A Protagonist Short

Haven’t you noticed, we are a protagonist short.

In this idyllic well-produced scene? 

This line from the musical Chess must have been running through Tom Barrett’s head as he conceded the Wisconsin recall election to Governor Scott Walker last night.  After all a year of protests, shouting matches, marching on the capital in Madison, Wisconsites returned back to where they started, with a governor they first elected.  And the biggest question remaining: where was the protagonist and who was expected to fill that role in the anti-Walker movement.

When the recall movement first started,  it appeared that unions and other pro-labor forces would be the lead actors in challenging Walker.  It was his collective bargaining bill that first stoked outrage with the labor movement, and it was they who also sent the first activists to Madison.  There was a problem though, and that was the election was appearing to be a union vendetta, and many Wisconsites at least partially agreed with what Walker was trying to accomplish.

The good news for the anti-Walker movement was that the role of protagonist was shifting, to that of the Democratic party.  This race was a chance to establish a pre-2012 general election victory in a swing state.  A chance to build the “big-mo,” as they say in politics.  Money flowed in, and Obama’s group Organizing from America mobilized, but no one was there to lead.  President Obama was conspicuously absent, as were leaders from the Democratic National Committee.

By the time Tom Barrett arrived on the scene as Walker’s challenger, the Republican seeds for victory had been sewn.  So how did an environment, supposedly ripe for recall – an idyllic scene turnout disastrously for the labor movement and the Democratic party?  Simple, they practiced reactionary politics, and led with their heart rather than their head. 

American politics has always tended to be reactionary, but in the last 30 years it has gotten extreme.  With Walker, the left saw an easy chance to score points without seriously thinking whether this was the right thing to do.   Imagine if they had channelled this energy into debating Walker on policy, rather then by simply storming the capital in Madison. 

 

Walker entered the governor’s office with the state facing financial difficulty and he made tough decisions.  And while Americans may say that’s what they want from their elected leaders, the demonstrations in Wisconsin sure indicated otherwise.  In 2012, we face too many challenges to be distracted by screaming and shouting.  It is time we return to a politics governed by our knowledge and not by our emotions.  As for the recall, the lesson learned is clear – movements need a leader and the anti-Walker folks were, “A protagonist short.”