“Talk with Walker” tour is condescending to the people of Wisconsin

Governor fails to include constituents in his “conversations” with them

Gov. Scott Walker wants to talk to the people. He said so himself a week ago, when he announced his “Talk with Walker” tour:


“I’m looking forward to talking with people around Wisconsin about what is important to them,” he said. “We are looking for bold ideas and real solutions to the problems facing our state.”

It’s great that Walker has said he wants to talk to people. Unfortunately, it’s also untrue -- the so-called “Talk with Walker” tour doesn’t actually allow citizens to access the governor personally.

Instead, Walker is visiting local businesses, allowing only those employees and business leaders the chance to have real access to the governor.

Individuals who don’t share Walker’s views are disallowed from attending. So when Walker states that he “[wants] to have a conversation with the people of Wisconsin about the best ways to move our state forward,” he’s really saying that he doesn’t care one iota about your views.

But he's hoping this ruse of a “tour” will convince you he does.

These conversations are occurring between Walker and Walker-friendly businesses. That’s hardly a “conversation with the people” -- it’s a conversation with his friends only. It doesn't demonstrate leadership, but rather the opposite qualities of what a person in Walker's position should have.

Scott Walker doesn't care about your opinion

A respectable leader would be unafraid of opening up these meetings with real people from across the state. Such a leader would realize that ideas for the budget don’t come solely from his own side. Instead, Walker has closed these meetings off -- from you, from me, and from anyone else that has legitimate concerns about the next budget to be passed.

Though it’s understandable that Walker wouldn’t want to hear from opposing viewpoints, it’s both rude and condescending to his constituents to pretend that his “Talk with Walker” tour is a true conversation. Gov. Walker should be straight with the people he’s meant to serve, describing his little publicity tour exactly as it is -- a meeting of Walker’s allies that fails to allow everyone a voice in the conversation.