Dear Scott Walker: A farewell letter


4 June 2012. Recall Eve.

It struck me, as I couldn't sleep last night stressing over all the things I could do to help get out the vote that I'm not going to have time for, that I probably wouldn't have time to write you again before you're no longer our governor, and I wanted to get this off quickly this morning as a sort of final farewell.

Writing to you has changed my life.

Before February of 2011, I held a romantic and delusional faith in the democratic process.  I believed that representative government means that the main business of elected officials is to represent their constituents - openly, honestly, and with integrity, and that they were required to address the concerns citizens brought before them.  I thought that's what open meetings were about, what public hearings were about, what correspondence and inquiry was for.  That if you brought your concerns forward, they would be addressed. Maybe not resolved. But at least respectfully acknowledged.

You have made a mockery of these beliefs, and a mockery of democracy.

When I started writing to you, rather than address any of the very valid concerns I raised in my letters, you closed the door to open communication and transparency by simply ignoring me. I have, to date, received  a grand total of zero correspondence from your office, despite my repeated requests for answers and responses to tough questions. When I asked you to come forward denouncing the threats that were being made to recall workers (including me and my family), you responded by mocking us openly, and repeating the same tired lies about how we were paid out-of-state agents, non-taxpayers, etc.  And then you actively tried to stifle dissent by removing me from your E-Update mailing list, even though I repeatedly asked to remain on it to receive these crucial taxpayer-funded campaign ads updates.  When I told you that I was still receiving the updates at another mailing address, your staff magically (thanks google!) determined what that address must be and removed that address as well.

These actions are unconscionable. They show a contempt and disregard for democracy that should be in itself grounds for recalling you. And yet this is just one symptom of the chronic abuses of power and delusions of grandeur and untouchability that have marked your administration from the start.

I write to you today, then, as always, as a concerned and frustrated citizen, dazzled by your inability to represent the people you allegedly govern - to the extent that you have actually convinced yourself that fundraising counts as "governing." I write as a parent enormously concerned with your cuts to education and your attacks on working families, especially the working poor who depend on the public services you seek to deny them, like the 17,000 additional people who will be cut off from BadgerCare in the coming weeks. I write as a public worker, who, in the wake of you attacks on our rights and disregard for our need to earn a living wage, takes home 25% less pay this year than I did last year - for doing the exact same job (and then some). I write as a member of a friendly community who has seen first-hand what happens when the governor of the state demonizes educators and other public workers, and who refuses to stand by and let your incivility unravel the social fabric that gives our life meaning.

I write to you as someone who has been trying, for over a year now, to reach out to you in the only way I really can - by writing to you - and has been ignored, insulted and attacked.  I write on behalf of the 400+ people on our local recall team who have been working tirelessly to see you out of office. I write on behalf of the 7900 people in Sun Prairie who signed the petition to see you recalled. I write on behalf of the 1,000,000+ Wisconsinites who said: we want our state back.   I write as someone whose life has been transformed by seeing firsthand what democracy really looks like. And it's a beautiful thing.

I write because I want to say to you, directly: tomorrow, we take Wisconsin back.  And it's going to be a beautiful day.

I'm going to need your new email address after that, I guess.  At least until the indictment comes in. Then we'll just have to be old-fashioned pen pals because I don't think they let you have email in jail. Not sure how that works. Maybe your lawyers can let me know how to get in touch.

I'll look forward to that. Because forward is the only way I look.

Heather

14 comments:

  1. Thank you for your e-mail message. I welcome you expressing your views and concerns to me, and I commend you for participating in your state government. I take into account the views of all of the citizens of Wisconsin, and I will keep your specific comments in mind during my service as your Governor.

    If you would like more information about my positions on issues, or would like to read my public statements on issues, I encourage you to explore my website: www.walker.wi.gov. I like to respond individually to every letter and telephone call I receive; however, I cannot respond to each e-mail individually due to the volume. If your request is time sensitive, please call my office at (608) 266-1212. You may also write to me via conventional mail at Governor Scott Walker: PO Box 7863, Madison, WI 53707.

    As noted on our website, please know that any communications may be subject to release under Wisconsin's public records law and that our policy is generally to release communications sent to this email address.

    Once again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to contact me again if I can ever be of assistance to you.

    Sincerely,

    Scott Walker
    Governor

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    1. Please tell me that idiot didn't really reply to you letter! He is such an embarrassment! And I thought Ronald Reagan was as low as we could go!

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    2. OMG you're right he's an idiot, so let's recall him!

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  2. What a melodramatic and intellectually lazy attempt at justifying the staggering cost of this recall effort. Both major WI newspapers oppose the recall and both call it unjustified. No one has clearly outlined in detail exactly why Walker is being recalled, including Barrett. As a moderate, this is so upsetting because all it does is strengthen Walker and Tea Party wingnuts. Holding office is not a popularity contest and unpopular decisions are litigated in general elections, not recalls. What a black hole in American political history.

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    1. Thomas N Hynes IIIJune 4, 2012 at 6:12 PM

      What a sad attempt to present a postion against the recall. Clearly this person is a troll to make a statement that just because major newspapers say a recall is unjustified it is not. If the actions of Scott Walker are clear and transparent to countless across the country it boggles the mind that someone living in WI can't see what is going on. If Scott Walker buys his way to victory that will be the blackest of black holes in American political history. If you really believed your BS you would not hide your identity behind anonymous

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    2. Please outline in precise detail the malfeasance necessitating this effort. Thank you sir. Few actions are as destructive to the democratic process as a contrived recall on the basis of policy.

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    3. “The recall enables the people to dismiss from public service those representatives who dishonor their commissions by betraying the public interest,” - Robert M. La Follette.

      Relevant section of the Wisconsin State Constitution:

      SECTION 12. [Recall of elective officers.] The qualified electors of the state of any congressional, judicial or legislative district or of a county may petition for the recall of any incumbent elective officer after the first year of the term for which the incumbent was elected, by filing a petition with the filing officer with whom the nomination petition to the office in the primary is filed, demanding the recall of the incumbent.

      Read the rest here: http://my.execpc.com/~fedsoc/wi-con13.html

      It and Bob La Follette who pushed for its passage says nothing of malfeasance and outright criminal action. Rather it is simply a right of the public to pursue if they feel it is warranted. If the public meets the threshold of 25% of the popular vote from the prior election then a recall is issued. The people of Wisconsin far surpassed 25% of the vote, therefore a recall was warranted. Again, no criminal reason is needed. Rather only enough people who feel that the public official has "betrayed the public interest." You obviously do not feel Walker and his Republican allies have. Yet 900,000 Wisconsinites do. That is enough justification.

      Finally, recalls are meant to be rare. Since 1926 Wisconsin has had ZERO recalls. The law apparently works just fine. Just because you do not believe it was warranted does not mean it was not warranted. Plenty of other people think it was.

      And I didn't even get into the reasons recall supporters cite...

      -Kirk Rappe

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  3. I believe Heather's letter outlined why he needs to go; he has made a mockery of the constitution would be at the top of my list. The newspapers are not the people; the people have decided the recall is justified. As far as holding office not being a popularity contest; um, yes it is, that's how they get elected.

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    1. Sure, he has to go. In the next general election. And, elections are popularity contests, governing is not. You have to be able to make unpopular decisions (like civil rights was).

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    2. public office is not an exercise in popularity. yikes.

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  4. "I write to you today, then, as always, as a concerned and frustrated citizen, dazzled by your inability to represent the people you allegedly govern . . . "

    Now that the attempt to recall has failed, you need to realize that Gov Walker's policies are not "an inability to represent." Scott Walker ran on the principle of spending control, even at the cost of public employee privileges. He won on that principle, and then he acted on it. Now he has won on that principle again.

    The people of Wisconsin have spoken. Even public union members: http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/301517/what-happens-when-government-stops-collecting-union-dues

    Gov. Walker is not "allegedly governing." He is governing, according to the will of the people who have elected him . . . twice.

    Your disagreement with Walker's policies--your disagreement with opposing voter's opinions--does not entitle you to get rid of them.

    I suffer from the same reality. My disagreement with Obama's policies--my disagreement with leftist voters--did not entitle me to try and get rid of Obama prior to normal re-election.

    Welcome to the really real world, folks. Take a deep breath. Stay awhile.

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/06/wisconsin-recall-live/#comments

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  5. "Now THIS is what democracy looks like!"

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs8YBzHnBFU

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  6. Well, whoever wrote this asinine thing must feel like a complete idiot! HOW HUMILIATING!!! LOL!

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  7. Apparently "democracy" means "getting my way." This whole exercise was so childish.

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