Remember when Wisconsin was a laboratory for democracy, a beacon of progressive and good government. President Teddy Roosevelt praised the state as such during the heady days of the ‘Wisconsin Idea’ when the country looked to the Badger state for legislative ideas in support of working Americans and the less fortunate. A collaborative relationship between progressive Republicans and University academics spawned a generation of new ideas such as workers compensation, the progressive income tax, unemployment compensation, open primaries, the social security system and so much more. A strong Germanic-Scandinavian culture supported active government on behalf of the common man and woman … Milwaukee had a socialist mayor until 1960. It was widely presumed that if you wished to see good government in action, you should look to Wisconsin.

Nominally, the state is evenly split between the two major parties. Predidential elections and state-wide elections are hotly contested and decided by very small margins. Yet, hard right Republicans have enjoyed a growing policy stranglehold on the state where they control the State Senate, the Assembly, and the Supreme Court. On a personal note, my spouse was the Deputy Director of the Supreme Court (and unifi

SHIT … I was having trouble and apparently most was lost. Damn, it was a good one.