Walker, the "Candidate of Polarization"...it's so much easier with One Party Rule!

Gee, governing is a breeze. It's easy for Walker to sit back, travel and keep his promises with one party rule. What a challenge. How does he do it? Forget about this divided government thing the GOP insisted was needed under Democratic majorities.

And that's what Walker is pushing. He wants a dominant political juggernaut that "leads" by force, making unpopular changes that marginalizes anyone who isn't a believer. Gerrymandering, big money campaign propaganda and voters who have been shut out of the process is already a reality in Wisconsin. I'm living it.  

Ezra Klein, who's observations are usually on the mark, was stunned by what he heard.

Ezra Klein writes in The Washington Post's Wonkblog ... that Gov. Scott Walker is the "candidate of polarization."

Some of Klein's observations from attending a Walker meeting with reporters last week:Walker did something amazing at this breakfast. He did something I've never seen a presidential aspirant do. When asked about the gridlock and polarization in Washington, he refused to say he could bring the two parties together. Instead, he made the case for unified government. 

"For years, the conventional wisdom was that Americans want divided government. I think they've seen in the last few years that that's not necessarily a good thing. Instead of checks and balances you get a lot of gridlock."

Nor did Walker try to spin his record in Wisconsin as a model of coming together to get things done. 

"What we learned in Wisconsin ... was that if you want to get big, bold reform done in your state you need a team to help you do that. So in our case everything switched from Democratic control to Republican control in 2010 and that empowered us to go out and make reforms that would've been much more difficult without those changes."

All this leaves Walker attempting something very unusual: Running as the candidate of polarization. His pitch isn't that he can bring the two sides together but that he can persuade the public to kick the other side out of office. 

"Voters think people in Washington fight for the sake of fighting. Voters don't mind fighters, but they want them to be fighting for them."

 My previous post, a shorter version of this story last week, is here.