A good high school sports coach will teach his players not only to have a desire to win but to be good winners. Likewise, he will teach them to be classy losers. That coach knows winning and losing will be replicated many times in the lives of his students.
As a democracy, our country is based upon the tenet that majority rules, that majority determined by the results of regular elections. When I was young, my dad told me you should support whoever is elected to office, whether you voted for him or not, as that person was now your president, your senator, your congressman, your state senator or your state representative. I am certain my dad had no idea how difficult that would be in our current political environment.
We in Wisconsin have, after the 2010 elections, witnessed some of the best examples of poor losers seen in this country. The Democrats were relegated to minority status in the state Senate and state Assembly and their candidate for governor lost. They, of course, had every right to free assembly and free speech to protest the will of the majority -- who were legally elected by the citizens of Wisconsin.
What the Democrats did not have the right to do was welcome out-of-state groups and organizations to come in and cause havoc and damage our state capitol.
The legislative process was stalled when 14 Democratic senators -- mine included in Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar -- picked up their marbles and hid in Illinois because they couldn't get their way. In my opinion, this was obvious malfeasance in office. When they returned to Wisconsin, some of them even extolled their act as a civics lesson for students! The monetary cost to taxpayers and to the state's reputation is unknown.
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Next, we were subjected to eight recall elections of Wisconsin state senators. The Democrats targeted six Republicans for recall, based upon their displeasure over those senators' votes. The Republicans targeted for recall two Democrats, based upon malfeasance of office. Both groups used outside and out-of-state organizations to promote their cases in the recall elections. An outrageous amount of money was channeled into these campaigns. In the end, the Democrats failed to attain their goal of regaining the majority in the state Senate. Local communities were stuck with the cost of holding special elections, and media outlets made bundles from campaign advertising.
Many states limit the causes for mounting recall elections; most are limited to either malfeasance of office or the criminal conviction of an officeholder.
I believe our state lawmakers should broach the subject of making a change to the state constitution to effect a limit for causes to mount recalls of elected officials.
After the recall elections, Sen. Jauch went on TV to say this was just the first step. Then Rep. Nick Milroy, D-South Range, came on with a cheerleader spin that the loss of two Republicans was a sign of momentum to recall the governor. Nothing was said about the other four Republicans who were re-elected.
Politics and governing is not a game.
Robert Sellers of Superior is a medical doctor.
