If a Democratic governor is elected and Democrats gain a majority in the Senate in recall elections this summer, much of the legislation Gov. Scott Walker has pushed will still be around for a while. I don’t like it and you might not like it, but that’s the reality. Collective bargaining will undeniably be the central issue. But it shouldn’t be.

Considering most of the impetus for the recall has come from unions, it’s not surprising that collective bargaining will be at the heart of the election. I often wonder if a candidate like Kathleen Falk would have even had a semblance of a chance if she didn’t have the unions’ support. And of course, with unions comes money, money that can be spent on ads attacking Democrats, like the one the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported was run against Tom Barrett. 

Since much of the discourse has focused on collective bargaining and other voter ID and reproductive rights legislation, the fact that Wisconsin politics are incapacitated and divided has been forgotten. We shouldn’t choose the Democratic candidate that supports unions the most, or who promises to fight tooth and nail to overturn everything Walker has done. We ought to support the candidate who can most help heal the acrimonious political state of Wisconsin.

Reginald Young ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in legal studies and Scandinavian studies.