Wisconsin recall defeat is the Waterloo of progressive politics in America

The failure to recall Scott Walker as governor of Wisconsin is a major turning point in American democracy.

The plutocrats (economic elites) have defeated collective bargaining for public sector workers in Wisconsin, an industrial state. And they have shown they can do this with acceptable backlash. And as the Indiana example shows, once Republicans get a chance they will eliminate private sector collective bargaining too.

Decency and self-restraint is not going to keep the plutocrats from attacking organized labor on all fronts. And with organized labor weakened, every progressive gain since the Civil War is in jeopardy. With criminalizing poverty and privatizing prisons, slavery is probably going to make a comeback too.

The Democratic activists trying to put a happy face on this say polling shows Republicans successfully made the debate about whether the recall process was "legitimate". That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is: the legislature and the governor took away the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin citizens and the citizens declined to punish the guy who did it.

Right Wingers want government to punish the wicked and reward the righteous

Chris Mooney is the author of The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality, which is being hype at the usual places: Washington Post and Daily Kos.

While Mooney cites academic research, his analysis is significantly wrong. Mooney sees "Conservatives" as opposing change. This seems inconsistent with the observed behavior of "Conservative" (Republican) politicians and their supporters. My more accurate description of the psychology of Republicans and other Right Wingers (including "Libertarians") is below.