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By Steve Deace

10 Lessons Learned from Wisconsin Recall

10. The Left had their lawyers at the ready, and the liberal media was promising us “a late night.” However, the margin of victory for Scott Walker made it impossible for the Left to utilize their tactical motto: if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. When I was a kid growing up in Big Ten basketball country, I knew my Michigan Wolverines needed to be at least 5-8 points better than Indiana or Purdue when playing them on the road, because the refs were so intimidated by Bobby Knight and Gene Keady you weren’t going to get a call down the stretch. Similarly, one way to not worry about how many dead people get registered to vote is just to defeat the Left soundly so their shenanigans become a moot point. Considering how bad their ideas are, there’s no reason for most of these elections to be this close anyway (outside of the hard-core blue state coastal states) if we do our job.

9. The liberal media was telling us in the days leading up to the race the race was tightening, and “it was going to come down to turnout.” Liberal media translation: “it’s going to come down to turnout” means the Democrat or liberal cause is going to lose, but we just can’t bring ourselves to say it.

8. My wife is relieved. I tweeted to MSNBC’s Ed Schultz after my last appearance on his show that I would get a birther tramp stamp if Scott Walker lost. Walker has spared her. Should he decide to enter a future Iowa Caucus he might have already earned her vote.

7. Standing for conservative principles unites Republicans. People like me all over the country that detest the Republican Party establishment, and their milquetoast presidential candidates like Mitt McCain, were strongly united behind Walker. Why? Because he’s giving us something to vote for and not just against.

6. Fox News exit polling had Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by virtually the same margin as Walker won by. As an analyst there is no way to analyze that other than as an indictment of Romney specifically.

5. The message the Romney Campaign should receive from that Fox News exit polling is lose the etch-a-sketch and grow a set.

4. Walker doesn’t compromise (see that as surrender) and wins a high turnout election. Will Republicrats inside the beltway or at our various state capitols get the message?

3. The country seems willing to truly reject Obama-style progressivism. I’m concerned by nominating Romney we missed a true window of opportunity to turn this country back towards the right, instead of just slowing down the rate of the Leftist lurch.

2. Fox News exit polling had almost 20% of Obama voters voting for Walker. That’s more good news for conservatives. If Obama is re-elected this fall, it’s 100% Romney and the Republican establishment’s fault. We’ll have every justification to haul these people off to the gallows in 2014 and 2016 primaries.

1. The quad-towers of the Left’s welfare-state power base are government education, public sector employee unions, the homosexual lobby, and the child killing industry. Since Walker ended mandatory union dues in Wisconsin, approximately 40,000 workers have opted out. To give you an idea of why the public sector employee unions have been so adamant about getting rid of Walker, you need to run the numbers here.

For example, teachers in Green Bay pay an average of $834 in annual union dues. Some union dues for healthcare workers in Wisconsin average $192 annually. Let’s say all 40,000 folks who have opted out of mandatory union dues in Wisconsin were only paying $100/year. That’s potentially $4 million dollars the unions don’t have at their disposal.

Do you know how much damage you can do politically in a state like Wisconsin with $4 million? You can probably buy at least one chamber of the legislature for that. Now imagine they all paid $500/annually. That’s $20 million! I wonder if all of Romney’s 2012 presidential rivals spent that much during the last primary cycle combined.

Walker is the first Republican anywhere in this country to successfully dismantle one of the legs of the Left’s stool in many years. In fact, since Reagan I can’t remember the time Republicans even seriously threatened them at this level. Walker isn’t just slowing the rate of Leftist growth, as most Republicans seem to aspire to or settle for, he’s thwarting it. Right now in Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal is attempting to do the same by going after education.

We need to do everything we can to support Republicans like Walker and Jindal when they show this kind of leadership, and not just lip service.