What's that? You mean Scott Walker's
comparison of Wisconsin protesters to ISIS terrorists isn't just a case of crossed neurons at CPAC, but is an actual argument
he's used before?
[I]t’s gone largely overlooked, but yesterday wasn’t even the first time he’s raised this argument. Just last week, Walker said his anti-union record “would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.”
The Wisconsin Republican went so far as to argue that Reagan sent a powerful signal to the USSR and Iran in 1981 when he fired striking air-traffic controllers. As Walker put it, once Reagan sent those workers to the unemployment line, U.S. foes suddenly “knew not to mess with us.”
I am in continued awe of the conservative ability to reinterpret history. More to the point, I suppose, knowing that this is an argument that Walker has been repeating elsewhere casts it in a new light; he seems to genuinely believe that his heroic battles to weaken unions are indeed comparable to the tools a president might need to battle terrorists. His Reagan argument states that explicitly; there's no walking that one back.
So he's delusional. He honestly believes that union-busting and terrorist-fighting are two sides of the same coin, and that his experience having Wisconsin residents angry at him has prepared him to conduct military operations abroad. Or at least he's willing to argue that to conservative crowds. He's ... Palinesque.