Fresh off an electoral defeat that will leave them in the political wilderness for a decade or more, the shattered remains of the conservative movement will gather in Milwaukee next Saturday at the second annual Defending the American Dream Summit, sponsored by the radical-right-wing Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
You may remember that the Wisconsin APF chapter held an anti-tax rally at the state Capitol, which led to nothing more than a day’s worth of headlines and no change in the state budget.
This year’s stunt, if you can stomach it, is to create “a massive show of force for our shared belief in lower taxes and more limited government.”
The APF crowd will no doubt be a lonely one, since they’re solidly in the minority nationally and in the state, and they have offered no new ideas that will solve the crisis that their fellow travelers have created. They can howl about how Bush wasn’t really one of them because he was a big spender, but those howls have been too faint and too late to be even remotely plausible. He’s their guy and they’ve got to own up to his legacy.
Obama enjoys a 67% approval rating as he puts an end to Bush’s failed policies and enacts sweeping, decidedly progressive changes in domestic and foreign policy. Moderate Republicans have left the party and now identify themselves independents. They aren’t returning to the fold, and the party doesn’t want them back, either. What’s left of the GOP is the radical fringe. Even standard-bearer William Kristol—who chirpily supported the Iraq invasion and the elevation of Sarah Palin to higher office—has no advice to fellow Republicans other than to “obstruct and delay.”
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But back to the gathering. In addition to “celebrities” in the national conservative movement (Herman Cain of The New Voice, Fred Kelly Grant of Stewards of the Range), confirmed speakers include:
- U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, who voted for the bank bailout but against Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which would help Ryan’s struggling, layoff-slammed district. Perhaps Ryan’s opposition to Obama’s tax increases on America’s wealthiest 5% is because Ryan falls into that category. His net worth was estimated to be between $780,115 to $3.2 million in 2007—but that was before the stock market meltdown, so hopefully he dumped his holdings in AIG and Bank of America before they cratered. According to OpenSecrets.org, Ryan’s top two contributors in 2007-08 were the insurance industry ($124,150) and the securities and investment industries ($101,900), sectors that have been causing havoc in our economy.
- Joe the Plumber, who, since finding fame by distorting Obama’s tax proposals, has taken a stab at finding work as a country singer, international war correspondent, author, political advisor and potential candidate for Congress.
- Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, our local version of Bobby Jindal. Walker’s un-Midas touch turns everything in his reach into a disaster. He’s currently living in an alternative universe in which the federal stimulus funds could be used to prop up his failed ideology and the sale of the profitable General Mitchell International Airport would solve all of the county’s financial problems. Walker is once again trying to run for governor, but appealing to the far-right wing of a minority party is the wrong way to go about it during an era in which voters have very different ideas about the role of government.
- Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who shows up at every Republican or conservative event, yet doesn’t have the integrity to run as a Republican in heavily Democratic Milwaukee.
- Supreme Court Candidate Randy Koschnick, who only appears at conservative or Republican events. Yet he claims that his opponent, Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court Shirley Abrahamson, is too ideological to serve on the bench.
Good luck with this, guys. I’m always a sucker for the underdog, so you have my sympathies.
