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.
