Gov. Scott Walker: Man Of The Plutocrats

Rebecca Kemble writes in The Progressive about how a cipher like Koch brothers employee of the year Gov.  Scott "Kochhead" Walker can still be a very dangerous player:

As of this writing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has yet to formally declare his bid for President in 2016, but that hasn’t stopped him from campaigning for it. Arguably, he’s been campaigning for President ever since winning his first election for Governor in 2010. 

Seen in this light, all of the extreme, unconstitutional, and potentially illegal actions Walker’s administration has undertaken make a twisted kind of sense. His slash-and-burn policies of the past four years have nothing to do with responsible state governance. But they do signal to billionaire GOP campaign donors that he is willing to ride roughshod over the needs of the people in Wisconsin to prove that he can do the two things required of any contender for top office: Concentrate power in the executive office and redistribute wealth upwards. 

Those were the hallmarks of the George W. Bush administrations and they have been the twin pillars of Walker’s reign as Wisconsin’s Governor. After four years of administrative power grabs, regressive social policies, and massive tax cuts and giveaways to the wealthy, it is clear that Walker’s view of the people, institutions, and resources of Wisconsin amounts to not much more than grist for his political ambition mill. 

Rolling back voting rights, environmental and consumer protections, workers’ rights, health care, food and housing supports for people in need, and women’s rights while systematically dismantling public education are not the actions of an administration that plans on sticking around to manage the fallout. 

Walker’s modus operandi has been to push—and cross—the boundaries of legality to favor the interests of out-of-state energy, private education, and high finance industries. Only one of the 14 billionaires who donated directly to his 2012 recall election campaign comes from Wisconsin.  (our emphasis)

As always, the full article at the link is well worth reading.

The estimable Charles P. Pierce is fond of saying "don't sleep on" Walker.  We agree.  He's a dangerous man whose ethics-free ambition only makes him more so.

(Image: Walker with his Koch brothers patrons.)