Bi-Partisan Help

Bi-Partisan Help Works

Ignore it at our peril 

If there was ever a time for bi-partisan action to address a national crisis, this is that time. Unfortunately, the Republicans who represent Wisconsin in the United States House of Representatives and Senate chose to ignore the memo. All of them voted against the bi-partisan bill that provides relief to those impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak that even President Trump supports. 

Senator Ron Johnson has been the most vocal about his views on the pandemic we all face and his vote not to help any of us out. Johnson took to the airwaves afterwards, trying to put a positive spin on COVID-19 that shows how completely tone deaf he really is. 

Johnson’s remarks ring especially hollow to those without paid sick leave from their employers. As one of the few civilized countries without required paid sick leave, many Americans will feel pressured to go to work when they do not feel well, even though that will increase the chances of virus spread to more folks. The bill passed by the House and Senate and soon to be signed by the President provides some limited relief for working people, but even that meager response was too much for Johnson who believed it would “incentivize people to not show up for work.” Johnson apparently believes people should continue to go to work, even if exposed to or are already carrying the virus. He believes COVID-19 is not the same as Ebola, MERS and is less serious than the seasonal flu and cannot be allowed to harm the economy. 

Trying to calm the instant backlash his comments provoked, Johnson went further. “Right now, all people are hearing about are the deaths. I’m sure they are horrific, but the flip side of this is the vast majority of people who get coronavirus do survive.” He went further in comments to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where he noted that only between 1 and 3.4 percent of the population would die. “But that means 97 to 99 percent will get through this and develop immunities and will be able to move beyond this. We don’t shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on highways. It’s a risk we accept so we can move about. We don’t shut down our economies because tens of thousands die from common flu,” Johnson proclaimed. 

Clearly, Johnson failed math in school. There are over 329 million Americans on our shores according to the U.S. Census Bureau. If the virus kills 3.4 percent of the population, then 9 million Americans will die. If the virus only kills one percent, it means over 3 million Americans will die.

Johnson’s numbers also show what medical experts fear most, that our healthcare system will be overwhelmed far beyond present capacities. Our healthcare system is just not prepared to handle significant numbers like these. Johnson also ignores the dangers of community spread of the virus, especially when it comes to the elderly and those at risk due to compromised immune systems.

We are faced with a conundrum. If we overreact to the crisis, there may be long term financial consequences to the economy. My 401K has already taken another substantial hit. But, what happens if we under-react? Our healthcare system will get over run and collapse under the weight of too many seriously ill and dying patients. This will increase community spread and kill far more of our citizens than a flattened curve of virus spread. Johnson has chosen to support under-reaction to our collective peril.

Democrats in the House and a majority of the Senate have taken timid first steps to provide some relief. Even President Trump is on board. GOP Senator Mitt Romney, famous for his 47 percent of us are moochers comments, now supports sending every American $1,000. 

Many of the dwindling tea party followers now claim that free virus tests, checks to families, paid sick leave for some and tax relief to businesses just amounts to more of the evil “socialism” they fear more than the virus. They and Johnson cling to their “I’ve got mine, you are on your own” mantra while going about their business out in public oblivious to community spread warnings. Those who see a creeping police state in mandatory close your public spaces and stay home orders will ignore them. They should send back those checks the government sends out to ease the pain.

My wife and I are grateful we do not have to go out and that those infected or exposed will not be coming over to visit. We see the government’s response as yet another halting step towards healthcare as a universal right which this latest crisis has writ large on the community wall. It is a time to come together and support those in need. We are all in this together.

I choose Bernie

Wisconsin’s Presidential Primary 

The Battle for Democracy

The results of the primary elections on Super Tuesday have reduced the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination down to a two-person contest between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Because the delegate count between those two is very close, Wisconsin’s presidential preference primary on April 7^th becomes an even more important stop on the road to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee in June.

The national Democratic presidential primary has become a replay of the 2016 primary that pitted the moderate centrist, Hillary Clinton, against the progressive democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders. As we all remember, Bernie lost to Hillary who became the party’s standard bearer and then lost the presidency to Donald Trump even though she had more total votes cast for her than Trump did. 

We also all know that Trump’s presidency has not delivered on most of the things he promised on the 2016 campaign trail. It has also devolved into one of the most corrupt, conflict ridden, racist, misogynistic and ineffective administrations in modern history. This makes this Democratic primary all that more important. While we suspected what a Trump presidency would look like in 2016, now we know that another four-year Trump term will bring much more of the same. 

A majority of the voters in Trump’s electoral college victory states were enough to carry the day. All of the states Biden carried on Super Tuesday went for Trump in 2016 and are likely to vote for him again in 2020. This certainly dilutes the significance of Biden’s victories there this past Tuesday. Even though Biden won more states, the delegate count is all but even with Sanders’ wins in Vermont, Utah, Colorado and California.

The real contest now in play is for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. Will it remain controlled by the corporatist centrists who trust Joe Biden not to rock their boats or will the torch be passed back to progressives who care more for working people, income equality, universal healthcare, women’s reproductive healthcare and protecting the environment?

The 2008 Obama presidential campaign set the stage for a progressive democratic comeback when it organized local campaigns like the one we mounted in Washington County. The message Obama’s organizers left with us was “we want the effort to continue after election day to support democratic initiatives and policies.” We took that message to heart and continued organizing and agitating to the point where we were able to open an office year-round in one of the reddest counties in Wisconsin. We have kept it open ever since and show no sign of slowing down.

Wisconsin voters can send a clear message on April 7^th.

If you cast your ballot for Joe Biden, the signal will be that you stand for the status quo in failed Democratic Party leadership. Biden voted for America’s longest war, allowing states to overturn the protections gained by Roe v. Wade for women’s reproductive health, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after attacking Prof. Anita Hill who stood up to accuse Thomas of inappropriate sexual conduct, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid and a host of other progressive legislative initiatives. Biden opposes most of the progressive policies put forward by the progressive wing of the party.

A vote for Bernie Sanders who carried Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential primary, will signal that now is the time for change. We desperately need a return to the progressive roots of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, embodied in Sanders’ visions of a Green New Deal, universal healthcare, affordable college education, strong labor unions, income equality, racial equality and protection of the planet. He has concrete plans on how to pay for these bold initiatives through taxes on the very wealthy and wall street speculators and cuts to military spending. Sanders’ policies come out on top in polls across the country with voters in all demographic groups. 

The unfounded fear is that America will not elect a “socialist,” or, as others here have labeled him, a “communist.” Sanders, by all measures is nowhere near communistic. He has never advocated having the government take over the means of production. He is more akin to European democratic socialists who embrace a more democratic capitalism that includes care for the less fortunate as well as profit. 

I supported Bernie Sanders in 2016 and I continue to support his candidacy this time around. He will bring our party and country back to more compassionate and caring policy positions that will benefit all of us, not just the privileged few.