This morning, for reasons I can’t explain, I arose with Scott Walker on my mind. And John Kasich. And Rick Snyder. And Tom Corbett.
Well, not really. More precisely, I awoke with their state legislatures on my mind. I thought of what Scott Walker had been able to accomplish by having a Republican legislature.Stripping most of public sector workers’ collective bargaining rights. Cutting state workers’ pay by 8 percent. Requiring public sector unions to be re-certified every single year. Seeking a cut of $900 million from public education while mandating a property tax cut statewide. Bold, decisive action of a GOP activist’s dreams. Oh, but I says, you gotta remember, those GOP majorities were huge. 57-38 in the Assembly, well, that’s 60%. 19-14 in the Senate, that’s a whole 57.6% of the seats.
And Michigan. The proud home of the UAW becoming a right-to-work state. They cut education too. To the bone. No more arts programs in urban schools. And just this week they passed a law for state takeover of “failing” school districts, as they define them, that would all but eliminate the union contracts in those districts. And they slashed public university funding to punish the universities for bargaining with unions. But, says I, you need huge majorities for that kind of thing. Why, Republicans have an advantage of 26-12 in the Michigan Senate. Huge majority, that. In the Michigan House the GOP had a 63-47 advantage before November (that’s a whole 57% for those counting at home) and a 59-51 advantage now. I mean, big time partisan spread.
And thus Ohio. And Pennsylvania. And North Dakota, where the GOP holds 75% of the seats and just passed one of the most draconian anti-abortion bills in the nation.
Now, thankfully, Massachusetts is a Democratic-dominated state. We don’t go for that kind of thing here. But I can’t help but dream that, if ever we got majorities anywhere near as big as 57%, we’d get some progressive things done. And we do have a nasty little habit of voting in Republican governors. So I know, if we could get to 57% Democratic control in the legislature AND we had a Democratic governor a year away from leaving office, and a decent likelihood another Republican would replace him, I just KNOW our state legislature would seize the moment, and reverse the revenue starving imposed by three Republican governors. It would pass a bill to give our state the revenue it needs to be great, while keeping our income tax rate decidedly middle of the pack, and actually quite low for a state with so many high-income people. I know they’d do that, if only they had the kind of large majorities these Republicans have in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, North Dakota and the like.
And if our beloved Massachusetts Democrats ever had — and I’m just dreaming here — something like 80% of the HoR and 90% of the Senate, there would be no question. We’d get it done. Finis the days of withdrawn aid to municipalities, and reduced teacher pensions, and potholes the size of Rhode Island, and bridges rusted worse than the 1952 frigidaire in the vacant lot near Dudley Square. Which would become a park.
The sky would be the limit if ever we got to that kind of majority. Right?
There are two governing approaches we can adopt from different film characters. The first is the cautious, dithering, defensive Democratic approach outlined by Simon Foster from the great movie In the Loop
The other approach is the Republican approach, strong, always on the offensive, not caring about consequences outlined by Patton as portrayed by George C. Scott.
Time for Dems and progressive to start taking the Patton approach.