The Wisconsin State Legislature is making an interesting mockery of the term “conservative,” as its GOP controlled Senate and Assembly have resorted to deceitful and possibly illegal maneuvers to avoid the procedural safeguards meant to protect and preserve the people in a democratic society. One such protection is that if a measure is to be debated and adopted, the moving party [typically the majority] must give clear advance notice to all regarding the proposed action. This has been termed the “Open Meeting Law.”
Under the open meetings law, 24 hours' notice is generally needed to hold any public meeting, with at least two hours' notice required in an emergency.
These laws were enacted to put an end to backroom deals and slick maneuvers that had allowed legislators to abuse majority power by enacting surprise or covert measures. If the opposition could not muster the votes to defeat the measure, it should at least be made aware of the content and purpose of the measure in advance in order to express opposition on the record and in open public debate.
That process of procedural fairness seems to have escaped the Wisconsin GOP in its zeal to attach and destroy collective bargaining rights of public employees. Previously, Gov. Walker has argued that the attack on worker rights was a necessary strategy to help balance a budget deficit. However, the act of stripping the union busting measure from the fiscal bill makes evident that he was not being honest to the public about his motives and agenda.
The law was further advanced in the Assembly when the GOP majority there arbitrarily cut off debate and passed the measure that had been adopted by the Senate in its surreptitious bill. The legislative enactment will certainly be signed with maximum haste by the Governor, anxious to claim “victory” in his ideological battle. The issue really is about who he is in battle with and who he has defeated. He may see it as a victory over the opposing political party, but it may also be seen as a temporary victory over the people, especially the middle and working class, that he was elected to represent. That “victory: may turn out to be a case of winning the battle and losing the war.
Several incidents have come to light recently in which Governor Walker has openly misrepresented facts regarding his motives and political actions that he has advanced. The most recent example is when he represented to the Court that the cost of the demonstrations to the State was $7.5 million, in order to obtain a restraining injunction to remove the demonstrators. Subsequent analysis puts the cost at less than $375,000, including the usual costs of maintenance and security that would be incurred without the demonstrations. Inflating the estimate by 20 times in order to induce official court action could be an abuse of process offense leading to sanctions against an attorney signing such pleadings, so it is not just a matter of “puffery.” The point is that Walker has a record of prevarication to achieve ideological ends. Whether his decimation of public employee union rights will actually result in taxpayer relief, balanced budgets and more jobs is a doubtful proposition that awaits proof.
In any event, when the majority party uses closed room strategy sessions, backroom deals and violation of open meeting laws to push through measures, it suggests that those measures would not stand up to scrutiny if dealt with openly. When representatives of the people resort to deceitful strategies that conceal information from open and public debate and ignore procedural safeguards, the process of government becomes one of ambush and not democracy. Those safeguards were put in place as conceptual principles in support of founding values that a democratic government should not allow for the oppression of the minority interests through abuse by the majority. The people may well respond, and it will be no ambush. There are already a number of recall petitions circulating to remove legislators from office.
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