Scott Walker's War against Local Control in Wisconsin Drawing Flak

Mining monster, GTac's Bill Williams is seen here leaving
the Wisconsin Assembly on January 26, 2012, the evening
that the first mining bill GTac authored, AB426,
was pushed through, behind the locked doors so
ordered by Rep. Bill Kramer (R-ALEC).
Photo by Rebecca Kemble

Discussing Scott Walker and what his Republican Party are trying to inflict onto Wisconsin this week, it's worth noting Walker has too much baggage and to be candid is too dumb to become the Republican Party's 2016 nominee for president.

These marks against Walker, however, do not disqualify him in his re-election bid for governor of Wisconsin—a fact that can get residents down somewhat on occasion.

There is one titanic issue in a democracy beyond Walker's jobs failure and Walker's stunning lack of character that spells defeat in November if only the presumptive Democratic Party challenger's campaign will fire the bullets in a near-constant stream: Walker's attack on local control.

Note the Wisconsin Republican Party is hierarchical and authoritarian in the way it runs its operation.

When Scott Walker evades and pretends he has no idea what the Republicans in the legislature are doing, Walker is lying.

Ask outgoing Wisconsin state senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center, Wisconsin) how Republicans react when one Republican does not get on board with the decisions made by the special interests funding the Party.

"When some think tank comes up with the legislation and tells you not to fool with it, why are you even a legislator anymore? You just sit there and take votes and you’re kind of a feudal serf for folks with a lot of money," said Schultz in an important piece in the Madison Capital Times, (Jack Craver. "The Last Moderate ...") last August when speculation ran that Schultz could not longer function in the Republican-controlled state legislature and be obedient to special interests.

These same special interests are after Wisconsin's natural resources and they brook no dissent, certainly not from Wisconsin towns, villages and other units of local control.

Wisconsin towns are worried about kids and the elderly breathing in crystalline silica from frac sand mines and processing plants; tell it to someone cares, people.

Republicans, led by state Sen. Tom Tiffany, (R-Hazelhurst, Wisconsin), are voting on legislation preventing Wisconsin towns and other municipalities from saying 'No.' This means no instituting safety rules, and this means invalidating existing rules in Wisconsin Senate Bill 632 and Assembly Bill 816. Local communities deserve no say in these matters, Wisconsin Republicans believe.

This same Republican aversion to local control applies to community living wage ordinances, community protection for tenants, community early voting for local residents, the infamous Act 10 outlawing public unions' working with local communities, ending "local residency rules statewide for all units of local government" (Don Walker. MJS), ending local control over water bill, and even the Wisconsin people's access to water inscribed in the Wisconsin Constitution as Article IX, "The Public Trust Doctrine."

One can go on and on. Mary Burke, Scott Walker's opponent for governor, should.