November 3, 2022 at 10:47 a.m.
On Tuesday, elect Tim Michels, Ron Johnson, Tom Tiffany and Rob Swearingen
On Tuesday, elect Tim Michels, Ron Johnson, Tom Tiffany and Rob Swearingen
We have on occasion - more so in recent years - opted to endorse individual candidates in specific races we thought were especially important. This year, though, we are are taking the unprecedented step of endorsing four candidates for office in one election cycle.
We are doing so because this is an unprecedented election in which the stakes are so high and the contrast so clear that we feel compelled to stand behind candidates for liberty and against those who threaten to undermine democratic governance and who would gut our constitutional civil liberties.
The candidates we are endorsing are Tim Michels for governor, Sen. Ron Johnson for U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany for the 7th congressional district, and state Rep. Rob Swearingen for the 34th Assembly district.
To be sure, all of the endorsed candidates are Republicans. That said, we are not reflexively Republican, that is to say, we do not support candidates simply because they have an "R" after their names. We have on many occasions taken issue with Republican Party leaders and policies.
Still, it is necessary to point out that, generally speaking, as a foundational political institution, the Democratic Party has gone completely off the rails. It has become radicalized and extremist - controlled by elites and globalists whose values are out of touch with America.
Today, the Democratic Party stands for socialism and warmongering - its members are those who wish to wage war not only militarily in distant lands but economically against our own middle class in the heartland of America. Their redistributionist assault on our economy has been especially pernicious. They have not hesitated to slash the American standard of living - while preserving their own - as they follow their economic, climate, and cultural fantasies.
Not least, they lie to the American people and brazenly so. They tell us the economy is sound, that inflation is zero or 2 percent when it is 8.2 percent, and they insist this is so even as we are forced to choose between gas and food. They tell us the streets are safe, even as we and our families and friends suffer the most horrible attacks. They praise the wonders of their government schools, even as parents see daily the educational declines in their own children, and test scores corroborate what they see with their own eyes.
George Orwell once wrote: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
That is exactly where the Democratic Party is today.
On the local level, here in the Northwoods, things are even worse. Several years ago, Kirk Bangstad emerged as a major leader of the Democratic Party in the Northwoods and since then he has spewed not just Democratic pieties but outright lies about his political and personal opponents - lies that are morally reprehensible and ethically indefensible.
Among other things, after Mr. Swearingen's restaurant suffered damage in an accidental fire earlier this year, Mr. Bangstad wrote social media comments such as "Rob Swearingen deserved for his restaurant to go under by self-inflicted arson..."; "They probably set fire to themselves to collect insurance money[.]"
He also suggested that the 2007 fire that destroyed Spangs restaurant in Minocqua, killing one, was deliberately set.
Again, these are morally reprehensible lies coming from a major leader of the Democratic Party in Oneida County, but we have yet to hear other Democrats condemn his remarks. We have yet to hear Richard Ausman, Tom Tiffany's opponent, condemn them. We have yet to hear Eileen Daniel, Mr. Swearingen's opponent, condemn Mr. Bangstad and his remarks.
That silence speaks volumes. We can only conclude, in the absence of other evidence, that it signals support for the character-assassination tactics Mr. Bangstad employs as the de facto leader of the Democratic Party in the Northwoods. As such, these candidates do not deserve the votes of hard-working people who respect and expect basic human decency in our political leaders.
Beyond Mr. Bangstad, the state and national Democratic Party stoops to the same lies - those who oppose them are "Russian agents" and fascists who deserve to be censored and silenced forever.
The good news is, the electorate is not buying it, and neither are we. In a variety of polls, more than 70 percent of Americans have stated that they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, and they blame the Democratic Party. In those same polls, voters routinely rank the top issues of concern as inflation, crime, and education - and they blame Democrats for the catastrophes they see all around them.
They believe what they see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears and ignore the commands of the Party.
As far as the individual candidates go, each of the Democrats have their own unique disqualifications.
For starters, while Tim Michels interviewed with this newspaper twice this election year, Evers did no interview. His team scheduled an interview with us for last week, but the governor canceled, citing a sudden scheduling conflict. Ron Johnson's opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, never even got as far as scheduling an interview but simply ignored us.
This is not some petty grievance for being snubbed; it is in fact part of a significant pattern the administration has had of ignoring the Northwoods and, when possible, discriminating against the region. The vast majority of Evers's political appointments, including his economic advisors, come from central or southern Wisconsin.
Then, too, the governor ignored northern input when it came to setting quotas for a planned wolf hunt - a proposed cap that was less than half of what the Natural Resources Board said should be the cap. Never mind the carnage to livestock and the decimation of the deer population - the governor was prepared to ignore the Northwoods and to embrace environmental extremists.
Beyond his discrimination against the Northwoods, Evers is opposed to perhaps the most important issue for the future of our state: universal school choice. Michels is for empowering parents to make the decisions about how and where they educate their children; Evers wants to keep them trapped in monopoly government schools.
Electing a Republican governor will ensure that this extraordinarily important reform will be realized. Evers will kill it.
Of course, while Evers loves the monopoly of government schools, he wasn't shy about locking our children out of all schools during the disastrous pandemic closings that, as test scores show, have set our children back decades. Thanks to the "education" governor, reading scores in the nation have dropped to levels not seen since 1992.
The way to fix this? Elect Tim Michels.
Not least, we need a governor who is going to work hard to mitigate the ravages of inflation, not exacerbate the crisis. While inflation is largely a federal issue, there's one thing states can do and that is to lower taxes so that people have more money in their pockets with which to face the inflation challenge. Tim Michels has promised just such massive tax reform, including considering reducing the gas tax for critical relief at the pump.
Evers? He proposed more than $1 billion in new taxes, including an increase in the gas tax. If past is prologue, Evers will try to raise taxes again if he is re-elected.
Everything above goes doubly so for Ron Johnson's opponent, Mandela Barnes.
As Evers's lieutenant governor, Barnes has openly denounced capitalism, and he is significantly aligned with the Defund the Police movement. Both he and Evers want to open prison doors and release thousands of violent criminals onto our streets and into our neighborhoods.
The only way to prevent violent criminals from roaming our streets is to vote to kick Evers out onto the street. Maybe then he'll appreciate the need for safety.
Another important factor in the Johnson-Barnes race is Johnson's relentless advocacy for Covid truth and in defending our ability to challenge the government's prevailing Covid narratives.
Johnson has spoken the truth about vaccine safety and efficacy, and he has promised to widen probes into government collusion with Big Tech in censoring Americans and into ongoing misconduct inside the FBI and the Department of Justice.
To defend the constitution and free speech, we need Johnson back in the Senate next year.
The same goes for Tiffany, who has made defense of liberty and free speech a priority of his. Tiffany has also had the courage to vote against unrestrained aid packages to Ukraine and to question the government's war narratives.
Add that to his unique understanding of the Northwoods and you have a congressman who is aligned - and has been since first winning elective office in 2010 - with the voters of the Northwoods. His continuous re-elections to the state legislature and then his election to Congress attest to that.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Richard Ausman, says his values align neatly with those of the Democratic Party. So consider, do you want a congressman whose values align with the people of northern Wisconsin, or that align with the likes of Kirk Bangstad? It's an easy choice to make.
Finally, Rob Swearingen has been a steady advocate and leader for Northwoods' interests - his laser-like focus on tourism and broadband has paid handsome dividends - and he too has earned the ongoing respect of voters through the years. He deserves their recognition again.
Swearingen's opponent, Eileen Daniel, is no moderate Democrat - those don't really exist any more - but a wild-eyed radical who takes the mostly extreme positions on abortion (no restrictions at any time, whatsoever), on marijuana legalization, on criminal justice reform.
Those are some but not all of the specific reasons to elect Tim Michels, Ron Johnson, Tom Tiffany, and Rob Swearingen.
Those reasons are enough to vote Republican in any year against such opponents. But this year especially, the radicalized Democratic Party has put everything on the line - our standard of living; our public safety; our borders and our sovereignty; our ability to worship freely and to speak freely. Hard-won women's rights won over decades are now imperiled by Democrat wokeism, while, not least, parents have become the last line of defense against a monopoly school system that seeks to normalize and promote child sexual abuse and pedophilia in curricula, and to teach that the country is inherently racist, as are all white people.
If all this sounds radical, it is, and it is being carried out by the Democratic Party. So the election is important, for what the nation needs is not a red wave but a red tsunami, indeed, the mother of all red tsunamis.
May the force of the wave be with us and our great nation next Tuesday.
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