Photo by Geoff Carter
By Geoff Carter
I’m a Wisconsinite, born and raised. I’m usually pretty proud of that. Not always, but usually. We’ve had our missteps and our black sheep, but generally Wisconsin does the right thing. I’m especially proud of the progressive traditions and stubborn idealism evident in our state.
Just last week, in the midst of all the agony and chaos wrought by the Trump administration and its pet DOGE, Wisconsin stood up and said no more. We rejected Donald Trump’s draconian cuts to services and Elon Musk’s arrogant attempts to buy our votes. We elected liberal Justice Susan Crawford to our Supreme Court. Once again, Wisconsin is leading the way.
We shouldn’t be surprised. Wisconsin has been the place where people tend to do the right thing.
In 1854, at The Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, appalled by the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which enabled states entering the union to decide whether they wanted slavery in their state, a group of activists decided a new political party was needed to oppose slavery. And so, the Republican Party was born. (These Republicans were nothing like the spineless jellyfish sliding around the Capitol Building floor today).
According to A.A. Loper, who was at the meeting, “the predominant idea existing at that time in the minds of the prime movers was to prevent the further extension of slavery” (History of Ripon). These were the Republicans that eventually nominated Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.
Wisconsin ideals were further exemplified by “Fightin’ Bob” LaFollette, the progressive leader who served as a Wisconsin senator, representative, and governor (who also ran for president). LaFollette embraced social democratic ideals, forcing the railroads to pay more equitable taxes and instituting an income tax that would hold the wealthy accountable for paying their fair share. As a senator, he “achieved the passage of laws aimed against the freight rates, labour policies, and financing practices of the railroads.” (Encyclopedia Britannica).
Then there was the Wisconsin Idea, articulated by University of Wisconsin president Charles Van His in 1904, stating that “university research should be applied to solve problems and improve health, quality of life, the environment, and agriculture for all citizens of the state (The Wisconsin Idea)”, an ideal still in force today.
The city of Milwaukee also has a strongly progressive history. Over the course of almost four decades, Milwaukee elected three socialist mayors (a fact mentioned by Alice Cooper in the film Wayne’s World): Emil Seidel (1910-1912), Daniel Hoan (1916-1940), and Frank Zeidler (1948-1960). A beautiful parks system, school lunch programs, a modern sewer system, state-of-the-art quarantine procedures during the influenza outbreak of 1918, a strong public school system, and modern freeways were just some of the achievements of these Milwaukee socialist mayors.
Besides Fightin’ Bob, Wisconsin produced other distinctive progressives like Representative Gaylord Nelson, originator of the first Earth Day; Senator Bill Proxmire, founder of the Golden Fleece Award, given to public officials for the most egregious example of squandering public money. The FAA once earned the distinction “for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses including “distance from knee to knee while sitting”, and “the politeal (sic) length of their buttocks.”
And there was Russ Feingold, who during his senate campaign painted his campaign promises on his garage door. Together with John McCain, he passed the McCain-Feingold Act to limit the amount of “soft” money used in political campaigns. Unfortunately, provisions of the law have been slowly whittled away by special interests.
Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus was a political anomaly—a fiscally conservative and socially liberal Republican. Wearing his distinctive red vest and driving “The Red Vest Whistle Stop Special” during his campaign, he beat the odds, defying his own party and winning the governorship in 1979. In 1982, Dreyfus signed the nation’s first legislation barring discrimination against the gay population in housing and jobs.
It wasn’t all good. Wisconsin also produced Senator Joe McCarthy, who destroyed countless lives and careers by accusing members of the state department, film community, and universities of being affiliated with the Communist Party. McCarthy was investigated and finally censured by the Senate for his activities. I remember seeing his bust at the entrance to the Outagamie County Courthouse back in the 1980s. Needless to say, I was appalled. The good citizens of Appleton finally removed it in 2001 or so.
But it’s not only the political history or progressive of traditions of Wisconsin that make me proud. It’s the people. We’re tough, loyal, and resilient. After all, we were Packer fans during the seventies and eighties. We might get fooled, but we learn from our mistakes. Push us and we push right back.
In 2011, after newly elected Governor Scott Walker “dropped the bomb” and presented Act 10, a bill attacking public unions and schools for the Republican legislature to pass into law, Wisconsin erupted. Thousands of protestors swamped the State Capitol in Madison for months. Union members of every stripe and from many neighboring states pitched in. Despite all these workers’ efforts, the bill was passed into law. Even then, teachers’ unions adapted to the new draconian requirements. They recertified membership every year and refused to back down until finally, fifteen years later, provisions of Act 10 were overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
In April of 2020, Milwaukee, along with the rest of the world, was in Covid lockdown. For the April 7th election, Governor Tony Evers had recommended the election be postponed or be conducted entirely through the mail. Republican leaders Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald insisted on an in-person election, figuring that fear of the pandemic would suppress voters (mostly democratic voters) in large population centers like Milwaukee. They did this knowing their actions would be putting the Wisconsin electorate at risk.
To their credit, and even though a shortage of poll workers reduced polling stations in the city from one hundred and eighty-five to five, voters turned out and stayed in line two to three hours in order to cast their vote. Some stood through a pounding thunderstorm at an East Side location. Despite Vos and Fitzgerald’s best efforts, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump and liberal candidate Jill Karofsky defeated Daniel Kelly for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.
And, speaking of Supreme Court elections, the people of Wisconsin did it again—just last week. Refusing to be bought off by Donald Trump’s billionaire buddy Elon Musk (who was offering to raffle off a million-dollar lottery ticket for those who “registered” to vote) and despite Donald Trump’s endorsement for the Republican-backed candidate, Wisconsin voters said no. They resoundingly rejected the bribes and the lies and elected Susan Crawford by a landslide.
There’s a lesson to be learned here, Elon, Donald, and all of you piggish oligarchs. Don’t mess with Wisconsin. We’ve been out on the streets protesting Trump’s draconian and extremist policies as well as Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn style of government reform. We’re saying enough is enough. You fooled us before—but no more. Did you get the message we sent in the polls? We’ll send it again and again and again until you get it. We’ll send it in the polls and in the streets. We know you’re sort of thick, so we’ll keep sending it for as long as it takes.
Get it?
Notes
- https://riponhistory.org/birthplace-of-the-republican-party/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zeidler#:~:text=Zeidler%20was%20Milwaukee’s%20third%20Socialist,the%201992%20film%20Wayne’s%20World).
- https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_McCarthy.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20play%20on,excessively%20for%20goods%20or%20services.&text=United%20States%20Senator%20William%20Proxmire,1975%20in%20monthly%20press%20releases.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_S._Dreyfus
- https://geoffreymalcolmcarter.com/2020/04/09/indecent-exposure/
- https://geoffreymalcolmcarter.com/2019/03/14/yesterday-is-here/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Wisconsin_elections
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Idea#:~:text=The%20Wisconsin%20Idea%20is%20a%20philosophy%20embraced%20by%20the%20University,and%20understanding%20it%20could%20find.%22
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