The Milwaukee Post

September 11, 2015 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 OPINION By OWEN B. ROBINSON It is far too early to write an obituary for Scott Walker's first presidential campaign, but his transition from front-runner to after- thought has been swift. In a very crowded Republican field, Walker peaked as the front-runner in the Real Clear Politics poll average at 17.3 percent April 1. Since then, he has fallen behind the likes of Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson to find himself at 5.5 percent in the same poll average. Investing too much energy in the ups and downs of the latest polls is a fool's errand this early in the race. The history of presi- dential politics is littered with the political corpses of people who were popular 15 months before the election. The field is too crowded. The electorate is not paying a lot of attention. And national popularity polls mean little in an election decided by the Electoral College. But it is clear that that Walker's campaign has suffered and he has become one of a half- dozen viable candidates vying for the Republican nomination. Why? Part of the reason is that there is a strong anti-politician vibe reverberating through the Republican voters right now. Almost seven years of an overbearing President Barack Obama coupled with the same almost seven years of weak-kneed Republican congressional leadership has left Republican vot- ers frustrated and looking for a political out- sider to take the helm. Walker, for all of his accomplishments as governor, is a lifelong politician. Except for a short stint in the private sector after leaving college, Walker has been an elected official for his entire adult life. It is difficult for a career politician to convince a dubious elec- torate that he is an outsider even if his accomplishments include massive anti- establishment reforms. But the other part of the reason for his drop in the polls has to do with Walker's cam- paign. His political success in Wisconsin is rooted in the fierce energy of his supporters. But that conservative support has waned as Walker's presidential run has matured. As one of those staunch conservatives who have passionately supported Walker's poli- cies for years, I, too, feel the same draining of enthusiasm for a President Walker and find myself more enthralled with the candidacies of Carson, Fiorina and Marco Rubio. I still think Walker has been the best and most transformational governor of the modern era in Wisconsin. I am still proud of every vote I cast for him and would not hesitate to do so again. Presidential candidate Walker, however, is not the same as Governor Walker. Presidential candidate Walker is not the fearless champion of conservatism on the vanguard of political reform that Governor Walker was. He has become a calculating, restrained, packaged, strange anime version of the governor. As a Wisconsin conservative, presidential candidate Walker's meddling in Wisconsin's affairs was more than frustrating. He sat on the sidelines while Wisconsin conservatives pushed for and passed right-to-work and pre- vailing wage reforms. He denied the Kenosha casino, which would have meant billions of dollars of economic development and thousands of jobs for Wisconsin. He forcefully advocated giving hundreds of mil- lions of tax dollars to build a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks without even a hint of conservative reluctance to subsidize a prof- itable private business with the taxpayers' money. He has spent his time out of state campaigning as conservatives in Wisconsin have continued the conservative revolution he started. And some conservative reforms still undone, like repealing the minimum markup law, would be certain with a strong conservative governor pushing for them. If Governor Walker were running, he would galvanize the conservative base and have a real shot at taking his brand of revo- lutionary conservative reforms to Washington. Presidential candidate Walker will refer to this election as "my first try." (Owen B. Robinson is a West Bend resident whose column appears occasionally in The Milwaukee County Post. He can be reached at owen@bootsandsabers.com.) What has happened to the governor's promising presidential campaign? Get behind the badge: Police deserve our support BY JESSICA MCBRIDE A dedicated cop beloved by family and community is gunned down in Illinois, and the killers remain at large. A sheriff's deputy beloved by family and community is execut- ed at a gas station in Texas. In Minnesota, protesters shout about fry- ing cops like bacon. In Madison, an officer was surrounded last week while trying to break up a fight by a crowd in which some started yelling "we need to start killing these officers." Yet the media seem more concerned that Scott Walker is blaming President Barack Obama for some of it. Enough is enough, when it comes to the war on American police. It needs to stop. The rhetoric must be con- demned by our leaders on down — and in the strongest of terms. After all, it's the rule of law, frankly, that's under attack. Yet where are all of the other columns defending the cops? Is Obama responsible for law enforcement deaths? No. In fact, they are down during his tenure. That's surprising, isn't it, when com- pared to media narratives? It's good to know that the rhetoric hasn't translated into an explosion in law enforcement officers' deaths, although maybe that's partly because some have backed off of proactive policing because everyone's worried about becoming a Darren Wilson. Just a thought. Still, the deaths that have occurred are horrific and they rip our country's social fabric. We need to show local police departments support. That's the bottom line. Local cops need to understand that the vast majority of the public respects the tough jobs they do. Some context, though: According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, there were 117 deaths of law enforcement officers in 2014. Other than 2013, with 107 deaths, you have to go back to 1959 to find a higher number. The highest number? 1930 with 301. Those numbers include traffic accidents and other causes, too. However, there have been fewer cops shot to death in 2015 than there were last year so far. The drops probably also correlate to national drops in crime since the 1990s, which mean fewer interactions between cops and citizenry. As for use of force? The reality also contradicts the myths. National studies have repeatedly found that police use of force is a rare event when compared to the number of contacts as a whole (just over 1 percent in recent years). National numbers of people killed by officers are unreliable and unclear, though. It reminds me of general homicide num- bers. If you just watch the news, you'd think homicide is at the highest peak ever in the history of time. It seems to be sliding back to figures seen in the early 1990s. Context matters. But I do think Walker was onto something — it's a matter of tone and emphasis. Police feel unfairly under siege and at constant peril of los- ing their careers (if not their lives), if they are forced to protect them- selves. Obama doesn't seem like he has a passion or fire in his belly when it comes to defending American law enforce- ment officers. It's how he uses the bully pul- pit or doesn't that matters. I'd like to see him get really revved up about the issue. Is it costing lives? It is emboldening some to literally attack officers (like those two cops executed in New York). However, think about this: It also might be costing NON-COP lives by prompting some cops to back off of more aggressive (or just proactive) policing strate- gies, reducing the pressure and interaction in high-crime neighborhoods, out of the fear of being the next Darren Wilson (example: field interviews). It might not be a surprise that some cities with the highest homicide rates are also those in which officers have been under great fire for legally using force (St. Louis and Milwaukee) or in which officers perceived a district attorney tossed their comrades too quickly under the bus in a case not yet proven (Baltimore). Engaged police are nec- essary for social control. Social control is a necessary underpinning of modern society. Without it, lawlessness reigns. The crime reductions of the past 25 years are often attributed to more in-your-face quality-of-life policing that is now under attack. If you're a cop, you must worry about being the next target for senseless execution yet also fear protecting yourself even if you know you're legally right to do so — that's a no-win situation and dangerous one. Every death is another too many. American police are simply not the prob- lem in society. They didn't cause racial segre- gation or poverty. They must perform stress- ful tasks with absolute perfection. They are called to intervene in neighborhoods with high crime and then accused either of neglecting those neighborhoods or being in them too much. Some cops are bad. You will find this in any profession. They need to be prosecuted and rooted out. However, the vast majority are the good guys performing awfully diffi- cult jobs and putting their lives on the line for us. They need our support. (Jessica McBride is a Merton resident and journalism instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her opinions are her own and don't represent UWM.) McBride Robinson

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