Warthen is in good company.
In Wisconsin, not much is known about Wisconsin Gov Tony Evers (D) beyond the fact he is not Scott Walker, a compelling attribute after eight years of unmitigated disaster.
But several progressive writers are working feverishly to conceal the fact that Evers is an uninformed, moribund, Republican-lite empty suit who just doesn't get it.
One month into the Evers administration, there is a public relations campaign from Paul Fanlund, John Nichols, Ruth Conniff and Dave Zweifel, all of whom rush to say that Tony Evers is some variation of nice.
This Tony Evers team of writers omits the fact the new governor has done nothing during the campaign, transition and administration in working against the lunatic, illegal and unconstitutional Foxconn-Wisconsin contract that Scott Walker concealed from Wisconsin, for example.
Outside of Tony Evers' world, Foxconn and the corporatist scam it represents are catastrophic, and seeking some personal attribute to highlight it is a fools' game that ignores the radical work of rightiwingers whom the corporate press still term "conservative." This is not about "messaging," to which Evers has reduced the Foxconn scam.
Here are examples from the Evers-does-has-clothes caucus.
Paul Fanlund - Tony Evers is "personally likable," just like Sen Tammy Baldwin (D).
Fanlund ignores it was Baldwin's hard-hitting camapign "that used the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to effectively frame her opponent as doing the bidding of corporate special interests" (In These Times). Baldwin "garnered 150,000 votes more than Tony Evers," notes the piece and it was not by being Ms. Nice Girl.
John Nichols - "[Tony] Evers defeated Scott Walker precisely because the former state superintendent of public instruction speaks to a longing on the part of Wisconsinites for a presumption of civility."
Nichols has been pushing this line for months.
I know many activists around the state of many persuasions and none of them voted for Tony Evers because they long for civility. It is all about clean water, local control, collective bargaining, public schools and the University of Wisconsin System, among human rights concerns.
I have never spoken to Scott Walker because I don't like the company of racists and rightwing Christians, but if I did meet Walker, I would be willing to bet he would be likeable and civil.
So what?
This brings us to:
Ruth Conniff - Conniff quotes Evers' inaugural address, noting Evers' call for kindness and civility.
C'mon, every politician calls for kindness, peace, love and understanding.
This is what Conniff has to prop up Evers?
Dave Zweifel - "Evers showed once again that his style shuns nastiness," writes Zweifel. Finally, Zweifel does offer, "kowtowing to big business—million-dollar, even billion-dollar, payouts to hugely successful corporations started to grate" on voters.
But Zweifel like many other pro-Evers writers is working to reduce politics to personality, holding out the hope, for example, that State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) may hear the "governor's message."
---
As Republicans have mobilized the corporate-prison-racist-Evangelical coalition as never before, the Tony Evers crowd calls for depoliticization, saying it's time to be nice, civil and bipartisan.
The Evers crowd does have some friends on the rightwing who emphasize the personal over policy—Peggy Noonan.
Noonan chastised Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) for not appearing likeable, warm and spirited at the State of the Union spectacle.
AOC offered a response to Noonan, that Wisconsin's pro-Evers crowd should consider:
Terrance Warthen and AOC have it right.Why should I be “spirited and warm” for this embarrassment of a #SOTU?— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 6, 2019
Tonight was an unsettling night for our country. The president failed to offer any plan, any vision at all, for our future.
We’re flying without a pilot. And I‘m not here to comfort anyone about that fact. https://t.co/7bu3QXFMnC
In Wisconsin, the Democratic Party and its amen corner have veered into a post-policy world where elected officials must prioritize being nice, likable, civil and spunky in the manner of a 1970s cheerleader—not that there is anything wrong with that, just that I would prefer the governor to be a fighter and straight shooter with more than a pedestrian knowledge of public policy.
Tony Evers could be really nice and resign, offering the executive branch to Lt Gov Mandela Barnes (D), who gets it.
No comments:
Post a Comment