Recall elections are a tough go. And they should be.
In the best of circumstances, they carry the odor of sour grapes. Worse, they really can be destructive of democracy, despite the rabid contrary convictions of their advocates.
Face it, there is something to be said for the willingness to accept and live with the results of an election, at least until the next scheduled balloting cycle. I'm thinking here like such is the very essence of democracy, duh.
Most people get this on a visceral level. Hence, these efforts suffer a very high failure rate. And this holds across the board, no matter how compelling the reasons for the effort.
Last night in Wisconsin, it was different. True, only 2 of the 6 recall challenges succeeded. But the results of a third race there are being questioned seriously for improper tinkering by a County Clerk. This person has a rather suspicious knack for "finding" votes favoring her political outlook. We'll see.
Regardless, the 2 victories were extremely impressive by any standard, given that they were achieved by Democrats in highly Republican districts. And they prevailed against tons of right wing, plutocrat money which was disgorged in unprecedented amounts for state level legislative races.
It was people versus money and corruption, first round. All and all, the people held up pretty well. This drama likely will be coming to an election near you. "Welcome to Wisconsin" may become everyone's township motto.
That's a much more optimistic read on this than I had. Basically the proposition here was either take three seats or validate the radicals. Now six months of strenuous protest can no longer claim to be anything other than a marginalized demonstration by a minority constituency.
ReplyDeleteOh well. Guess we can go ahead and continue with the dismantling of civilization now.
--Jeff