Wisconsin GOP Loses 2 Seats, Keeps Majority

Damn: Recall elections remove 2 GOP seats

Wisconsin had a really good chance to prove to the rest of the country that they would not tolerate a political party whose sole guiding interest seems to be robbing people of their livelihoods and basic human rights and necessities. From the right to collectively bargain, to healthcare, to the right to control your own reproductive organs, the GOP has launched a campaign to limit your freedom, all while at the same time supposedly protecting those same freedoms in the interest of "small government." If Republicans are so interested in having government get out of their lives, why is the Wisconsin legislature described as "been approving Republican-backed bills in rapid succession would likely have ground to a halt if Democrats had won back the Senate"?

Because they really couldn't give a damn about your freedom. What they care about is money and power, and they will use any kind of rhetoric to get it.

And before you go thinking I'm a liberal Repub-basher, I'm not happy with the Dems on this one either. A comment from a citizen who voted GOP is particularly damning:

"This was all supposed to be about the workers' rights, so to speak. But that has not been brought up one time. It's all been misleading, the attack ads, things like that," [John] Gill said. "The one reason they started this recall, they didn't bring up once."

The implication here is that the Dems squandered the chance with a bad campaign. Shame on you, Wisconsin Democratic leaders, for blowing your chance to prove that you can be the better party. Gill doesn't say it outright, but a reader is definitely left with the feeling that if the Dems had been focused on collective bargaining rights and used other rhetoric as supporting arguments, at least this citizen may have voted Democrat instead.

I'm disappointed in Republicans, for taking away rights. I'm disappointed in Democrats, for not recognizing the proper campaign strategy and trying to demolish the Republican party instead of isolating this one issue and killing the Republicans on it. Wisconsin could never be referendum on the national GOP party, but the Dems could have gone a long way into removing this cancer on civil liberties.

And finally, I'm disappointed in the United States of America, for allowing this to happen. Wake up. It's time to not just see that the politicians aren't representing you, but it's time to do something about it. I'm going to place a book list up here soon that I want everyone to read. When you arm yourself with knowledge, you are more likely to see through the political BS that's being slung back and forth on the media. And turn off the TV. The information you hear there is nothing more than heavily processed sound bites meant to keep you well enough informed that you're confused about the whole thing and can't think properly, but not so processed you feel insulted. Let's wake up together and take back our country and take back our rights, from both the Republican party and the Democrats.