Solstice Reflections

 Winter Solstice Reflections

Hopeful New Year

 

Year’s end and the Winter Solstice brings time for reflection on hopes for the new year. As we gather with family round the fireplace warmth and fresh coffee in our mugs, I offer my list of hopes and things to work on. 

 

It is long past time to tackle climate change and the existential threat it has for our species’ survival. Nations around the globe are waking up and beginning to act. Ours is the richest nation on the planet and needs to take the lead and set the example for the rest. We need to end our dependence on fossil fuels and embrace the wind and sun for the power they provide.

 

It is long past time for people to be hungry. We have the capability to feed everyone on the planet and it should be so. People well nourished can accomplish untold tasks and create new and exciting discoveries. Let’s unleash that potential. 

 

It is long past time for people to be homeless. We have the capability to provide shelter for everyone. People with a roof overhead can find rest and comfort. Those rested have the energy to create and build successful futures. 

 

It is long past time for us to wage wars to resolve differences. We have the skills to resolve conflicts peacefully. We just need to use them. 

 

As we put our planetary house in order, we can collectively resolve more local national concerns. 

 

It is long past time to recommit to our democratic republic form of governance. We have made it work for almost two and a half centuries and certainly can find the way to continue to make it work in our more modern times. 

 

Part of that struggle is to hold those responsible for the recent insurrection which attempted to overthrow our democratic institution of the peaceful transfer of power. Thanks to the courageous Representatives from both parties on the House Select Committee who catalogued the evidence and presented it to the public, paving the way for our justice system to bring those responsible to account. 

 

It is long past time for us to end the pursuit of power for its own sake and the subversion of representative democracy by voter suppression and gerrymandered voting districts. Our representatives should no longer be allowed to pick their voters and pack them into safe districts for one political party. 

 

It is long past time for men to control and define women and the non-binary members of the gender spectrum. It takes all of us to make our existence safe and healthy. All of us deserve equal seats at the table and the right to make decisions about who we are and where we fit. A critical part of that is to allow each of us to control what goes on with our bodies and how we choose to reproduce the species. 

 

It is long past time for people not to have access to affordable quality health care. We know what it takes to help people live healthy productive lives. Access to that care should not depend upon individual wealth or station. All the other major nations on our planet have some form of universal healthcare for their citizens. We need to join them and help share that service to underdeveloped countries.

 

It is long past time for oligarchs to control most of our national wealth. No one creates wealth on their own. Societal structures create safety for creation of wealth. Those who labor for others are critical to creation of wealth and deserve their fair share of what they help to create. We must ensure that those who work for others have a seat at the table where decisions are made on how the wealth they create gets divided. Collective bargaining must be protected and preserved. 

 

We have much to be thankful for and much to celebrate this holiday season. Let us join together in 2023 to make next year better than years’ past. After this Winter Solstice our days will get longer and the dark of Winter will give way to a time when we all will hopefully flourish.

 

RIP GOP

 Ready to RIP GOP?

Stay the course at your peril

 

Things have gone from bad to worse for the former occupant of the White House and his party. 

 

His hand-picked challenger to defeat incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Wornock, former football star Herschel Walker, lost the run-off race in Georgia giving Democrats a solid 51-49 majority in the Senate. That will end even membership on Senate committees and all but ensure that President Biden’s federal court appointments will be approved by a Democratic majority for the next two years at least. Wornock’s victory added to the list of defeats the former president’s candidates suffered in the recent mid-term elections. Most all of the faithful election deniers lost.

 

His oft vaunted New York business organization was convicted of multiple counts of tax fraud and conspiracy by a Manhattan jury. While none of the business’ principals were convicted, most legitimate banks will be required to stop doing business with the organization, cutting off funds it desperately needs. The evidence produced at the trial will help New York prosecutors charge and convict many of those who led the business, including some of his adult children and maybe even the former president. 

 

The special counsel appointed by the Justice Department to take over the federal criminal investigations of the former president has hit the ground running by issuing subpoenas to election officials in three states, including Wisconsin, for all of their communications with the former president and his campaign regarding the efforts to overturn the last presidential election. 

 

The grand jury proceedings in Georgia looking into efforts to “find votes” in the last presidential election have received green lights from courts requiring Senator Lindsay Graham and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to testify. Other former campaign confidants have already testified. 

 

The Chairman of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6^th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol indicated the Committee will issue criminal referrals to the Justice Department seeking charges against those who led or enabled the breach of the Capitol and the attempt to prevent certification of the Electoral College vote that favored President Biden. 

 

Last, but not by any means least, Congress received copies of the former president’s federal tax returns and has the authority to share them publicly and with the U.S. Senate preventing the razor thin GOP majority in next year’s House from burying them once more. 

 

This list and the much-publicized comment by the former president that the Constitution should be “terminated” so he could be declared the winner of the last presidential election should be more than enough for the Republican party and GOP leaders in Congress to cut ties with him. Alas, it does not appear to be so given the eerie silence from most in the GOP when asked if they still support him. 

 

Given these mounting losses and impending criminal prosecutions, one would think that any rational political organization would look elsewhere for leadership and financial support. Not so, the current GOP. 

 

The nascent GOP civil war will break out full force in the coming weeks as the GOP in the U.S. House seeks to claim the Speaker’s gavel from the Democrats. Front runner, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, will see a challenge from the right wing in his caucus where some claim to have to votes needed to depose him. Since the whole membership in the new House of Representatives will be voting on who becomes the next speaker, a GOP plurality may open the door for a Democrat to be elected. Stranger things have happened in our political system. 

 

Locally and across the country, the GOP will see battles for control from the right wing still loyal to the former president and more moderate realists who see the handwriting on the wall. Polling clearly shows a majority of the voting public favors most of the Biden agenda and especially the Democrats adoption of reproductive freedom and full citizenship for women. Many in the GOP want a piece of that action but are held back by the election fraud conspiracy theorists and those obsessed with Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

 

While the GOP squabbles trying to get its house in order, Democrats will continue to get things done in the lame duck Congressional sessions until the first of next year and into the next two on those issues just left to the U.S. Senate. With nothing but division and debate to offer, the elections for the U.S. House in two years should easily give Democrats a House majority once more. 

 

While pronouncing the GOP in its current form dead is perhaps premature, it certainly has lost its luster for a majority of voters. Grab some popcorn, kick back and watch.

 

Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving

 

As a progressive Democrat, I celebrate this holiday being thankful there are so many people working to make the world a better place. 

 

More and more are seeing the positives of a progressive political agenda as we work on saving the planet from the ravages of climate change and the new diseases that threaten our existence. We give thanks to those working tirelessly to build a future with universal healthcare and a green economy. 

 

We see the benefits of equality of opportunity for everyone, not just those who look or think like us. We want a world where the wealth that surrounds us is shared by all, not just the privileged few. When we prosper, we build a longer table, not higher walls. 

 

We welcome strangers who come to our shores seeking a new life and the opportunity to raise their families safe from violence. We recognize them for what our ancestors once were, refugees. We understand that our country can support us all and are willing to share in its bounty. 

 

We understand that equality for women means protecting their freedom to control their own bodies and to choose whether to bear children or not without interference from the government. It means the end to glass ceilings and gender specific jobs.

 

We give thanks for diversity and inclusion, putting aside concerns about skin color and cultural differences, who they love, what language they speak or the nation from whence they came. All have something to contribute to the fabric of our civilization and deserve the chance to do just that. 

 

We give thanks for those who choose to educate our children in public schools, who put themselves in danger to keep us safe from those who would do us harm and put out fires in our communities. We appreciate the other public servants who have chosen to work to make our communities safe and prosperous. 

 

We support the right of those who work for others to band together in unions and associations to demand safe working conditions and a living wage. Those who produce wealth, educate, or respond when things go wrong deserve a seat at the table where decisions that impact their lives and livelihoods are being made.  

 

We give thanks for the understanding that we are all in this together. Those things that divide us do not contribute to forward progress for the whole. Some, unfortunately, highlight division for their own selfish goals. We are thankful for the ability to recognize the threat and combat it effectively.

 

We give thanks for peace at home and abroad and thank those whose vigilance helps to prevent conflict here and abroad. While striving for peace, we understand that conflict is sometimes inevitable as we stand up to authoritarian plutocrats and fascists.

 

We give thanks for our friends and families, those we support and those who support us. Families are defined by more than blood relationships. The love and respect shared in family is given freely and without condition. 

 

We give thanks for our Democracy which gives each of us a voice and a seat at the governing table. We set aside our differences to rise in common defense of that cherished institution of self-governance against those who try to subvert and steal it in the pursuit of power. 

 

We celebrate the natural beauty that surrounds us in mountains, lakes, rivers and streams, oceans and skies understanding that this beauty provides us with the very stuff of life. We give thanks to those who help keep our waters pure and the air we breathe clean. 

 

We have lots to be thankful for this long weekend. Most of all, we must continue to give thanks for the duration of the next trip around the sun so all that makes us who we are continues to improve. 

 

Midterm Recap

 The Arc of Political History

 

I have been actively involved in issues political since the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. I watched efforts from those opposed to change ebb and flow as elections were won and lost over the intervening years. I have lived under administrations Republican and Democrat in states both liberal and conservative. There is a political pendulum which moves both ways but seems mostly to move more to the left than the right over time. 

 

During those decades there have been few constants. One of those constants has been that midterm elections have always favored the party out of power. Our recent midterm elections are mostly over, and that constant has faded almost to oblivion. 

 

Democrats were supposed to be overwhelmed by the Trump led red wave. It turns out that the red wave never crested or broke but limped ashore as a trickle. Yes, Republicans may take control of the House of Representatives, but they failed to take the Senate. Safe Republican held seats remained safe thanks to gerrymandered districts. 

 

Most notably, most of Trump’s hand-picked candidates who passed the litmus test of unqualified support for the “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election, lost their contests to Democrats. The former occupant of the White House took such a beating that even some of his closest advisors have told him to hold off announcing another run for the presidency until after the run-off election in Georgia where incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock is being challenged by the Trump endorsed impaired former football player, Herschel Walker. 

 

What tipped the scales in both federal and state elections where decent candidates showed up was the influx of new young voters and those who came to the polls to show their disgust with Republican efforts to ban abortions and curtail reproductive freedom after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this Summer. In every state where abortion measures were on the ballot, pro-abortion measures won. It did not matter if the state was red or blue, people voted to preserve access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. 

 

We must give thanks to Justices Alioto and Thomas and the three Trump appointees to the Court for the gift that will keep on giving for years to come. Eliminating the constitutional protections for privacy and reproductive freedom coupled with Thomas’ threats to extend the holding in Dobbs to the privacy grounded protections for same sex marriage, contraception and even inter-racial marriage will provide organizers with the issue that will win elections wherever women and their partners, the LBGTQI community and civil rights proponents live.

 

Young people whose parents and grandparents lived with the now eliminated protections will be easily motivated to get involved in the political process. We have already seen their impact on elections this cycle. Until a constitutional right to privacy and bodily autonomy is restored, these new voters will turn to the Democratic party which has wisely hitched its star to this defining issue. 

 

Trump’s hold over the Republican Party is clearly losing its grip. The simmering civil war in the GOP over the backward-looking Trump and his false claims will soon erupt into a nasty public bar fight as the varying factions vie for control. In a party where winning is the goal, Trump will soon become irrelevant. The larger problem is that the GOP has yet to find a compelling argument that will unite the right.

 

Fear of the “others” appears not to be a winner as shown by the loss of the Washington County “Anti-Crime” referendum and Tim Michels’ defeat by the mild-mannered Tony Evers. The so-called bread and butter issues of the economy and its twin brother inflation won’t carry the day either. People seem more concerned with rebuilding our infrastructure, personal freedom, protecting the planet and helping their fellow travelers get by and succeed, but those are issues supported by Democrats. 

 

We had an exhilarating set of victories this week. Now the real work of making sure the promises of those we elected are kept and providing a voice and encouragement to the newly motivated activists who helped make the victories possible. 

 

After a few days rest and reflection, it will be on to the next elections come early Spring where we can change the balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and elect more progressives to local school boards, city councils and county boards. Onward. 

Elections Matter

 Elections Matter

 

There are three referenda questions on your ballot in the November election. I support two out of the three. 

 

I support the referenda providing capital improvement funds for Moraine Park Technical College. It will allow construction of new and upgrades to existing facilities which will put people to work and stimulate our local economies. It will allow MPTC to add new programs and training which will have long term positive impacts to our communities and provide options to new high school grads and others. Passing this one is a no brainer. 

 

My support for the so-called Anti-Crime referenda is based solely upon the addition of clinical social workers and plain clothes deputies trained to deal with the mentally ill. The criminal justice system has long been the dumping ground for those suffering from mental illness whose behaviors spiral out of control. 

 

My work as a criminal defense lawyer often involved dealing with the consequences of untreated mental illness. In the 1970s, courts across the country ruled that people with chronic mental illness could no longer be kept locked up in mental institutions when they could be treated successfully in community based mental health facilities on an outpatient basis. The rulings caused many of the in-patient facilities to close. 

 

Unfortunately, legislatures and local governments never stepped up to fund and provide the community-based treatment programs the chronically mentally ill need to become successful in their communities. Insurance companies limited or stopped providing coverage for in-patient treatment and limited out-patient services as well. 

 

As funding dried up, local communities like ours closed their in-patient units and cut back drastically on out-patient services. There are few places remaining in Wisconsin that will take people who desperately need in-patient mental health care, especially those without insurance coverage. We used to have an in-patient unit at the old St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend. It closed many years ago and the county has never moved to provide a new one. 

 

In a recent meeting with the Washington County Democratic Party, Sherriff Martin Schulties agreed that the absence of an in-patient unit in the county has put a huge burden on his department. He acknowledged that the addition of social workers and plain clothes deputies will help but is not the final solution to the problem. He said that every police chief in the county misses having an in-patient unit and treatment services to help the mentally ill. 

 

Hopefully, the information gathered by the social workers and deputies who will respond to mental illness calls will provide sufficient information to convince our county board to take proper care of those with chronic mental health issues. If the county does not act further to address mental health issues, the new additions will just amount to putting a band aid on an out-of-control cancer. 

 

The third referendum on our ballots has to do with elections. It proposes to ask the legislature to begin the process of amending the Wisconsin Constitution to make the election process uniform across the state as much as possible. 

 

I have worked as a poll worker in both the Town of Barton and, more recently, in the Village of Kewaskum. I have been a poll observer in the City of West Bend and Germantown as part of election protection for the ACLU and the Democratic Party. I know from first-hand observation that municipal clerks and poll workers put aside their political leanings and work very hard to make sure that the rules are followed and that every legitimate ballot is counted. 

 

Trying to make the casting and counting of ballots uniform across the state is a fool’s errand. Large metropolitan areas like Milwaukee, Appleton, Madison, Green Bay, and others require different staffing levels and greater technological support than smaller and more rural communities. In the end, all the ballots will be counted correctly everywhere if local communities are free to work within set procedural boundaries to get the job done as local conditions and populations require. 

 

The election referendum is on our ballot to satisfy the dwindling number of election fraud conspiracy theorists and should be rejected by the voters. 

 

This election, like all elections, is important. Voting is how we participate in our democracy.

 

Let's Talk Politics

Let’s Discuss Politics

Our current political discourse sucks. 

 

For months, we have been bombarded with hyper negative attack ads on TV and social media which do nothing but whip up anger and fear among those who unfortunately rely upon those sources for their world views. The result is more parroting than thoughtful, reasoned analysis.

 

I grew up in the era where Walter Cronkite read the evening news on CBS and people stopped to listen to what he had to say. He was trusted by his viewers as were most of the other network anchors. The Federal Communications Commission had a rule called the Fairness Doctrine which mandated that those with federal broadcasting licenses had to be as objective as possible when reporting on the issues of the day. They had to give all the sides of an argument equal time to present their case to the public. Political debates were more robust and nuanced then. This was long before the rise of the internet and the creation of Facebook, Twitter and their ilk. 

 

The Fairness Doctrine and objectivity are out the window with current broadcasting and social media. We now have a Wild West of lies and misrepresentation when candidates buy time to pitch themselves to the voting public. There is little debate and less opportunity for ordinary folks to sit down, one on one, with candidates to discuss what matters to them. 

 

Newspapers have struggled to keep up their important role informing the public. When we moved back to Wisconsin in 1979, Milwaukee had two major papers. Madison did as well. The morning and evening editions provided different opinions on the news, letting the readers choose what to believe. There were multiple smaller papers aimed at specific communities that covered more local interests and viewpoints.  The Sunday papers were full of well written, in depth news and opinion pieces. Now the news is found in snippets sandwiched in between pages of ads. Once competing papers have merged and the merged ones bought up by national chains which have let local news slide. 

We now have handlers telling the candidates what to say and what to avoid when speaking publicly. Messaging is coordinated by people whose identities are never disclosed and heavily influenced by anonymous contributions from sources with specific axes to grind. It has become increasingly difficult to parse out where some candidates truly stand on the issues of the day or if they have hidden agendas to spring on us after the election is over.

 

Those who pride themselves on being “independent” have their work cut out for them trying to get to a decision on which way to cast their ballot. The internet promised Information age has truly let them down as well.

 

We have been reduced to competing messages about what should be important to likely voters. Is crime in the streets a real concern? Does it win out over reproductive freedom and a woman's right to choose? Is the economy headed towards a recession or can we afford to fix the devastating impacts of climate change? Do we take care of those who cannot take care of themselves or are we a nation of personal responsibility? Are we a Christian nation or one where all religious beliefs are tolerated? Are Caucasians the superior race or just one of many? Is it OK to love someone with whom you share similar gender attributes or who have different skin tones?

 

The upcoming election cycle has put some of these issues in stark relief and made the choice of who gets your vote a little easier. Unfortunately, we have had to ferret out these things from a mass of negativity and to dig far deeper than necessary to figure out where the candidates really stand.

 

It would be great if we had a system like the one in Canada where election campaigns are limited to six weeks and spending is limited. It would be much better if Election Day is a national holiday.

 

Political Speech

Political Speech Should Remain Free in Public Spaces

 

There certainly has been a robust discussion in our community about the display of a swastika over an image of the Democratic Party donkey symbol on a flag or poster at the Washington County GOP booth at last Saturday’s West Bend Farmers Market. 

 

The leadership of the County GOP blamed it on a “overzealous volunteer” and sought to distance themselves and their group by rightfully condemning the display and claiming it was not approved by the party leaders. Unfortunately, the condemnation did little to tell those who use symbols of hate and genocide that they are not welcome in their organization. The person who made the display and those who permitted it to go up in their booth obviously felt right at home doing so. 

 

The Downtown Association, which runs the market, also condemned the display, and took the extraordinary step of refusing to rent booth space to all “political” organizations in the future because of the display. 

 

West Bend Mayor Chris Jenkins weighed in condemning the display and threatening to impose prior restraints on future speech at the Market.

 

Social media posts on the local GOP Facebook page and an online poll by this newspaper elicited comments condemning the display while others deflected the complaints by claiming Democrats do the same thing or outright supporting the display as somehow making a true statement about Democrats. 

 

The display and community reactions to it bring us back to the marketplace of ideas concept embodied in the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

 

Our founders believed and enshrined in the First Amendment the notion that public spaces were the place for a robust debate about the issues of the day and subsequent decisions by the United States Supreme Court have upheld that principle throughout our history with only limited exceptions. One being along the lines of “you can’t falsely scream FIRE in a public theatre.”

 

Attempts by governments to impose prior restraints on public speech in public places have been consistently rejected by the Court. Banning all political speech from public streetcorners and the public square have also been uniformly rejected. Discriminatory application of speech bans that favored one side of the debate over others have also been rejected consistently. 

 

The underlying principle is that while public speech is and should be free, even when it reaches into controversial areas, the public exposed to that speech is free to reject the message and the messengers as they see fit. That is what happened on Saturday at the Market when members of the public, expressing their rightful outrage at the display, caused it to be removed before the Market closed for the day. The backlash on local GOP social media exposed the display to further condemnation within their organization and will, most likely, cost their candidates votes in November as some members of the GOP and independents who lean right reject both the message and the messenger. They will join the exodus of those who believe the GOP majority on the U.S. Supreme Court went way too far in overturning Roe v. Wade’s protections for limited abortions. 

 

This brings us back to the Downtown Association’s decision to ban all “political” organizations from renting space at future markets. While uniform in its application, it prevents political speech by those whose public speech and displays have not crossed the line into universally condemned hate speech symbolism. 

 

The Democratic Party of Washington County has also had a booth at the Farmers Market this season and for many others in the 12 years we have had our office at 132 N. Main St. at the end of the public street used by the Market. I don’t believe there have been any credible complaints about the content of the materials displayed at our booth. We are being banned from renting a booth for the transgressions of others not connected to us other than we both are involved in politics. It is not fair to punish us and bar our message because others choose to cross the line of publicly acceptable speech.

 

The Association’s decision also will impact other groups with booths at the Market which choose to try and influence public policy through political action. Think about Veterans advocacy organizations, environmental groups, insurance companies, telephone companies, and others who lobby for legislation and provide financial support to political candidates. Under the Association’s decision, they, and the rest of us who speak about politics, will be limited to speaking on street corners or in Settlers Park or walking through the market handing out literature.

 

I for one support political speech limited to the confined space of a rented booth at the market where people can stop and engage or merely walk by. Let the public be the judge of the content of the messages on display and make their support or opposition known at the time or later at the polls where it really counts.