2016 is going to be ugly as hell. But discouraging, dispiriting, disgusting, and disenfranchising voters are all strategies of the Radical Wrong.

Scott Walker’s insidious agnosticism – The Washington Post By Dana Milbank Opinion writer

Here is what one of those meet-the-candidate Q&As might look like if the answers were drawn from actual demurrals Walker has used in other contexts in recent weeks:

Why does Scott Walker hate America?

“I’ve never asked him that.”

When did he stop beating his wife?

“He can speak for himself.”

Does Walker love his children?

“For me, I’m going to punt on that one as well.”

Does he have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know, one way or the other. I’ve said that 100 times, too.”

I’ll go out on a limb and stipulate that Walker loves his country and his family, and I have no reason to think he isn’t a good Christian and a decent man. But he’d be a better man if he didn’t insinuate with his demurrals that his political opponents are not.

Scott Walker’s insidious agnosticism – The Washington Post

And they’re just one pair of obscenely rich pricks. Everyone with a few spare million will toss it into somebody’s hat.

Bernie Sanders is right to be outraged – The Washington Post by Dana Milbank

As my colleague Matea Gold reported, the Koch brothers and their fundraising network plan to spend $889 million on the 2016 race. That sort of brazen bid to buy an election should come with naming rights – perhaps the Charles G. and David H. Koch White House, to match the Charles G. and David H. Koch United States Senate they financed in 2014. A half-dozen of those whose new Senate seats were acquired with Koch money attended a Koch confab in Palm Springs over the weekend to thank their patrons.

But the news elicited no more outrage than did previous acquisitions of the House of Representatives (a.k.a. Citi Field). “The anger is there,” Sanders says, but “it’s an anger that turns into saying, ‘Go to hell, I’m not going to participate in your charade. I’m not voting.’ So it’s a weird kind of anger. It’s not people getting out in the streets .?.?. We’re at the stage of demoralization.” …

No wonder Sanders is so agitated. “You have to take on the Koch brothers and you have to take on Wall Street and you have to take on the billionaires,” he says, gesticulating madly and fuming about the “oligarchy” running government. “Not to get you too nervous,” he says, but “I think you need a political revolution.”

As Sanders is learning, you can’t have a populist revolution without people.

Bernie Sanders is right to be outraged – The Washington Post

The Radical Right wants “right to work” for a single reason: to weaken unions further. The Rich in this country have gotten obscenely rich since Raygun and workers have not kept up. Now, the Rich are buying Congress and the presidency, with the only potential opposition from unions, So, the Rich and their tools devote themselves to the destruction of unions. Given what unions have accomplished for the middle class, this is pure class warfare.

Researchers: No Proof “Right-To-Work” Laws Help Economy « CBS Chicago

Dr. Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois, said studies have shown the promises of job growth under so-called “right-to-work” laws are “nebulous.”

“There is this appealing idea that, if you simply lower the cost for an employer, there’ll be this large increase in employment. Quite frankly, the studies don’t suggest that,” Bruno said. ..

However, Bruno said those who do have jobs under a “right-to-work” system typically are paid less, and that hurts the economy.

“There is a significant loss in income to the state – in the billions of dollars – as a result of right-to-work laws lowering wages,” he said. “Of course, when those workers, those citizens, have less money to spend, then it becomes a drag on the overall economy.

Bruno said “right-to-work” laws also make people more reliant on services from the government, which has less money, because workers are paying lower income taxes.

Emily Twarog, an assistant professor of labor and employment relations at the U of I, said the evidence is clear from studies the university has done that “right-to-work” laws are not beneficial to workers.

“There’s really been no evidence in any other state where there’s right-to-work that demonstrates that right-to-work is beneficial to workers,” she said.

Bruno said “right-to-work” laws are good at weakening labor unions, and their ability to negotiate better wages and benefits for workers, as such laws lead to lower unionization rates.

Researchers: No Proof “Right-To-Work” Laws Help Economy « CBS Chicago

Fitting that Republicans can’t govern. Note that most of their problems are internal, but when necessary, Democrats can apply techniques they observed the Republicans use. Apparently the public won’t notice or doesn’t care who keeps things from getting done.

Republicans discover that it isn’t easy running Congress – The Washington Post By Dana Milbank Opinion writer January 27 at 6:52 PM

“Yes, there have been a couple of stumbles,” John Boehner acknowledged Tuesday.

The House speaker had spoken with dry understatement.

What has happened since Republicans took full control of Congress three weeks ago has been less a stumble than a pratfall involving the legislative equivalent of a banana peel, flailing arms, an upended bookcase, torn drapes and a slide across a laden banquet table into a wedding cake.

Republicans discover that it isn’t easy running Congress – The Washington Post

Obama ditches his illusions about Republicans – The Washington Post  by E.J. Dionne

“At every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious,” [President Obama] declared, “that we would crush jobs and explode deficits. Instead, we’ve seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health-care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years.”

Good news, indeed, and in telling the Republicans that all their predictions turned out to be wrong, he reminded his fellow citizens which side, which policies and which president had brought the country back. …

There is something odd in the notion that Obama is supposed to abandon his convictions because the Republicans won a low-turnout midterm election whose Senate races were fought mostly in territory hostile to Democrats.

Ronald Reagan was never asked to stop being a conservative after Democrats took the Senate in the 1986 elections and emerged in control of both houses of Congress. Republicans praised George W. Bush for his courage in upping his commitment in Iraq through the troop surge, even though the Democratic sweep of 2006 was in large part a repudiation of the war on which he doubled down. Are only progressive presidents expected to trim their sails?

Obama ditches his illusions about Republicans – The Washington Post

Elections have consequences. Remember this in 2016.

Republicans pull a classic bait-and-switch with new abortion bill – The Washington Post by Dana Milbank

Just two weeks into the new Congress, [Republicans] voted Tuesday afternoon to bring to the House floor their current priority: a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks. The legislation, which doesn’t even grant exceptions to victims of rape unless they report it to police, was scheduled to be taken up Thursday — on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade and coinciding with the annual March for Life.

It was a classic bait-and-switch.

Abortion got barely a mention in last year’s campaign, which led to unified Republican control of Congress. Voters in exit polls said their top priorities were the economy (45 percent), health care (25 percent), immigration (14 percent) and foreign policy (13 percent) — not surprising, given that these are the issues Republicans talked about. A Gallup poll after the election found that fewer than 0.5 percent of Americans think abortion should be the top issue, placing it behind at least 33 other issues.

But instead of doing what voters wanted, House Republicans are making one of their first orders of business a revival of the culture wars. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the new Senate majority leader, has promised to take up the bill, too.

Republicans pull a classic bait-and-switch with new abortion bill – The Washington Post