I'm Scott Walker and ALEC wants your vote
by Tom Sullivan
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responding to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's announcement yesterday that he's running for president:
Scott Walker is a national disgrace.
As CNN reports, Walker told the crowd in Waukesha, "Americans want to vote for something and for someone." Walker qualifies.
Several outlets noted that Walker's support for requiring photo identity cards for voting is a big applause line. This from an NBC news political correspondent:
Voter ID is consistently one of Scott Walker's loudest applause lines
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) July 13, 2015There was more. The Castle Doctrine, drug testing for public assistance recipients, dismantling organized labor, etc. Many of Walker's applause lines were retreads from the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. Walker wants to rebuild the economy using the Laffer Curve and Reagan-era tax levels. It was a speech virtually ghostwritten by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) the way the Koch brothers-funded ALEC ghostwrites legislation in states across the country. During each pause, Walker nodded left and right like a bobblehead doll.
Walker campaign staffers were prepared for protesters, but none appeared MSNBC reported, "save for an airplane overhead that carried a sign reading 'Scott Walker has a Koch problem,' a reference to his relationship with conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch."
The thing is, Scott Walker has a Scott Walker problem.