Those in the audience for Governor Walker's State of the State address who tried to shout him down were wrong to do it, and they hurt the cause of the recall.
A few years ago, people on my side of the aisle were angry when Republican U.S. Representative Joe Wilson yelled out "liar" at President Obama during his State of the Union speech. We were appalled just this week when a woman at a Republican rally claimed that the president was an "avowed Muslin" and wasn't corrected by Rick Santorum.
So, why is this sort of thing wrong when the other side does it, but not when members of our side do it?
Rude is rude. Uncivil is uncivil. And extremists on both sides are guilty of it.
Apart from being just flat-out wrong, it's also dumb. Anybody see the polls yesterday? Walker leads every Democrat by at least six points right now, and that's before he'll outspend the Democratic candidate by a mile once the campaign really starts.
The point is that we need every moderate, independent, and swing voter we can get. Screaming at the governor during his speech does not help with the big middle where elections are won. The big middle is just tired of all of this stuff.
And most people, I think, want us to respect our democratic institutions regardless, of who occupies a given office at a given time. They didn't see protestors yelling at Scott Walker. They saw them yelling at the governor.
There's enough vitriol out there. Let's fight this guy, but let's fight fair and clean, and let's respect our opponent.
