Let’s play: Progressive or Parody? (Scott Walker “Master’s Degree”)

Let’s play: Progressive or Parody? (Scott Walker “Master’s Degree”)

I guess “Progressives or Parody?” is now a series.

First there was “White Guys: We Suck and We’re Sorry” — Parody or Not?:

Then came Let’s play: Progressive or Parody?, regarding the #EndFathersDay prank Twitter hashtag started at 4Chan which liberal feminists thought was real:

Now from Daily Kos we have Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker claims to have a master’s degree (h/t Maetenloch at Ace of Spades HQ), in which Daily Kos diarist Mark E Andersen purports to catch Scott Walker lying about having a “master’s degree in taking on the big government special interests” when in fact Walker never even graduated college:

Everyone is almost certainly aware by now that Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin does not have a bachelor’s degree. He left the University of Marquette, and in his words, “I’m someone who went to college, had the opportunity in my senior year to go and take a job full-time job (…)like a lot of folks in America, you know, your family and your job take the time away from you finishing it up.”
In that same recent interview, Walker stated, “I’ve got a master’s degree in taking on the big government special interests, and I think that is worth more than anything else that anybody can point to.”

Gov. Walker was unable to finish college. There are plenty of websites and blogs out there full of accusations about why he left Marquette, but we’re not exploring that today. This is about how he has the audacity to suggest that he has a master’s degree when he does not even have a bachelor’s degree.

Progressive or Parody?

As I kept reading, I thought surely there would be a mea cupla as in — I know Scott Walker never claimed to have an actual Master’s Degree, he was just using his life experience as a metaphor for a formal education, like when people say they earned a degree from the School of Hard Knocks.

But no such luck. Andersen keeps going, relating his own Master’s Degree experience:

When I look back at what my education cost me, precious time with my son, and a relationship with a woman I loved deeply, I am filled with rage when I hear that Walker claims to have a non-existent master’s degree. He is no better than wannabe soldiers who parade around in military uniforms claiming to be something they are not.

Um, okay.

There’s no indication anywhere in the post that it’s a joke, and he understands that Walker wasn’t literally saying he had a “Master’s Degree”:

No, Walker does not have a master’s degree in taking on the big government special interests. He is a college dropout.

FWIW, here’s the link to Andersen’s Master’s Thesis, The Wisconsin Uprising: A View From the e-Trenches, in which he complains that the mainstream media did not pay enough attention to the anti-Walker “Uprising” in 2011, and how new media filled the void. I don’t disagree with the assessment as to the importance of new media, but old media gave the protests plenty of coverage, particularly in the Wisconsin market.

One sections of the Thesis focuses on metaphors used by Walker:

Metaphors We Live By, written by George Lakoff, was an invaluable resource in understanding the Wisconsin Uprising. Governor Scott Walker, as well as other politicians on both sides of the political spectrum, used metaphors to explain everything he was doing as governor, and to understand this political speak one has to understand how metaphors are used.

One would think that someone whose Master’s Thesis delved into Walker’s common use of metaphors (like “Big Union Boss”) would understand that when Walker said he had “a master’s degree in taking on the big government special interests” he was using a metaphor.

Normally staid political observers were astounded at this attack on Walker (via Twitchy):

I don’t think this Daily Kos guy is joking… pic.twitter.com/Da3MALfKxq

— Chris Moody (@moody) January 19, 2015

The point of all this is not Andersen. It’s Walker Derangement Syndrome.

We saw it during the “Uprising” and Recall Election:

(Image via JSOnline)

Daily Kos even accused Walker of fathering a child out of wedlock, then realized they had the wrong Scott Walker:

Imagine how intense the Walker Derangement Syndrome will get when Walker gets the Republican nomination and then is sworn in as President. (Did I just say that?)

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