Progressive Thinking

Blue Jean Nation is a grassroots uprising of commoners, anchored in bedrock that can be summed up in four words: Freedom. Democracy. Equality. Service.

ALTOONA, WI - I’d like nothing better than to see the No Labels movement succeed. But deep down I know it won’t.

Labels can be helpful and they can be harmful, but they are inevitable all the same. They are a basic human need, we depend on them. They serve as shorthand. Like a picture, a label is worth a thousand words. They also enable us to categorize, put things in order. Even if the slate could be wiped clean and all of today’s labels suddenly vanished, new ones would be created in no time.

Come to think of it, wiping the slate clean and starting over would be a great blessing, especially in politics. The old political labels have grown worthless, even toxic.

Like most Americans, I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a Republican or a Democrat. I am politically homeless. Neither “liberal” nor “conservative” accurately defines me. Only in the political world do people try to pass themselves off as purebreds, as 100% this or 100% that. Normal people are mutts. I am a mutt, and so are you. Here’s my proof. Try finding someone — anyone — who agrees with you about everything.

Being a mutt doesn’t leave you or me without a world view or philosophy of life. It does make us uncomfortable when others try to slap one of the old labels on us.

The label of my choosing is commoner. Blue Jean Nation is a grassroots uprising of commoners who look at things a certain way, but those views are anchored in bedrock that can be summed up in four words: Freedom.Democracy. Equality. Service.

Freedom means being able to be who you are and live the life you want. But it doesn’t mean doing as you damn well please. True freedom is more than individual liberty. With freedom comes responsibility. Exercising one’s own freedom carries with it an obligation to respect and protect the freedom of others. Contrast this with the warped, sociopathic mindset that, for example, leads the filthy rich to believe “freedom of speech” entitles them to spend as much money as they want to amplify their voices, even if it drowns out your voice and denies you representation.

Democracy is more than a form of government, it is a way of life. Yes, the government needs to be of the people, by the people, and for the people. But so does the economy. And democracy cannot just be something we have, it has to be something we do too. It’s more verb than noun.

Equality is a core American value rooted in the rejection of royalty. It comes out of a sense of fairness and distaste for privilege. No one should get to start out at third base. A commitment to equality plus democracy plus true freedom equals social and economic justice.

Service is about looking out for each other. It is neighbors helping neighbors. It is communities coming together. It is concern for the common good. It is civic duty. It is thinking less about what we are entitled to and more about debts we owe to society. It is caring for the planet we call home and all of its inhabitants.

For us blue jean commoners, the good life and a great society stand on these four slabs of bedrock.

— Mike McCabe

MADISON - One thing we like to do here at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is to amplify the work of other fine nonprofits and enterprising reporters.

This week offered us three opportunities to do just that.

When the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation came out with a report showing that the enforcement of DNR regulations was at a 30-year low, we showed all the money that polluters have given to Walker & Company:

(1) Walker has $42 million reasons to reduce pollution enforcement

And when our friends over at WisPIRG put out a report on payday lenders, showing that they’re charging a whopping 585 percent interest, we showed how  the payday lenders throw their money around.. Note: Walker and Majority Leader Fitzgerald and the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee got the most, but two Democratic committees also got fat checks, as you’ll see here:

(2) Payday lenders gave $339K in Wisconsin for usury

And when Molly Beck at the Wisconsin State Journal revealed that a former Republican legislator got an $80 million contract from the Walker administration, we revealed the money trail here, too:

(3) Former GOP lawmaker and Walker contributor gets state testing contract

These are prime examples of how money is contaminating our politics in Wisconsin right now.

But I’m not pessimistic. I was in a federal courtroom this week in Madison hearing the powerful challenge to the Voter ID law brought by One Wisconsin Now. And next week, there’s another promising court challenge—this one, regarding the partisan manipulation of electoral maps. The lawsuit establishes a nonpartisan yardstick for measuring whether one party is taking undue advantage over another in the drawing of district maps.

I believe we’re going to win both of these cases, which will start giving democracy a chance again in Wisconsin.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director

P.S. Please support this urgent work we’re doing by sending us a tax-deductible gift today. Simply click here. We really appreciate it!

Democrats have a habit of compromising with themselves. Democratic voters love the ideas Bernie Sanders is putting out there, yet Hillary Clinton is considered the safer presumptive nominee.

ALTOONA, WI - I don’t understand Democrats.

Today’s Republicans I get. It’s easy enough to see what kind of society they want. It’s just not a fit place to live.

Democrats, on the other hand, are hard to figure. I hear what they say they want to do. But when they are actually in power — like they were in Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010 — they never seem to do those things. I’m not alone in losing count of the number of times Democratic lawmakers have been overheard saying they couldn’t afford to act because it would jeopardize their ability to get reelected and hold on to their majority. Then one of them after another was not reelected anyway and they lost their majority.

I’m not alone in losing count of the number of times Democrats have been reluctant to deal with some issue or another because the polling didn’t show strong enough public support. Right there is a major difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are resigned to polls shaping their message and guiding their actions. Republicans believe their message and actions will shape the polling.

Then there is the Democrats’ chronic habit of compromising with themselves. This tendency is on prominent display in public arenas all across the country, including in the presidential race. Democratic voters seem to love the ideas Bernie Sanders is putting out there, so much so that he’s gone from more than 50 points down in the polls to more or less even with Hillary Clinton.

Yet Clinton has won the most votes and the most states and is considered the presumptive nominee. Curiously, you rarely hear Democratic voters say why they prefer Clinton’s ideas to Sanders’. They say they doubt his ideas could ever become law. They say ideas like debt-free college and health care for all and a higher minimum wage — ideas they claim to believe in — are impractical or even “pie in the sky” or “pipe dreams.” Congress will never pass them, they say. Hillary’s the safer choice, the more practical option.

And how exactly do these Democratic voters imagine that if we have more or less the same Congress we have now, the investigations of Hillary’s emails and the hearings on Benghazi will be set aside and congressional Republicans will start working to make her presidency a success? Exactly what evidence is there to suggest Republicans on Capitol Hill hate Clinton less than Sanders, and would stonewall him more and her less?

Besides, how do you ever win by making unilateral concessions? It’s Negotiation 101, people. You never compromise with yourself. You never move in the direction of the other side unless and until the other side also moves toward you. You ask for a little, you get nothing. You ask for a lot, you can’t get less than nothing. And more often than not, you eventually get at least some of what you want.

As for Hillary being the safer choice, has it dawned on those who’ve reached this conclusion that there are unusually strong anti-establishment feelings among voters this year? Has it occurred to them that for Donald Trump to have a path to the White House, he desperately needs to run against an establishment figure? Or that Hillary Clinton is the consummate insider, a living embodiment of the political establishment? There is a reason thatnational polls show Sanders runs stronger against Trump than Clinton does. There is great risk for Democrats in a Clinton vs. Trump matchup.

While Democrats play it safe, Republicans are hellbent on destroying public education. They continuously feed the rich, never minding the grotesque inequality that results. They enshrine privilege at every turn and pulverize the common good in a hundred different ways. They are not the least bit squeamish about making blunt appeals to racism, sexism, xenophobia and other dark impulses to secure and hold on to power. All of this leaves them more unpopular with the American people than they’ve been in nearly a quarter of a century. And yet despite this growing unpopularity, they rule the country, thanks in large part to the Democrats’ identity crisis.

All of this leaves America’s future far more in peril than need be.

— Mike McCabe

The recreational sport of wakeboarding is popular along the Black River, but the constant large wakes caused by the boats has effected people’s use of the river and caused damage to piers and docks and erosion of the shore. Sen. Kathleen Vinehout attempts to find a solution that allows everyone to enjoy the river.

LA CROSSE, WI - “People are being driven off the river,” Sue told Black River area residents. “My kids can’t dive off the dock with the big boats. … It didn’t used to be this way. We could all get along - kayakers, canoers, and boaters. I wouldn’t dream of letting my kids kayak now.”

Friends of the Black River gathered to talk with boat owners about river use. Some felt big boats had taken over the river.

Playing nice in the sandbox means respecting others play. The six-year-old bully who throws sand and drives other children away does not ‘play nice.’

The public meeting I attended with Sue and about seventy others had at its heart the request to ‘play nice’ on the river.

A few years ago, some river users brought ‘wake boats’ to the river. They used the Black River Flowage for the sport of ‘wake boarding’.

Sometimes called ‘wake surfing’ or ‘wake skating’, wake board riders follow a boat designed to create a large and sustained wake. Residents said these waves could be two or three feet high. We learned from DNR officials that wake-action from these boats was four times greater than a typical ski-boat.

Wake boarders at the meeting described the Black River as ideal for their sport: the river is straight (“the straighter the better”) and smooth.

Other residents complained the wakes created by these boats damaged floating piers and docks, exacerbated erosion along the river increasing the number of down trees and damage to the bank. One person shared a story about the wake knocking over an elderly man standing on a dock, sending his walker into the river.

Residents showed photographs of the damage caused by constant large wakes. “This photo shows an area on my property where the bank was undercut by four feet or so…I lost six feet of property over the last 20 years.” Jeff described how he built a sea wall to protect the shoreline. He continues to have problems with large waves that result in broken lights, dents and dings to his pontoon boat tied up at his dock.

Other families told stories about how they curtailed or lost their use of the river because of the wake boats. Wally Capper said his family used to come to the river to canoe and kayak. “Every one [of the wake boarders] likes to do a U-turn in front of our property.” His family no longer comes to canoe and kayak.

Wake boarders defended their use of the river. One woman reasoned all city residents made an investment in the river – the flowage area created by the Black River Falls dam. “We enjoy the river,” she said. “I don’t want to take away the option of people to use the river.” A man added, “This seems like a witch hunt to me… There are a whole lot of factors that led to riverbank erosion and dock damage.”

The local warden explained current boating ordinances: boaters must use ‘slow-no wake’ speed within 100 feet of the shoreline. Boaters must also stay 100 feet clear of swimmers. The widest spot in the river is 405 feet and the narrowest is 315 feet. This leaves “very little or no channel for boats to go by without slowing to ‘no-wake’ speed.” The warden asked people to “be my eyes and ears”.

People argued and sometimes talked over each other. Emotions were high. Nevertheless, people were civil – on both sides – often referring to each other as “Sir” or “Ma’am”. One man described it as thus: “Upper Black River has a lot of families, a lot of locals. No one wants to turn in their neighbor.”

As I left the meeting, one wake boat supporter asked if I had “an easy solution.”

“No,” I shook my head. The easy solution is to ‘play nice’ and let everyone enjoy the river safely.

Lawmakers get involved to help make sure people ‘play nice.’ Laws protect weaker users and restrict potential bullies. However, there are consequences – sometimes unanticipated – to new laws.

The best solution is the one created at the lowest level possible – between neighbors.

Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s new national standard bearer. Trump’s pitch appeals to the darkest impulses, but it also zeroes in on how everyday Americans have been betrayed by ruling elites and how the government is serving a few at everyone else’s expense. The establishment types of both parties have conspicuous blind spots to this appeal, as both Trump and Bernie Sanders are seen as unwelcome intruders.

ALTOONA, WI - Establishment Republicans are having to come to terms in a hurry with the unsettling reality of having Donald Trump as the party’s national standard bearer. Nowhere is the discomfort higher than in Wisconsin where top GOP leaders and right-wing talk radio mouthpieces led the #NeverTrump movement, uniting behind a candidate they can’t stand in hopes of derailing one they despise and fear even more.

While they either can’t see it or won’t admit it, in some ways Trump is a perfect reflection of what the Republican Party has made itself. In other more important ways, Trump exposes the party leaders’ biggest blind spots.

Trump understands something the party brass can’t bring themselves to accept. Most voters — including many who consider themselves either Republicans or Democrats but also the self-described independents who make up the biggest single voting bloc — hate both major parties and believe that your average politicians are nothing but self dealers, interested first and foremost in advancing their own careers and feathering their own nests. Trump appeals to quite a few of those who are thinking this way because he’s already rich and famous and doesn’t need to hold any office to make a name for himself or line his pockets.

The other blind spot Trump is exploiting is that Republican insiders figure most Americans hate the government, period. For decades they have demonized anything having to do with government. Their message has been self-centered, putting the individual on a pedestal, and their policies have torn at the fabric of society. It’s clear Trump sees a miscalculation here. He’s found sizeable numbers of disenchanted voters — especially working-class white men — who clearly yearn for some common aim or uniting cause. He seems to instinctively sense that it’s not the government itself they hate, it’s a government that they believe stopped working on their behalf quite some time ago that has them exasperated. He’s offered them common enemies to unite around, tapping into powerful feelings of nativism and nationalism.

Trump’s pitch appeals to the darkest impulses, the fear of outsiders, the fondness for walls. But it also zeroes in on how everyday Americans have been betrayed by ruling elites and how the government is serving a few at everyone else’s expense. All of this leaves the Republican Party at greater risk of splintering and disintegrating than at any time in living memory.

You’d think this would put the Democrats in the proverbial catbird seat. But Democratic establishment types have conspicuous blind spots too. Those blind spots explain why they couldn’t see the Bernie Sanders insurgency coming and why they still can’t seem to fathom Sanders’ appeal, especially to young Millennials. Like Trump, but for different reasons, Sanders is immune from the “typical politician” characterization. With Sanders, the immunity was built up over a lifetime of standing on principle even when those principles weren’t fashionable. And like Trump, but in a vastly different way, Sanders calls Americans to a common purpose while Democratic insiders continue to cater to their most loyal constituencies and ignore other very large swaths of the population.

To party regulars, both Trump and Sanders are seen as unwelcome intruders, as skunks at the picnic. On one side, the skunk is feasting. The other side’s skunk is being shooed away. But the fact that the inner circle on both sides see both Trump and Sanders as such says a lot about the similar mindsets in the two major parties and the glaring vulnerabilities both parties have.

— Mike McCabe