Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who will face voters next month in a recall election recently assessed his fate by suggesting that political courage would suffer defeat if he were to lose. Nice spin governor, but the position Walker finds himself in was the result of his own political extremism, not courageous leadership.
In deciding to pass a law to strip most public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights as a means curb the rising cost of pensions and other benefits for public employees, Walker and fellow Republicans chose the most controversial course of action. As a result, they provoked the ire of voters who believe they went too far. Ohio voters recently rebelled against a similar anti-union law passed by a GOP governor by overwhelmingly repealing it at the ballot box.
Of course, in both cases, there were other less extreme solutions available, such as trimming benefits and requiring public employees to pay a higher percentage of their healthcare and pension costs, concessions many public unions had already agreed to make.
So why weren’t these more sensible and modest solutions seized upon by Republicans? Well, to answer the question you have to examine conservative political philosophy, which too often tends to see issues in black and white as opposed to shades of gray. Conservatives seem to perceive moderation as weakness, and strive to define themselves in a way that’s unquestionably distinct from their Democratic counterparts. Essentially, the GOP has become politically invested in always trying to position itself at polar opposites to Democratic or more liberal positions on similar issues. Whatever the Democrats favor, Republicans reactively have to oppose.
When political parties become too entrenched in a partisan “our way or the highway” approach to governing, it can invariably lead to extreme positions on issues that eschew more common sense solutions to problems. In such instances, holding the party line for partisan political reasons trump sensible compromise. Fortunately, when voters feel such political overreach is afoot, they rightly revolt against the extremist tactics, forcing politicians to re-examine their positions. That’s the reality that humbled Ohio Gov. John Kasich when he acknowledged the following after voters repealed that state‘s collective bargaining law:
“It's clear the people have spoken. I heard their voices. I understand their decision. And frankly, I respect what the people have to say in an effort like this. And as a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath and to spend some time to reflect on what happened here.”
Such is the predicament Walker now find himself in as possible eviction from office looms next month. Walker wants to portray himself as a principled political hero who stood up to organized labor to make tough fiscal choices for his state. That distortion of reality might have an ounce of credibility had he not acted in his political party’s self-interest by blatantly excluding police and firefighter unions from the collective bargaining law restrictions. Both union groups tend to support Republicans candidates.
If Walker really wanted to demonstrate political courage, he should have resisted his party’s partisan lurch to the extreme right and charted a more sensible moderate course with the unions. So despite Walker’s claims to the contrary, the cause of political courage will more than survive if he is recalled from office, so long as other leaders have the courage to not follow his bad example.
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