What's The Matter With Wisconsin and Charlie Sykes?

Charlie Sykes published What's the Matter With Wisconsin? for Wisconsin Public Research Institute (WPRI).

Charlie, like Rush Limbaugh, is clearly suffering from Ann Coulter disease. Faced with the prospects of President Obama fixing the economy, the likelihood that public investment in infrastructure will stimulate private investment, and then continuing progressive majorities, Sykes, like Limbaugh, is now lashing out at anyone and everyone who was ever succeeded in life.

The article comes with footnotes.

....What's the matter with Wisconsin?

We all know; yet here we are at it again. We have moss-backed New Dealers, aging ex-hippies, bitter academics, defrocked union bosses railing about the need for higher taxes and mandates on evil corporations.¹¹

We have raked the old ash heap of failure in the state and found an old human hoop-skirt who has failed as a mayor, agitator and pseudo-intellectual and turned him loose to cudgel the businessman, the producer and the job creator about the head and to send up the cry to regulate them, load him with mandates and, for good measure, drive him (and her) from the political scene.¹²

 11 Readers will be forgiven if they think these are apparent references to State Sen. Fred Risser, former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, former UW Chancellor John Wiley and Ed Garvey; in fact, they could be liberally applied throughout state politics and government.

12 You can peruse the work of former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin here: http://www.waxingamerica.com/2007/12/wisconsin-manuf.html.

Charlie, just how bad are the ratings?

Charlie, do you find happiness and peace by attacking those who have it?

Comments

[Brian]

Obama isn't going to fix the economy. Just to hold our own we'd need about 1.2 trillion in spending. The "stimulus" package had about 450 billion. Puny.

Not going to happen.

[Mpeterson]

Hi,

Sorry to wander to this so long after you posted it, but golly, you're right! Charlie must be beside himself at the thought of having been wrong... wait, I mean losing market share.

Best!
Mark

[M Colins]

I cant say I found Soglin's diverting of the conversation from Wisconsin's depressing statistics cited and footnoted by Sykes, to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and the annointed one's expected triumphs to constitute much of an effort at all. As a 79 grad of UW Madison and familiar with the accomplishments of Soglin, I honestly expected a reasoned and thought out rebuttal but we get the usual latter day Leftist boilerplate and demonization. Not all statistics lie, and the objective labelling of the Badger State as a tax, anti-business hell only leading the country it seems in attracting the peripatetic poor certainly warranted something a little less knee jerk. When I attended UW-Mad (and voted Democratic or Left of Democrat), my realization was that all the loopy Leftist ideas seemed to actually work in Madtown. Sadly, Madison appears to still be relying on 70's solutions.

Whether or not Obama's tripling of the deficit will actually stimulates private growth remains to be seen, the American economy is a tiger unto itself and the Clinton era proved even the highest historical tax hikes could not hold it down. I however find it amazing the faith people like Soglin put into this huge lurch leftward towards intrusive government without any trace of historical irony.
Being the age I am I was in the unique position of following the turbulent 70's in Madison and realization that the basic rights the Left was fighting for back then, which was a voice, are now the rights the middle and Right has to fight equally strenuously for as it is clear the 60's and 70's disenfranchised are now themselves the "establishment", and they love and cultivate power with all the energy the former establishment did back then.