Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader told The Daily Caller that President Barack Obama “abandoned” Wisconsin, “betraying the working people of this country.”
Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in Tuesday’s recall election will allow him to advance an “ideology of cruelty,” Nader added, referring to the state as “Wiskochson” after the Koch brothers of Koch Industries.
“Wisconsin was abandoned by President Obama. Vice President Biden wanted to go out and help all of the workers and all of the supporters of President Obama but he was not allowed to by the political operatives in the White House,” Nader told TheDC on Capitol Hill Wednesday after publicly supporting legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour.
“He actually got an invitation almost a year ago to address 100,000 people – Biden did, from the State Federation of Labor in Wisconsin and the political operatives in the White House put the kibosh on it even though Biden wanted to go because he calls himself, quote, a union man, end quote.”
Nader added, “now the people of Wisconsin will realize that the state of Wisconsin will become the state of Wiskochson – the Koch brothers because that’s the ideology of cruelty that Scott Walker, the governor, has been advancing in that state so the people who voted for Scott Walker will see what they reaped.”
Nader said Obama should have been more involved in supporting Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin recall election.
“Last week I sent him a letter saying that it’s one thing for him not to champion labor’s causes — like a minimum wage increase, long overdue, like the card check that he promised labor unions in 2008 he would press for — he got away with that, but I don’t know if he’s going to get away politically with betraying the working people of this country,” Nader told TheDC.
“It’s one thing not championing them, to upgrade their status against global corporations and the oligarchy, it’s quite another thing to betray them and allow a rollback of the meager rights that they have fought for over the years.”
Nader said Obama stayed away from the election because the White House “didn’t want to risk losing” and said that’s not the “definition” of leadership.
“Leadership risks winning not risks losing and of course now it’s going to reverberate throughout the country, the governors of Indiana, of Florida, of Ohio who share Governor Scott Brown’s [Walker] views will be further emboldened thinking that they got the support of the people coming out of Wisconsin and of course the big fat cats will be emboldened too, Karl Rove’s group, the Koch Brothers and others to pour more and more millions in campaigns against Obama so he’s actually not being very politically astute on this from his own political design,” Nader told TheDC.