Republican

There have only been two governors successfully recalled in American history ­­­­­­- Lynn Frazier of North Dakota in 1921 and Gray Davis of California in 2003.

Lynn Frazier was recalled because he was conspiring with the socialist “Nonpartisan League” to nationalize several of North Dakota’s industries, a blatant abuse of power and something that the conservative capitalist Independent Voters Association found appalling from a member of the Republican party. As such, it started an ultimately successful attempt to recall him from office.

In 2003, Gray Davis was blamed for a horribly managed budget crisis that involved Enron, widespread blackouts and an unstable energy market. He was so terribly ineffective in dealing with this crisis that he had to be removed from office.

So that brings us to Scott Walker. The Wisconsin governor implemented some crucial and necessary reforms to public sector union pensions, specifically in regard to teacher’s unions.

These reforms were so unpopular that Wisconsin Democrats in the legislature actually fled the state to try to stop these reforms from going into place. Riots funded by large national public sector unions broke out against Scott Walker’s planned reforms. Like most entitlements, the public sector pensions were unsustainable.

Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York have both noticed this and taken the bull by the horns to try and solve this economic crisis. Rhode Island and Illinois both have the same problem, but Gov. Lincoln Chafe and Gov. Pat Quinn, respectively, have both failed miserably in trying to fix it without reforming the pension system and decided to raise taxes instead, which didn’t work.

Scott Walker’s reforms, as unpopular as they have been, have been quite successful. Reducing the hold that unions have on the education system means that teachers can start being rewarded based on merit and not seniority. Teachers who aren’t successful can start being terminated, ending the rubber room fiasco you see in some cities, where bad teachers get paid to sit in a room doing nothing for months or years at a time, wasting time, money and resources.

Walker’s reforms allowed for increased choice in the system, creating competition and allowing the free market to work, while saving the government from a serious budget crisis.

Perhaps I’m just a hopeless partisan, but I don’t see why making a bold political decision to try to fix the state’s dire economic situation puts someone in the same world as Lynn Frazier and his socialist power grab and Gray Davis’s Enron-entangled mismanagement of an energy crisis.

To go through the process of a recall election for a governor because we were unhappy with their necessary economic reforms seems silly, immature and partisan, and it wouldn’t set a good precedent for the future as we see these problems surface nationally.

The truth is that the only reason we are seeing this recall election is because the national public sector unions see that their time sucking at the government teat is near an end, and they are scared to death of what might have to happen to them after the government realizes this must stop.

Walker’s fight in Wisconsin has foreshadowed the upcoming debate we’ll have nationally about entitlement reforms such as Medicare and Social Security.

These reforms are similarly necessary and will be similarly unpopular, but if we see the kind of things we see in Wisconsin nationwide, this country will have great trouble getting back to a place of fiscal discipline, and that’s a much larger and scarier problem than the situation in Wisconsin right now.

Tucker is a sophomore majoring in political science.

Democrat

An often overlooked but powerful elected office is that of governor.

It is easy to look at D.C. for all of the action.

People often worry about how the policies from Washington will shape our nation.

But if your backyard is burning, you might need to focus elsewhere.

I have lived in Texas my whole life, and unfortunately I am used to a lackluster governor in Rick Perry.

I honestly thought a governor could not get any worse, but Scott Walker has given Rick Perry a run for his money.

Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin, at least for now.

He has been so unpopular that he is currently facing a recall vote. This is like facing impeachment as president.

This type of action is a result of protest against his leadership by not only Democrats but also the people of Wisconsin.

This is not a partisan issue; it is an issue of public outcry.

As reported in the Wisconsin State Journal, “Despite conservatives’ fears of an army of Mickey Mouses and Adolf Hitlers signing recall petitions against Gov. Scott Walker, elections officials found only five fake names and nearly 901,000 valid signatures collected to recall the Republican governor – far more than enough needed for the election to go forward.”

This number was well above the requirement for petitioning, as also reported, “GAB staff said in a memo released Thursday that 900,938 valid signatures were collected on petitions seeking to recall Walker, and about 808,990 were gathered on those seeking to recall Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. The minimum needed to trigger a recall was 540,208 signatures for each of them.”

What sparked such a response against Scott Walker?

It was because he rammed through unpopular policies based on his ideology.

It is one thing to pass legislation based on your parties wants, it is another to overreach. Scott Walker rammed through legislation that emaciated unions.

He did this to limit a support base for Democrats.

If Walker would have taken a more moderate approach in limiting union power, which may have still been undesirable, he would have probably escaped much ire.

The policies of the Walker government have negatively impacted people.

As summarized in the Associated Press, “The law requires almost all public employees on all levels of government – from teachers to librarians to state Capitol janitors – to contribute more to their health care and pensions. The changes amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. The bill also takes away almost all their collective bargaining powers, allowing them to negotiate only on wages.”

Scott Walker made a fatal mistake of not finding some type of compromise. If he would have taken a balanced approach, he would not be under so much pressure.

While I would still disagree with him and sign the recall petition, many others might not have if his policies were not so extreme.

Scott Walker’s recall election shows just how polarized American politics currently is.

Instead of governing for the people, the first thing he did was cater to the more extreme side of his party.

If American politics is ever going to work again, we must find ways to compromise and focus on the people first.

Michael is a freshman majoring in human rights and political science.