Despite my fairly well known disdain for the Republican party, I do realize that not all Republicans are right-wing lunatics. Though as the years progress, “moderate Republicans” are going the way of CD’s and flip phones. In fact, I’ve told the few moderate Republicans that I’ve met the last several years that they’re better off siding with Democrats than this new wave of ultraconservative tea party Republicans. Because that’s the truth. Ronald Reagan, the conservative icon himself, is closer to being a Democrat by today’s radical right-wing standards than he is a modern day Republican.
Well, one outgoing moderate Republican in Wisconsin, state Sen. Dale Schultz, blasted his party for many of the tactics they’ve been using, not just in Wisconsin, but all over the country.
“We are now literally dismantling the state government, and people need to think long and hard about what they want for a future in our state,” he said.
And dismantling the government is exactly what Republicans want to do. These GOP politicians run on the premise that the government is corrupt and inefficient. Then when they’re elected, they do just about everything within their power to make the government as inept as possible so voters will get on their “anti-government” bandwagon.
They’re literally causing the very problems within our government that they tell the American people are so awful. It’s a great scam.
But the Wisconsin state senator wasn’t done there.
“How much pain do we have to dish out in this state to one another before we finally realize that we have to get along and we have to compromise with one another?” Schultz continued.
Well, as we all know, the word “compromise” with Republicans equates to “weak,” and if you’re seen as weak within the GOP you stand a good chance at getting primaried the next time you come up for re-election. Then again, who really wants a government where both sides work together to pass sensible legislation?
Schultz also hammered his party’s moves in Wisconsin to gut funding for education.
“The K-12 system in the last few years has laid off 3,000 personnel, and it looks to me like that’s going to accelerate. Out my way, I would not be shocked if a huge percentage of school districts wind up going to referendum to have the privilege of raising their own property tax because the state has walked away from its principal responsibility of providing for a free, appropriate and near equal education for everybody,” he said.
“I have no idea where they could come up with that money (for school voucher programs) short of taking it away from K-12 public education which is just going to accelerate its demise,” he continued. “We can’t afford one system in this state. How we are going to ever have ourselves in a situation of trying to fund two is beyond me. … But with Gov. Walker’s impending announcement for the presidency, I know that he is going to do everything he can to push a robust voucher program because that is what’s popular with certain elements of the tea party.”
If I hadn’t told you Schultz was a Republican, I doubt anyone reading this who had never heard of him would have ever guessed that he was. These are the kinds of comments you almost never see anymore coming from someone “on the other side.”
A Republican who sees the value of unions, education, compromise and bipartisanship? Yeah, those kinds of Republicans aren’t getting elected anymore.
Instead we get climate change deniers, creationists and people who based their entire political ideology on the sole premise of “whatever President Obama supports, just say the opposite.”
I just wish more Republicans were looking to politicians like Wisconsin state Sen. Dale Schultz instead of right-wing clowns like Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan.
Ken, I think your website is amazing! Just like you!
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