a Donte DiVincenzo wink to all you voters on this Election Day

The white lab coats of the Blaska Policy Werkes (and Tanning Salon) resurrect a dictum that even the AnonyBobbers among us can agree on. That being, that the Left is the party of government while the Right is the party of individualism.

Courtroom proof of same is John Nichols’ piece in The Nation, wherein our Comrade urges voters to retain the state treasurer’s position. Yes, it’s on today’s ballot. Knowing his audience, John spikes the punch with some 100-proof Scott Walker bashing.

Incredible! Now Scott Walker Wants to Abolish a Statewide Elected Office
The anti-democratic governor wants to eliminate the office of state treasurer,
and with it another potential check and balance on his authority

Incredible, indeed! Putin and Egypt’s el-Sisi have nothing on this Walker character!

The governor may very well favor eliminating the office but he has hardly been fronting the effort. The article never does make the case how a statewide referendum is “anti-democratic.” But Nichols needed a dog whistle and the name “Scott Walker” sets our liberal-progressive-socialist acquaintances to barking mad.

Open up the comment section of the Nation article and you’ll find one Walter Pewen who pronounces, on Nichols’ slanted evidence, “It’s clear that what Walker is up to is sociopathy, pure and simple.” Down boy! Down!

The big hedge in the magazine’s headline is “potential” because there is no getting around the reality that state treasurer is a vestigial position, at best, with few duties and zero staff. The incumbent treasurer actually ran on a platform of “please eliminate my job.”

For the last 20 years, governors and legislators of both parties have whittled away the treasurer’s duties until it’s down to the nub. Wisconsin Assembly Democrat Leader Gordon Hinz, D-Oshkosh, and former Democrat leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, voted to eliminate the office.

It is worth noting that U.S. News & World Report ranks Wisconsin state government #12 best in longterm fiscal stability and California, which has a fully functioning treasurer, at only #43. 

Elect the dog catcher

Then again, The Capital Times, where Mr. Nichols moonlights, also supports electing the city attorney! Why stop there? Citizens could elect the park commissioner, the street superintendent, and the power plant manager.

A good conservative objects to turning the ballot into an oriental restaurant menu because of a little thing called “accountability.” Like Tommy Thompson said when he folded the DNR into his appointive cabinet, people call me, he said, and not Trygve Solberg (who was then chairman of the DNR board). The buck, Harry Truman said, stopped at his desk.

You don’t think government has burrowed deeply into our lives? The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled, 5 to 4, in a case called Encino Motorcars LLC v. Navarro, that a service adviser at a car dealer — the guy you first talk to when you take your auto in for repairs — is a “salesman.” Therefore, the guy who does this job cannot demand overtime pay. That is according to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. (Wall Street Journal editorial here.) It went all the way to the United States Supreme Court!

Visualize the army of bureaucrats (17,347 of them) required to separate that pepper from them fly specks!

The Policy Werkes is throwing long here: why do we need government to decide who gets overtime and who does not? If the service adviser is unhappy at Encino Motorcars, maybe the dealership in Bakersfield will offer a cushier deal.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Get out and vote today for less government and be nice to your auto dealer service manager.