The big lie of Foxconn makes it a political issue

As the political climate heats up while the Presidential election gets closer, Foxconn, touted as the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Donald Trump, will be used as a political sledgehammer by partisans in the coming months. It should be.

There weren’t any Democrats there to announce the Foxconn project with Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan and Scott Walker, at the White House. No Democrats were invited to hold shovels at the groundbreaking in Mount Pleasant. While, it is absolutely true that local Democratic State legislators voted in favor of Foxconn legislation in Madison, it is also true that their votes would not have changed the outcome of the Republican sponsored bill. And, it is true that Wisconsin Democratic Minority Leader, Peter Barca, lost his leadership position over his vote to support Foxconn.

Foxconn is a Republican baby – through and through. More than a few seasoned pundits believe the Foxconn deal was a contributing factor to Scott Walker’s reelection campaign loss. We do too.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave is a Republican and Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot is a proud Trump supporter. Pretending the wobbling and fading Foxconn development deal doesn’t have partisan fingerprints all over it is a waste of time.

These aren’t opinions, they are fact.

This puts residents – those who think the promises Foxconn made were a fantasy and the officials who believed it all were delusional, but mainly support Republicans on Election Day – in a tough spot. It sucks when your team makes unforced errors. It really sucks when the error plays out day after day in national media.

The truth is, no one is writing a story that says the Foxconn deal was great and wise and will totally work out fine. No one.

We want to be clear. The moderators at ABMP have been consistent from day one that this deal was bananas and never made sense. You don’t have to believe it – you can read it for yourselves in our thread of posts that go back to the beginning.

If you take the time to look, you will also find that we have been some of the harshest critics of local officials from both sides of the aisle who stayed silent while homeowners were bullied and lied to by the Village.

We have found ourselves time and again struck by the comical irony (ironical?) of promoting traditional conservative talking points of private property rights, small government and fiscal responsibility, to demonstrate all that is wrong with the state and local contracts struck with Foxconn.

It’s been more than a bit disconcerting repeatedly making that case against readers who we know are part of the Republican establishment.
After abandoning life-long principles so commonly associated with their political party, they are reduced to calling us haters. Don’t hold your breath waiting for us to dry our fragile tears and close up shop.

Steadfast in our belief that this deal – the largest corporate incentive package in the history of the United States would be, at best a disappointment, and at worst a disaster – long before anyone in national media picked up the story. We know that just like in the lead up to the Governors election last year, Foxconn will be a central story in the Presidential election.

That’s how politics works. And it’s going to get worse.

We aren’t here to entertain you. We are here to share information that you aren’t getting from local media that’s basically run by RAMAC. Delusion isn’t a contingency plan. Wait and see isn’t a contingency plan. Real people were forced to move. Real money is being spent – all for a factory that isn’t going to be built. That isn’t hate, that’s reality.