I used to have a friend who was in a terrible abusive relationship. Several times her boyfriend put her in the hospital, once having broken several bones in her face. Despite the pleas of all of her friends to leave this guy, she stayed. I'm not finding fault with her, lots of women in this situation stay, with a number of different reasons, though I suspect in her case it was a matter of astoundingly low self-esteem.
Why do I bring this up? The story here is not that someone was abused - but the behavior of the abuser. He knew exactly what buttons to push to keep this relationship going. He came to the hospital, was profusely sorry, always bringing a gift, something soft and cuddly and feminine like a teddy bear. She several times explained to me that he was incredibly good to her because he was always sorry for what he had done, and besides, they had amazing sex. I have to admit that I could never understand the concept of having amazing sex with someone who was physically and emotionally abusive, but this apparently works differently for other people.
Scott Walker as of late is coming to us with the ol' teddy bear. Because he senses we are getting restless. The state has suffered a fair amount of abuse at his hands. Unions? - Gone. Schools? - Underfunded. Roads? - Barely passable, despite spending a wad of cash. But now the budget is suddenly flush ( well, in theory anyway) and we're making little tiny baby steps to get some of the money back. Our schools may get a little more cash, but only if we're all good girls and do like daddy says. We'll get some broadband money -- oh nowhere near what we could have had from the feds years ago, but taking our own tax money back from Washington would have been wrong. They take it away in 100 dollar bills, and make up for it with loose change. The current administration is really good with the abuse, and they know that eventually we'll just give up and re-elect them because it's too dangerous to stand up for ourselves. And we don't even get great sex.
It's time to walk out. CItizen Action of Wisconsin and several other nonprofits in the state are promoting an alternative budget. It is full of great ideas for shifting the state's priorities. Let's fight for change, and for getting people in Madison who care about us all the time, not just once in a while to convince us they still care.