Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has dipped to 2 percent support in the latest Washington Post-ABC News national poll of the GOP presidential race. With his poll numbers in free fall, Walker has decided to step up his war on American workers. Walker is hoping to use attacks on unions and working class Americans as a way to reinvigorate the Republican base. The Governor hopes his anti-worker message will restore his popularity with the GOP voters who have abandoned him in droves since mid-summer.
The Wisconsin Governor has earned a reputation for being anti-worker, but because of his flagging poll numbers, Walker is trying to revive his campaign by reminding America just how anti-worker he can be. Running against American workers seems a dubious strategy at best. However, Walker’s success in winning elections in Wisconsin despite supporting virulently anti-union policies, may have given him reason to believe that running against workers is a way to win elections.
Walker plans to unveil his “new, improved” anti-worker plan on Monday at a town hall meeting in Las Vegas. Walker’s plan calls for eliminating the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and for making it illegal for federal workers to form labor unions. In addition, he wants to pass a national so called “right to work” law, in an effort to weaken unions nationwide.
Furthermore, Walker’s proposal calls for repealing Barack Obama’s executive order requiring employers to pay overtime to some salaried workers. Walker also plans to reverse laws that require certain employers to provide paid sick leave for their employees.
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Scott Walker does not seem to understand why he has dropped to just two percent support in the national polls. He has spent the past five years carrying water for the Koch brothers and other billionaires, and now with his poll numbers circling the drain, his solution is to double down by stepping up his attacks on American workers.
The Koch brothers and the plutocrats in the Republican Party will love Scott Walker’s new plan to escalate the war against the nation’s working class. However, GOP voters in Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa, might not be nearly as receptive. For the conservative union truck driver, the right-wing middle manager at McDonald’s, and the evangelical church secretary who needs time off to recover from an illness, Scott Walker’s ideas are not going to be well received.
Not every Republican shares Governor Walker’s contempt for working class Americans. By intensifying his war on paid sick leave, overtime pay and union organizing, Walker may impress a few GOP donors with deep pockets. However, with rank and file voters, the Wisconsin Governor is essentially committing political suicide. A campaign that bets against the American worker is a campaign that is placing a losing bet. Scott Walker should cash in his chips, cut his losses, and follow Texas Governor Rick Perry out the GOP exit door, instead of continuing his mean-spirited crusade against America’s workers.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
