Gary Kanter   Songwriter, Humorist, Irritant!

The news of the Wisconsin recall elections was just one more kick in the stomach for a week filled with them here in Seattle.

We were rocked by a shooting rampage  by a deranged individual that ended the lives of members of our music community as well as his own.  Lymphoma took the just-turned 18-year-old daughter of the owner of one of our favorite music and performing arts venues, cafes, and bookstores.

Those of us who didn’t know the victims know people who knew them, were close to them.  It is their grief that makes us grieve with them…for them.  It is the living we go on with, comforting, consoling, trying to make sense out of the incomprehensible, find order in randomness, and perhaps just crying.

Wisconsin can be seen as an allegory to what we have been experiencing here…playing like a Greek tragedy.  For over a year we have witnessed the slow…inevitable…painful death of Wisconsin’s democracy as it suffered the disease of corporate personhood in the form of an endless cash infusion.  We saw the wave of destruction as Walker and his masters continued to wreak havoc on the working people of Wisconsin.  Then we saw the self-inflicted wound administered by those who voted against the recall.  These people only vote against and never for anything.  The result is a state with nearly 6 million victims…an infamous number in citing victimhood.

No, I am not comparing Scott Walker and his owners to Adolf Hitler.  Hitler was a megalomaniac who, though mad, was sincere in his evil.  Scott Walker is a bagman.

A more odious comparison is Joseph Goebbels and Karl Rove.  Just as Rove learned his craft from his mentor, the late Lee Atwater (of the infamous and blatantly racist “Willie Horton” ad), he has channeled Goebbels.  If the true history of this era survives to be told, Rove will share Goebbels’s dubious reputation for sowing the seeds of hatred, bigotry, and fear among his people that spawned the end of democracy.  We forget, Hitler was duly elected by the German people.

If there were truly a just creator, Goebbels and Rove would have an eternity to congratulate each other on the success of their brilliant messaging, while mulling over the consequences…not in snowy Wisconsin or rainy Seattle… but a much warmer place.