While the Rest of the World is Protesting Wall Street Corruption of Politics and the Corporate Takeover of Everything, Leave it to Our Williamson County Republicans to Do the Most Inappropriate Thing at the Worst Possible Time---Scotty Walker's Coming to Town!
Walker, Stay Home!
No politician in America symbolizes the war on the middle class and Wall Street's corruption of democracy more than Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
At a time when Americans at Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Nashville and around the country are rising up against how corporate money and special interests dominate politics and crush "We, the people," Scotty Walker's coming to town.
While that is exactly the last thing we Tennesseans need---a Northern carpetbagger brought in here to raise money for his recall election and to help local Walker-worshippers raise money for themselves---that is exactly what the Williamson County Republican Party is doing to us.
Walker will be the keynote speaker at the Williamson County Republican Party's annual Reagan Day Dinner Oct. 25 at Embassy Suites in Franklin. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is expected to be there as well as Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, state legislators and local elected officials.
Coming into a state with a 9.7% unemployment rate and where regular people are hurting, Walker is about as welcome as an ex-wife at a wedding, flatulence in an elevator or Al Sharpton at a Klan meeting. It's like taking a PETA member to a rodeo. It's inviting Tonya Harding to Nancy Kerrigan's birthday party. More faux pas than white heels after Labor Day.
Walker is the national poster boy for firing teachers, busting unions, rejecting federal money that would make jobs and crapping all over middle-class working people. Walker this year gave no-bid contracts to cronies; appointed unqualified relatives of contributors to cushy jobs, and pushed legislation to protect giant, multinational corporations at the expense of regular people. (Link to a list of Walker's misdeeds from Wisconsin Democrats: http://www.wisdems.org/RecallHQ/WalkerFailures)
Walker infamously believed he was talking to Tea Party bankroller and oil billionaire David Koch during a phone call in which he said he was considering an assortment of dirty tricks to pull on Democratic state senators. Walker told not-Koch he had thought about hiring thugs to infiltrate the ranks of protestors outside the Wisconsin Capitol to cause trouble and make the protesters look bad.
It's not like we in Tennessee need an outsider to show us how to raise corporate money and put down working people. Our own extremist Republicans this year attacked teachers and unions and passed a law limiting the rights of victims to sue giant corporations. Tennessee's Haslam, while himself moaning the budget-cutting blues when it came to working Tennesseans, gave huge raises to pals he had appointed to cabinet positions, who were already making in the mid-six figures before Haslam's raises.
While Americans who have been steamrolled by the unconstitutional corporate buyout of politicians are finally standing up and saying, "No more," Walker's invite into our place is especially heinous and ill-timed.
Big money has never been bigger in American politics. Republican manipulator Karl Rove has said he will raise $250 million to spend defeating Democrats in 2012. Corporate money floodgates were opened last year after the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that corporations are people and money is speech, and corporations can give any amount---anonymously, even---to a political machine which will crank out commercials all over the country. That led Rove's PACs alone to pour $71 million into a Republican tsunami last year that took over the U.S. Congress and many state houses, including Tennessee.
Koch, the richest resident of New York City and on Forbes' roster of the 400 wealthiest Americans, has been spending large on extreme right agendas to put down unions, teachers and working Americans. Koch gave $43,000 to Walker's 2010 campaign for governor. He gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which spent $3.4 million on commercials supporting Walker.
Koch funded the Tea Party, and he donates heavily to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which puts lobbyists and corporate interests at the same table as legislators from around the country, with the outcome that many bills are formed behind closed doors and out of the public view.
So orchestrated is ALEC's "model legislation" that more than 30 states, including Tennessee and Wisconsin, put through bills in this year's legislative sessions that were virtually identical in their language outlawing unions for teachers, police and firefighters; limiting victims' rights to sue big corporations, privatizing education and other issues.
Tennessee legislators who belong to ALEC include Curry Todd, Charles Sargent, Glenn Casada, Steve McDaniel, Vance Dennis and Joshua Evans.
Walker is now on a barnstorming tour to raise money for a likely recall election. Wisconsin residents must obtain 540,206 signatures on petitions by Jan. 13, 2012, to force the election. So galvanized is the revulsion of Walker in Wisconsin that Walker is acting as if it is a fait accompli.
Walker traveled to Kentucky, where he drew protesters, to raise money on Sept. 15; he has traveled to Florida, and now he has Tennessee on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/131854838.html) and later Arizona on his money-raising agenda. Walker no doubt has been told that Williamson County is the 18th wealthiest (median income) county in America.
In May, these same Republicans in Williamson County thought they would inspire their base and increase donations by bringing in Muslim hate-monger Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, for "photo opportunities" with locals.
While there was general public rebuke of Wilders and his bigoted message smearing all Muslims, including an excellent editorial in The Tennessean, the Williamson Republicans did not get the message. By showcasing Wilders, they were appealing to a small but fervent group that demonizes those who do not dress or speak like them. These Republicans continue to conspicuously swim against the spirit of Nashville and its neighbor communities, who in the main reach out to help each other regardless of how they look or talk.
The Williamson Republicans clearly are running the same play again. Like Muslim-hater Wilders, the incendiary Walker is being put upon a pedestal by the local Republicans. He is being worshipped in effect as an example of a great man, although Walker's infamy is gutting workers' rights and freedoms while repaying his corporate sponsors with bad bills and favors.
Walker is not welcome in Franklin, Tennessee, or Anywhere, Tennessee. We do not want another outsider coming down here to preach hate and bile. We don't need the likes of Walker to recite the mantras of corporate greed and the callous suppression of working Tennesseans.
Woe is Wisconsin for getting this devil inflicted upon them. If this is what our Republicans think is a political idol to be hero-worshipped and emulated, woe is Tennessee. If our politicians listen to Gov. Walker, I have one request: Take notes, and then act the opposite.
Walker, stay home!
For your possible amusement:
To the Tune of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town:"
You better watch out;
Get ready to cry.
You better turn out,
I'm telling you why:
Scotty Walker's coming to town!
He's coming to tell
The local rednecks:
David Koch's gonna write you a check.
Scotty Walker's coming to town!
This Northern carpetbagger--
He coddles billionaires.
He knows if you're a union type,
And your teacher he will scare.
Oh, you better turn out--
Get into the streets.
We'll see you all at Embassy Suites.
Scotty Walker's coming---
He's a right-wing hero---
Scotty Walker's coming to town!
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