Why Democrats are cheering for Foxconn to fail

When Nikkei Asian Review earlier this week reported that Foxconn would be seeking to lower costs at its planned $10 billion southeastern Wisconsin factory, Democrats across the state sprinted to their keyboards like Justified at the Preakness Stakes.

“It’s clear,” said Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of LaCrosse, that the “Foxconn gamble has become an albatross instead of the golden goose Gov. Walker thought it would be.” Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) complained that the Foxconn deal was the “result of a rushed process borne out of political expediency rather than sound economic development policy.”

“It appears Foxconn may break promises to Wisconsin before they even break ground in our state,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokeswoman Melanie Conklin.

Yet there was one problem with this rush to vilify the Taiwanese electronics giant: Foxconn denied it.

Calling the report “inaccurate” and “not based on any facts,” Foxconn said their product development and production plans for the Racine-area campus were “unchanged.” Soon thereafter, Nikkei Asian Review altered its initial report, backtracking on the claim that the company was seeking to lower costs.

Yet that hasn’t slaked the thirst of Democrats looking to trash the deal, hoping it goes up in a mushroom cloud that engulfs Scott Walker’s reelection chances. Even though the deal has been in place since September of last year, Democrats simply can’t bring themselves to cheer for its success.

In essence, Democrats have crossed their fingers and continue to hope for the worst.

Of course, the idea that one party would benefit from another party’s failure is nothing new. Back in 2009, with the state hemorrhaging jobs and Democrats in charge of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion, Wisconsin Republicans quietly hoped the majority party would foul up the state’s finances and extend the economic misery. (Spoiler alert: They did.) During the 2009 state budget talks, legislative Republicans openly cheered for Democrats to pass their proposed budget without any changes — a budget that raised taxes, shoveled money to liberal special interests, and left the state with an enormous structural deficit.

As I wrote, for Republicans, it was basically like hoping their favorite football team loses the rest of its games so it gets a better draft pick.

Rooting against success is clearly a bipartisan phenomenon. It was obviously beneficial to Democrats to have the War in Iraq go as disastrously as it did, as they picked up majorities in both the House and Senate and saw Barack Obama elected president. That two-year period saw the passage of the health care law known as Obamacare, which Republicans then hoped would collapse in order to win more GOP seats back.

And it is this strategy that has been employed by the full field of Walker’s 2018 opponents, each one trying to out-trash Foxconn in order to demonstrate their toughness. Eau Claire Assemblyman Dana Wachs has claimed there is “no guarantee” Foxconn will create “a single job.” In a radio advertisement, state Superintendent Tony Evers complained Foxconn may not pay a “living wage” — yet hourly positions are set to pay nearly $48,000 per year.

“Whatever I’m for,” Walker tweeted on Thursday morning, “they are against.” Walker called the recent slate of Foxconn opposition “Pathetic.”

Even if the Foxconn deal isn’t perfect, Democratic cheerleading for its failure is a perilous strategy.

Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger.