Wisconsin Is A Disaster For The GOP. A Wonderful, Joyful Disaster

[Celerity]

Pay attention to what comes next in the Cheese State. How crazy Republicans go here will tell a lot about America’s future.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/wisconsin-is-a-disaster-for-the-gop



In case you missed it with all of the delightful drama surrounding the historic arrest and arraignment of the first ex-president in United States history, Republicans had an exceptionally bad week. That’s aside from their leading criminal, errrr… “candidate” being arrested and arraigned on 34 felony counts, that is. Wisconsin, one of the GOP’s bastions of illegitimate power, fell on Tuesday. After spending an obscene amount of money to elect an election-denying lunatic to the state Supreme Court, Republicans were trounced by the Democratic candidate, tipping the court’s makeup to the left for the first time in 15 years. It’s really hard to overstate how good this is for democracy. Let’s try anyway.

How broken is Wisconsin?

Short answer? Extremely. After sweeping into power in 2010 on the back of Citizens United money, anti-Obama racism, and a healthy dose of complacency from Democrats, Republicans systematically destroyed democracy in Wisconsin. With the blessing of a Republican-controlled state Supreme Court, Republican Governor Scott Walker immediately set about dismantling unions in his state, one of the main sources of Democratic fundraising and organizing. After that, he gerrymandered himself an overwhelming majority in the state legislature and made Wisconsin one of the most difficult states to vote in. In a very purple state, somehow, like magic, the congressional delegation sent 6 Republicans and only 2 Democrats. A theft of 2-3 House seats.

It was everything Republicans dream of: The suppression of any resemblance of free and fair elections and democracy in name only. All given a veneer of legitimacy by a deeply corrupt state Supreme Court. Scott Walker’s authoritarian control of the state’s levers of power, however, couldn’t withstand the blue tsunami of 2018 and he lost. ¡Qué lástima! Unwilling to acknowledge the will of the people, because authoritarian fascists are not known for that, the Republican legislature called an emergency session in the lame duck period and simply stripped Governor-Elect Tony Evers of power. Wisconsin belonged to the GOP, you see. Naturally, the state Supreme Court, still controlled by Republicans as well, signed off on the obviously illegitimate power grab.

This makes Wisconsin a clear bellwether for how extreme the GOP is capable of becoming in order to maintain its grip on power it did not earn. The catastrophe that is unfolding in the Cheese State is sending the GOP into a full-fledged panic. We should watch what they do very carefully. If you were to sit down and design an election outcome with the parameters, “Make this as bad for the Republican Party as humanly possible”, you would be hard-pressed to come up with something worse than last Tuesday in Wisconsin. To begin with, voter turnout was record-breaking for an off-year Spring election. How high was it? At least 1.7 million of Wisconsin’s 4.5 million eligible voters showed up. That doesn’t sound impressive until you realize that the previous record was 1.6 million for the 2020 Supreme Court election which also included the presidential primaries.

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[NCDem47]

1. Florida sounds like WI all over again!

But I'm lovin' where WI is headed if the fever breaks.

[pansypoo53219]

2. except senator stupid got another 6 fucking years.

[Celerity]

3. That is why I do not have Baldwin down as a sure lock. Favourite, yes, but in no way a 100% lock to

win. The idiots literally reelected a stone cold Russian asset in that motherfucker RoJo.

[Poiuyt]

5. Hopefully, Baldwin won't run an inept campaign like Barnes did.

That election still makes my blood boil.

[Celerity]

6. It was literally the only Senate race in 2022 I incorrectly called. I was already having doubts

by the time Lasry dropped out, but I overestimated the intelligence of far too many Wisconsinites and assumed enough would NOT vote for probably the most open traitor/Russian stooge in the entire Senate, and so I still predicted a Barnes win.

Wrong I was!

[DemocraticPatriot]

4. Wisconsin has a proud progressive history,

going back for more than 100 years...

Republican electoral successes there over the past decade,
in my humble opinion,
were "anomiles". Accidents, even.


Those were corrected somewhat with the 2020 presidential election.

I don't believe that the Republican "doubling down" on their positions against reproductive rights and gun control,
are going to improve their statewide electoral prospects in Wisconsin... not to mention social security and medicare...


Gerrymandering is of course still a problem, down-ticket... or the GQP would already be FINISHED in that state...


Nice to talk to one of my friends on this site again, Celerity