Taking their show on the road

It’s kind of like this: For years, two veteran performers have been working a two-man show in the Catskills. It’s become a comfortable, if uninspiring gig. Now, suddenly, they get their big break. They’re coming to Broadway. But most of their new audience neither knows nor cares about their long history together. What’s more, it’s not clear that either one of them has what it takes to make it big.

Entering from stage right: Scott Walker. The guy who never met a tax he didn’t want to cut. Who never met a public service that he did not want to privatize. He has the ideological purity that makes the wingnut’s heart sing, and all the flexibility and nuance of a tire iron. Where others see a jewel of a park system languishing from years of neglect, Scott sees a line item for lawn care. Where some fret about a regional transit system that leaves us woefully unprepared for the coming economy, Scott sees a budget buster and riders that are never going to vote for him anyway. If all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.

From stage center left: Tom Barrett. The nice guy. The guy who is always looking for consensus. The guy with big ideas, who wants to position the city for the 21st century, yet is never quite able to get the trigger pulled. He touts his big plans for regional transit, yet the clock on the federal money continues to tick away. He waxes about the unparalleled potential surrounding the East Freeway development, and yet that vast empty lot has become a civic embarrassment. He finally decides that he wants control of the public schools, but even if the legislature gets around to giving him the authority, one expects that MPS and its Aegean Stables are going to remain pretty filthy. The fact is, if more stuff actually got done, Milwaukeeans could probably live with somebody who wasn’t so nice.

For better or worse, these are two guys whose political identities have solidified in Wisconsin’s upcoming gubernatorial race. But it’s not just that their shtick is so well known, it’s that their identities are tied to each other. Consider the transit money, a federal grant of $91 million. Any plan requires both city and county approval, and Barrett and Walker have very different ideas about how to spend that money. What to do? Barrett, naturally, wants to compromise; split the money and get at least a start on his grand plan. Scott Walker says that even if researchers concluded that Barrett’s plan was a better idea, he would still be against it. (Now that’s ideological purity!) So, while our bus system inches ever closer to complete collapse, Barrett and Walker play to type, pointing fingers at each other and ensuring that nothing happens.

Now these players have stepped on to a bigger stage. To succeed, they will need to redefine themselves and develop a focus for their campaigns. They will need to chart the state’s future, and connect meaningfully to state-level politics. Every campaign needs to do these things. But for these two, these objectives will be more difficult to achieve because of their shared history. The news media will inevitably examine new debates in terms of old ones. Like us, they have seen this act before.

Of course, Mark Neumann is going to have something to say about how things turn out. But for these two, the point is that the old act is not going to cut it.

For one thing, nobody in Appleton cares about Milwaukee mass transit. More importantly, these are perilous times for everyone, very much including the state of Wisconsin. As revenues fall and demands for services increase, the state’s next governor must find a way to put our fiscal house in order. But he must also make the long-delayed investments in education and infrastructure that are necessary for us to compete in the region, let alone the world. He must figure out how to break through the sclerotic gamesmanship that characterizes life in Madison. Finally, he must have the rhetorical skills to articulate a vision for the future, and bring the rest of us along for the ride. In terms of these lofty goals, it’s clear that both men will have to rise to the occasion, and transcend the political identities that have taken them to this point. Those of us who have seen this act have reason to be skeptical, but this is their big chance. Which one will make the most of it?