National Review does a story about Wisconsin, and it’s not complimentary:
“They came with a battering ram.”
Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking.
She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram.
She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door.
“I was so afraid,” she says. “I did not know what to do.” She grabbed some clothes, opened the door, and dressed right in front of the police. The dogs were still frantic.
“I begged and begged, ‘Please don’t shoot my dogs, please don’t shoot my dogs, just don’t shoot my dogs.’ I couldn’t get them to stop barking, and I couldn’t get them outside quick enough. I saw a gun and barking dogs. I was scared and knew this was a bad mix.”
She got the dogs safely out of the house, just as multiple armed agents rushed inside. Some even barged into the bathroom, where her partner was in the shower. The officer or agent in charge demanded that Cindy sit on the couch, but she wanted to get up and get a cup of coffee.
“I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted.” Wrong thing to say. “This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me.”
They wouldn’t let her speak to a lawyer. She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.
The neighbors started to come outside, curious at the commotion, and all the while the police searched her house, making a mess, and — according to Cindy — leaving her “dead mother’s belongings strewn across the basement floor in a most disrespectful way.” TOP
Then they left, carrying with them only a cellphone and a laptop. …
As if the home invasion, the appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren’t enough, next came ominous warnings.
Don’t call your lawyer.
Don’t tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father, or your closest friends.
The entire neighborhood could see the police around their house, but they had to remain silent. This was not the “right to remain silent” as uttered by every cop on every legal drama on television — the right against self-incrimination. They couldn’t mount a public defense if they wanted — or even offer an explanation to family and friends.
Yet no one in this family was a “perp.” Instead, like Cindy, they were American citizens guilty of nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to support Act 10 and other conservative causes in Wisconsin. Sitting there shocked and terrified, this citizen — who is still too intimidated to speak on the record — kept thinking, “Is this America?”
No, it’s not America. It’s Wisconsin under the John Doe law.
For dozens of conservatives, the years since Scott Walker’s first election as governor of Wisconsin transformed the state — known for pro-football championships, good cheese, and a population with a reputation for being unfailingly polite — into a place where conservatives have faced early-morning raids, multi-year secretive criminal investigations, slanderous and selective leaks to sympathetic media, and intrusive electronic snooping.
Yes, Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive movement and home of the “Wisconsin idea” — the marriage of state governments and state universities to govern through technocratic reform — was giving birth to a new progressive idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election results, shame opponents, and ruin lives.
Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives. For good reason. Bound by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the lights shining down on targets’ homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?
This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform.
Largely hidden from the public eye, this traumatic process, however, is now heading toward a legal climax, with two key rulings expected in the late spring or early summer. The first ruling, from the Wisconsin supreme court, could halt the investigations for good, in part by declaring that the “misconduct” being investigated isn’t misconduct at all but the simple exercise of First Amendment rights.
The second ruling, from the United States Supreme Court, could grant review on a federal lawsuit brought by Wisconsin political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, the first conservatives to challenge the investigations head-on. If the Court grants review, it could not only halt the investigations but also begin the process of holding accountable those public officials who have so abused their powers.
But no matter the outcome of these court hearings, the damage has been done. In the words of Mr. O’Keefe, “The process is the punishment.” …
Conservatives have looked at Wisconsin as a success story, where Walker took everything the Left threw at him and emerged victorious in three general elections. He broke the power of the teachers’ unions and absorbed millions upon millions of dollars of negative ads. The Left kept chanting, “This is what democracy looks like,” and in Wisconsin, democracy looked like Scott Walker winning again and again.
Yet in a deeper way, Wisconsin is anything but a success. There were casualties left on the battlefield — innocent citizens victimized by a lawless government mob, public officials who brought the full power of their office down onto the innocent.
Governors come and go. Statutes are passed and repealed. Laws and elections are important, to be sure, but the rule of law is more important still. And in Wisconsin, the rule of law hangs in the balance — along with the liberty of citizens.
Remember when liberals believed in freedom of expression and other civil liberties? Not anymore.
Here’s the thing, liberals: If this can happen to your political opponents, it can happen to you too.
According to Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn, Milwaukee’s violent crime problems are the result of the Republican Party, the National Rifle Association, and guns that apparently load, point, aim and fire themselves.
Steve Spingola, who was an actual police officer (as opposed to Flynn the politician), explains:
On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Police Department’s Chief-of-Police, Ed Flynn, held a news conference to discuss the wave of violence that has shaken even the city’s typically complicit media. In the immediate aftermath of the chickens of the chief’s failed policies coming home to roost, Flynn pulled an Obama by taking no responsibility for anything while blaming others.
With the vast majority of the Milwaukee media content on regurgitating and disseminating Flynn’s tripe, the chief-of-police knows, for the most part, that the gaggle of reporters — ninety percent of whom are liberals that scoff at the Second Amendment — will give the chief a pass while gleefully airing his anti-gun sound bites.
While responding to the typical softball question from reporter Myra Sanchick, who had solicited Flynn’s “reaction to the situation playing out of four people dead,” the police chief blamed a subculture of violence. Certainly, Flynn’s response was disingenuous. Over the course of the last four decades, a subculture of violence has permeated certain sections of the city, which led to the next reporter’s Captain Obvious question:
“Chief [Flynn], any theories as to how that’s changed from last year [when Milwaukee had 19 homicides on April 16, as opposed to the 115% increase in the 2015 murders to date]? What’s going on this year?”
Flynn sighed, noted “an interlocking set of challenges,” and then went on a diatribe about having a rational “discussion of firearms without awaking the sleeping beast of the Second Amendment defenders who have, you know, never met a gun law they liked.”
In the next breath, Flynn did what left-of-center politicos do when their failed policies are exposed — he blamed Milwaukee talk-show hosts. “If we could all turn off our AM radio stations for a couple of days, and engage in rational discourse, about what it takes to effect the thinking of career criminals carrying firearms, we might make some progress.”
Clearly, Flynn is desperately grasping for whatever straws he can to prop-up his crumbling administration. The man involved in the homicides that chief-of-police is referring to, Ricky Ricardo Chiles III, was a convicted felon with a lengthy rap sheet. Chiles was on parole for bank robbery and, according to news reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was “…sentenced to far less than the maximum penalty of 10 years after the judge was told about his cooperation [with the Milwaukee Police Department] in an unrelated homicide case.”
In essence, Flynn’s police department, in an effort to secure Chiles’ cooperation, sought to secure a lesser sentence for the bank robber to nab a homicide suspect. While this set of circumstances is certainly not unusual, the chief-of-police seems to want it both ways. On one hand, Flynn blames Gov. Walker and the legislature for gun laws that, in the chief’s opinion, are not tough enough. On the other hand, his own department — in conjunction with the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office — obtained a get out of jail early card for Chiles.
From my experience in the field, Wisconsin’s gun laws are not the problem. Wisconsin State Statute 941.29 prohibits felons from possessing firearms, while subsection four makes it a felony crime to knowingly furnish a firearm to a felon. Chief Flynn’s straw man argument that the city is awash with guns and more gun laws would prohibit firearms from falling into the hands of felons is a red herring used to cover over his own flawed policies.
For example, during this same news conference, Chief Flynn argued some of the 2015 Milwaukee homicides have occurred because of drug violence. The simple possession of narcotics is a crime and each individual illicit drug sale is a felony. Yet few, if any, law enforcement officials would seriously argue that the prohibition of illegal narcotics has prevented users from obtaining their desired commodity.
To answer the reporter’s question to Flynn, which the chief-of-police conveniently ducked, what has changed in Milwaukee is that criminals now believe that the Milwaukee Police Department is a paper tiger. By throwing Officer Christopher Manney under the bus to appease the grievance community, and by implementing policies, such prohibiting the vast majority of vehicle pursuits, the MPD has become the laughing stock of the city’s hoodlums.
A few days ago, this report was typed into the Milwaukee Police Department’s Computer Assisted Dispatch system: “Just occurring…Stolen auto taunting sqd. that can’t pursue. Driving back n forth beeping at the sqd. Same stolen auto tried to ram same officers/sqd yesterday.”
Based on the reports from officers in the field, such as the one above, I have created a new hashtag at Twitter, #BeAFarce, a spoof of Flynn’s MPD motto, “Be a force.”
A few days ago, a supporter of Mayor Barrett’s asked what I would do differently than Flynn, at which time I provided this eight-point response:
• Establish well-organized, well-supervised, and decentralized ASP (Area Specific Policing) units in each district
• Besides ten analysts, gut the Orwellian fusion center and form a narco-gang intel unit, and, then, coordinate with the district ASP units
• Hire 200 officers and adequately staff police districts
• Revitalize and adequately staff the MPD’s once nationally renowned detective bureau by permitting homicide detectives to purse killers, even if overtime is required
• Back-up the officers on the street — those who follow the edicts of the Constitution instead — instead of throwing them under the bus
• Reorganize IAD by ridding the unit of those who simply say ‘yes’ to the brass instead of conducting independent investigations
• Require each district captain to reach out to community organizations and law-abiding residents of neighborhoods to reestablish a certain trust diminished by the MPD’s abhorrent response times
• Appoint a chief-of-police more concerned with crime suppression than formulating a thesis for a PhD dissertation.
Moreover, the Milwaukee Police Department’s administration is top-heavy and needs reorganization, which should be conducted by a leader who actually lived in Milwaukee, and has an institutional knowledge of the city and its police department.
The debate over Wisconsin Prevailing Wage law is reaching a fevered pitch. Many are still unclear about what prevailing wage is and how repealing it will save taxpayers millions and help local and state government reduce their building costs for years to come.
Prevailing wage is a mandatory, government-set price for wages on taxpayer funded projects based on the average of the highest paid workers doing the same type of work in that county (that’s right, when a road project crosses a county line the workers all have to paid a different rate for the work they do on each side of the county line). Prevailing wage artificially inflates the cost of construction by setting wages higher than other free market rates for the same work. Whenever government bureaucracy gets in the way of business, experience has shown us that it becomes less efficient and more costly.
The current prevailing wage law costs taxpayers and small businesses more in two different ways:
First, is the increased costs to taxpayers. The artificially high wages drive up the cost of public projects like school buildings, roads, and work on government buildings. Since the price is fixed at the highest union wage in the area, there are no bargains in the competitive bid process like there are on private sector projects that drive down prices. This lack of competition and government-set wages and benefits higher than private sector building projects results in higher costs for projects which use our tax dollars.
Second, the way the system is set up is confusing, complicated, and difficult for business and contractors doing the work. As I have talked with constituents who own contracting or trucking businesses, they always tell me that calculating prevailing wage is an “accounting nightmare”.
Here’s a story that illustrates how overlapping prevailing wage boundaries and rates makes work less efficient and more costly.
Imagine you’re at the grocery store buying milk. You get your gallon, make your way to the front of the store, but there’s an error message when the milk is scanned. The clerk tells you the price is different depending on how you’re going to use it. You pause because that just doesn’t make sense–it’s the same milk in the jug. How does the price change depending on where I pour it? The clerk asks you how much of the milk you plan to use for cereal. Baking? Mac n’ Cheese? Drinking? You end up paying four different prices for four different uses of milk based on the percentage of use in each category. By now your head is spinning, you’ve been at the register for 10 minutes, and you end up paying more money for the same milk. You leave the store angry and thinking about switching to *gasp* pressed soy drink to avoid the hassle over purchasing milk in the future.
Many Wisconsin contractors go through this same, unnecessary headache when calculating prevailing wage job costs. There is a prevailing wage set by the federal government in Washington, DC, and a county-specific wage rate and a job-specific wage rate. Then there is a state prevailing wage rate, different from the federal rate, for use on projects that don’t have federal tax dollars paying for them. The state and federal rates are different.
Workers on road building projects will often work on more than one project with different rates on the same day, with the multiple prevailing wage rates in the same week. The time worked on each project has to be tracked and the worker has to be paid the right government-set prevailing wage rate.
By eliminating prevailing wage mandates, Wisconsin taxpayers win and save hundreds of millions of dollars because smaller, qualified companies that previously couldn’t or didn’t want to handle the administrative burdens of prevailing wage will be able to bid for taxpayer funded construction projects. As with everything else – from TV’s to toasters – competition drives down costs, increases innovation, and allows our government tax dollars to be more wisely spent. We will get more building for our tax dollars.
Labor costs are the number one component of nearly everything we purchase. Reduce labor costs, and you reduce the costs of what you’re buying, including refurbished roads.
I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus, Rollin’ down Interstate 41 …
OK, the Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man” doesn’t particularly fit here. (For one thing, the narrator is the son of a Georgia gambler who wound up on the wrong end of a gun; nevertheless them Delta women thought the world of him.) It does, however, commemorate the news Gov. Scott Walker’s office released Thursday:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced today that U.S. 41 in the eastern part of the state has been officially added to the Interstate System as I-41.
“The Interstate designation is the culmination of years of hard work by federal, state, and local officials that will stimulate economic opportunities from Milwaukee to Green Bay and beyond,” Governor Walker said. “Our Interstate system is a critical part of our infrastructure, which fuels commerce, helps grow the economy, and create jobs.”
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) officially approved the Interstate designation – the final step in a process that began nearly 10 years ago. Installation of about 3,000 new signs will begin this summer with signing expected to be completed by November 2015.
“The official designation of I-41 is tremendous news that will support the safe, efficient movement of people and commerce for many years to come,” said Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb. “Along with Governor Walker’s leadership, I want to thank former Congressman Tom Petri, our current Congressional delegation, state legislators, local government officials, and community leaders who helped make I-41 a reality.
Wisconsin’s newest Interstate route runs concurrently with US 41 for the entire route. I-41 begins at the I-94/US 41 interchange located about one mile south of the Wisconsin/Illinois border. It follows I-94 north to the Mitchell Interchange, I-894 and US 45 around Milwaukee and then joins US 41 north to Green Bay where it ends at the I-43 Interchange.
Existing US 41 in the Milwaukee area will be re-routed to follow I-41 along I-894 and US 45. Current US 41 along Lisbon Avenue and Appleton Avenue from I-94 at the Stadium Interchange northwesterly to the interchange with US 45 will be re-numbered WIS 175.
Got all that?
This was one of the issues I watched in my previous life as a business magazine editor. The great (though apparently not currently updated) Wisconsin Highways website brings some history of Wisconsin’s efforts at Interstates from the state Department of Transportation:
The State Highway Engineer, in 1945, submitted tentative route designations that included the currently used I-94 in southeast Wisconsin plus the Highway 18 zone between Madison-Prairie du Chien; Highway 51 northerly from the present Interstate toward Hurley; Hwy. 53 between Eau Claire-Superior; a route between Milwaukee-Green Bay; and an east-west loop between Green Bay-Eau Claire where it would have linked with the present I-94.
The first Washington response was to substitute Tomah-La Crosse for Madison-Prairie du Chien. Other responses followed.
In the meantime, the Turnpike Commission, established by Wisconsin Laws of 1953, was looking over the situation.
Wisconsin had anticipated the Interstate, in a way, with studies of a possible toll road-turnpike. Consulting engineers from Baltimore, Md., and New York City in 1954 submitted, respectively, a preliminary engineering statement and traffic-revenue study.
The latter concluded that a toll road between Hudson and Hwy. 41, the Hwy. 29 loop, would be “cost beneficial” for motorists and profitable for the state.
The Maryland consultant’s study looked at routes in the present I-90/94 corridor, except Tomah-La Crosse, along with a loop between Madison-Wisconsin Dells through Sauk City and another connecting Hwy. 41 near Kenosha through Burlington and Fort Atkinson to Madison. This study inferred that parallel routes might reduce potential tolls and lead to unprofitability.
In June 1955, the Turnpike Commission reported to the Legislature that the Illinois-Wisconsin corridor was not feasible at the time and recommended delay “until future developments can be fully appraised.”
Another toll road study was conducted at the State Legislature’s request in 1982. Both a cursory Departmental analysis and a consultant’s subsequent assessment reached negative conclusions.7
Meanwhile, Washington-Madison negotiations continued. In 1955, assuming that there would be 2,400 miles of urban additions to the Interstate system, the Commission asked for four more sections in the city of Milwaukee. This included a loop around the central district, Howard Avenue-South 44th Street, a 2.3 mile extension toward Glendale, and a 7.3 mile extension toward Hwy. 100.
Letter exchanges continued in 1956 with requests for extensions into Madison, La Crosse, and Eau Claire—all denied.
Other decisions came in December. Washington denied the state’s request for a route between Genoa City-Beloit, opting instead for Madison-Janesville-Beloit. A Milwaukee-Green Bay (Hwy. 41) route was approved, but the state failed to get plans completed in time to meet a deadline and the effort failed, according to G. H. Bakke, a legislator at the time.
The Commission made another try in March 1958 for additional mileage between Marinette-Milwaukee. This was denied is less than a month.
In February 1963, a request was submitted for a route between Milwaukee and Superior by way of Green Bay, Wausau, Hurley and Ashland. The additions, the covering letter said, could be done in “increments, if necessary: Milwaukee-Green Bay, Green Bay urban extension, Green Bay-Wausau, Wausau-Superior.” Except for Milwaukee-Green Bay [in 1972] this, too, was denied.
Nearly a decade later, still another try was made. In separate booklets, emphasizing necessary connections, the Department of Transportation asked for approval of Interstates between Milwaukee-Beloit and Milwaukee-Janesville; for connections again via Hwys. 52[sic] and 53 to the northlands, for the east-west (Hwy. 29) freeway, for extensions southerly in the Milwaukee area, for Green Bay-Milwaukee, and the Airport Spur.
The Green Bay-Milwaukee (now I-43), the Lake Freeway (I-794), and Airport Spur extensions were subsequently approved. From what had been some 480 miles of Interstate, the Wisconsin system became 578 miles.
Immediately ahead lay controversy about the location and numbering of the Milwaukee-Green Bay route. The first proposal was a Hwy. 57 corridor about midway between Hwy. 141 along Lake Michigan on the east and Hwy. 41 through the Fox Valley to the west. The ultimate compromise was to use most of existing Hwy. 141 between Milwaukee-Sheboygan, then to angle mostly on new location between Sheboygan-Green Bay, and to call it I-43.
The final Wisconsin Interstate project was authorized in 1985 in the form of an I-43 ramp connection in Sheboygan.
In a concluding word about the Interstate discussion to this point, state statistics supported claims for more corridors. As a two percent state (population, vehicles, other common indicators) but with only a shade over one percent of the national Interstate mileage, Wisconsin authorities felt deprived.
They also felt Wisconsin met all of the criteria for Interstate corridors: serving national defense; integrating the national system by filling missing links; assisting industrial, recreational and commercial movement, and “providing direct access to, for, and from rural and urban areas.”
Apparently, being tucked away from major east-west and north-south routings, perhaps lacking enough aggressiveness, and being out of federal political favor at the wrong times, were handicaps too great to be overcome by logic.
At the same time, there was evidence of limited foresight and apathy, according to Bakke.
Bakke added that lack of state vision and local enthusiasm—especially in Madison—also contributed to the shortchanging of the state. He noted the Turnpike Commission estimated Beloit-Madison traffic would reach 4,000 by 1980. In reality, it was 16,000-plus.
(As I wrote here Saturday: Government incompetence is not a recent development.)
It is interesting to note that of the original proposed list of Interstates, the only one that didn’t become an Interstate was the Madison-to-Prairie du Chien route. There apparently also was a proposal at some point to make what now is U.S. 14 from La Crosse to Madison a freeway instead of the route that became Interstate 90 to Tomah. That would have eliminated the instant bottleneck that I-90/94 from Tomah to Madison became (particularly when you got to the Dells, thanks to Tommy Bartlett and his successors), and it certainly would have been an economic shot in the arm to southwest Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Highways also has an exhaustive history of 41 dating back to when it went through downtown Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay, beginning with:
While the State of Wisconsin is home to several US Highways and four Interstates, US-41 has always seemed to outshine them all for some reason. From its inception, it has not only served the state’s largest city, Milwaukee, but also serves or connects more of the state’s other large cities together than any other primary route. From Racine and Kenosha south of Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and the rest of the Fox Cities up to Green Bay and Marinette on the Michigan state line. US-41 was also the first highway to see major upgrades and realignments, even before the Interstate highway system was a glint in someone’s eye.
I look at 41 as the highway that builds things too. Go from Fond du Lac to Green Bay, and you find Mercury Marine, Oshkosh Corp., a huge number of other manufacturers, and major paper operations.
State transportation officials hoped that what now is I-41 could become an extension of Interstate 55, which runs from Chicago to New Orleans. WisDOT’s Illinois counterparts were uninterested. Other numbers then were considered, but it’s a good thing, absent extending I-55, that it will be known as I-41, even though it follows U.S. 41 and part of U.S. 45 along the way. It would be nice to extend I-41 to the Wisconsin/Michigan state line, but that would require the state of Michigan to care at all about its Upper Peninsula. (North of I-43 U.S. 41 is now four lanes into Marinette, but 41 is two lanes once you get into Michigan. The only Upper Peninsula Interstate is I-75 from the adventure that is the Mackinac Bridge up to Sault Ste. Marie.)
I last drove 41 a month ago when I got to cover the state girls basketball tournament. I am a little surprised the state is putting up Interstate shields; I thought WisDOT would just put up green flags, given that if you’re going the speed limit, you’re going to get passed.
One interesting fact about I-41 is that as an Interstate it is now subject to the Highway Beautification Act. All the billboards you see along 41 will be the only billboards you see on 41, because said Highway Beautification Act prohibits new or expanded billboards along Interstates. Given that it seems like half the state’s billboards are along 41, well, what you see is what you will get.
Interstate 41 is an example of one of the few actually worthwhile big-ticket government spending projects, because (1) Interstates get goods from manufacturer to seller, and (2) Interstates are the best current example of transportation freedom, where you go where you want to go when you want to go, unlike airplanes, trains or buses.
I-41 also is an example that political clout matters. The credit for pushing I-41 where it counts, since Interstates are federal highways, goes to former U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), who was in his third decade in Congress when he was able to successfully get the Interstate designation through Congress. Petri represented Wisconsin much better than the two U.S. senators who claimed to be representing Wisconsin but weren’t in the 1990s and 2000s, Herb “Nobody’s Senator But” Kohl and Rusty the Phony Maverick Feingold. Neither did one thing to promote 41 as an Interstate. Petri did, and Republicans thanked him by hounding him out of office.
At any rate, Interstate 41 is important for Wisconsin for the reasons Walker mentioned and others. Just make sure you keep up with the traffic.
Possibly lost in the hoopla (get it?) over the Badgers in the national men’s basketball championship game is the fact that Wisconsin’s spring election is today.
Statewide, there are two votes — one for the Supreme Court and one about the Supreme Court. The former is Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s attempt to succeed Shirley Abrahamson as the next chief justice. (Bradley has been on the court since 1995.)
Normally Supreme Court races should attract little attention, except in our hyperpoliticized times, where the court system is just, to borrow von Clausewitz’s description of war, politics by other means. So when Bradley makes a statement like Act 10 being a “textbook case of unconstitutionality” when it obviously wasn’t, you should ask why she should be on the Supreme Court.
Similarly, when Bradley is willing to let a convicted double murderer go free because of one word, you should question how tough on crime she is, particularly because of the recidivism rate of criminals.
Tied to the Supremes is the referendum allowing justices to choose the chief justice, instead of giving the title to the longest serving justice. If you think about it, it demonstrates the perfect liberal mindset that reared its ugly head during Act 10 — that people should get things merely for showing up (i.e. getting the chief justice title by being on the court the longest) instead of having to earn it (majority vote of the court). That makes a Yes vote on the referendum obvious.
Several school districts have referenda today for building projects or to allow spending beyond revenue caps. There is one referendum about creating a school district, in Caledonia, out of the Racine Unified School District. I don’t live there, but if I did I would certainly vote for the referendum. From what I read, Racine Unified has many of the problems of the worst school district in the state, Milwaukee Public Schools, many of which are the result of excessive size.
Wisconsin’s spring general election — which is also the presidential primary election in years with presidential elections — is on the first Tuesday in April.
In 1980, the spring election was on April 1. That was appropriate in 1980 because of what happened four days before that.
On the bitter cold Friday night of March 28, 1980, outside the State Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin, the famed film director Francis Ford Coppola produced a 30-minute TV infomercial that effectively ended California Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign for president.
For Brown, the production was a hideously embarrassing political disaster. It not only crashed his Democratic primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter, but also reinforced his Governor Moonbeam reputation and marked the start of a decade-long decline in his once-meteoric political fortunes.
Titled “The Shape of Things to Come,” the bizarre half-hour show was seen only by Wisconsin viewers who happened to tune in to the statewide broadcast, a pot-hazed crowd of 3,000 who showed for the event and a small group of political reporters who panned it the next day.
Dubbed “Apocalypse Brown,” after Coppola’s Vietnam War epic “Apocalypse Now,” the program has never been seen by most Californians, including even some of Brown’s closest associates. …
We got our DVD copy from TV consultant and Calbuzzer Peter Shaplen, a freelance network news producer who now teaches video journalism at the Art Institute of San Francisco. At the time, he was covering Brown’s campaign as an ABC News producer. As Shaplen recalls:
The governor and I got into a heated argument the following day aboard the campaign plane. He maintained the audience would see beyond the technology snafu and hear his message, respond and vote for him. I suggested that the audience was so busy laughing at the failure of any reasonable communication that it was impossible to listen and respond.
A Francis Ford Coppola Production: Using — or misusing — the technique of chroma key compositing, Coppola projected impressionistic images both on a big screen behind Brown, which was flapping in the strong wind, and in the simultaneous TV broadcast.
The signature moment of the infomercial comes about 11 minutes into it with the sudden appearance over Brown’s right shoulder of an astronaut, clad only in white boxer shorts, doing somersaults, flips and other gymnastic moves inside a space capsule while in a weightless state.
Just. Plain. Weird.
Things were going badly well before that, however.
Right before the broadcast begins, a voice from the crowd says, “America has lost its environmental ethic and also Wisconsin doesn’t grow enough sinsemilla.”
Then the titles go up and someone types on a dateline, which is misspelled “Madisno, Wisci” before being corrected; next an utterly grim looking Brown walks to the stage, wearing a serious trench coat apparently a size too big, and starts orating into a sound system that isn’t working.
“We can’t hear,” a few people yell, whereupon Brown is given a hand-held mic and ad libs: “Even the technology of this age needs some human assistance.”
Not long after, the stage lights go out for a while, as seemingly random images – a steel mill, a rural cabin, an old guy shucking wheat – appear behind Brown, while quadrants of his head mysteriously keep dissolving into gaping gashes of flickering black and white.
How the deal went down: Just three weeks before, Brown had appointed the 40-year Coppola, who’d by then won an Academy Award and produced, directed and written the first two “Godfather” movies, to the state Arts Commission.
Brown’s campaign against a Democratic president never really took off – not least because the late Sen. Edward Kennedy was also challenging the incumbent – but Coppola was doing his bit to help his political patron. …
The Brown manifesto. The following Tuesday, Brown won only 15 percent of the primary vote and dropped out of the race. But the 25-minute speech he delivered during the program, overshadowed by the technical debacle, was framed by many of the ideas and attitudes he still holds – and a few he long ago dumped on the Krusty ash bin of history:
1-Paddle to the right, paddle to the left: Brown’s commentary on global and national political economics, the absolutely humorless tone of which is at odds with the counter-culture crowd on hand, is a case study of how he combines conservative and liberal views in his politics.
His theme was rejuvenating America’s economy, then beset by a crippling combination of high inflation, skyrocketing energy prices and widespread unemployment. He proposed a Japan-like “new economic order,” led by government but including both business and organized labor, that would rebuild the nation’s manufacturing capacity.
“A call to arms, not for war, but for peace – we can re-industrialize this country,” he said.
Among the left-liberal elements of this policy: a “coupon rationing method” for gasoline; a “ban on import of foreign oil by private companies” in favor of a government-run “U.S. Oil Buying Authority,” and new mandatory conservation policies to curtail “profligate, scandalous, unnecessary” energy consumption.
At the same, however, he sounded fiscally conservative themes: stop the government “printing press” of inflationary monetary policy; “balance the budget” by ending “fiscal gimmickry, borrowing from the future (and) huge deficits.” He also called for private-public sector cooperation to sell “re-industrialization bonds (and to) double research efforts into information technologies.”
2-The value of service: Brown’s remarks about himself and his reasons for pursuing elected office echo across three decades.
He recounted growing up in a household dominated by the career of his father, the late Gov. Pat Brown, and his revulsion at what he considered the demeaning nature of much political interaction – “the political language we hear is debased.” He said this led him to his time in the Jesuit seminary.
“I didn’t like politics…I wanted to find God,” he said, an experience that resulted in “development (of) a commitment to be of service.” Railing against “consumerism,” he said that as president he would manifest this idea, which remains a central thread of his politics today, by creating a “domestic Peace Corps” to channel young people into “voluntary service.”
3-The vision thing: Brown’s 1980 speech is also notable for how much it foresees mega economic and political trends that were just then forming.
Speaking of how we all live in “a very small global village,” for example, he foresaw globalization and trade policies a generation into the future, calling for a “North American Economic Community” including the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and enthusiastically describing the possibilities of “co-generation, solar, photo-voltaic” energy sources, as well as the need for “mass transit, bullet trains, fuel efficient cars.” …
“I have the skill, the know-how, the commitment,” for high office, he said at one point; when a woman asked him what he will do to assure the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, he presaged his get-them-all-in-a-room plan for solving the current budget deficit: “I’ll bring recalcitrant legislators to Washington and keep them there until they change their mind.”
Somewhat awkwardly, Brown concluded his remarks by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance – without inviting the crowd to join him. Then he left the stage, unaware that the technical meltdown of the program within a few hours would lead to widespread mockery of the event.
The Wisconsin State Journal’s Doug Moe starts by picking up the story after the “Ashtar” of live political TV:
On the cab ride from the Park Motor Inn to Four Lakes Aviation, where his private plane was waiting, the most celebrated film director in the world did not feel like celebrating.
It was close to midnight in Madison, March 28, 1980.
The cab driver studied the director in the rearview mirror, and said, “You know, this event tonight started out to be pretty interesting, but then something went wrong.”
“You’re telling me,” the director said. “It was a disaster. Just a disaster.”
Thirty-five years ago this week, Francis Ford Coppola, director of two revered “Godfather” movies, and with another film, “Apocalypse Now,” recently released amid great controversy and melodrama that only added to his legend, came to Madison to direct a live half-hour television show for his friend, California Gov. Jerry Brown, who was running for president in the Democratic primary in Wisconsin.
In the years since, the 30-minute program has itself become legendary. The events played out across three days in Madison. Coppola visited West High School and ate at local restaurants, even as technicians ensconced on the state Capitol lawn raced against the clock to ready the live production.
“I have no experience in this kind of thing,” Coppola announced cheerfully, during his time at West High. Later, anyone looking for a title for the extravaganza had one on a platter: “Apocalypse Brown.”
“There was a lot of hoopla building up to it,” Chuck Martin, a former State Journal journalist who covered the event, said this week.
When Jerry Brown decided to challenge incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic nomination, he first asked Coppola — whom Brown had appointed to the California Arts Council — to create some traditional, short television commercials for the campaign.
Brown’s team was happy with the spots, but the campaign itself, by mid-March, was foundering. They needed something dramatic to happen and figured the primary on April 1 in Wisconsin — a state with a history of appreciating mavericks — might be the place.
The idea for a half-hour event, to air live a few days before the primary, came from Coppola and was put together in just a few weeks, according to the production manager, quoted in Martin’s State Journal story.
The show was to be titled, “The Shape of Things to Come,” from an H.G. Wells futuristic short story.
Speaking of the director, a Brown staff member told a reporter from New York City’s Village Voice, “I have no idea what he’s going to do. All I know is that Coppola intends this thing to be one of the collector’s items of his career.”
Coppola arrived in Madison on March 26, a Wednesday. The show was set to air statewide on eight stations at 7 p.m. Friday. Wednesday night, Coppola spoke to students at West High.
Walt Trott covered the West High appearance for The Capital Times and quoted the director in the next day’s paper:
“We’ll center ourselves by the Capitol building,” Coppola said, “where we’ll put up this immense television set and we’re going to go on TV live with the governor making a statement that he wants to make. I’ll be in a truck where I can make a live mix, making any combination of things.”
Thursday morning, Coppola spoke at Russell Merritt’s film history class at UW-Madison. Throughout his time in the city, the director talked about evolving technology and how a new process, called chroma-key, would allow him to flash relevant images on a screen behind Brown as the governor spoke.
Thursday night, a Village Voice reporter was at the Capitol observing the frenzied crew trying to ready generators, search lights, and TV cameras, while Coppola gave Jerry Brown a tour of the set.
“After this,” Coppola said, “you’ll be the movie star and I’ll run for governor.”
Friday evening was chilly and damp. Fires burning in garbage cans provided heat on the Capitol lawn. Search lights pierced the sky. A young woman in the crowd of 3,000 told the Cap Times, “This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”
It got weirder. Eventually Brown, in a trench coat, took the stage. Not much went right after that. The chroma-key technology failed, even as the candidate talked about the need to re-industrialize and invest in new technologies. Images broke apart on screen. At one point an image of a Skylab astronaut doing weightless somersaults in his underwear appeared behind Brown.
Later, in a suite at the Park Motor Inn, Coppola and rock music promoter Bill Graham drank red wine and waited for Coppola’s cab driver. When he arrived, Graham offered some wine. “Even at Union,” Stuart Levitan said, “we’re not supposed to drink with the passengers.”
Yes, Coppola’s cab driver was Levitan, the Madison journalist and historian.
Levitan viewed the show from the Capitol lawn, and this week recalled how strange it was to watch “the most innovative politician of our generation self-destruct before our eyes.”
Additional technological insight comes from Greg Buzzell on the Facebook “If You Grew Up in Madison You Remember” page:
I was Chief Engineer at the time at WMTV channel 15. We were the station picked to do the state wide live feed of the show. From the outset we knew the program was in trouble. They had to borrow cable from us, because they did not bring enough. They were trying to do a chroma key outside in the wind, we knew that would not work. Everything was live, and being on headset with Coppola, it was evident he had never done anything live before. The chroma key wasn’t working, the graphics did not work, and we were struggling at the station to input live names into our character generator for lower thirds. After a few minutes in Coppola had lost his cool and started yelling at everyone which only made thing worse. Eventually he just took his headset off, and just left the set, and let the assistant director finish the show. It was a great embarrassment for Governor Brown, but also an embarrassment for the station. But we all learned that you can be a great movie director, and not be able to do something live. Obviously in live TV there are no do overs as there are in film.
So what did this TV train wreck look like?
While the debacle certainly ended Brown’s 1980 run for president (the winner was Brown’s predecessor as governor, Ronald Reagan), it didn’t end Brown’s political career. Brown didn’t run for reelection in 1982, but a decade later he ran for president again. Even more unpredictably, he is again governor of California.
Retired police officer Steve Spingola wrote a letter that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel refused to print:
On the first floor of the City of Milwaukee’s Safety Academy, the names and photographs of over five dozen Milwaukee police officers grace a wall that literally showcases their service. This distinguished honor, however, is one that every Milwaukee police officer seeks to avoid, as the faces on this wall are of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
During my three-decades with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), I have spent a great deal of time — as a homicide detective and as a lieutenant — retracing the final moments of those who no longer walk among us. Certainly, some of these tragic deaths could have been avoided. One particular case that comes to mind is the March 19, 1985, coldblooded murders of Rosario Collura and Leonard Lesnieski — two Milwaukee police officers gunned down on the near north side. On that fateful day, the officers approached Terrance Davis, who they suspected of selling drugs from the porch of a home. When one of the officers asked if he had anything in his pockets, Davis replied, “Yeah, I’ll show you,” at which time he removed a handgun from a pocket and shot both officers to death. What we will never know is why the officers, instead of asking, did not conduct a pat down of Davis.
Seventeen-years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court held that police officers could conduct a frisk of an individual’s outer most garment if an officer — based on the totality of the circumstances— reasonably believed that a person may be armed. Pat downs have undoubtedly saved the lives of numerous police officers. From experience, few things are as hair-raising as conducting frisk and detecting a concealed weapon on a person. Yet, 29-years after the deaths of Officers Collura and Lesnieski, the importance of officer safety is being marginalized by the political correctness of Police Chief Edward Flynn.
On October 15, Chief Flynn terminated the employment Officer Christopher Manney, an officer with 13-years of street-level experience, for allegedly conducting a pat down of Dondre Hamilton in violation of MPD policy. After reading the MPD’s allegations and Officer Manney’s response, I sought input from a number of veteran officers. To a person, we collectively believe Officer Manney’s actions were appropriate. While I typically do not purport to speak for others, I am confident in noting that Chief Flynn’s firing of Officer Manney is being met with widespread condemnation from those who have worn an MPD uniform.
Unfortunately, I believe Chief Flynn’s irresponsible termination of Officer Manney is directly related to his lack of an institutional memory. In 1985, while serving with Officers Collura and Lesnieski at District Five, I have vivid memories of both officers smiling and conversing with their colleagues. During the same period, however, Chief Flynn was an officer in far-away Jersey City. Thus, the image of Flynn as an east coast carpetbagger is fueling a consensus amongst the rank-and-file that the chief sees those fallen officers on that wall at the Safety Academy as simple strangers from a bygone era. This perception, vis-à-vis his treatment of Officer Manney, is reinforced by the police chief’s de facto memo to the rank-and-file that politics takes precedent over officer safety. No doubt, Chief Flynn is sending a dangerous message that, I believe, may result in more faces appearing on that wall of no return at the Safety Academy. Will officers — fearful for their careers — be compelled to repeat the disastrous ways of the past by asking a dangerous or unstable person what those “bulges” are in his or her pockets instead of conducting a simple frisk? If only Officers Collura and Lesnieski could speak from the grave.
Spingola calls Manney the first officer in the history of the Milwaukee police to be fired for violating a training memo. Let’s hope that Officer Manney gets the justice from the Milwaukee County court system that the City of Milwaukee — that is, Tom Barrett, the Barrett-selected Police and Fire Commission, and Barrett’s police chief — refuses to give Manney.
The MacIver Institute brings up the next piece of labor-related legislation that needs to become state law:
Prevailing wage is a backward policy designed to ensure government contract workers are paid wage rates and receive benefits that are “prevailing” in a given industry or region. As it turns out, prevailing wages can be up to 40 percent higher than competitive market wages, meaning taxpayers are hit with an extra cost burden on many government projects.
Federal prevailing wage law has been around since the 1930’s when President Hoover signed the Davis-Bacon Act, mandating that federal contract workers be paid wages and receive benefits “prevailing for the corresponding classes of labors and mechanics.”
Today, 32 states have their own versions of prevailing wage policy. There are 9 states that have had their prevailing wage laws repealed or invalidated in court, and the remaining 8 states have never had them, including neighboring Iowa.
In Wisconsin, prevailing wage applies to all state and local government construction or repair projects performed by private contractors, with certain exceptions. “Single-trade” projects with a total cost of less than $48,000 are exempt from prevailing wage. “Multiple-trade” projects with a total cost of less than $100,000 are also exempt. The state’s Department of Workforce Development is charged with determining prevailing wages for the state and for localities. Local prevailing wages are set at the county level in an attempt to account for regional market differences.
While higher wages and wage growth are key components of a healthy economy, government-mandated higher wages do more harm than good in the long run. Prevailing wage undermines market competition, overestimates true market wages and creates an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
Healthy competition in a market economy helps to keep the cost of goods and services at a reasonable level by incentivizing businesses to offer consumers maximum benefit at an affordable price. This is economics 101. Prevailing wage laws work against the market process by unnecessarily inflating project costs and potentially blocking contractors who may offer to undertake a project for a lower cost.
The Mackinac Center in Michigan identified a real life example of how prevailing wage can substantially distort market activities. Michigan is another state that has a prevailing wage law. In Iron Mountain, MI, a town in the Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border, St. George Glass & Window employs glaziers that are paid about $20 per hour. Prevailing wage laws say that those same glaziers must be paid $43.53 per hour if the project being worked on is a public project. The oddity of this wage inflation is underscored by the fact that Iron Mountain is in a region of Michigan that has a low cost of living and whose median household income is just $44,000. Livingston County near Detroit is the county in Michigan with the highest cost of living and a median income of $72,000. The prevailing wage for glaziers in Livingston County is $47.35. In the end, taxpayers in relatively low income in Iron Mountain are stuck paying prices meant for a richer economy hundreds of miles away.
A pair of studies by the non-partisan Anderson Economic Group (AEG) have looked at the effects of prevailing wage on education construction costs in Michigan and Illinois. The studies conservatively estimated that wages were inflated by 25 percent in Michigan and by 11 percent in Illinois. AEG also found that benefit levels in Illinois were inflated by 61 percent under prevailing wage for education construction.
Based on AEG’s methodology, we can estimate potential savings for public projects in Wisconsin if prevailing wage is repealed. To do this, we apply a conservative inflationary effect on wages at 20 percent. We also assume that labor costs are about 1/3 of total project costs for a given public project, which is similar to AEG’s analysis of labor costs as a proportion of total project costs.
The School District of Elmbrook is planning $9.8 million in capital improvements from 2015 to 2017. According to the school district’s website, projects include roof repairs, new parking lots and HVAC improvement’s among others. Under the assumption that labor is 1/3 of the total cost and inflated wages because of prevailing wage are 20 percent over a competitive market price, the school district could save over $654,500 if there was no prevailing wage law. That is money that could go to the classrooms or back to taxpayers in Elmbrook.
To take another example, voters in the Waunakee Community School District recently approved $44.8 million in debt authority for the construction of one new school and renovations to two others. Applying the same methodology above, eliminating the prevailing wage could save nearly $3 million for these projects.
Wisconsin’s state government could also benefit from cost savings if prevailing wage is repealed. Consider the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Hill Farms office building replacement project. Hill Farms is the DOT’s primary administrative facility and in 2013 a $196.6 million replacement building was approved for construction. Assuming that the construction costs are subject to prevailing wage, savings for this project could be around $13.1 million if prevailing wage is repealed.
AEG’s studies concluded that prevailing wage laws cost Michigan $224 million every year in just education construction and $158 million a year in Illinois for the same type of projects.
Education construction is only one kind of public project subject to prevailing wage in these states, meaning that actual costs could be two, three, or four times the amounts from AEG’s study. That is a lot of money that could instead go into the classroom, or to other state needs, or that could stay in family pockets but is demanded to be paid out because of prevailing wage.
Prevailing wage laws in Wisconsin also affect all sorts of public works projects from highways to school construction to building repairs. Wisconsin is already a high tax state, even after income tax reductions and property tax relief over the last few years. Taxpayers should not be subjected to artificial cost increases required by prevailing wage.
Tom Hefty, whom I met in my business magazine days, was one of the authors of Be Bold Wisconsin, one of the many reports that came out during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign saying the state needed to improve its business climate.
(That word “many” says all you need to know about the reign of error of Gov. James Doyle.)
Hefty revisits the state’s economy:
In 2010, the Be Bold Wisconsin report set a goal of making Wisconsin a top 10 state for starting or expanding a business. That seemed like a distant goal for a state that regularly had ranked in the bottom half of the class — sometimes in the bottom handful of states.
Two of the best new grades came in independent reports, one done by the Gallup organization and the other done by Paychex|IHS. Wisconsin is moving toward the head of the class.
The survey question was simple: “Based on what you know or have seen, would you say that, in general, your company or employer is hiring new people and expanding the size of its workforce, not changing the size of its workforce (or), letting people go and reducing the size of its workforce?”
The Badger State ranked fourth best in the country for finding a job, after North Dakota, Texas and Nebraska. Good company.
The Paychex|IHS Small Business Jobs Index also brought good news. Wisconsin again ranked fourth best, after Indiana, Texas and Washington. The small business data is particularly good news because Wisconsin has long ranked near the bottom in other indices of entrepreneurial activity.
In the March 2015 Manpower report released this week, Wisconsin had the third brightest job outlook in the nation, lagging only Idaho and North Dakota.
Other data pointed in the same positive direction. The year-end 2014 MoneyTree venture capital report produced by the National Venture Capital Association and PriceWaterhouseCooper showed the number of Wisconsin companies receiving venture capital at the “best level in two decades.”
The small business and venture capital grades are a result of a number of policy changes and program expansions. Wisconsin expanded tax credits for venture and angel investments. There are new venture capital programs. Even the neighboring states are noticing. A December report by national consultant Battelle for the State of Iowa notes: “Iowa should consider revamping (venture capital) along the lines of Wisconsin’s successful program.”
Economic statistics are frequently complex, confusing and sometimes contradictory. Partisans cherry-pick statistics to make their points. University of Wisconsin economists are most frequently negative about their home state. One UW-Milwaukee professor last month criticized Wisconsin as “surfing on the national recovery” — a difficult task in the cold Wisconsin winter.
Economists frequently are criticized for being indecisive, saying “on the one hand and on the other hand.” UW apparently has solved that problem by hiring only one-handed economists: left-handed.
There are three sets of jobs statistics — the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics employer report of job counts; the Current Population Survey, which generates the unemployment rate; and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report. There are seasonally adjusted numbers and raw statistics. To complicate matters, federal agencies issue revised jobs numbers each month and after the end of each year.
One of the best ways to look at the state business climate is to look at the simple statistical rankings over a long period of time.
The national economy does set the environment for local economies. But there are major differences in state performance. Some reflect natural resources, historic industry mix, demographic changes and that important intangible — business climate. State policy does make a difference.
In 2009, John Torinus and I looked at Wisconsin’s economic record during the Doyle administration. “Wisconsin Flunks its Economics Test” was the conclusion. The state’s ranking for job growth was 32nd, hitting a low of 46th in 2006. By 2008, the state ranked 47th in five-year personal income growth.
At the end of 2013, we again looked at the report card. “A Passing Grade” was the conclusion. Wisconsin had improved in every national ranking of business climate, but work remained to be done.
The preliminary full-year jobs data for 2014 shows another step forward. The ranking for monthly job growth moved up 16 spots — to 19th from 35th in 2011. The latest quarterly growth rankings showed similar improvement.
Although the trends are positive, challenges remain for Wisconsin. The aging of the workforce and historic brain drain of college graduates are long-term problems. Nearly 10,000 college graduates leave the state every year, reflecting, in part, a mismatch between UW programs and workforce needs.
Wisconsin is moving toward the head of the class. What seemed like an improbable goal of becoming a top 10 state is already true on some measures. It is within reach on others.
Notice that all these comparisons are made against other states. Barack Obama sycophants who claim that Wisconsin’s economic improvement is because of his policies, not Walker’s, ignore this fact. The UW economists’ naysaying is probably directly the result of Act 10 and their having to pay for their Rolls–Royce benefits partially themselves, instead of the sweetheart deal they got before. In the opinion of those who count — businesses — Wisconsin seems to be getting better.
Christian Schneider observes how well liberal Madison serves its black residents:
Last November, when a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo. refused to charge police officer Darren Wilson with the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin was ready with a statement. “Here in Madison let us use this moment to reflect and redouble our efforts to create the best community for all Madisonians,” Soglin said. “The time is now to ensure equity in education, employment and housing.”
On Monday of this week, Soglin stood, megaphone in hand, trying to explain to a group of 1,500 largely black protesters why one of his police officers had shot Tony Robinson, an unarmed black teenager. Soglin, a progressive standard-bearer first elected Madison mayor in 1973, pathetically tried to pass the buck to Republicans in state government for cutting state school aids. He was frequently shouted down by protesters yelling, “Murder!”
It was a rare time when a progressive mayor had to face the very type of racial animus he has spent a career fomenting. White liberals often think they have a monopoly on race relations in America, frequently using racial issues to drive wedges in the electorate and bolster their own standing.
Yet by almost any measure, decades of pure, uncut progressivism have done nothing to mend the racial divide in a liberal playground like Madison. It’s good that Soglin thinks the time is “now” to ensure equity in education, employment and housing, because his track record on all the above has been miserable for 42 years.
Nary a conservative exists on the city council or school board, and yet according to one study, African-Americans are eight times as likely as whites to be arrested in Dane County. As I noted last week, 10% of black children in Madison public schools are proficient in reading. In 2011, the unemployment rate in Dane County was 25.2% for blacks compared with just 4.8% for whites, leading one magazine to ask whether Madison was the “most racist city in America.”
And yet by listening to progressives, one would think Republicans are the only party wrangling with a race problem. It is why U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Milwaukee Democrat, can charge with a straight face that her home state is the “Selma of the North” because Republicans favor a photo ID requirement to vote — a policy favored by strong majorities of blacks. Of course, Moore’s hyperbolics are merely an attempt to absolve herself of culpability — she was first elected to the state Legislature in 1989, and has yet to pass any successful “let’s make Milwaukee not the Selma of the North” legislation. It’s not like Milwaukee has been governed by Newt Gingrich for the past 50 years, It has been liberals who have overseen the city’s decay.
And yet when Republicans such as U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan try to make inroads to improve the plight of inner city residents, they are quickly swatted down with charges of racism. Earlier this year, when Republicans proposed a slate of reforms to rejuvenate depressed areas of Milwaukee, they were accused of “pimping” the city’s residents.
But in Madison, Soglin remains the clown prince of cluelessness. In a column written shortly after Ferguson, Soglin blamed the city’s racial troubles, in part, on ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, and laid the city’s devastating income gap at the feet of stores such as Amazon and E-Bay. Former police chief Noble Wray, himself African-American, showed a firmer grasp of the situation when he told blogger David Blaska, “We do have a strong migrating population from Chicago that really does impact this city from a crime standpoint.”
But in Madison, solutions don’t count, only liberal posturing. It is why the school superintendent attended the protest while hundreds of middle and high school students walked out of class on Monday, and then sent buses to pick up the students downtown after the march. Statistically, only 10% of the black students skipping school on Monday can read proficiently, but evidently it was more important for them to protest the shooting of a felon who allegedly attacked a police officer called to prevent Robinson from strangling someone. No Justice…no Math!
That’s not to say that progressives are any more culpable for racial unrest — but we should stop this charade that lays racial divisions at the feet of conservatives. If there were a magic progressive program to hold down violence and keep young black men from being shot at the hands of police, Milwaukee and Madison would have tried it by now. Instead, it remains an intractable problem — for everyone.
Madison schools have the biggest achievement gap between white students and minority students in the state. Milwaukee’s social pathologies are well known, and Madison’s have been revealing themselves since drive-by shootings started in front of my high school a few years after I left Madison for good. Madison hasn’t had a non-liberal mayor (though some have been more liberal than others) since Soglin first took office in 1973. The only remotely less-than-liberal Milwaukee mayor was John Norquist, who was smart enough to realize that Milwaukee students needed better alternatives than the disaster that is Milwaukee Public Schools.
It seems rather racist to suggest that blacks care less about crime than whites. We have not heard the skin color of the victims of Tony Robinson’s armed robbery, nor of the person he was alleged to have battered. But blacks are much more often the victims of crimes committed by blacks than whites are.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 