Last updated on May 29th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Have you ever wondered what Scott Walker was like before he went into politics?  Dr. Glen Barry has some insights and they’re not pretty. In his essay about his memories of Scott Walker at Marquette University, Dr. Barry reflects on the Walker, the college student he knew 1986-1990.
Dr. Barry recalls his first impression of Walker.
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Fresh from Badger Boys State leadership conference, freshly shorn of his mullet, and in ill-fitting suits; Scott rolled onto campus in 1986 at 18 already running for office. He was constantly speaking in sound bites, with a false sugary sweetness, about taxes and abortion – the only issues which Scott Walker truly cared about other than his personal quest for power.
Scott Walker has a dark, dirty past wherein he cheated, played dirty and illegal and got busted, “Walker is so comfy down in the mud and dirt that he doesn’t seem to have an off button. Scott was found guilty of illegal campaigning while in college and the local paper, that had previously been neutral, finally declared Scotty ‘unfit for Presidency.’â€
He still obsesses over the issues that make him the darling of the Tea Party, though he has added union bashing to his repertoire. The only thing that really matters to him is his personal quest for power, as reflected by the extent to which he and his supporters in the Tea Party will go to preserve it.
The various people close to his administration who have been indicted because of the John Doe investigation indicates how dedicated Walker’s staff is to preserving his power by any means necessary.
You may recall the extent to which his supporters sought to sabotage the recall effort. As reported by politiscoop at the time, Walker’s supporters were willing to try anything from burning recall petitions to intimidation and bullying.
In another such post Matt Wynns who claims to be a small business owner states “I shall be heating my home with recall signature. as they sign, I’ll make sure to tell them not to sign another petition. I figure I can get a hundred to a few hundred signatures off the ballot. F*#&* (Word edited) Liberals.
And
As you click the links below and read their posts, some even suggest using the castle doctrine as a way to dissuade people taking part in their democracy. In essence, these individuals are breaking the terms of service of Facebook by the use of intimidation and or bullying. Furthermore, these individuals have now publicly planned to commit a felony in the state of Wisconsin.
The extent to which Walker pursues his quest for power is reflected in his “divide and conquer†discussion with his sugar Momma. As the Huffington Post reported recently, that discussion occurred roughly a month before he was punked by a blogger impersonating Walker’s Sugar Daddy, David Koch.
This brings us to another observation by Dr. Barry.
To put it politely, Walker was not the sharpest tool in the shed, actually amongst the least sharp. With a C average (if that) and never graduating, I am not surprised to see him making up his own math on jobs when the real numbers don’t suit him. This reflects the utter disdain with which he holds truth, knowledge, education, and anything else that clashes with his absolutist worldview of religious and corporate based rule. As a classmate, he displayed a shocking lack of curiosity, original thought, or interest in topics other than his political ascendency.
If you have had a political discussion with a committed member of the Tea Party, you might see some characteristics that they hold in common with Scott Walker and to some extent, Mitt Romney.
Walker’s antipathy to education and intellectual curiosity is part of what endears him to the Tea Party and what used to be other fringe elements in the Republican Party. We can see that in Walker’s draconian cuts to Wisconsin’s education budget and the adverse effects those cuts have had on the quality of education in Wisconsin.
Last year, the WSJ reported on the extensive layoff and increased class sizes as a result of Walker’s education policy.
Wisconsin shed about 3,400 education positions this year, triple the number from last year. At least one-third of the state’s districts increased elementary class sizes. And at least four in 10 districts are using one-time federal stimulus funds to balance their budgets.
More recently, Think Progress reported that some teachers are enduring a 30% pay cut.
You would never know it from Walker’s admittedly roguish supporters who have a very special relationship with reality, as reflected in some anti-recall flyers they are circulating.
The flyers, sent to parents across the Janesville School District, list hundreds of teachers and their annual salaries, along with a plea for residents to contact the school district administration and ask that their child “be assigned to a classroom taught by a non-radical teacher.†Another brochure claims that teachers “dumbed down†the curriculum and teach revisionist and “anti-American†history. “Parents, do you want your children to be free Americans or slaves to the United Nations?
Another example Walker’s issue with facts is reflected in his, and for that matter, Mitt Romney’s approach to job creation and the manner by which they dealt with the failure of their policies.
As noted in Deborah Foster’s analysis:
Both spent their time as governor advocating austerity measures for their states during times of fiscal crisis and economic difficulty and notably, both oversaw some of the weakest states performances in job growth in the nation.
Walker, like Romney lied to divert attention from their failed policies, as Deborah Foster also pointed out.
In the end, you have two prominent Republican governors with a chronic inability to convey the truth. In the service of their political goals, they will tell their constituents outright lies about their records as job creators.
Finally, Walker remains true to the bad campaigning habits he developed in College. According to Dr. Berry:
But this tepid endorsement changed after Walker was sanctioned for illegal campaigning on numerous occasions, and brutal personal attacks upon his opponent’s character. Meanwhile Walker’s campaign was secretly and systematically throwing out copies of the newspaper that endorsed his opponent.
Everything from Walker’s antipathy to education; his willingness to revise the truth in the name of preserving his failed ideology and campaign tactics reflects the characteristics that Dr. Berry recalls in his essay. The people of Wisconsin know this all too well. Perhaps the only difference is Walker’s fake sugar sweetness has a shorter shelf life in the real world.
Image from reason.com
Former contributor.
