The recall election in Wisconsin Tuesday is a test of an under-funded majority to resist the super-funded minority, trying to maintain its base of power in the seat of the governor, Scott Walker. Your vote is the swing vote in a closely contested election that could determine the funding of public education, the funding of student loans, the rights of workers, and the access to voter registration. These issues reflect a national movement, some call it the Tea Party, that wields most of its clout through the financing of billionaires, who pretend to represent the middle class.
By any poll of national opinion the Tea Party is a splinter group, controlling the national dialogue about government reform, claiming to liberate citizens from laws that protect them. More to the point, the legislators who speak for the Tea Party are hacking at the student loan and public education system that has been the path to mobility for most first-generation college students.
How many of you would not be in college at all without the availability of student loans and the modest cost of publicly-funded universities? Yes, the tuition costs at state universities have been rising alarmingly in the last decade, but you should recognize that both the state and federal sources of these funds have been depleted by the so-called budget reformers, who claim we cannot afford your education.
Instead Tea Party reformers urge you to attend for-profit universities with higher tuition and without benefit of student loans. This is one of many ways they refuse to support the mobility of the middle class. While their rhetoric trumpets reducing the deficit, their votes are blowing up the bridges to employment and financial stability for middle class students.
Governor Scott Walker proudly identifies with the Tea Party and has implemented their agenda consistently during his tenure. He is not a friend to students dependent on public education or to the struggling middle class. How is it possible that he has undermined so many people, while maintaining his popularity and place in the polls?
It only depends on who votes on Tuesday. If the voter-eligible students in Wisconsin turned out in strength at the polls, the reign of Governor Walker would end, and Wisconsin could rightly claim to be governed by the majority of its citizens. The power of the Koch brothers and their Tea Party allies could be defused by the most conventional means: the ballot box.
Wisconsin has become a national symbol of the backlash against the Tea Party and the monied interests that have no stake in your future. It has risen heroically against a politician and his regressive agenda. It is an inspiration to students across the nation.
If the eligible student voters of Wisconsin vote in strength on Tuesday, the state will be a national symbol of student power at the polls. No one should stay home, claiming that they have no influence on the political tide in their state. You have decisive influence, not only for Wisconsin, but for the entire nation. Our hearts are in your hands. Seize the ballot and vote for the recall of Governor Scott Walker.