“We measure success by how many people are no longer dependent on the government. Not because we push them out into the cold, but because we understand that true freedom and prosperity do not come from the mighty hand of the government. It comes from empowering people to live their own lives and control their own destiny through the dignity that comes from work.”
This is an excerpt from Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin’s victory speech after winning reelection last November. He should be the 2016 Republican presidential nominee.
Simply put, Walker is a proven leader with executive experience who has won time and time again with a conservative agenda in a blue state. Not only does Walker have a proven record to be competitive when compared to the current GOP field, but also contrasts superbly against the expected Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
One of the most essential qualifications in Walker’s court is the undeniable fact he is a winner. He hasn’t lost an election since he first ran for the Wisconsin State Assembly at age 22. At his current age of 47, this makes him 12 for 13 in his electoral career. He has won three gubernatorial elections in four years. He first won the Wisconsin governorship in 2010. Immediately after getting to work as governor, Walker fought and won a battle against powerful public employee unions whose deals were saddling state and local budgets throughout Wisconsin (before the Walker reforms, Milwaukee Public Schools spent 39 percent of wages on health insurance compared to a private sector average of 11 percent) . The public employee unions responded by challenging the constitutionality of his reforms and by orchestrating protests that garnered enough support to institute a recall election. Not only did Walker’s reforms remain, but he also won the recall election, which was the first time a governor had won a recall in United States history. To top off his fourth year in office, he won reelection in 2014. This all occurred in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president since Ronald Reagan ran for reelection in 1984.
In terms of offering a clear contrast to Hillary Clinton, Walker triumphs. He is the antithesis of Clinton and the big government Washington approach. Walker can run against Washington, and in elections, contrast matters.
An integral part of Walker’s philosophy is a fierce defense of the American Dream — the idea that regardless of a person’s hometown or socioeconomic class, hard work and determination offers a person the opportunity to determine their own outcome.
His message of fiscal responsibility is supported by his record of decreasing government spending and for the termination of antiquated, unnecessary and burdensome regulation. This allows for tax relief on small business, which opens up more opportunity to hire workers. Cutting government waste is another tenet of this adherence to fiscal principle. One of Walker’s campaign promises was to establish the Commission on Government Waste, Fraud and Abuse to identify and eliminate $300 million in waste. Walker kept his promise and Wisconsin was better for it. The results match the rhetoric.
The 67-year-old Hillary Clinton is the quintessential Washington candidate. She has lived and worked inside the Beltway for over two decades. She hasn’t driven a car since 1996. To say that Clinton could be considered out of touch with the typical American voter could be an overwhelming understatement. Whether one considers Clinton’s $200,000 fees garnered from speeches to Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs, while at the same time castigating income inequality or asserting in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer that she and Bill Clinton left the White House “not only dead broke, but in debt” — it is apparent the chasm which separates Clinton from normality is not easily bridged. In the same interview, Clinton went on to say she and President Clinton “struggled to piece together resources for mortgages for houses.” Note that in Clinton’s case, ‘houses’ is plural. If these are Clinton’s definitions of “struggling” and “broke,” I would be interested to hear more on other ways she identifies with typical Americans.
Walker can exploit the distance between Clinton and mainstream American life. If voters were given the opportunity to decide between Walker and Clinton, the difference would be clear. If Republicans want a ticket that takes a clear stance against the policies of the last eight years, Scott Walker should be at the top of the ticket.
