David Michael Miller
Last week Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou met with President Trump at the White House to talk about the company’s project in Wisconsin, but nobody from Wisconsin was invited.
After that meeting, Gou flew into Milwaukee on his private jet and Gov. Tony Evers drove over to meet him. After the meeting, it was reported that Evers hedged some on earlier appropriately skeptical statements that he’s made about Foxconn’s plans.
This is the same company that didn’t so much as bother to send a representative to the scant public hearings held when Republican legislators rushed through $3 billion in taxpayer payouts to the company — far more than any other deal inked by any other state. You would think that when you’re getting that much money from taxpayers you’d show up to at least say “thanks.” You would be wrong in thinking that.
But these aren’t just petty slaps in the face. They speak volumes about the skewed power relationship here. Evers made a mistake by going to meet Gou. He should have demanded that Gou come to his office in Madison. In fact, he should have asked him to pick up a latte at Starbucks for him on the way in. And Evers should have asked him if he could drop off his dry cleaning for him on his way back out of town.
It’s not the individuals that matter, but who they represent. Evers is a nice and humble man. Gou has an ego. In fact, Speaker Robin Vos went out of his way at a press conference the other day to call him Chairman Gou. Next, Vos will be quoting from the Sayings of Chairman Gou. “All power flows from your ability to extort billions from American states.” That kind of thing.
Anyway, Gou represents a company while Evers represents all the people of the great state of Wisconsin. People who are on the hook for about $4.5 billion if you count the local subsidies as well. The company should have come to the people, not the other way around. It was important symbolism and common good manners.
Evers seems to have made a political calculation that as governor he can’t be as critical of Foxconn as he was as a candidate. I get that. Sort of. He doesn’t want to be seen as the governor who drove away 13,000 jobs. Let the thing die on the vine at Foxconn’s own incompetent and mercurial hands. That’s sound strategy, I suppose, but it would be so much more satisfying and maybe even more politically rewarding to just come out and scream it. This was the worst deal ever “negotiated” by a politician who was desperate for reelection and rushed through the Legislature by Republicans who violated their own creed against “big government handouts” and “picking winners” in the economy.
In an era when voters say they value “authenticity” and want to reward a politician who doesn’t sound like one, just coming out and saying what you think might pay dividends.
But that’s just not Tony Evers’ style. He’s a thoughtful guy who apparently didn’t mind getting in the car and traveling 80 miles over to Mitchell Field. But it was a symbolic trip that spoke more loudly than anything he had to say afterwards. I wish he had stayed home.
[Editor's note: This article was updated with the correct spelling of Terry Gou's last name.]
