What if Wisconsin Wasn’t About the Money?

Citizens United is to lefty political types what my son is to his three sisters: the ultimate target for blame-shifting.

Michael McConnell offers another explanation, which you can read here.

Now, I’m not saying that money doesn’t affect political races.  After all, why else would rational politicos spend so much on smear ads?  But, if you believe the CNN exit poll which showed that 86% of Wisconsin re-call voters had made up their minds before May 1 (i.e., before the major ad spending ramped up), it’s probably fairly safe to say that there is at least a point of diminishing marginal returns to money’s influence.

Maybe Wisconsinites deserve more credit than the left or right is giving them.

Maybe the high ROI from political ads just wasn’t there.

Maybe the recall was just a dumb idea, based on hyper-inflated fears and widely promulgated but utterly ridiculous notions of justice.

Maybe getting a 100% match on your pension contribution and paying 1/8 of your health insurance premium cost aren't such bad deals after all (maybe it was really a matter of "Who Moved my Cheese?").

Maybe curtailing the ability of government to secure its existence and perpetuate its growth through self-funding mechanisms is in the best interest of Wisconsin’s residents.

Maybe, just maybe, democracy was working in the land of cheddar: not because it's an inherent good, but as a reasonably fair and thoroughly practical solution to bad governance.  

Or maybe it’ll always be my son’s fault, despite any evidence to the contrary.