"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Monday, May 21, 2012

The Right Thing

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, for the most part a typical left-liberal example of a dying industry, actually did the right thing over the weekend when it "recommended" Scott Walker in the Wisconsin recall election:

Walker's rematch with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was prompted by one issue: Walker's tough stance with the state's public-employee unions. It's inconceivable that the recall election would be occurring absent that. And a disagreement over a single policy is simply not enough to justify a vote against the governor....

To his credit, Walker has helped to right the state's finances with a minimum of gimmicks - the governor reported recently that the state may be able to book a $154 million surplus next year. This good news has been lost in the clutter surrounding an unnecessary recall election that will cost as much as $18 million just to stage, according to the Government Accountability Board....

And while we think Act 10 - the law that clipped the wings of most public-employee unions in the state - was an overreach of political power, we understand and supported the need to rein in the state's labor costs. Municipalities and school districts as well as the state needed more control over their budgets, which Act 10 provided....

Even if you disagree with Walker's policies, does that justify cutting short his term as governor? And if so, where does such logic lead? To more recall elections? More turmoil?...

It's time to end the bickering and get back to the business of the state. We've had our differences with the governor, but he deserves a chance to complete his term.

No matter whether you agree or disagree with Walker's policies, including his efforts to reign in public employee unions, the orderly process of a representative democracy requires that we have regular elections, and that the people elected be permitted, absent illegal conduct, to serve out their terms.   Then, if you don't like what they did, vote them out.   But we can't function if we are going to have a permanent campaign, with new elections every time the teacher's unions disagree with what a Republican governor has done.  

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