Thanks Act 10

Thanks for Act 10

Ten Years Out

 

Ten years ago, Wisconsin politics were transformed for the worse when the Republicans who then controlled both houses of the state legislature, urged by then Governor Scott Walker, introduced a bill that would eventually become the infamous Act 10.

 

The proposed legislation, which was not mentioned during the previous year’s election campaigns, sought to dismantle a foundation of Wisconsin’s progressive partnership with labor, the ability of public sector workers to collectively bargain. The GOP goal was to eliminate the power of the Wisconsin Education Association Council to negotiate the terms of public school teacher contracts with local school boards and WEAC’s political power in statewide elections. It was indeed “The Bomb” Scott Walker dropped on Wisconsin. 

 

Labor unions, both public and private, immediately saw where the new law would take the body politic and galvanized their members to protest the quick introduction and likely prompt passage of the bill. There were massive daily protests at the capitol in Madison and in communities throughout Wisconsin during February and into March of 2011.

 

We even had a protest march here in West Bend on February 27, 2011. About 200 gathered on the corner of Paradise and Main streets to show our outrage at what was about to take place. We were joined by union Teamsters, Electricians, Carpenters, Teachers, Firefighters, Municipal Employees, Nurses and other members of organized labor, their families and supporters. The protest pictures are stored on Facebook’s West Benders for Fairness.

 

As we marched on that cold February afternoon, passers by honked and waived in support. City police were on hand to direct traffic and many of them privately expressed their support for our action even though their union was exempted from the bill due to the support from the Milwaukee Police Association for Scott Walker’s bid for Governor. GOP legislators also feared that police would fail to protect the capitol from the expected backlash should their collective bargaining rights be extinguished. 

 

Our then state Senator, Glenn Grothman, got wind of our protest and came down to see for himself. He was surrounded by about 25 of the marchers in a parking lot across the street and got an earful from those whose rights were about to be eliminated. 

 

Passage of the bill was slowed when 14 Democratic state senators fled to Illinois in order to deprive the Senate of the quorum needed to hold the inevitable vote. Their brave actions gave us time to mobilize and build public opposition to the bill.

 

The GOP majorities ultimately rammed the bill through and then Governor Walker signed it. Opposition to what had been passed continued with recall petitions for Walker and eight of the state senators, including Grothman, who were part of the leadership responsible for passage of the bill. 

 

WEAC’s power and influence waned and bent but was not extinguished over the next decade. Teachers continued to organize and found new ways to exercise their influence over their working conditions in their classrooms. They found ways to mobilize public opinion about public education and helped elect solid candidates to lead the state Department of Public Instruction. One of those leaders, Tony Evers, ultimately became Wisconsin’s Governor.

 

The lessons learned by organized labor and those who supported it during the Act 10 protests helped galvanize a new breed of progressive political leaders and energized efforts to combat the regressive politics of the new alt-right. 

 

Women started running for political office in greater numbers. Teachers became radicalized and started continuing dialogs with their students on what democracy means for their future. New coalitions between labor, environmentalists, educators, and other people centered movements were created to advance progressive ideas like raising the minimum wage, legalizing recreational and medical marijuana, protecting Social Security, passing universal health care, fully funding public education, ending systemic racism and income inequality. That work continues even through the Coronavirus pandemic.

 

Governor Evers, hamstrung by GOP majorities protected by gerrymandered legislative districts, is advancing a progressive budget that includes many of these very popular initiatives. He is daring the legislature to turn him down and to incur the wrath of their more moderate constituents who support them and already angered by GOP leadership support of the insurrectionist former president. 

 

Act 10, for all it’s evil shortcomings, has been a gift that keeps on giving. It created a whole new generation of political activists who will continue to transform Wisconsin politics and help return it to its progressive roots. 

 

First Dose

The First Dose

 

My wife and I received our first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine last Saturday at the Froedert West Bend Health Center and saw several friends in our age group there to get their shots as well. Other than a slight soreness in the arms where we got the shots, neither of us had any side effects. We will get our second dose at the end of February and, hopefully, be able to visit our family by mid-March. We feel like we can see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. It has been a hard year in lock down and terrible not feeling safe out.

 

Our fear of catching the virus is due in no small part to our Legislature which has done little to nothing to slow the virus spread. Safely gerrymandered GOP legislative leaders resist common sense measures favored by a majority of their constituents and recommended by the Centers of Disease Control including mask mandates and social distance requirements. They object to Governor Evers’ public health emergency declarations implementing these popular measures, not because they are wrong or not based upon sound science, but because they imposed upon unfounded notions of personal liberty from governmental over-reach.

 

GOP objections to public health measures led our legislature to do nothing at all to combat the disease that has killed over 5,500 of our citizens and infected more than 500,000. 

 

This head in the sand response to the greatest public health crisis in decades shows just how far the failed “smaller government, less taxes” approach to government has devolved. It puts in stark relief just how irrelevant the modern Republican Party has become.

 

Coupled with the failure of the Trump presidency and the refusal to confront white supremacy and conspiracy theories now holding sway throughout their ranks, it is not surprising that the GOP is in full meltdown mode. 

 

Moderate republicans don’t have the ability or the moral fortitude to wrest control of the party back from the precipice. They stand idly by as GOP minorities in both houses of Congress are powerless to stop implementation of the Biden-Harris legislative agenda. 

 

Passage of President Biden’s COVID relief bill by budget reconciliation to avoid a Senate filibuster is all but assured. Biden has already undone a lot of the damage done under the previous administration by executive order and that too will continue without serious challenge. 

 

A majority of the American people want a government that cares about them more than it cares about the privileged few and the hallmarks of our racist past. President Biden is bypassing the GOP in Congress and seeking unity with the American people directly by putting forward policies and actions that the majority supports. 

 

GOP leaders in Congress struggle to find a way out. They failed to meaningfully censure Rep. Marjory Taylor Green, the former QAnon supporter from Georgia, to prove they can police their own. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s recent trip to see the previous president shows he believes that impeached twice president still commands respect and leads the party. They cannot continue to fail to disavow QAnon, white supremacy, insurrectionists and conspiracy theorists and maintain any claim to legitimacy.

 

Until both state and national republican leaders find a way to advance conservative values and policies without failing to separate themselves from white supremacy and conspiracy theories to secure an electoral majority, the GOP will remain no more than a marginal influence on American political life. 

 

Unfortunately, until Wisconsin has redrawn legislative district maps to make elections competitive again, we will remain in the backwater of a Covid plagued state which clings to a long-lost vision of an America repudiated by those who care about their neighbors. We will remain hamstrung by do-nothing legislators who bask in strained claims of personal liberty. 

 

Wisconsin has a long progressive history and there are still a lot of progressives here willing to work to bring back those policies that made us the envy of the nation. We just need to get vaccinated first.