[lbo-talk] The Wisconsin Recall Results: A Post Post-Mortem

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Key among the “wedge issues” was that of race, utterly ignored by the
overwhelming majority of commentators. It is well known that Milwaukee
is one of the most segregated cities in the country, surrounded by
bands of predominantly white suburbs. (Walker was the former county
supervisor of Milwaukee County, put there by a suburban “white flight”
Republican electorate.)

Across the state, but especially in those suburban, small town and
rural areas that went for Walker, the TV images and radio airwaves
carried a barrage of anti-Barrett ads inundated with a racist subtext
of the mayor’s failings in regard to crime and the failure of his
“liberal policies” (despite the fact that Barrett has been in-step
with the neoliberal and austerity agenda pushed by the DLC Dems and
Obama). The sub-textual thematic line of all the ads was the same:
“Barrett can’t govern (manage? control?) Milwaukee. How’s he going to
govern the state?” Manipulation of white racist fear of “the other,”
of “them,” of “Milwaukee” and “Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett” as a code
for the “out of control, crime-ridden inner city,” filled the airwaves
and exacted its toll.
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