Motley Moose – Archive

If you harbor any doubt as to how the Republicans prefer to hold onto power in states like Wisconsin, look no further than the comment by Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R):

“… high turnout elections have typically favored Democrats while low turnouts favor the GOP …”

Fitzgerald is correct … but he will never be right. It can never be right to want to govern without the consent of those being governed, to wish that democracy fails so that you can ignore the will of the majority of the people.

Republicans all over the United States, like Fitzgerald, are glad when fewer people vote because they know that most people reject their puny vision of America.

I am reminded of what happened as the result of a low-turnout midterm 4 years ago. In February 2011, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) fulfilled his secret promises to his campaign donors and ended collective bargaining for public employees. People protested and the Democratic state senators left the state to deny Sen. Fitzgerald a quorum. Those were heady times for small d democracy as Walker discovered that winning an election with 32% of the registered voters of a state (25% of the voting age population) did not give him a mandate. He won the election but he lacked one very important thing: the Consent of the Governed.

Specifically, this consent, from Thomas Jefferson:

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

It is time to stand up and be counted as one of the governed who does NOT consent to Scott Walker’s governance, one who rejects his minoritea rule.

There is no excuse to not vote today. No excuse to not take our state back from the special interests and elect a governor who cares about Wisconsin and wants to make life better for Wisconsinites. Mary Burke will have one focus: moving Wisconsin Forward.

Last night in Milwaukee, President Obama spoke at a get out the vote rally for Mary Burke, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor. He spoke at North Division High School, whose famous graduates include former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and current U.S. Representative Gwen Moore (D). The precinct that North Division is in voted 99% for President Obama in the 2012 election so it was a place he knew he would be welcome … and he was, by about 3,400 people!!

President Obama:

“When you step into that voting booth, you have a choice to make. It boils down to a simple question: Who’s going to fight for you?”

Transcript: Remarks by the President at Burke for Governor Rally

A week from now, this woman will be the governor-elect of Wisconsin if we continue to Get Out The Vote and Get Out And Vote. So far, early voting is well ahead of the low turnout 2010 election which is good news in a state that elected Barack Obama by 12 points in 2008 and 7 points in 2012.

Fired up by President @BarackObama? Leave it all out on the field and volunteer: http://t.co/w6TLWhYMwz

— Mary Burke (@Burke4WI) October 29, 2014

More photos can be found at The Obama Diary.

First Lady Michelle Obama was in Milwaukee on Monday at a campaign rally for Democratic candidate for governor, Mary Burke.

She spoke to a packed house at the Wisconsin Center and challenged us to Get Out The Vote:

“We all need to be as passionate and hungry for this election as we were in 2008 and 2012,” Obama told a packed crowd at the Wisconsin Center Monday.

“When the midterms come along, too many of our people just tune out, and that’s what a lot of folks on the other side are counting on this year,” she said. “They’re assuming that we won’t care, they’re assuming that we won’t be organized and energized – and only we can prove them wrong.”

Transcript: Remarks by the First Lady at a Voter Mobilization Rally — Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This rally was for Mary Burke but the words should be repeated at every Democratic campaign rally in the country between now and election day.

On November 4, 2014, Wisconsinites will have the opportunity to take back our state and undo a terrible mistake made in November 2010.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice? WI won’t be fooled again.

In a low-turnout midterm election, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker (R-Talk Radio) was elected governor of Wisconsin. He ran with money from national Republicans – including the Koch brother’s Americans For Prosperity (AFP) – and ideas from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), quietly promising his donors that he would do their bidding and destroy unions (and the family supporting jobs they represent), despoil our natural resources (and sell what’s left to the highest bidder), and defund our educational systems (and use that money to pay for tax breaks to the wealthiest): all things that Wisconsinites would never have consented to had they known.