The End Of Democracy... In Wisconsin?

Me The People by Nancy Ohanian

When I was in grade school, we were taught to laugh at elections in the Soviet Union, North Korea, North Vietnam, Egypt and other authoritarian countries, especially when there was just one person on the ballot-- the incumbent-- and he got 98.5% of the vote. Even the most popular leaders in a democracy aren't reelected with numbers like that. The biggest reelections for any American president were in 1964 (LBJ's 61.05%) and 1936 (FDR's 60.80%). Even the rest of the most immensely popular presidents were reelected with majorities under 60%-- Reagan (58.77%), Eisenhower (57.37%), Lincoln (55.03%)...

Republican efforts to suppress votes in Wisconsin are widely known and have been going on for over a decade, from heavily gerrymandered maps (wherein 2018, Democrats received 54% of votes but only 38% of Congressional seats) to voter ID requirements (which kept nearly 17,000 registered Wisconsinites from the polls in November 2016).

Republicans have also blocked repeated attempts to implement Automatic Voter Registration. AVR was introduced in Gov. Evers' most recent budget, but it was eliminated by Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee, and then State Senator Chris Larson drafted an amendment to reinsert the provision, subsequently blocked by the Republicans from being voted on.

In addition to gerrymandering maps, instituting voter ID requirements, and blocking Automatic Voter Registration efforts, Republicans in Wisconsin are also actively purging voters from the rolls ahead of 2020'e elections. It was no accident that Democratic areas were targeted in a recent purge: one out of every eight Milwaukeeans are on the list.

Voter suppression in Wisconsin isn't limited to racist voter ID laws, blocking legislation of common sense automatic voter registration language, and unfair purges. Funding to ensure polling locations are accessible has fallen, resulting in Wisconsin's gap for for those with disabilities being able to cast their votes being twice as wide as the national average.

And now they are preventing challengers from being on the ballot. Yesterday, WISN News in Madison, Wisconsin reported who the winner of the April 7th 2020 Republican primary in their state will be: Señor Trumpanzee. How can they be so sure? The state's authoritarian Republican Party decide that only Señor T will be allowed on the ballot, excluding former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. The state GOP's decision was entirely arbitrary and not all that different from the way North Korea conducts "elections."

"I'm pissed off," Walsh told WISN 12 News while campaigning in New Hampshire. "I’m on the ballot in California and Texas but not Wisconsin. Florida, but not Wisconsin. How much sense does that make? That's a bunch of (expletive). That’s a bunch of B.S. The Wisconsin party chairman is on his knees right now kissing Donald Trump's feet."

Per state law, the Wisconsin Presidential Preference Selection Committee has the sole discretion to determine who appears on the ballot based upon candidates who are "generally advocated or recognized in the national news media throughout the United States."

Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Walsh and Weld weren’t included because they didn’t qualify in several other states and have done little campaigning in Wisconsin.

"President Trump's first term in office brought record success to the American people and we look forward to re-electing him this November," Hitt said in a statement.

...In a tweet, Weld said the president's "party bosses in Wisconsin just told millions of voters they don't deserve a choice in the Republican primary. That's now how a democracy works and certainly not the way the party of competition and freedom should work. Shameful."

Democrats settled on 14 names that will appear: Michael Bennett, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.

James Wigderson, seemed pretty pissed off on RightWisconsin yesterday in a post he wrote, Wisconsin GOP Cowards, calling the move "a bizarre, cowardly twist in the history of Wisconsin presidential primaries... And let’s stress just how cowardly this was. It was extremely unlikely either Walsh or Weld could pull off a victory in Wisconsin. Trump’s support among Republicans is solid with no signs that anything the president does will ever have any effect. We’re a long way from 2016 when Wisconsin was the last state for anti-Trump forces to register their displeasure with the eventual nominee in the presidential primary. Then, Wisconsin conservatives largely united around Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to give him a last big victory before the Republican convention when Wisconsin native and then-GOP Chairman Reince Priebus effectively silenced any opposition. Today, almost all of the voices in the Wisconsin GOP that ever dared to criticize the president are gone. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is now living in Washington D.C. Former Governor Scott Walker is out of office and a Trump loyalist. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI05), who voted against the president using emergency powers to take funds for the southern border wall, is retiring, and he’s likely to be replaced by state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) who called on Republicans to join the 'Trump Train' in 2016."

So why avoid a primary that the Trump campaign knows it can win?

One, Wisconsin is a swing state and the last thing the Trump campaign wants is any primary campaign waged against it here. If the Democrats are going to win Wisconsin, let them spend their own resources.

Two, as Ringo Starr said, “tomorrow never knows.” If elections were always predictable, then Trump wouldn’t be in the White House. An embarrassment is certainly possible, especially if former National Security Advisor John Bolton testifies at the Senate Impeachment Trial of the president.

But surely the Republican Party owes it to their voters, unlikely to cast a vote for the Democrat in November, a chance to cast a protest vote against Trump’s abhorrent personal behavior and tariff policies? Or will the Republicans only be happy when their suburban voters cast votes for former Vice President Joe Biden in November?

Also, Wisconsin has a state Supreme Court election the same day. Surely the Wisconsin GOP would want to encourage as many of its voters to go to the polls as possible, either for or against the sitting president. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, a conservative, will need every vote he can get when there are so many Democratic presidential candidates trying to drag Democratic voters out on Election Day.

It’s ironic that the Republican Party made the decision they did on Tuesday here in Wisconsin of all places. Wisconsin was one of the first states to strike back against the backroom deals that made presidential candidates by adopting presidential primaries at the beginning of the 20th century, a move strongly supported by the Republican Party of that time.

Now, over 100 years later, Republicans want to abandon that heritage. The room may be smoke free, but the stench of a closed-door deal is still present.

It’s especially ironic that the Trump campaign is engaging in such tactics given his campaign’s lawsuit to force California to put his name on the ballot even if the candidate fails to comply with the requirement to release his personal tax information.

It’s worth reminding Trump supporters that, had it been possible to lock Trump out of the nominating process in 2016, the Republican Party would have done so. Now to deny ballot access to Trump’s opponents within the Republican Party is not only hypocritical, it sets a bad precedent for future presidential contests.

We have no love for Weld or for Walsh. Weld is a liberal, a one-time Libertarian Party candidate for Vice President, and so ill-liked within the Republican Party his proposed ambassadorship to Mexico was blocked by conservatives in the U.S. Senate. Walsh has made a career of sounding just like Trump (or worse) and now claims to repent for his behavior.

But this unseemly behavior by the Republican Party and its representatives on the Presidential Preference Selection Committee must be called out. Trump should not be allowed to hide from democracy.

If the Republican Party wants to abandon primaries entirely, and let backroom deals decide all of the party’s future nominees, then it should state so now. Trump’s supporters would not like the results.

State Senator Chris Larson is once again challenging corporate PAC money's influence in his grassroots campaign for Milwaukee County Executive. He told me yesterday that his "goal is to build a county where every Milwaukeean can thrive. As a staunch defender of unions, proven fighter for the working class, and a persistent challenger of the establishment, I know Milwaukee County needs a bold, progressive agenda set and enacted by a leader who listens and isn't afraid of voters, having held 108 listening sessions in my 9 years as senator." Blue America has a special page for all the best County Executive candidates in the U.S. Please consider clicking on the 2020 campaign thermometer on the right and contributing what you can to Chris Larson's campaign.