IB Wisconsin’s David Blaska has advice that, like mine, is unlikely to be heeded by the Democratic Party:
I have been looking for signs that adherents of the Democratic party have learned the lessons of the great Wisconsin Recall debacle, which failed to remove the governor from office but instead catapulted Scott Walker to national acclaim.
I have sifted the rubble of the June 5 election and its aftermath for evidence that our liberal/progressive adversaries have picked up a clue, bought a vowel, taken the hint. So far, the pickings have been leaner than a vegan bicycle racer at a Texas barbecue.
B+ Dave Cieslewicz. So often, simple is best. (K.I.S.S., anyone?)
“We lost because they like the other guy better,” the former Madison mayor writes. “The public isn’t buying what Democrats have to offer and it’s time we stopped whining about it and complaining about how stupid our customers are.” True, that. …
You’re right that people in un-Madison (which is to say, the rest of Wisconsin) don’t chant much outside the occasional monastery. But you sell language too short, for a would-be blogger. Language is a means of conveying ideas. Substitute the word “ideas” and you’ve got it: “In politics ideas matter, and the ideas of the Left don’t resonate … .”
Advocating a total ban on handguns, as you did a couple of months ago, fer instance, ain’t going to cut it. You either trust The People to make good decisions or, like New York’s Mayor Bloomberg, you infantilize them in the nanny state. People are either causative agents or helpless victims, dependent on government sustenance, like Barack Obama’s “Julia.” …
D — Marty Beil/Mary Bell. (Can you prove they’re not one and the same person?) Announce that “The Kathleen” Falk is Big Labor’s candidate without consulting their members. Throw $5 million of their dues at her doomed candidacy, drive to Milwaukee to diss the eventual Democrat(ic) nominee. Whoever said Big Labor is top down, tone deaf and out of touch?
When some AFSCME members attempt a coup, Marty responds, with typical grace, “I’m sure there’s some Monday morning quarterbacking going on. There’s a whole bunch of people who all of sudden become political experts.”
Compared to your sorry performance, Marty Bell, so are the baggers at that DeForest grocery.
D — Little Man Tate. Chairman of the State Party. Openly hopes that the governor of Wisconsin is sent to prison. Statesmen need not apply! I’ll believe the party of my youth is on the mend when it fires spokes mouth Graeme Zielinski, lifetime winner of PolitiFact’s PantsOnFire Award. A little civility, Democrats, wouldn’t hurt. Go to that DeForest supermarket and watch how no one is cutting ahead in line and everyone pays their own way. (Send Mike the bill!) …
F — John Nichols. Need I say more? Well, O.K., if you insist.
Encouraged the Siege of the Capitol, ignored its inevitable excesses (Pink Dress Guy, Segway Boy, the Walker Stalkers), campaigned for the recall more fervently than Tom Barrett, cried racism in a crowded theater, and wrongly predicted “the only people who buy the argument that Walker is a safe bet to win are national pundits who have not been near Wisconsin.” Are we forgetting the Marquette Law School poll and its director, UW-Madison prof. Charles Franklin? Or does it not fit your narrative? Now holds that the stupid electorate was fooled by Citizens United. Price check in aisle 3, John!
F-minus — Matt Rothschild. Openly eschews the ballot box in favor of mob rule. Teamsters should shut down the Interstate highway system, “Every union in the state could have caught the blue flu.” (The link, here.) Yeah, that would work. Not!
Even Dale Schultz would call out the National Guard.
Wobblies like Comrade John and Matt Rothschild are weighing down the Democrat(ic) party. Wisconsin, indeed, America, does not want to look like Greece. We want to live within our means. We do not resent success, we aspire to it. The private sector is not doing “just fine.” Hiring more government workers and giving them better compensation than sustainable in the private sector is voodoo economics. People are not stupid, they can sift and winnow their way through the political advertising just fine.
We’ll take the Tea Party, you can have Mr. Ed, Jesse Jackson and Hippie Bongstocking. (MacIver has the full video interview. “It’s so difficult being an anarchist in America,” she laments. Try being a taxpayer, Ms. Bongstocking. Hilarious!)
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
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