-By Warner Todd Huston
The Associated Press seems to be still on the lookout for stories about how Wisconsinites (especially “unions”) hate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker — yes, even after he beat a recall attempt getting even more votes than he did during his first run for the Guv’s manse. This time AP is pushing the tale that Carrie Nation’s alcohol prohibition “union” is mad at Walker for wanting to serve beer at his unity picnic. Yeah, the same 140-year-old group chiefly responsible for passing the ill-fated Prohibition Act on the country in the 1920s.
So now, the AP has its headlined, “Walker Angers Temperance Union by Serving Beer,” and is seriously trying to get the nation all ginned up over the fact that the beer hating Women’s Christian Temperance Union is upset at the Governor.
What is the Women’s Christian Temperance Union? The WCTU started way back in 1873 ultimately becoming a major political force when its most well-known advocate, Carrie Nation, helped lead the way for the 18th Amendment, the one that banned alcohol in the United States. Of course, Ms. Nation died 8 years before the Amendment succeeded in becoming law, but that doesn’t stop her from being one of the main reasons for giving rise to the exciting career of our most honored Chicago citizen, Al Capone. Thanks, Carrie.
So, who cares much about what the WCTU is doing now some 90 years after their main premise was proven an abject failure? The AP apparently.
“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker can’t avoid union troubles, even when he’s trying to be bipartisan,” the AP gravely informs us in its first paragraph.
Walker, you see, is sponsoring a unity picnic for legislators to help heal the rift created when extreme left-wingers and union thugs attempted to have him recalled. But, shock of shocks, the Gov. announced that he will serve beer at the gathering.
Now, anyone that knows much about Wisconsin knows that beer is the state’s life’s blood. Beer forms a part of nearly every outing in the Badger State. So, having beer at a picnic is the least shocking thing that could be seen at a Wisconsin picnic.
Ah, but the AP found the WTCU allowing them to vent their outrage.
Now, he’s angered the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union with his plan to serve beer at the Tuesday cookout designed to help bring Republicans and Democrats together. The WCTU successfully lobbied for Prohibition, which made selling alcohol illegal from about 1920 to the early 1930s, and its 5,000 members continue to spread its anti-drinking message nationwide.
It’s all a big “who cares,” isn’t it? The group whose biggest failure cost the nation millions in blood and treasure and helped give rise to the worst criminal wars in our nation’s history is mad at Scott Walker? Gee, I’m all chocked up.
As bad was the way the AP characterized the reason for Walker’s recall.
…a recall election last week that was spurred by anger over a law he pushed through the Legislature effectively eliminating most public workers’ union rights.
Uh, no, that is not what Walker did. He did not make any attempt to eliminate “most public workers’ union rights.” All he did was change a few key measures that would stop unions from forcibly unionizing workers, eliminate the state from reaching into worker’s pockets to automatically remove union dues, and removed unions power to collectively bargain for raises.
Walker did not “eliminate” their “rights.” Workers can still unionize and he did not eliminate their unions. What he did do, which the AP avoids explaining, is demand that government workers — who get paid off the backs of taxpayers — pay just a little bit into their lucrative retirement and health care packages. But, we wouldn’t expect the AP to tell that story, would we?
No, apparently the ire of a tiny group of failed, 140-year-old booze banners is a hotter story.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.