Paul Fanlund, editor of the former daily newspaper The Capital Times, deigns to give advice to Republicans, which is like asking the Communist Party how capitalists could be better people, or asking the Chicago Bears how the Green Bay Packers could improve:

I was reminded of Jerry Brown last week.

Brown was elected governor of California again in November by arguing that his experience would help revive a state where, as much as anyplace, anti-government fervor had shredded public schools and other services and ignored infrastructural needs. …

Today, though, California associates describe Brown as stunned and bewildered. His proven techniques for partnering with Republicans have failed so utterly he is “aghast,” according to one friend in a front-page New York Times story on Brown’s political re-education.

Join the crowd, Jerry.

Many of those I speak with regularly describe themselves as more deeply disconsolate about Wisconsin’s and America’s prospects than at any time in memory. And most would not call themselves liberals.

For me, the central disconnect is between the Republicanism that spews from talk radio and what I have always understood and observed to be the true character of the party during my lifetime: a strong devotion to personal responsibility and limited government. …

In Wisconsin, this type of Republican, upon winning the governor’s office and narrow control of both houses of the Legislature, would have passed a bipartisan budget requiring public employees to pay more for pensions and health insurance. There was general agreement that costs were out-of-step with the private sector and what taxpayers could afford. That approach would have preserved collective bargaining rights and allowed the focus to be on bipartisan approaches to fixing a Wisconsin economy so desperately in need of transition from our never-to-return reliance on manufacturing jobs.

That kind of GOP would not have rammed through absurd political maps in an unprecedented assault on fair play, nor pushed through voter identification changes in a transparent gambit to suppress Democratic votes.

But these traditional Republicans, exemplified by governors like Warren Knowles, Lee Drefyus and Tommy Thompson, actually liked Democrats and considered it their job to represent them as well as their base constituency, maybe even winning some to their side. …

So, I’ve a question for you smart folks who preferred the big-tent GOP characterized by compassionate conservatism …

Is what you have now what you want? Really?

Whenever you decide to change things — and we hope it’s within our lifetimes — many Democrats and independents are eager to work with you. It’s what real patriots would do.

First, it demonstrates the bizarre world the left lives in when California — a state with even worse finances than Wisconsin, and a state that has one of the highest rates of outmigration in the country — is a positive example.

David Blaska, a former Capital Times staffer (and out of respect to Dave I will not call his former employer what I usually call it: The Crapital Times), replies pithily:

Once again The Capital Times is asking “When will genuine Republicans strike back?” My old alma mater has sung the same song before. Whenever Republicans take the majority in government, someone from Dane County’s Progressive voice asks plaintively why can’t more Republicans be like Democrats?

The news source that hero-worships the likes of Ben Manski, Michael Moore, Dennis Kucinich, Lena Taylor, 9/11 truther Kevin Barrett, Amy Goodman, fake native-American Ward Churchill, and whatever socialist is speaking tonight at Pres House is in no position to determine what constitute a “genuine Republican.”

My introduction to the Crapital Times’ pervasive bias came during the 1980s, when John Patrick Hunter, who started his Capital Times career with a bang, wrote, in a news story, about,  directly quoting, “the so-called Moral Majority.” The Capital Times can be as stupid as it wants on its opinion pages, but allowing its left-wing bias to leak onto its news pages is simply unprofessional, and Hunter, who had been at the Capital Times for more  than 30 years at the time, should have known better.

Fanlund’s anti-Republican screed might have more credibility had it even the pretense of objectivity during the years of the aforementioned governors Dreyfus and Thompson. (I can’t comment on what the Capital Times wrote about Knowles, since my parents subscribed to an actual newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal.)

Toward the end of Dreyfus’ one term in office, the Capital Times published a front-page editorial calling on Dreyfus to resign for daring to find a job before his term as governor was up. (Dreyfus, who didn’t run for a second term, became the president of Sentry Insurance, which then was led by a favorite antagonist of Democrats, John Joanis. The same Milwaukee Sentinel story that notes Dreyfus’ hiring also noted that Dreyfus’ predecessor, Martin Schreiber, who after Dreyfus defeated him became a Sentry vice president, was taking a leave of absence to run for governor.)

In the 14 years Thompson was governor, the Crapital Times regularly blasted Thompson for those things that, Blaska also points out, made him a national pioneer — welfare reform and school choice — as well as for his cutting income taxes. According to the Capital Times, every government budget cut is like sticking a knife into the guts of the poor.

As it turns out, Capital Times readers have more insight into the GOP than Fanlund. Comments include:

Perhaps the “real” Republicans tired of seeing the inaction of their party on the very items the writer notes as “core” issues, particularly limiting the size, scope, and intrusiveness of the government.

Tommy was a big spender. Not thinking that is what people want right now. To be a true Republican you need to be fiscally conservative.

Actually a pretty amusing looonnng whining piece written by someone who longs for the “good old days”. Of course if he truly examined his writings or opinions from those days he would likely find that he was desperately disappointed then as well because those with similar political persuasions are never satisfied or happy. Back in the glory days of Jim Doyle the dems pulled all sorts of the same tricks but of course that was ok even though you wanted more.

>> There was general agreement that costs were out-of-step with the private sector and what taxpayers could afford.

That wasn’t what voters heard from the Democratic side leading up to the 2010 election, nor is it the message that Democrats put out now. If it was, you’d see more Democrats in charge of the state right now.
>> approach would have preserved collective bargaining rights and allowed the focus to be on bipartisan approaches to fixing a Wisconsin economy
Again, I didn’t hear calls for “bipartisanship” from the CapTimes in 2010 when Democrats were in charge of our executive and legislative branches. (Instead, people saw more taxes and an attempt to sneak a budget in during a lame duck session after voters had their say.)
Like many independents, I’m happy to wait and see where Walker’s reforms take us. Hope and change we can believe in – at the state level, at least!

“Whenever you decide to change things — and we hope it’s within our lifetimes — many Democrats and independents are eager to work with you. It’s what real patriots would do.”
Except when an ideological disagreement exists, dissenters get the following reaction, which is found a few short paragraphs earlier in this same piece:
“They recoil from a smart and centrist president, one with the brains for pragmatic collaboration, and decide they apparently would rather witness economic calamity than risk anything that might give the guy with the funny name and dark skin an enhanced shot at a second term.”
Sorry if folks aren’t eager to walk over, shake your hand, and ask “what other fine thoughts do you have, sir?”

More CT political spin. The author just doesn’t get it. How about this – the quite majority has been pushed too far. The failure of democrat policies and programs, along with their extreme rhetoric, lying and loony demonstrations are what contributed to their demise.

… This claim that Walker should have just worked with the unions is ridiculous. They never offered the cuts, until after it was clear that Walker was going to curtail their collective bargaining privileges. Those cuts were never offered in any real negotiations. Illinois public employee unions are suing the state over not getting a raise. That’s the kind of cooperation that you get with unions. So to claim that they would somehow have been willing to sit down with Walker and negotiate cuts is lunacy. To be fair, they would have told Doyle or Walker to f-off if either would have proposed the cuts.

I always enjoy how a “progressive” yearns for the days of old. The days that put this Country $15 trillion in debt. The days that put CA in the $20 Billion+/yr in debt. (using brown as your shining star…now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are) and then to top it all off, why not criticize the folks who would like some more accountability when it comes to our elected officials. Our elected officials overseeing the Solyndra loan, our elected officials who paid out $600 million in benefits….to DEAD PEOPLE!!! and now fanlund and the cap times have the audacity to tell us we’re supposed to shut up and take it or get called really bad names. and then he mentions “talk radio”. are you kidding me??? aren’t you the party who supports views from all sides yet you’re so threatened by less than 10% of the stations?? it makes you wonder what it is you stand for when such a small majority is threatening. And finally, you had to reach down for the “dark skin/funny name card” one last time didn’t you fanlund? in case you didn’t notice, others with “dark skin and funny names” are turning on your centrist smart president as well. any time you would like to continue with adult conversations, the real patriots will be ready.

>> California…a state where…anti-government fervor had shredded public schools and other services and ignored infrastructural needs.
Illegal immigrants swamping public services, ridiculous wages/benefits for public servants, failed attempts to even out social strata and general corruption are probably more to blame in that failed state.
>> Brown…exuded a competence and JFK-style charisma
…but lacked actual competence or his own charisma, then? Please, go on.
>> Many of those I speak with regularly describe themselves as more deeply disconsolate about Wisconsin’s and America’s prospects than at any time in memory. And most would not call themselves liberals.
That’s because the “most” in this country are sick of funding every idea dreamed up by liberals. (Actually, this isn’t a refutation, just connecting the dots for you.)
>> central disconnect is between the Republicanism that spews from talk radio and what I have always understood and observed to be the true character of the party during my lifetime: a strong devotion to personal responsibility and limited government.
Right-wing talk radio hits those topics almost ad nauseum. What have you been listening to?

(The voices in his head, apparently.)

What Fanlund doesn’t bother to tell you is that the Republicans he prefers are Republicans on the losing side. Before becoming governor, Thompson was the Assembly minority leader, a position without much power given the Assembly’s dictatorship of the majority. Dreyfus ran for governor because he believed the Republicans were in danger of becoming a permanent minority party in this state. Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature for 18 months out of the 14 years Thompson was governor. Care to guess how often the Capital Times endorsed Thompson in his four races for governor?

I wonder how “many” Fanlund speaks to who pronounce themselves “disconsolate” about the state’s and country’s prospects notice that the Wisconsin Republican near-sweep Nov. 2 was in response to two disastrous years of complete Democratic control of state government, during which the state amassed $2.9 billion in red ink. Or that Democrats still control the White House and the U.S. Senate. Or that the growth in government at every level has occurred in lockstep with the ratcheting nastiness of political discourse and political campaigns, something for which both parties can be faulted.

I don’t consider myself a social conservative, but I do believe social conservatives have as much right to be heard in the political marketplace as liberals do. Fanlund disagrees. And as for Fanlund’s comment about older Republicans who “actually liked Democrats,” you try finding something positive about such spittle-flinging snarling Dumocrat dogs as Sens. Mark Miller (D–Monona) and Jon Erpenbach (D–Verona) and Reps. Lena Taylor (D–Milwaukee), Peter Barca (D–Kenosha) and Bob Jauch (D–Poplar). They’re the political children of former Senate Majority Leader Chuck “It’s been the rich vs. the rest of us” Chvala, and that’s not intended as a compliment.