As I write this in my living room in Wisconsin, I look out my windows
to see icicles, snow, and a squirrel wondering just where under this
white hellscape he buried that damn acorn. While the snow has fallen
about a month early here, the culture wars are right on time. Scott
Walker has fired the first shots of the War on Christmas©.
I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that most people really
do not give a crap whether you say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas,
Christmas tree, holiday tree, or future firewood.
Of course, if there is a way to rev up the culture wars and to divide the populace, leave it to Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin and guy who has never worked a day in his life.
First some backstory: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers recently announced the state Capitol’s 2019 holiday tree theme, “Celebrate Science," and asked schoolchildren to submit science-related ornaments for the tree. Madison news website Channel 3000 reported, “Wisconsin politicians began referring to the tree as a holiday tree in 1985. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker declared the tree a Christmas tree in 2011, drawing the ire of the Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation.”
Of course, 2018 gubernatorial race loser Scott “Divide and Conquer” Walker had terminated a tradition that had been observed by both Republican and Democratic governors without issue.
Last week on Twitter, he posted this:
Of course, if there is a way to rev up the culture wars and to divide the populace, leave it to Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin and guy who has never worked a day in his life.
First some backstory: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers recently announced the state Capitol’s 2019 holiday tree theme, “Celebrate Science," and asked schoolchildren to submit science-related ornaments for the tree. Madison news website Channel 3000 reported, “Wisconsin politicians began referring to the tree as a holiday tree in 1985. Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker declared the tree a Christmas tree in 2011, drawing the ire of the Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation.”
Of course, 2018 gubernatorial race loser Scott “Divide and Conquer” Walker had terminated a tradition that had been observed by both Republican and Democratic governors without issue.
Last week on Twitter, he posted this:
This is a Christmas Tree that is used by people celebrating Christmas 
This is not a holiday tree.
This is not a holiday tree.
Of course, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, taking Walker’s lead, have now wasted time and taxpayer money on a ridiculous argument over what to call the dead pine tree in the state Capitol rotunda. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:
Sixty Republicans and five Democrats voted to officially recognize the Capitol's holiday centerpiece as a Christmas tree, with GOP lawmakers who brought the resolution arguing it simply honors tradition and includes the Christian faith in the rotunda during the holidays where a Menorah also is kept.Note to Majority Leader Steineke: It was called a holiday tree for 25 years, and it did not bother anyone. The person who made it a political game was Scott Walker. Taking a pointless vote, on the taxpayer dime, over what to call a dead tree is making it a political game.
...
"It is a Christmas tree. Everyone knows it's a Christmas tree. Changing the name of the Christmas tree to anything else would be a political game," Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said. "And that's what the governor did when he renamed it."
The reality is that the face of America is changing. One of the founding ideas of our nation was that there would be no state religion. As the United States has grown and changed, the composition of the nation has changed. We are a multicultural nation with people of many faiths and no faiths living and working side by side. Instead of doing and saying things that further divide us, we should be focusing on becoming a more inclusive society. A good step in that direction would be for the American right to stop fighting the fictional War on Christmas©.
In case they have not noticed, Christmas won—it is not even Thanksgiving yet, and my TV is wall-to-wall Christmas ads. Walk into any Home Depot, and it looks like Christmas threw up in there.
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