Thursday, June 7, 2012

A Partial Retraction

It has been pointed out to me by my lovely wife, and I have since read about it and heard about it on the tube, that there was more to Scott Walker's victory than meets the eye.
Apparently many voters voted for him because they felt the recall option was being misused. These people argued that the recall should not be exercised just because people disagree with the politician's policies.
I did some research and discovered that the Wisconsin State Constitution allows for recall votes for any elected official who violates their oath or is guilty of malfeasance or misfeasance.
First of all I had no idea there was such a thing as misfeasance. I have heard of malfeasance, although before tonight I could not have defined it. But misfeasance? Nope. Very exciting for me.
I went to a legal site. Malfeasance is an act of wrong doing or misconduct, especially by a public official. Misfeasance is an act that is not illegal, but improperly performed.
I think Scott Walker was deceitful to the voters of Wisconsin. He did not campaign on a platform to strip public employees' unions of their rights. Then he went ahead and did that. Ostensibly to balance the state budget. He represents the backward thinking point of view of republicans which is anti-everything moral and good for this country. A point of view I abhor.
But he probably did not violate his oath of office, and probably did not commit an act of malfeasance or misfeasance. At least as far as my tiny little brain can comprehend.
I won't bore you with any more of this, but I suppose I have to humbly admit that maybe the recall vote was improperly used. Although the scenario is different for federal officials, you can make the argument that disagreeing with politicians' policies would make President Obama vulnerable to the opinions of millions of voters.
What I am saying is that technically, maybe the Wisconsin recall vote was out of line.
I went way over the top with my SW rant, and that was driven by my fear that this country is going to blow an opportunity for intellectual, political, financial and diplomatic advancement by defeating President Barack Obama. The circumstances in Wisconsin represented a microcosm of that in my mind.
On the plus side, I think it was an amazing thing that over a million people signed a petition to bring about the recall vote. The more pissed off voters we have, the better chance of defeating republicans.
On the negative side, big money had a huge influence on the outcome, and this does worry me. The money came from outside of Wisconsin and from people with an agenda.
This is not good for state politics, it is not good for federal politics.
I have talked about evolving a higher thought process. This is a good example. I went off on SW armed with unbridled passion. I did not question my own motives, as counseled by Christopher Hitchens. I need to learn more, investigate more, in order to make my opinions carry some weight.
I'm working on it.
But I gotta tell you; it felt damn good to cut loose on Scott Walker, big money, and cretinous republicans.

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