To the Editor:
When I first learned that former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was visiting Cornell, I must admit, my interest was piqued. Then, I read Irene Hartmann’s grad letter, followed by the response from the Cornell Republicans. While striking, these letters do not paint a full picture of Gov. Walker, and I would encourage everyone to dig a bit deeper.
For instance, while Hartmann notes that Walker attacked public-sector unions and blocked consumer protection laws, she failed to mention that Scott Walker turned down over $1 billion in federal dollars to expand Medicaid, meaning state funds were used instead. Nor did she note in her letter that Walker orchestrated the biggest corporate handout to a foreign company in American history, $4 billion, complete with the right to ignore environmental regulations, which has been disastrous. The suppressive voter ID laws Walker passed also garnered nary a mention. She even omitted the fact that he cut hundreds of millions in funding for the University of Wisconsin.
The College Republicans, for their part, wrote that Walker raised a measly $750,000 from lead manufacturers, an amount that truly pales before the whopping $8.3 million raised by his opponents. Of course, that $750,000 doesn’t count the additional $45 million Walker spent, an amount so paltry I admit I understand why they failed to mention it, even though it broke state records. Shockingly, they also failed to mention that Walker never delivered on his job creation promises despite strong job growth nationwide in the wake of the Great Recession.
Worst of all, both of these letters neglected to mention a critical piece of information about Walker — he is incredibly boring. In the 2016 presidential primary, he started the first debate at center stage due to his strong support in national polls. He quickly lost support, however, after the first debate when he necessarily opened his mouth. He was shunted off to the corner of the debate stage and then off the stage entirely, going from frontrunner to dropout in just two months. Since then, he has gone on to lose his re-election bid for governor and has since struggled to find any reason to remain relevant.
On second thought, maybe we can all just forget about Scott Walker and let him drop into the wastebasket of history.
Stephen Santangelo ’10