Althouse: Suddenly, Wisconsinites are so conservative!

October 10, 2010

Suddenly, Wisconsinites are so conservative!

How did that happen?!!

37 comments:

The Drill SGT said...: Definitional perhaps?

when the MSM and liberals describe Obama as pragmatic and a moderate, the voters in WI say:

"Oh My God, I must be a conservative then, cause Obama looks like is clearly way left of me."; 10/10/10, 10:19 AM
Unknown said...: A Conservative is a Liberal who's just been mugged.

The Demos have been mugging the Liberals as well as everyone else for 80 years, except that now they can't move to another state to escape it.; 10/10/10, 10:24 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Unemployment?; 10/10/10, 10:24 AM
Kirby Olson said...: I think many people are starting to rediscover conservatism. Shakespeare, The Bible, Friedrich Hayek, Jane Austen: all conservatives.

What do the liberals have to stack up against that?

William Burroughs, Karl Marx, Catherine McKinnon: it's a puke fest.

It's a matter of mental hygiene.

I think ultimately people are coming to realize that all the big programs are just power grabs, and that the Democrats increasingly are willing to destroy America, out of some kid of postcolonialist hatred for the west.

"A thousand Mogadishus" is not far from what many of the postcolonial set wishes on Amerikkka.

If we want to keep our country, and any of its values, we have to fight for it.; 10/10/10, 10:26 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Cheese and pork has that effect on people.

That and the fact the Democrats have made bad go to worse.; 10/10/10, 10:28 AM
The Drill SGT said...: apparently 70% of white blue collar Americans say they are voting GOP this year.

All those rednecks clinging to their guns and religion are gonna matter this election.

that would impact WI I suspect.

Here's hopimg for change :); 10/10/10, 10:30 AM
Mr. D said...: Familiarity breeds contempt. And after a couple of doses of Jim Doyle, contempt is highly understandable.; 10/10/10, 10:33 AM
former law student said...: I'm not really surprised; I picture Wisconsinites as all being like Titus's Mom and Dad.

People become conservative when their fear of loss overcomes their hope of gain. Obama ran on a message of hope which has yet to be fully satisfied. It's still 2 AM in America, and thugs are ringing the house.

The only liberal who ran in 2008 was Dennis Kucinich -- you could look up his positions and calibrate.; 10/10/10, 10:34 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Obama got elected and it became a lot clearer what being a "liberal" meant.; 10/10/10, 10:35 AM
Alpha Maser said...: Hi Alhouse,

I have been lurking on your blog for a while. I run my own little conservative blog out of Central NY. Its called Maser Media. I grew up in WI and got my undergraduate degree at UWisc Mad City.; 10/10/10, 10:52 AM
Alpha Maser said...: Oh, my point was I think WI has always been Conservative. The problem is that Madison has all the libtard big mouths and the media everywhere is in the bag of course.; 10/10/10, 10:53 AM
Big Mike said...: Drill SGT beat me to it. That's what I get for sleeping in and then making breakfast for the wife.

Plus I see that 3% (the folks who moved from liberal to moderate) finally grew up.; 10/10/10, 11:02 AM
chickelit said...: How did that happen?!!

Meadiation?; 10/10/10, 11:08 AM
Meade said...: El Pollo: Heh!

Kirby Olson said...
"I think many people are starting to rediscover conservatism. Shakespeare, The Bible, Friedrich Hayek, Jane Austen: all conservatives.

What do the liberals have to stack up against that?"

John Locke, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson.; 10/10/10, 11:13 AM
KCFleming said...: Wisconsin has a long lefty history, and although a minority (consistently 20%), their principles have long informed WI politics, as it left the vast unwashed they led mostly alone.

But the majority centrists have been awakened as the tipping point was passed. Each successive demand for taxes, rules, regulations, and now federalized health care has contributed to an unsustainable mass of special interest constituencies. These all ride on the back of the nongovernment worker, and it's hit that critical mass, where relief is demanded.; 10/10/10, 11:16 AM
Meade said...: True conservatism is about conserving the liberal principles expressed by those four men.; 10/10/10, 11:17 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: How did that happen?!!

The same way that, after Carter, it went solidly for Reagan.

Contrary to popular belief, Wisconsinites are capable of learning. The lesson just needs to be repeated every so often.; 10/10/10, 11:17 AM
Anonymous said...: "The only liberal who ran in 2008 was Dennis Kucinich ..."

Bullshit.

Barack Obama promised to bring home all the troops from Iraq. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. LIED!

Barack Obama promised not to torture people. LIED!

Barack Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. LIED!

Barack Obama promised he would oppose an individual mandate. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to end government spying on Americans. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to end renditions. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to end no-bid contracts. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to let Americans import cheaper drugs. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to allow 5 days for Americans to read laws being proposed. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to allow judges to alter home mortgages in bankruptcy. LIED!

Barack Obama promised to allow you to withdraw your own fucking money from your own retirement account (in hardship, up to $10,000) with no penalty. LIED!

The fact of the matter is that Barack Obama lied to the American people on a whole host of big ticket issues in order to first steal the Democrat Party nomination from Hillary Clinton, and then to con the American people into electing him.

People flat out just don't like being lied to by their President.

And so, the American people are going to fire his fucking ass.; 10/10/10, 11:19 AM
bagoh20 said...: "John Locke, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson. "

They are all conservatives now too.

I didn't leave the liberals - they left me. Once a progressive gets what he wanted, what's he supposed to do? If he still honors those goals, then he must become a conservative. But the ambitious liberal can get no traction from that. You got to be a rebel if you want to get laid.; 10/10/10, 11:41 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The give-me-it generation still lives. It's just going underground for an election cycle.

Big government is embarrassing.

No worries liberals. The pendulum swings. You can resume your endless bitching about free markets, liberty, corporations and supply side economics next time.; 10/10/10, 12:01 PM
mesquito said...: Hope'n'change carries a price tag.

Who knew?; 10/10/10, 12:11 PM
Alex said...: People got scared. They are realizing that the cost of leftism is WAY too high.; 10/10/10, 12:18 PM
Alex said...: People are tired of being mugged by Barack Obama and his merry band of Chicago thugs.; 10/10/10, 12:19 PM
Cedarford said...: AprilApple - "The pendulum swings. You can resume your endless bitching about free markets, liberty, corporations and supply side economics next time."

You make the mistake of believing everything was just super in 2008 before Obama came in - and people just yearn for a return to:

1. Unfettered Wall Street free markets in bundled short refi mortgage derivatives.
2. A return to new wars and interventions of opportunity and adventure where we borrow money from China to nation build and give Freedom! Liberty! to ever-grateful noble Iraqis, Afghans, and Somalis.
3. With a Republican Congress Bush never votoed a single "supply side" measure of - Bush finally put true supply side economics (voodoo economics) to the test. Promising that his taxcuts would pay for themselves. No, next to Obama, he is our most fiscally reckless President ever. And the "supply side" test run showed it is now on the ash heap of economic theory.
4. Corporations that sold the American worker out to China, destroyed endless industries in America to profit the rich, and proudly proclaim they are international and thus above America - aren't in very good flavor either.
5. Free trade is killing America. Free markets, we all know, are routinely manipulated by the speculators - from oil to cocoa to gold to currencies - to maximize the profit of a connected few over the masses.

***So don't think the new conservatism is about an urge arising in each American to return to licking the feet of the plundering, powerful Wall Street Plutocrats. It is about fighting back liberals piling on that previous assault on the everyday American with oppressive, high cost government measures the further diminish each American. Liberals who still listen to the other side of Goldman Sachs and the fastly being discredited economists of Harvard rather than the discredited Chicago school. ****; 10/10/10, 1:34 PM
Irene said...: Today, Madison's Wisconsin State Journal endorsed Scott Walker for Governor:

Walker's pledge to stop a modern, high-speed passenger train — one that's already paid for — is disturbing. So is Walker's excessive pandering to social conservatives on issues such as embryonic stem-cell research and abortion.

But Walker is no extremist. The Republican has been repeatedly re-elected in a hugely-Democratic county.

In another election year, we could support Barrett, a likeable and seasoned leader with high character and some interesting ideas.

But not this election. This fall's decision is about jobs and the economy.; 10/10/10, 1:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Wisconsinites remind me of some of my old Hoosier farmer friends, unreconstructed FDR Democrats. They are conservative as hell both socially and fiscally in their personal affairs, but lean socialist when it comes to looking out for the little guy. But the price tag is now too high, and nothing scares an FDR Democrat more than going broke. We're two generations past the Depression, but the Great Recession has conjured memories of the bad old days of farm foreclosures. In a pickle, we all vote our wallets.; 10/10/10, 2:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Cedarford, you seem to be under the impression that Barack Obama has fettered Wall Street - but he hasn't. He takes millions in donations from connected Wall Street lobbyists. And you voted for this scumbag.

Obama has started another war of aggression in a country you pointedly failed to mention - Pakistan - where he is routinely using drone missile attacks to illegally murder alleged terrorists without so much as one thought to the collateral damage and deaths of innocent civilians he has caused. And you voted for this scumbag.

Barack Obama has ordered the murder - the murder - of an American citizen with no due process. And you voted for this scumbag.

You should be hanging your head in fucking shame for having put this fucktard into a position of power.; 10/10/10, 2:39 PM
Milwaukie guy said...: True conservatism is about conserving the liberal principles expressed by these four men:
John Locke, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

Mmmm-m. Thank you, Meade.; 10/10/10, 2:55 PM
Anonymous said...: "This fall's decision is about jobs and the economy."

Gee, do you think that Capital Newspapers (owner of the Wisconsin State Journal) has figured out that 22% underemployment isn't very good for its advertisers, and thus their profit and loss statement?

That maybe 26% unemployment among teenagers might be impacting their ability to sell them subscriptions?

It's about jobs alright. It's about how Barack Obama is fucking it up for everyone by creating a nation too afraid to invest in providing jobs because they can't be assured that their Socialist government won't confiscate their businesses or steal their working capital with punitive taxation.

Maybe newspaper publishers are finally piecing together the fact that Democrats are putting them out of business.; 10/10/10, 3:08 PM
former law student said...: Gee, do you think that Capital Newspapers (owner of the Wisconsin State Journal) has figured out that 22% underemployment isn't very good for its advertisers, and thus their profit and loss statement?

The editorial policy of every newspaper I have ever read has been pro-free trade, despite the impact on manufacturing jobs here in the U.S. As they have sown, so let them reap.; 10/10/10, 3:56 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: That maybe 26% unemployment among teenagers might be impacting their ability to sell them subscriptions?

Yes, because newspaper subscriptions are high on the list of things teenagers would buy if only they could find a job.

Of course, the way the newspapers are run, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually believed it.; 10/10/10, 4:30 PM
DADvocate said...: True conservatism is about conserving the liberal principles expressed by those four men.

Point taken. Today's liberals aren't liberals at all but leftist.; 10/10/10, 5:19 PM
traditionalguy said...: Wisconsin probably wenr through the same attitude adjustment as most of the USA not within 100 mile of DC. It was once the wise thing to do when money was flowing like water in a rainy season...demand your share and expect the prosperity to go on and on to pay for the borrowed money. BUT, things have changed. Now financial realism is a life and death issue. So get these Delusion makers out of our face. Just tell is the truth and we can deal with that. The Obamacrats don't know how to tell the truth even if they knew any.; 10/10/10, 5:20 PM
Alex said...: In-depth explanation as to why people are deserting the Democrat Party:

Dems face death or tough choices

1934:
Basically, because voters believed that the Democrats had the answers to the country’s problems. Deficit spending, government intervention, support for the labor movement, heavy infrastructure investment: people believed that the only way forward was to have more of these things.

Voters weren’t happy about their economic circumstances in 1934. They didn’t think that FDR and the New Deal had ended the Depression. But they believed that Democrats had answers that, sooner or later, would work, and they believed that Democrats were on the side of the future.

Now:
But a crucial segment of the voting public no longer thinks that the Democrats are part of the solution. The public is losing confidence in the ability of Democrats to solve the kind of problems they once trusted Democrats to solve. The latest Gallup poll shows that an eye-popping 54% of likely voters polled identified themselves as “conservative,” while only 18% embraced the liberal label.; 10/10/10, 5:26 PM
former law student said...: Basically, because voters believed that the Democrats had the answers to the country’s problems. Deficit spending, government intervention, support for the labor movement, heavy infrastructure investment: people believed that the only way forward was to have more of these things.

In 1934, factories were closed because nobody had money to buy the products they made. When times got better they reopened.

In 2010, factories were closed because the production was moved to China. When times get better where will the jobs come from?; 10/10/10, 11:39 PM
Alex said...: In 2010, factories were closed because the production was moved to China. When times get better where will the jobs come from?

Obviously the answer is more 5-year plans and New Deals.; 10/11/10, 12:20 AM
Trochilus said...: Kirby Olsen, above, has metaphorically summed it up very nicely indeed!

"It's a matter of mental hygiene."

Even the American people can be seduced by simplistic ideas for a while, especially when it is sold with a nearly across the board assist from a disgracefully uncritical media . . . like the hopey changey crap, and the "we are the ones we've been waiting for" nonsense.

But once the political riff raff began arriving one after another, at the White House, the broken promises began piling up like so much clutter, and the American people -- Badgers included -- began to catch sight of the dirty dishes, and pots and pans left from the lavishly overdone and tasteless meal that had been served to them by this Congress, all stamped "The Obama Agenda," they began quietly deciding to reassess what they had initially bought into.

Again . . . Badgers included!

So, they began rolling up their sleeves and decided to clean house . . . and the Senate, with a little luck! Badgers included!

Here's a little two question quiz I heard on the radio:

Question: What is the opposite of "Pro"?

Answer: "Con."

Question: What is the opposite of "Progress"?

Answer: "Congress."

ps: Badgers included!; 10/11/10, 8:32 AM