River News: Our View

Just when you think everything is all clear, that the Democrats have gone so far round the bend that even the bend is shaking its head, just when you start to think that maybe the future is not so dark after all, that’s when you remember to turn your head and for a moment look in the other direction — toward the Wisconsin Republican party, or what’s left of it.

How shall we say this politely? The Wisconsin GOP is a royal pile, and it’s stinking up the conservative movement in the state.

Let’s be clear, we’re not saying that about Republican voters or conservatives in general. We’re talking about the party leadership, which, with just a few notable exceptions, is a disgrace. Such a disgrace that the state can no longer be legitimately called “purple.” It’s as blue as a bilberry, and just as lost in the thicket.

Not that we’re counting — because we aren’t — but in statewide elections since the heyday of Scott Walker, progressive Democrats have trounced Republicans something like a gazillion to one or two. And the margins are increasingly getting more and more lopsided.

Unless your name is Donald Trump or Ron Johnson, forgeddabout it.

So what is the deal with the Republican party leadership?

Well, in a word or three or four, they’re either corrupt or stupid or both. We’re not sure, but let’s take a look at what they have done to absolutely destroy their credibility with voters.

First, over and over again, Republicans in the state legislature have either sold their constituents down the river, or tried to. First there was what we call the Foxconn faux pas, yet more slathering of foreign corporate interests with subsidies when lawmakers could have eliminated income taxes and regulations and truly opened Wisconsin for all with a competitive economic environment. The Foxtanic started the sinking and likely cost Walker his third term, but that was just the beginning.

Then so-called legislators teamed with progressive Democrats to have the state spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars on renovations to the Brewers stadium. Just curious, how many northern Wisconsinites will ever step foot in that stadium? To state Republicans, when it comes to baseball, the idea is apparently to steal tax dollars, not bases.

But oh the GOP was just getting started. This year the GOP legislative leadership cooked up a scheme to raise all your utility rates by giving the state’s incumbent utilities a monopoly on future energy projects (called ROFR). But wait a minute, you say, creating a state monopoly is not very free market.

Yes, but that was OK with most GOP lawmakers. At a hearing, state Rep. Karen Hurd (R-Withee) said that, sometimes, capitalism just doesn’t fit the situation.

“Not all square pegs can be forced effectively into a round hole,” Hurd said. “Such is the case with free trade/capitalism and utilities. For that is the issue with the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) legislation before us today.”

A highly regulated monopoly was the answer, Hurd said.

“Because of the unique nature of utilities, monopolies are the common-sense solution, but they must be highly regulated by the state to ensure fair rates so that consumers cannot be taken advantage of by the utility,” she said. “Thus, in the state of Wisconsin we have the Public Service Commission (PSC) that is the regulatory authority for our utilities.”

So, to recap, GOP support of monopolies over free markets: Box checked. GOP support for heavy state regulation: Box checked. 

Right now, some people are probably beginning to understand what is going on. What conservative wants to vote for Republicans like these?

But oh the legislature was just getting started. This year the GOP leadership marched right in to Gov. Tony Evers’s office to confront him on the budget bill. Of course, Republicans spell confront as “s-u-r-r-e-n-d-e-r.” And so we now have a “compromise” budget that increases spending by 12 percent. 

That’s a tax increase down the road. Despite all the huffing and puffing about tax cuts in the budget, government spending has to be paid for now or later, and it also means more bureaucrats breathing down your neck with preposterous new regulations.

And that’s not all. Two central Wisconsin Republicans have introduced “compromise” legislature for the Stewardship program that would continue unconscionable borrowing for public land acquisitions we don’t need and would virtually give radical land trusts everything they want.

It’s not just the legislature, either. The powers-that-be inside the Republican brain trust, to use that term loosely, seem to think that the only way to win statewide races is to ignore the successful traits and strategies of those who actually win — Trump and Johnson — and instead focus on picking candidates with specific loser qualities: They have to be completely unknown to the public; they must be well known in big business establishment circles; they must be completely disconnected from real political engagement; they must call themselves conservatives; and they must have loads and loads of money, usually inherited from rich families on the east and west coasts.

Sure that’ll resonate with voters every time. Think Tim Michels. Think Eric Hovde and his ridiculous mustache. 

So where does this leave us for the immediate future?

Well, let’s start with the state Supreme Court. What’s going on there is that progressives keep giving us a licking, and they keep on ticking. They now have a 4-3 majority and soon enough it will likely be 5-2. 

That’s because it is now probable that conservative justice Rebecca Bradley won’t run for re-election next year. Bradley is a true conservative and could be a powerhouse in bringing out the conservative base — the only way to keep that seat — but she now apparently thinks there’s no way to prevail in the current climate.

That said, the reason that progressives keep winning Supreme Court seats is not because conservatives are outnumbered but because Trump and Johnson voters don’t turn out in the spring elections. This past spring, 10 counties that voted for Trump in November flipped in April to progressive Susan Crawford over conservative Brad Schimel, the latest sacrificial lamb in high court races.

That was a direct result of lower voter turnout, and even though Schimel was good conservative candidate, people just don’t trust Republicans, and, as the aforementioned policies demonstrate, who can blame them?

Voters are fed up with this version of the Republican party, and Rebecca Bradley is apparently one of them. It’s a shame.

Now let’s move on to next year’s governor’s race. It’s early and hopefully more candidates will enter this contest, but already the GOP leadership appears to be coalescing around another rinse-and-repeat loser: businessman Bill Berrien.

He, too, checks all the boxes the GOP bosses like: He is completely unknown to the public; he runs in big business establishment circles; he has been completely disconnected from real political engagement but has now decided to parachute in for the election, and he has loads and loads of money, inherited from a rich family on the east coast.

If that’s not enough to turn off MAGA voters in the general election, there’s this: He supported — of all people — Nikki Haley in the 2024 primary. So he’s not even MAGA. Wait until MAGA finds that out. Berrien might win the primary because of his money — unless an authentic conservative rallies the base, which is possible — but he’s a loser in November 2026.

What’s that about the definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over again even though it never works. Welcome to the state Republican Party.

Finally, there’s the legislature itself. Used to be that backroom politicians was characterized by a patronage spoils system know as bossism; now it’s called Vos-ism. Next year though, because of legislative maps hijacked by an extreme and unethical Supreme Court, Democrats might actually win one of the chambers, especially the state Senate.

That would be the nail in the coffin. If the Supreme Court stretches its progressive majority — and they could even add to it in 2027, when Annette Ziegler’s seat is up —  we are essentially living under a tyrannical judiciary that is both rewriting state law and the state constitution, as recent rulings on religious liberty, redistricting, legislative oversight of state agencies, and bureaucratic tenure demonstrate.

There is a remedy for that — the constitutional amendment process for major initiatives to reverse extremist Supreme Court decisions. Those amendments only have to be passed in two consecutive legislative sessions — the governor is not involved — and they head to the voters. We imagine voters would reverse many of this court’s outrages.

But that won’t happen if the Democrats are successful in 2026. Will they be? 

We hope not, but it’s not looking good. We see the billowing smoke of disaster. As long as we are represented by Republicans who love corporate welfare and despise capitalism, and who are hell bent on selling out the base for the elite, the fire will rage on.

The time is now to contain it. All hands are needed on deck. There’s not a minute to waste.