Wisconsin
In reply to the discussion: Wisconsin aftermath: Voters in disbelief over Walker victory [View all]drm604
(16,230 posts)strikes me as silly. Elections are all about principles aren't they? They're often about competing principles.
I'm very skeptical that, for large numbers of people, this one particular principle overrode all other principles (union rights, the influence of big business, etc.).
Think about it. The claim being made here is that people have ideas about how democracy should work, and that this recall flew in the face of those ideas.
The claim is that they were so offended by the idea of this recall that they voted the opposite of how they otherwise would have voted (else why claim that this was such an important factor?)
If these people were so concerned about the functioning of democracy (and they should be) then why weren't they concerned about the influence of big money on elections? Isn't that a much bigger violation than actually taking a vote, even if you don't like the timing of that vote?
Would large numbers of people actually abandon their beliefs and what they see as their own self interest to protect some philosophical principle about when recalls are and aren't appropriate? I honestly find it hard to imagine the mass of voters standing on some lofty principle about how the system should work.