Walk On By: Scott Walker Returns to CheeseCurdistan

                                       If you see me walking down the street

                                       And I start to cry each time we meet

                                       Walk on by, walk on by . . . 

                                                Foolish pride

                                                Is all that I have left

                                       So let me hide

                                               The tears and the sadness you gave me

                                               When you said goodbye.

                                                         —Dionne Warwick, “Walk on By”

Scott Walker officially quit the Republican Presidential race this evening with an announcement at once subdued, whiney, self-serving, and churlish.  Basically, it’s all Donald Trump’s fault (most of it probably is, but even so . . . ).  Plus the field’s refusal to embrace Ronald Reagan’s optimism. Even more, it’s the polled potential voters’ refusal to embrace Scott Walker, the union-buster with enough bluster to pass muster with both the GOP ‘elite’ and the Tea Party renegades. And in conclusion:  it’s up to most of the other semi-acceptable-to-the-general-electorate candidates to drop out now, so the Scottster won’t be left fermenting alone in his foolish pride.

I admit that I’ve never understood the Scott Walker appeal (when there was some).  I say this as a native Wisconsinite, genetically predisposed to think the best of fellow cheeseheads. Yet it’s not that big a mystery:  for decades, Wisconsin’s industrial base has eroded (as has happened throughout the upper Midwest); union influence consequently has waned; the state’s college sports teams have not recently done all that well, which makes everybody crabby. And we hate Tom Izzo and Jim Harbaugh and Bo Ryan, who’re all socialist Muslims.  Not to mention the detested Seahawks, who last year whomped the Pack with their left-coast liberal tricks (yesterday’s revenge win might have been the nail in Scott Walker’s coffin, as it deprived him of a grievance-based talking point).  

Seriously, there’s always been a reactionary (nativist, bigoted) strain in Wisconsin politics.  Senator Joe McCarthy (aka Ted Cruz’s genotypical and ideological daddy) was from the little town (Grand Chute, Wisconsin) next to the only-a-bit-bigger town (Appleton, Wisconsin) where I grew up.  The John Birch Society has its headquarters in Appleton.  

The bust of Joseph McCarthy in the Outagamie County Courthouse, Appleton 

(down the street from my childhood home)

In addition, even though historically Wisconsin has been known for progressive (read: good) education, there’s also been a push-back against it like, forever. Thus Scott Walker’s slash-and-burn tactics vis-a-vis the Badger State’s education apparatus is not an anomaly.  True story:  in my 600+ graduating class at Appleton Senior High, less than 100 students were college-bound (which includes the 70+ headed for what we then called ‘vocy tech’), and of the remaining 25 or so, only five (FIVE — which would be me, three of my good friends, and an outlier who went somewhere in Indiana) were destined for higher education outside the state.  

And so?  Scott Walker’s success as a Wisconsin politician is not really a surprise, even though for me it’s an embarrassment.  The fact that his success, such as it has been, is a factor of tapping in to the most retrograde politics of the state I truly love is unfortunate.  The fact that his weasel vision did not translate to a national groundswell is not at all cause for tears and sadness. Walk on by — bye-bye.