If you had been able to read my entire blog yesterday, you would have seen that I ended on a down note. I was about to pack the car with my essential belongings to emigrate to the ‘civilized’ country to our north … assuming that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had remained in Republican hands. After all, the party of Trump controlled some two-thirds of the State Senate, almost the same pluraity in the Assembly, a majority on the State Supreme Court, and 6 of 8 U.S. Congressional districts. They only lacked the Gubernatorial Seat though veto-proof majorities might only be an election away.

The Red Tide in what had been one of America’s beacons of democracy and good governance, especially in the heyday of the ‘Wisconsin Idea,’ would have been complete. Trump’s party would have been positioned to cement authoritarian rule on the state’s citizen for at least a generation. Say goodby to the American experiment in democracy.

Pundits from around the nation focused on this special election for our Supreme Court. Robert Reich called it much more important than Trump’s arraignment, basically a pro-forma legal event, while the always eriudite Heather Cox Richardson labeled it a ‘huge’ event. Most placed the election in national terms, reminding us that a shift to Trump of some 43,000 votes in several swing states could have kept our last President in power despite losing the election by 7 million votes. Local politics matter … a lot!

The Republican stranglehold on power since the onset of the 21st century has resulted in the stark erosion of democratic principles in the Badger State. Though objective observers estimate that the Democratic Party likely has a small plurality of aggregate support statewide in Wisconsin, gerrymandering and voter suppression have rendered those in the center-left with virtually no power. The prospect of facing the 2024 Presidential elections without safeguards over the electoral process worried many on the national scene and here. The implications for the right were not lost on them. When the results came in early this morning, far right activist Ali Alexander said “we (Republicans) just lost the Wisconsin Supreme Court. I do not see a path to 270 in 2024.” He realized that his party might have to win elections legitimately for a change.

My eloquent blog yesterday was cut off when I was talking about why my spouse retired early from her position as Deputy Director of the Wisconsin High Court (and unified court system). She had worked for liberal and conservative judges in her position for over two decades, respecting virtually all of them even when she might disagree with some of their values. But she saw where the winds of change were leading. Huge amounts of corporate money poured into what had been non-partisan judicial races in an attempt to impose a right wing agenda on the court’s legal products. Collegiality was replaced by bitter partisanship culminating in a conservtive male justice putting his hands around the neck of of a liberal female peer before backing off. At that moment, she knew it was time to retire and get out of Dodge just as the 20th century ended.

During the early years of this millenium, Republican court candidates prevailed and assumed a 6-3 majority on the bench some 15 years ago. All the hot button issues like protecting easy access to the polls, creating voting boundaries, overseeing election integrity (or not), and abortion were fully in Republican hands. We Badger State residents recall that the Republican legislature hired a former Supreme Court Justice to investigate alleged Democaratic voting fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. After spending a considerable amount of money and time, he and his team found absolutely nothing. Benghazi all over again.

Almost a decade ago, Republican control of Wisconsin seemed unassailable. They had the trifecta (senate and assembly, the high court, and the governor’s seat). Scott Walker, a darling of the hard right, won reelection by five percentage points over his Democratic opponent in 2014. It looked bleak to those of us who still believed in democracy, reason, civility, compassion, science, and community. If my spouse had not been suffering from early onset Alzheimers, my car would have been packed and my compass pointed due north.

While, in the short term, little can be done about local races in what pundits have claimed is the most gerrymandered state in the U.S., the statewide races have begun to shift in a blue direction. In 2018, Democrat Tony Evers (definitely not a glamorous campaigner) edged out a victory over Trump acolyte Scott Walker (49.6% to 48.5%) for the governor’s seat. In 2020, a Dane County liberal judge named Jill Karofsky beat the then incumbent Republican member of the high court who had been appointed by Walker with relative ease (taking 55.3% of the vote). Then, in 2022, the still exciting Tony Evers (sarcasm) managed to beat his Republican opponent for reelection with some breathing room (51.2% to 47.8%). Was the Red Tide finally receding?

Only time will tell. But the 2023 high court race is encouraging. Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee judge handily beat conservative Dan Kelly by over a 10 percentage point margin. The race garnered not only national interest but became an intense ideological conflict. The vote turnout was easily a record for such an election. And the money spent was over 3 times the previous record amount for such a high court race, which took place in Illinois in 2004. One national pundit found it shocking that as much money as was spent for a Canadian national election had been expended on this state court race. Of course, as the results became clear, the Republican candidate refused to congratulate his liberal opponent, calling her ‘deeply deceitful, dishonorable, and despicable.’ As usual, a class act. I swear, today’s Republicans engage in more ‘projection’ than any other group I know.

Is the so-called blue trend real? Only time will tell. Going in, I was more optimistic than usual (for me). My hopes were raised when I voted yesterday and I had trouble finding a parking spot and there was a queue waiting to scan their ballots. When the totals were counted, some 240,000 plus votes were cast in Dane County (Madison) with over 80% of the total going for the liberal candidate. Dane cast more votes than its bigger neighbor down the road … Milwaukee which gave the liberal 70 % of their votes. Moreover, the population of Dane continues to grow exponentially, which must worry conservative operatives greatly. They will likley increase their attacks on the University of Wisconsin which they see as an incubator of liberal sins. But even smaller counties, especially in the southwest and northern parts of the state, swung into the democratic column. These are good signs.

It wasn’t a perfect night. A special election for a State Senate seat went Republican by a slim margin (50.9% to 49.1%). This will give the conservatives power to exercise impeachment powers though does not give them a veto-proof majority. Many expect great mischief in the future, including trying to throw the newly elected justice off the bench for specious reasons. Such arrogance would likely spark great resentment in the state though appeal strongly to the MAGA base. But even here there are signs of hope. U.S. Republican Senator Ron Johnson, easily the dumbest member of that august body, took well over 60% and then 54% of the votes in that area during his past two contests. The preference for conservatives here may well be on the wane as this Milwaukee suburban area seemingly swings in a blue direction.

In any case, I am not packing my car this morning to emigrate to Canada. Our friends to the north are spared my presence in their beautiful land. I am sure they are most grateful for that.

And here is hoping you get the entire blog this AM.