the fury. Bank robbers coming in guns blazing in broad daylight makes for exciting television and movies, but is lousy for getting away with it. And that is what the bush m.o. was all about, ripping off the country for his corporate friends without a lot of attention. Sure it was blatant, and lots of people felt the hurt of budget cuts but a critical mass never really formed, even after public opinion turned but it was like shadowboxing, there was no way to really strike back at the robbers. That is to say nothing of the wars,  Maybe it is the closer scale in Wisconsin, or the fact that scotty targetted a group that actually is organized, publically sympathetic for all the non-sociopaths out there, and almost all of us benefit from teachers and all the victims. Here the connection between the robbery and the damage was a lot more visible too, if the thugs can get away with it here then we may as well just accept that democracy, freedom, and hope really are extinct.