Moving Forward

 Moving Forward is Better than Going Back

 

President Biden’s State of the Union Address to members of Congress and the American people showed us and the world that he is a leader with vision and steadfast resolve to stand up for freedom and democracy here and abroad. He looks forward with a positive agenda for America and freedom loving people everywhere. In stark contrast stand those in Congress and here in Wisconsin who look backward, wish for things long past that are legally impossible. 

 

The President’s address started with a strong admonition to Russian President Putin and his oligarch supporters that the invasion of Ukraine will continue to be met with a unified and strong response from the United States and our European allies. He pointed out that Putin badly miscalculated the resistance of the Ukrainian people, their leaders, and the unified responses from most of the rest of the free world. Putin clearly did not expect large numbers of Russians would take to the streets of their cities to protest the war. He did not foresee members of his military would abandon their units and lay down their arms once they realized what they were being sent to accomplish. His billionaire cronies have seen their fortunes evaporate as economic sanctions are imposed by Russia’s former trading partners around the globe. The value of his currency and his ability to use the international banking system has been seriously compromised. Even Microsoft and Elon Musk joined the fray by helping combat Russian cyberwarfare and restoring internet access though Musk’s Skylink satellites. 

 

Even with the partisan divide in Congress, members from both sides of the aisle rose to applaud these efforts and show support for Ukrainian freedom. 

 

Biden then turned to issues closer to home, promising to deal with rising prices and concerns about energy. He noted progress made on supply chain concerns and investing in products made here rather than abroad. He announced releases from strategic oil reserves here and abroad to combat rising fuel costs. He asked Congress to pass his stalled measures to provide childcare and elder care services and drug price reductions. He addressed concerns about immigration and put aside notions to defund police departments seeking support for law enforcement while requiring accountability. Biden also pushed Congress to pass voting rights legislation stalled for far too long. He noted the progress made in combatting Corona virus and announced new testing and anti-viral treatment programs coming to local pharmacies. 

 

President Biden closed to bipartisan applause noting that the State of the Union is strong because the American People are strong. All in all, Biden’s speech should put an end to the “sleepy Joe” theme oft repeated by GOP politicians, especially our own Senator Ron Johnson.

 

The only dark moments in the President’s address were outbursts by two fringe alt-right members of the House who tried to speak over his remarks only to be booed quiet by other members. 

 

Here in Wisconsin, the backward-looking GOP continues to promote the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by giving former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman a podium to peddle his mistaken belief that the Wisconsin Legislature can and should recall the 10 electoral votes Wisconsin electors cast for Biden after the 2020 election. 

Gableman delivered is long anticipated report on his partisan investigation of the alleged irregularities in the last election to an Assembly committee on Tuesday. Not only did he urge legislators to recall the Biden electors, but he also recommended that the Wisconsin Election Commission created by the GOP be disbanded in favor of partisan legislative control of future elections, elimination of ballot drop boxes, and further restrictions on absentee voting, especially in nursing homes.

 

Gableman’s “findings” have been soundly rejected in the many legal actions brought after President Biden carried Wisconsin by over 20,000 votes. Non-partisan legal experts and the legislature’s own legal counsel have concluded there is no legal mechanism to recall the state’s electoral college votes. Lawsuits brought by GOP allies challenging election results have all been rejected by the courts. The bi-partisan Wisconsin Election Commission has time and time again concluded that the last election was free and fair. Without a shred of new evidence to support his claims, it is unlikely that any of Gableman’s proposals will ever see the inside of a piece of legislation, even in our GOP controlled legislature. 

 

The only solace Gableman’s report provides is found in the remarks of our alt-right fringe politician, Assemblyman Timothy Ramthun from Campbellsport. Ramthun praised Gableman’s report and once more called upon his colleagues to pass legislation to “recall” the state’s electoral college votes. Ramthun also used the report to bolster his campaign for governor claiming to be the one candidate to support recalling the electoral votes. 

 

Eerily quiet about Gableman’s report and Ramthun’s claims are the other GOP gubernatorial candidates, Rebecca Kleefisch and Kevin Nicholson. They are in a stuck place, not wanting to alienate the GOP’s fringe base that still believes the former occupant of the White House is still president.

 

Looming large behind this craziness is the former president who continues to spout his “Big Lie” whenever he can find a live mic. He still commands control of the GOP’s national apparatus and GOP hopefuls still need to drink his Kool-Aid to gain his blessing and support. 

 

We have a clear choice between looking and moving forward or trying to go back to a Never Never Land that does not exist and never will. 

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.

Democrats Unite

 Democrats need to Unite

 

One of the great things about the Democratic party is that it is a big tent organization which welcomes members who span the spectrum of ideas and voices on the left of the political divide. One of the bad things about the Democratic party is that it is a big tent organization that has difficulty uniting to achieve broad based political agendas which some view as too far left.  

 

The recent spectacle in the United States Senate demonstrates both aspects of our party.

 

While Senate Democrats all agreed that voting rights are critical to the continuation of our democracy, they could not agree on how to achieve greater protection of voting rights in the face of Republican efforts in many states to curtail the ability of citizens to cast their ballots. 

 

With a bare majority of Senators, all 50 Democrats needed to agree to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights bill already passed by the House of Representatives. Two Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona refused to follow the leaders in the Senate and amend the rules to by-pass the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes to pass legislation. All the Republican members of the Senate refused to vote for the bill or the rule change that would allow passage of the bill with 51 votes. The 51^st vote would have come from Vice President Kamala Harris sitting as President Pro Tem of the Senate when there is a tie vote. 

 

The Senate filibuster rule is a holdover from the Civil War era. It was created to mollify Southern Senators who feared passage of civil rights legislation benefitting former slaves after the Union won the war. It has been modified or dispensed with periodically throughout its subsequent history when one party or the other has controlled the Senate. The most notable recent deviations occurred when Republicans controlled the Senate and Leader Mitch McConnell did away with it to deny the Supreme Court appointment of Merrick Garland proposed by President Obama and then to approve Court appointments proposed by the former President after the election in 2016.

 

The filibuster can prevent passage of legislation opposed by the minority in an evenly divided chamber and is profoundly undemocratic in a society generally governed by simple majority rules. 

 

A similar fate apparently awaits passage of President Biden’s signature Build Back Better social agenda. Biden acknowledged as much in this week’s press conference when he indicated the large package of legislation would need to be broken up into small chunks of biils, each with its own topic. By doing that, there is a glimmer of hope that at least some of its provisions will find bipartisan support for passage. 

 

Progressive Democrats will most likely mount primary challenges to both Manchin and Sinema hoping to replace them with those more willing to support voting rights and other progressive legislation as well as doing away with the filibuster. We will also work diligently to replace some of those vulnerable Republican Senators, like our own Ron Johnson, in this year’s mid-term elections. By giving, Democrats a larger Senate majority the hope is that the filibuster can finally be consigned to the dust bin of history where it belongs and voting rights can be protected from the efforts of those who want to retain power by making much harder for poor people, those with disabilities and people of color to cast their ballots. 

 

Ron Johnson is vulnerable on a few fronts. When he ran initially, he promised to serve just two terms. He recently broke that promise and is running for a third term. While in office, Johnson promoted and voted for tax breaks that directly benefited some of his wealthiest donors and himself as he cashed out of his business. His net worth has increased significantly in the 12 years he has been in the Senate. He has been one of the former Presidents staunchest supporters and continues to support the Big Lie that the last election was stolen. Most concerning is Johnson’s continuing misinformation campaign about COVID-19. He has championed wacky cures, opposed common sense measures to combat its spread and opposed vaccine mandates. He is so far off the political spectrum to the right, that I am surprised that no one from the more sensible wing of his party has not stepped up to offer voters a choice. 

 

Democrats will choose among a strong field of candidates in the fall primary for Johnson’s challenger. It will be a hard-fought statewide campaign that Democrats are very likely to win.

January 6

 Don’t Let it Happen Again

 

On January 6, 2021, we witnessed, the world witnessed, a violent attempt to overthrow the hallmark of our democratic form of government, the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another after a full, fair, and fraud-free election. Through our televisions, computers, tablets, and phones we watched in horror as a violent mob stormed the halls of Congress searching for congressional leaders and chanting, “hang Mike Pence.” The attack was planned to stop the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote for President and Vice-President. It was encouraged at the highest levels of the outgoing administration and coordinated with alt-right groups like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and others. They erected gallows with a hanging noose outside the Capitol to prepare for a lynching. Some wore printed t-shirts proclaiming a new Civil War was starting that day.

 

On the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, President Joe Biden addressed the nation on television and finally took the former president and his supporters to task for their roles in fomenting the riot and then doing nothing for hours to stop it. 

 

President Biden’s remarks deconstructed the lies that are being continually circulated that the presidential election was really won by the former occupant of the White House. He noted that every challenge mounted in courts where oaths are taken to tell the truth and evidence required to prove one’s claims failed to carry the day. He noted that the only election claimed to be tainted was the one for the top of the ticket while Republicans did well in the other races that day for state governorships, Senate seats and House of Representative positions. He noted that we cannot unite until we stop those who would “put a knife to the throat of Democracy.”

 

Up to this point, President Biden has refrained from calling out the defeated former president for his role in starting the carnage, to “fight like hell,” then watching it from the White House on TV and not doing anything to stop it for hours.  Even after calls from GOP congressional leaders and Fox media pundits to speak out against the violence, the former president could only manage a weak call for the violence to stop while praising the rioters as “patriots.”

 

Biden is correct. We are still at war for the soul of our democratic form of government and must reject political violence and autocratic leaders who care more about their egos and the retention of power than they do about any of us or our institutions. We cannot move forward while trapped by a strongman cult.

 

At the heart of the call is the sacred right to vote and to have the might of government pass from one group to the next peacefully after fair and full elections. These are the same issues raised here and elsewhere about gerrymandered electoral districts and voter suppression measures being passed by Republican state governments. They are echoed in the failed electoral “investigations” championed by the likes of our own Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos and his lacky, former short-term Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gableman. 

 

As noted by our own County Board Chairman Don Kriefall, we must unite to do battle, not with an undefined amorphous “left,” but with those who would dismantle the great American Experiment in self-rule. It is time we had fair maps of our electoral districts and ensure that everyone born on these shores or naturalized to citizenship is able to cast their ballot for representatives to govern the body politic. 

 

It is only when we have a universal franchise that the goals of equality and inclusion will be realized. We need not fear the voices of the many or the views of the newly arrived, America was built on them and has thrived because of them. 

 

United, we will reject violence as a means to achieve and maintain the power to govern. United, we will once again embrace we are one people with a common goal to have a safe and prosperous place to live and raise our families. United, we will care for each other by following the science to cure disease and help us all live healthy lives. True Freedom comes from recognizing that we are all in this together and can only succeed if we all succeed. 

 

We must hold those who created, launched, and crashed through the gates of the Capitol a year ago responsible for their traitorous actions to make sure that those who might try to repeat that experience will rethink the wisdom of those plans. We must never forget what happened on January 6, 2021, if our democratic republic is to survive.

 

Religion

 Religious Beliefs All Share Common Themes

All are Important

 

Growing up in Southern California in the 1950s, my mother took me to her Episcopalian church for Sunday School and services. I was baptized in her church, served as an altar boy, and joined the youth group. I learned lessons from the Bible and participated in services without ever questioning any of it. I learned there were Jews in Palestine and some of the Old Testament tales of their travails. I suppose I knew there were other brands of Christianity, but I had little exposure to them or their followers.

 

At my progressive high school, I was exposed to many other religious beliefs. The kids in my school came from all over the world. Some were Jews, some Muslim, some Quaker, some atheist, some agnostic and some from a sprinkling of Christian denominations. Some of them went to Sunday services in nearby churches, but many of us went to a patch of woods by the Main House and had our own. Those services were less about God than about spirituality and the many ways that gets expressed. 

 

My post high school anti-poverty work in Southern African American communities exposed me to Gospel and other segments of Black churches. I saw emotional connections to religious beliefs for the first time in their services. I later learned of Kwanza and, Glen Grothman’s criticism notwithstanding, felt their unifying messages. 

 

Later in my professional career, I worked with Greens and Native American Tribes in Northern Wisconsin trying to protect the water and our treaty obligations. I attended many Anishinaabe pow wows with my family and experienced a nature-based spirituality unlike any of my other religious experiences. 

 

Older spiritual systems, Pagan and Druid, added their own elements. We still observe the Solstices and passage of the seasons.

 

My own spirituality combines elements from all of these. I still tear up at the Hallelujah Chorus or Ode to Joy. Other classical music of the season is as familiar as when I first heard it. I do know many of the traditional carols by heart and have been known to sing along. I rejoice in Gospel and the songs of the drum from Africa and Northern Wisconsin.  

 

All of these share, at this time of the year, a thankfulness for the bounty our Earth provides, the joys of family gatherings, and a reconnection with the core tenants of their belief systems. It is a time of giving and sharing that is all too fleeting. 

 

On this Christmas Eve, one of the holiest of the Christian faith, my family and I wish all of you, no matter how or what you believe, all the joys of the season and for a peaceful and healthy New Year.

 

Don Kriefall

 Don Kriefall, Seriously?

 

Washington County Board Chair Don Kriefall once again graced these pages with a fact free attack on public-school educators and Democrats. For a supposed non-partisan elected official, Kriefall showed his true colors as a partisan hack spewing nonsense. 

 

Kriefall’s column last week Friday was a thinly veiled call to arms for all those itching to dismantle public education. Perhaps his continued vitriol was stoked by the serial losses by those who challenged sitting school board members across Wisconsin in recent recall elections, most notably, the ones in the nearby Mequon-Thiensville School District. 

 

Without a shred of evidence to support his assertions, Kriefall claims that public school students forced into virtual learning during the pandemic allowed their parents to witness first-hand the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

No one has produced any evidence to show that our county’s K-12 schools teach Critical Race Theory. I seriously doubt that Kriefall even knows what that obscure law school course even contains. From his previous comments, it appears that he has bought into the unfounded conspiracy theory that conflates all teaching of truthful American History about slavery, native American genocide, and other not so nice actions of our Caucasian ancestors along with the teaching of concepts like empathy, kindness, respect and caring into the CRT cauldron. 

 

Having whipped up the fears of his like-minded cohorts, he further fanned the flames by accusing the government of branding those who stand up to speak at school board meetings as “terrorists.” The Department of Justice was asked to investigate actual threats of violence and physical harm to public school board members from those who were unhappy about the blown- up version of CRT they were led to believe infested their public schools. 

 

No one has ever claimed that merely voicing an opinion about public school curriculum or policy at a school board meting is “terrorism.” Given the First Amendment’s right to petition the government for the redress of grievances, no government prosecutor or law enforcement agency would ever brand mere speech as “terroristic.” Civil discourse is critical to the continuation of our democracy.  Threats of violence against individual public servants not protected speech are quite another matter, clearly warranting governmental response. 

 

Finally, Kriefall lumps all Democrats into to group that must be eliminated from the public sector for their supposed support of “leftist” “Marxist” public education. Our Republic is not and never should be a one-party state. It’s improvement, growth and prosperity depend upon the multitude of voices in the body public. Democrats and Republicans, Independents and Greens, Socialists and Conservatives have and can work together to find solutions to our common problems in a civil and constructive manner. Our elected officials should welcome such constructive activity, not condemn it. 

 

Public education is supported by tax dollars and entrusted to locally elected school boards to spend those dollars wisely and in accordance with accepted educational policies and practices. Unlike private or charter schools, public schools must take on every child that walks through their front door. They are charged with teaching each child where they are on the education spectrum in a caring and nurturing environment. That is exactly what our schools try to do each day with dedicated and professional educators guiding students to become productive members of our society. 

 

Kriefall is correct in one part of his argument. If you don’t like what is going on in government or public education and want your voice to be heard, you should run for public office. If your campaign offers constructive ideas to fix a problem, sensible solutions to difficult issues, a positive view of what can and should be accomplished, you might be lucky enough to convince enough voters to rally to your banner. Don’t bother if your goal is just to dismantle what you do not like, most voters will see through the charade. 

 

We might dare to hope that our County Board Chairman one day might tell us what he is for and not just what he is against. We would do well with a Chair who offered a meaningful response to the low percentage of COVID vaccinations among Washington County residents when compared to our Ozaukee County neighbors and the rest of Wisconsin. We would prosper with a Chair who acknowledges that we need to learn from our history to avoid the mistakes of our ancestors.

 

Mr. Kriefall, the time of divide and conquer politics and the demonization of your opponents is coming to an end. We want solutions, not condemnation. We want constructive and civil dialog from our public officials. Elected officials are put in their offices to represent all their constituents, not just those who might agree with you. It is time to grow up.