Emergency Protests Planned to Stop Scott Walker and Wisconsin GOP's "Shocking and Naked Power Grab" [View all]
"This is straight out of a banana republic and should be a huge national story."
by Jake Johnson, staff writer
As Wisconsin's GOP-controlled legislature and outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker seek to thwart the will of voters by ramming through a sweeping slate of legislation that would drastically curtail Democratic governor-elect Tony Evers' authority and ability to implement his agenda, progressive advocacy groups announced emergency rallies on Monday to fight back against the GOP's latest "shocking and naked power grab."
"This is straight out of a banana republic and should be a huge national story," Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman said of the GOP plan, which would strip Evers' power to approve decisions by the newly elected Democratic state attorney general and hand this authority over to the Republican legislature.
Denouncing the corporate media's overwhelming failure to cover the Wisconsin GOP's attempt to effectively override the results of the November midterms, MoveOn.org Washington director Ben Wikler urged Wisconsinites to show up at the capitol building to protest the scheduled lame-duck special session Monday afternoon, during which the legislature will consider the Republican legislation.
In addition to stripping Evers' authority, the GOP's sweeping planwhich the Wisconsin legislature could vote on as early as Tuesdayalso seeks to restict voting rights by limiting early voting to no more than two weeks before an election. At present, some parts of the state allow for as much as six weeks of early voting.
As Wikler noted, the GOP's legislation could force Evers to implement punitive Trump-approved Medicaid work requirements, stop him from banning guns from the state capitol, and bar him from taking legal action to defend safety net programs from Republican attacks.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/03/emergency-protests-planned-stop-scott-walker-and-wisconsin-gops-shocking-and-naked