John Stauber founded the Center for Media & Democracy. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
It's too simple to say that money bought this election.
by John Stauber
We're nice people out here in Dairyland. Just ask anyone — that's our reputation. But the purple state of Wisconsin is a political microcosm of today's divided America.
The bitter battle over whether to recall our governor divided this state like the Civil War. In the end, union-crushing Governor Scott Walker won, despite the efforts of the Madison- and Milwaukee-based uprising that at times put more than 100,000 people into the streets. They protested many of Walker's actions, but above all they objected to what the tea party governor himself described as a secret "bomb" — his bid upon taking office in early 2011 to destroy public employees' right to collectively bargain.