Wisconsin Dems Hope for Massive Republican Implosion—Their Only Shot in 2014

Intercepted communication from
the Wisconsin Democratic Party,
or possibly from Mary Burke.
Difficult to see the source or message.

Matthew DeFour's analysis in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal on the prospects of Wisconsin Democrats retaking the legislature is telling.

DeFour does not mention the words, "gerrymander," instead referring to "(p)artisan redistricting."

Republican voting obstruction is described as changes to "voting rules."

The rest of the piece is tripe with quotes from Democratic and Republican Party bureaucrats, though the conclusion the Democratic Party can retake the state senate is sound.

That's what we can expect from the traditional media in Wisconsin.

The problem for the Democrats is the campaign communications of their candidate at the top of the November ticket, Mary Burke, assuming no one else jumps in.

Does Burke rail incessantly against the most corrupt, destructive governor in Wisconsin history a la Bob La Follette or Gaylord Nelson who virtually reinvented political movements?

Not a chance, and Burke's communications director, Joe Zepecki, has to be the most useless political operative since, well take your pick among the current cast of Wisconsin Democratic do-nothings.

Has anyone ever seen such a broad array of killer issues the Republicans have supplied non-Republicans?

The traditional media of dailies and broadcast media are as uninformative as the performance of the Wisconsin Democratic Party functionaries who appear more interested in drawing paychecks than winning elections, much less creating something resembling a political infrastructure.

And Wisconsin progressives should not waste time with George Lakoff as some political savior for progressive communications, in the absence of an effective Democratic Party.

Useless.

Lakoff's main contention is obvious, the assertion that compelling communications supporting an appealing message are more politically effective than non-compelling communications (or no political communications) in support of a not-so-appealing message.

Think impressions—the projection of one image onto one human brain (a voter).

This is what is called public relations, and it's been around about a century.

"If Lakoff is right, his theory can do everything from overturning millennia of misguided thinking in the Western intellectual tradition to putting a Democrat in the White House," writes Steven Pinker is a scathing review of Lakoff's work. "Though it contains messianic claims about everything from epistemology to political tactics, [Lakoff's 2006 Whose Freedom ...] has no footnotes or references (just a generic reading list), and cites no studies from political science or economics, and barely mentions linguistics. Its use of cognitive neuroscience goes way beyond any consensus within that field, and its analysis of political ideologies is skewed by the author's own politics and limited by his disregard of centuries of prior thinking on the subject."

Forget Lakoff, use Scott Walker.

Scott Walker is the most target-rich politician in Wisconsin since Joe McCarthy and Burke and the Democrats keep missing the mark.

"'If your goal is to hold down wages and turn Wisconsin into a subsidiary of Koch Industries, then Governor Walker’s your guy,' [Maryland Gov. Martin] O’Malley (D) said, referring to the giant conglomerate headed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who are prolific political donors." (Wagner. Washington Post)

That's the message.

Throw in Walker's jobs failure and the host of other issues on which Wisconsin state Democrats [national Democrats are much more effective] are mostly silent and November 2014 might be an exciting month for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin activists and writers aren't giving up.

But the Democratic Party of Wisconsin should rightfully drown itself in the waters of Lake Winnebago, and campaign from the bottom with the zebra mussels.

The way the party campaign is proceeding, it will take a John Doe revelation (Walker and the GOP are trying to stall the criminal probe), with an effective Democratic Party response, for Scott Walker and the Republicans to fall.

Otherwise Georgia is going to elect a Democratic governor before Wisconsin.

Mary Burke's Campaign Will Not Ignite, Someone Get In Fast

Blame it on the Desolate One because
Wisconsin Dems Are Professionals

Scott Walker is vulnerable in his re-election bid for governor.

Walker can retail-campaign with the best of them (he reminds me of the late Hubert Humphrey in this one aspect). And tens of millions of dollars will be spent on Walker's behalf in the air war.

That's a lot of bucks for a medium-sized state in eight months, and this money will be invested on behalf of those Charles P. Pierce calls the "the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their Midwest subsidiary," in his coverage, Watching Scotty Blow.

Even so, Walker is vulnerable.

But Mary Burke is not the candidate to defeat Walker, and Wisconsin Democrats are too hopelessly stuck in the yawning pit of groupthink to face or voice this fact.

Everyone needs to get on board, say the Democratic Party mavens who brought us this accelerating transformation of Wisconsin into Mississippi.

Burke campaign communications director, Joe Zepecki, employed the innovative strategy that silence is golden, unusual for a challenger with little name recognition, bound to be heavily outspent by the incumbent governor who has been running for the office for nine years.

Still time for someone, someone to get in: Barca, Vinehout, Erbenbach, Lori Compas, anybody but Burke and the campaign that can't shoot straight.

Candidates cannot circulate gubernatorial nomination papers until April 15.

Many moons ago a first-rate national political operative working as a colleague in a campaign asked me an odd question.

What are you reading, watching on TV?

"Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, 1,000s of pages of stuff, I guess," I said in a tone suggesting I thought the guy might be foolish for asking.

Put away Noam and Russell. Watch three hours of prime-time TV every week. You need to get in touch with the average voter.

Getting and staying in touch. Almost daily we hear from Scott Walker throwing out a press release, signing a law, ostensibly staying in touch with Wisconsin, though anyone sentient knows he's hiding.

In the gubernatorial race between Scott Walker and Candidate X, being in touch with voters is paramount.

As the Republicans have been pumping out the most repugnant legislation against voters, veterans, and families suffering from cancer, Mary Burke had no response. Dead air. Deadly silence. [Burke did have one statement out today on the Republicans' incredibly blocking of cancer treatment.]

Not all the money in Manhattan is going make Burke an effective candidate as she is running an historically inept campaign against this most vile of opponents.

Burke is out-of-touch with the key issues animating her would-be constituents, or she may as well be as she abstains from campaigning.

Following her first TV spot on Walker and jobs, an issue no one could screw-up, Burke's team screwed up.

Scott Walker is malicious and deceitful. But Walker is lucking out again facing the do-nothing satisfice infecting the Wisconsin Democratic Party enabling the Tea Party to inflict mayhem onto the people of our state.

This race is over unless one of Walker's many scandals explodes, another candidate gets in on a long-shot bid; or Walker goes for an early-April jog on Lake Mendota without any security.

Again, there is still time for candidates to get into the race.

As for Burke she should forget electoral politics and take up bowling or watch reruns of Under the Dome.