Thursday, March 31, 2011

Now it was a joke? Dane County Republicans Look dumber, and more paranoid, now than before!!

Republican arrogance has never been more in your face than it is now under the Walker administration, and sometimes, that over confidence can look kind of silly...stupid...dumbass...pathetic. You get the idea.

The recent Judge Sumi ‘takedown” by the county GOP is now being described as a joke, the same kind of character assassination Limbaugh and Beck commit in the name of “entertainment/humor.” It's never been funny either. Here's a great article by Shawn Doherty from the Cap Times, that reveals more Republican thought process that went into the infamous Sumi press release:
press release from the Dane County Republican party ridiculing Judge Maryann Sumi caught my eye this morning because of how, well...I'm searching for the right adjective here...snotty? clever? whiny? edgy? sarcastic? childish? it was. 
Written as a tongue-in-cheek apology to Judge Sumi … "Judge Sumi is a leftist living in Dane County," the press release says. "Her friends are leftists living in Dane County … If she were to enforce the law of Wisconsin and to do what was in the best interest of the people of the state of Wisconsin, she'd be exiled from her lifestyle. She'd lose her friends!"
I called Jeff Waksman, the guy who wrote this press release and a party spokesman, to see what he was up to … he wanted this one to stand out … "It's on the Rachel Maddow website right now," he says, proudly.
 
So is his press release a cyncial effort to exploit resentment of liberal Madison and sow division, or a temper-tantrum-by-press-release, or does he really believe Sumi's judicial judgement is tainted by life on the isthmus? 
Waksman gets more intense. "The press release is supposed to be humorous and it’s written in a way to draw people's attention to it, but the underpinning point is very real," he says. "Madison is a very intimidating and stifling intellectual environment."
Oh god, here we go again, with the old “I’m a conservative in hiding, afraid to say anything in public” crap-o-la.
He explains that as a libertarian he is sick and tired of people in town making him feel "uncomfortable." Madison is not tolerant of other perspectives, he says. For example, the chair of the county GOP had his car scratched and the mirror knocked off, he says, and now he and other Republicans worry the same thing could happen to them … "You walk down State Street, and every store has a sign that if you support the bill you hate teachers or children," he says. "So people can't even walk into the stores without being afraid and wondering, is this person going to even give me good service?" 
He works for the UW … and he has learned not to talk politics there, either. "If I express a view, I'm called a homophobe or racist or told that I hate the poor," he says … Around 40 percent of people in Dane County voted for Walker, he says, but you wouldn't know it, because they are afraid to speak up. (Actually, 31 percent) They are even afraid to put signs in their yards, he says, because they keep getting knocked down.
Those poor, poor Republicans, who appear to be in complete control of the state government, when will people stop picking on them.

3 comments:

  1. This is a very honest and telling admission by the republican operative, Jeff Waksman.

    His mindset - that "Madison is a very intimidating and stifling intellectual environment" is interesting.

    With this statement, Mr. Waksman inadvertently describes the type of fear-based perspective that guides so many of today's right-wing. Fear of others, fear of terrorism, fear of differences, fear of people taking their money, fear, fear, fear.

    Yet when it comes to real threats to their self-interest like the nation's unsustainable use of fossil fuels, they are fearless.

    "Watch out, Jeff, there's a liberal watching......"

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  2. Very well put, I couldn't have said it better, although I've tried.

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  3. If I ever find Mr. Waksman...I will show him what real intimidation is all about.

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