Silly me, I thought the cause was the long-term, apolitical trend away from a manufacturing economy to one built on science and technology. Things were then exacerbated by a deep recession linked to unregulated Wall Street greed on the watch of George W. Bush. But hey, it’s easier to point to “government red tape.”

It strikes many that Walker and his fellow Republicans have shown scant interest in leaving the campaign behind since Nov. 2 to actually govern on behalf of us all.

Peter Barca, who represents Kenosha and is the leader of minority Democrats in the Assembly, says Walker sounded more like a candidate than a governor in his recent statements about abolishing the state Department of Commerce and creating a quasi-private alternative.

Walker said in a Capital Times story last week that Commerce employees would need to reapply for their jobs, “but if there are good people there, we will take them along.” So we can infer Walker thinks every Commerce employee a useless bureaucrat until they prove otherwise.

Says Barca: “If you are the leader of any organization, you are only as strong as your team. When you alienate people right off the start, it kind of makes your job tougher.”