Out of Control

 The GOP is Out of Control

 

With Timothy Ramthun, our State Representative from Campbellsport and Kewaskum School Board Member, joining the GOP primary for Governor, the fractures in the Republican Party are now on full display. The battle for the future of the Wisconsin GOP is now joined and is nowhere as rosy as fellow columnist Owen Robinson suggests.

 

Former Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch was the first to jump into the race to unseat Gov. Tony Evers. She brings leftover baggage from her time as Scott Walker’s second in command. One need look no further than the failed policies of Act 10 which crippled Wisconsin public education and decimated the ranks of our professional educators.  The Foxconn debacle failed to produce anywhere near the number of jobs and economic growth she and Walker promised. Her calls to dismantle Milwaukee Public Schools and the Wisconsin Elections Commission don’t help her cause. She represents the Wisconsin GOP establishment which continues having difficulty finding a coherent platform to move us forward. 

 

Kevin Nicholson came to the race as the uninvited outsider looking to shake things up. He has tried to distance himself from the Cult of the Former President, but not so far as to alienate its remaining members which appear to form the activist GOP base. His calls for election reform and new GOP leadership offer little in the way of policy to get things done in Madison. 

 

Ramthun’s entry into the race calls for the Cult to fight a legally impossible battle to recall Wisconsin’s 10 electoral college votes and overturn the 2020 presidential election. He joins the MyPillow Guy and disgraced former General Mike Flynn groveling at the barred entrance to Mara Largo for crumbs of support. Ramthun offers no evidentiary support for any of his conspiratorial theories of election theft or fraud and nothing else of substance to establish credentials for leadership of his party, much less our state government. His apparent reliance on his God for guidance further demonstrates his lack of understanding of Constitutional supremacy as the law of the land, not commands from Scripture. 

 

Nowhere to be seen or heard are any of the remaining moderate Republicans from the Tommy Thompson era. They believed in conservative values and found ways to work with liberals and progressives to keep Wisconsin moving. The remaining fiscally conservative and socially liberal Republicans have gone to ground hoping to ride out the extremist elements of their party. 

 

Wisconsin Republicans are bent upon following the crumbling Republican National Committee as it loses all credibility by equating the January 6^th insurrection and invasion of the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse.” Sen. Ron Johnson contributes to the RNC disfunction with continued COVID disinformation and quack cures. His approval rating has hit rock bottom and his eventual loss in November will help cement Democratic control of the Senate.

 

As much as one might enjoy the current GOP train wreck, its lack of constructive policy and willingness to participate in our democracy has given license to those who would promote violence to achieve the goal of dismantling our democratic institutions. Even while some in Congress are working to hold accountable those involved in the planning of the January 6^th insurrection and the violence that followed the former president’s invitation to “fight like hell,” most GOP members of Congress continue to abstain from the process. This gives tacit but clear approval for future violent extremism by those like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and others. 

 

We can only hope that state and federal prosecutors examining the former president’s actions and those of his co-conspirators will bring successful prosecutions to show the country that the rule of law in a democracy will always prevail. Only when those who would undo our democratic experiment by violence and sedition are brought to justice will our course be restored to a just path. With that rebuke, maybe our local GOP might come to find a more constructive and productive path than they currently follow. 

 

The results of the GOP primary for governor in August will show us which faction of their party will control its near-term future and where the active base wants to go. With the current slate of candidates as the only choices, the long-term future of the GOP looks bleak.

Black History is American History

Celebrate Black History

It is part of America’s history

 

February was first marked as Black History Month in 1926 to recognize the accomplishments of African Americans. It continues to be celebrated nationwide. February was chosen because it is the birth month of Abraham Lincoln who issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing former slaves, and of Fredrick Douglas, an African American orator, social reformer, and abolitionist. It celebrates the central role played by Black Americans in our collective history. 

 

Many African Americans have made their mark in the arc of our history. Most notable is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the civil rights movement through non-violent direct action. 

 

Rosa Parks is remembered for refusing to move to the back of the bus in the segregated South and sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott which led to desegregation efforts across the region. 

 

Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, led many in the sports world and beyond to reject remnants of slaveholding and consider separatist movements tied to a Black identity. He became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and raised the connection between race and other left-wing activism. 

 

Frederick Douglas was born a slave and lived during the Civil War. After escaping slavery, he went on to form the abolitionist movement which helped end the ownership of humans in America. 

 

W.E.B. Du Bois was an author, academic and activist in the time before Dr. King and Mrs. Parks and helped found the NAACP which remains a leading organization for African American rights and activism. 

 

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball leading the way towards the integration of all professional sports in America. Major League Baseball retired his number 42 for all teams in 1997 in recognition of his contribution to sport. 

 

Harriet Tubman was also born a slave. She became famous for helping other escaped slaves make it to the North on the Underground Railroad which led many to freedom. 

 

Sojourner Truth, another woman born into slavery who later escaped and helped recruit escaped slaves for the Union Army during the Civil War. 

 

Langston Hughes was a poet and novelist during the cultural movement called the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. His work helped highlight the economic plight of impoverished African Americans in cities in the North. 

 

Maya Angelou is one our best known African American authors. Her autobiography, “I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings,” shows us how racism affected her as a young girl. She worked with Dr. King and others to put a permanent end to a segregated America. 

 

More recently, we saw Amanda Gordon, a young Black poet, read a memorable ode during President Biden’s inauguration that expressed her hopes for the future. 

 

Now we have a Black/Pacific Islander woman, Kamala Harris, serving as the Vice President of the United States of America making history herself rising from the many struggles of those who preceded her. 

 

There are many other notable Black Americans in our history who made significant contributions to the fabric of American life. 

 

President Gerald Ford, a Republican, elevated Black History Month, with his formal recognition of the effort in 1976. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have created a website collecting and paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society. It can be accessed at: https://blackhistorymonth.gov

 

Milwaukee’s Black Holocaust Museum opened in 2012. It was closed for financial reasons and during the pandemic but will re-open on February 25^th in its new home at 4^th St. and North Avenue. It chronicles the struggles of Black Americans here and across the nation and helps us to understand racism here still rears its ugly head. More can be found at: https://www.abhmuseum.org

 

Black History Month celebrations are planned across Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, the Fox Valley, Eau Claire and on many UW Campuses. Local Libraries across the state have put up special collections of materials recognizing Black achievers, authors, and activists to help us learn from their stories. 

 

We need to take the time and effort to study these unique Americans and their contributions to our society and culture. With a deeper understanding of their struggles for equality and civil rights, the controversy over Critical Race Theory will become clearer. 

 

After all, the struggle for equality and civil rights for African Americans is a critical part of America’s story. Until people of color enjoy the same rights and privileges as everyone else, none of us will be truly free and equal.