Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Sarah Palin's Bright Future and the Republican Base: The "Insurgence of the Mediocre"

The Recess Supervisor, a former Wisconsin Assembly GOP staffer, has nailed the appeal of Sarah Palin over on Playground Politics:

Great conservative apparatchiks, whether Lee Atwater or Ralph Reed or others, knew well how to manipulate undereducated, rank-and-file conservatives. It's not hard, since many of them aren't that smart.

That's not to say they aren't God-fearing or hardworking or good parents or fine citizens. But they just aren't that intelligent when it comes to matters of policy or politics. They're not sophisticated enough to have much of a view on anything outside their own community, so they tend to focus on things that can be understood simply and easily - things like morality, a morality often imparted by a local church and taken as gospel without any kind of intellectual questioning.

They don't understand foreign policy or trade policy or tax policy or the kinds of economic matters the GOP power players are interested in. But they do get gay marriage and abortion and school prayer. So for a generation, the GOP talked about the latter in an attempt to gain enough power to influence the former. (N.B. Democrats do this bait-and-switch too, but I'm not talking about them right now.)

Today's conservatives, however, aren't in on the joke. Politically, they came of age hearing these paeans to Christian fundamentalism, without understanding that these were simply techniques of convenience used to sell other parts of the GOP agenda.

They are, in other words, mistaking the sizzle for the steak.

Many modern conservatives soldier on like theocrats, trying to sell this homophobic, xenophobic, Europhobic, Islamophobic, liberal-phobic sizzle as though it's the main course. They think you win debates by proclaiming that policies are "liberal" or "socialist" and then thrusting your arms upward in triumph. Those who come from this camp are rarely interested in honest discussion because they're rarely capable of intellectually defending their positions. They like using one-word labels to dismiss contrarian worldviews, and then quickly retreat to the comfortable surroundings of those who agree with them.

Sarah Palin is tailor-made for these folks. And this is the GOP's trainwreck-in-waiting.

Sorry for the long quotes, but this post is really right on target:

Even as the breadth of her support narrows, the intensity of the support she receives grows greater, a fatal attraction for a political party whose base seems increasingly detached from anything resembling reality. To reinforce their delusion, those folks then go around talking about how the "other side" is afraid of or intimidated by Palin's superhuman political skills.

Hardly. Sarah Palin is an erratic, intemperate politician of average intelligence and below average eloquence. If she ran for President in 2012, she would undoubtedly suffer a loss worse than anyone since Walter Mondale met the Reagan steamroller in 1984. I remain confused as to why anyone would be scared of such a politician, but for the fact that lots of social conservatives are ineloquent and profoundly average and seem enamored by the notion of electing someone equally ineloquent and profoundly average to public office. Call it the insurgence of the mediocre.

-Barry Orton

Steve Nass Jumps the Shark

A press event was held Tuesday by a coalition of 65 Wisconsin organizations asserting that deep service cuts could destroy Wisconsin families and that increased taxes should not be ruled out. Among the sponsors were the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families, the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, ADAPT Wisconsin, League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, Disability Rights Wisconsin, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference. Their statement argued:

Families left jobless by the recession, people with disabilities, children, and seniors would be among those hit hardest by proposed budget cuts to state safety-net human service programs...

With so many people in need, this is the worst possible time to cut services.  Now more than ever, we must maintain the safety net and stay true to our Wisconsin values.  Many prominent economists have noted that making cuts during a recession hurts the economy even more than carefully targeted tax increases. 

“These cuts will have real consequences for our communities,” said Fond du Lac County Executive Allen Buechel. Buechel noted that because of the recession, Fond du Lac and other counties are already seeing increasing demand for FoodShare (food stamps), Medicaid, and other services for families in need. Most of these programs are funded by the state and federal government but administered by Wisconsin’s counties.

Buechel and other advocates for families, people with disabilities, children, and seniors warned that those harmful effects will only get worse if lawmakers and the governor try to balance the state’s $6.6 billion budget deficit solely by cutting state spending.

“We need to take a balanced approach that includes spending reductions and targeted revenue increases,” Buechel said. “We simply cannot cut our way out of this crisis.”

The group suggested some sources of revenue:

There are revenue options available that could generate over one billion dollars in the next years, substantially reducing the need for further cuts. The money would be raised from taxpayers with the greatest ability to pay. Options include restoring the estate tax, taxing capital gains like ordinary income, and increasing the top income tax rate by one percentage point more than Gov. Doyle proposed for households with incomes over $300,000. If these revenue options were enacted, the funds generated would almost fill the new budget hole, put people first and protect vitally important human services. 

  Once this group raised the dreaded idea that some taxes might need to be increased, the reactions were swift and of the knee-jerk reflex variety.  Typical was Republican operative Brian Fraley, writing for the WMC sock puppet MacIver Institute for Public Policy:

Especially in tough times, spending decisions must be prioritized. 'Needs' must get priority over 'wants.'  The problem with this loose affiliation of groups, now billed at over 60 organizations, is that they all would obviously prioritize their own niche need.  The only consensus displayed by this confederation is 'More, please.'

Reckless spending and questionable bonding has left Wisconsin's Budget in dire straits, just as the national economy went into the tank. Over-burdened taxpayers and people who have come to rely on government-provided human services will be hit the hardest as the Doyle Administration tires (sic) to right the economic ship after years of neglect.

Now, some of these groups may have a point about their need.

But they err when they assert that the 'tough' thing to do would be to raise taxes. The real tough thing to do would be to examine state spending and prioritize spending so that pressing, legitimate needs are met without increasing taxes.

That "increasing taxes" is the taboo that really should never be mentioned in earshot of the WMC and its allies.

Maybe that's why the event pushed Rep. Steve Nass' hot button and generated this over-the-top reaction:

  State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) reacted to a press conference orchestrated by the Wisconsin Counties Association calling for higher taxes in Wisconsin.  The Counties Association was joined by two other groups known for their support of unlimited tax increases and unchecked growth in government spending, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future.  The groups are upset that Governor Doyle is only willing to raise taxes by nearly $3 billion.
 
     “The Wisconsin Counties Association is a group funded with taxpayer dollars and continues to use those funds to call for punishing families with all sorts of higher taxes.  Almost $3 billion in tax increases during a massive recession isn’t enough for the Counties Association.  These vultures want to squeeze every last drop of blood from the hard working people of this state,” Nass said. (emphasis added)

Vultures? The Wisconsin Counties Association, sure. But the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, ADAPT Wisconsin, League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, Disability Rights Wisconsin, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference? Huh?

Blood squeezing vultures? Don't vultures eat mostly carrion? Maybe Nass meant vampires. Starts with the same letter. It's always hard to tell exactly what Rep. Nass has in mind when he speaks.  Vampires, that's the ticket. The League of Woman Voters of Wisconsin are vampires.

And Nass probably wonders why his releases haven't been getting the media play they used to when his party ran the Legislature.

- Barry Orton

F. James Sensenbrenner - Defies Logic in Search of Bamboozling Public

As though he did not have enough to worry about in helping the nation recover from the depression launched by President Bush with his help in Congress, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner finds times to lecture Wisconsinites on the state budget.  Governor Doyle and Internet Taxes = Double Trouble

And now, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle wants to tax the songs you download to your iPod – among all your other online purchases. This means that buying something online will now be double taxed in Wisconsin...

The errant member of Congress, who has done more than any other Wisconsinite to create massive deficits through his support of incredible tax cuts for the wealthy, figures that if the buyer purchases Internet services that are taxed, then purchases made from another vendor cannot be taxed.

Think  of the possibilities:

• If the buyers paid sales tax on their automobile, then there should be no tax on gasoline that fuels the vehicle.
• If you paid sales tax on your refrigerator, there should be no tax on the beer that goes in it.
• If you paid sales tax when the home was sold, you never should have paid property taxes.

It is appealing, but maybe Sensenbrenner should do something constructive, like fixing the disadvantage Ma and Pa brick and mortar retailers face. They have to collect sales taxes from their walk-in customers while Internet sellers avoid paying their fair share of the sales taxes - taxes that would help balance massive state deficits from California to Maine. That is the result of legislation pushed by Sensenbrenner that interfered with states' ability to set fair sales taxes.

Midge Miller

This week Madison lost another one of its giants.  Former Assembly Representative Marjorie Miller, known to everyone who ever met her as just "Midge," passed Friday at 86. Stu Levitan's Dailypage obit nailed hers as "a life noteworthy for its accomplishments and remarkable for its generosity of spirit."

You can read some of her accomplishments in the wonderful story John Nichols wrote for the Cap Times Friday.

Midge Miller changed America and the world. She made presidents quake in their boots. She made political parties reflect the will of their members rather than the bosses. She made a place for women in the electoral process -- and in the governing of the land. Then she got busy.

When Miller died Friday morning at age 86 after a long battle with cancer, she left a legacy of political activism, intellectual engagement and human connection unrivaled in the annals of the country this remarkable woman loved enough to repair, redeem and renew. She was, to the end, the woman whom former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson so aptly hailed as the rare "person of energy and understanding who translates her concern into constructive action."

Midge was a neighbor for a few years in the early 80's when I first moved to Madison, and it didn't take long before she dragooned me into collecting her mail when she left town. You didn't say "I can't" to Midge Miller. When she saw me waiting at the bus stop in the morning, it was time for a ride downtown in her Gremlin, seemingly held together by countless bumper stickers, and time to get a "to do" list of things to read and people to call. Even in recent years, the phone would ring and someone would say "Midge Miller suggested I call you for help with..." and I knew Midge was still at it. Working with Midge's stepson Senator Mark Miller in the last few years on a variety of issues provided a comforting level of continuity of intelligent commitment and true public service too rare in the Wisconsin legislature.

Stu Levitan summed it all up: " If the cause was peace or social justice, or the candidate one with more commitment than money, that’s where you’d find Midge Miller."

May her memory be for a blessing.

- Barry Orton

Commerce Secretary: Fiasco Part Three?

First Bill Richardson, then Judd Gregg, and now...Harold Ford, Jr.?  NBC's Chuck Todd is reporting that

It's something a few Democrats around town are pushing and, according to sources, the idea of appointing the former Tennessee Congressman is being given serious thought by folks high up in the Obama administration.

Jack and Jill Politics says Oh Noooo!

Mr. President, I know I don’t need to tell you this. I know you’re smart enough to know that appointing Harold Ford, Jr. to ANYTHING is a mistake. He is a snake that can’t be trusted. There are enough Black folk who were actually loyal and supportive of you that you could nominate - HERE IS A POST GIVING YOU A LIST - than for you to nominate someone who had nothing good to say about you, and repeatedly- throughout the ENTIRE ELECTION SEASON - did nothing but try and undermine you at every turn. You loved your grandmother; he LIED on his for votes.

Reward those that supported YOU, Mr. President. Harold Ford, Jr. would never be YOUR choice. You could NEVER doubt that he’d be trying to undermine you at every turn. While I and others would welcome an African-American in the position of Secretary of Commerce, I’d rather someone honest, than a complete, untrustworthy snake like Ford. Besides the ‘character’ question, how is he remotely qualified?

Well, for one, he's now a Merrill Lynch executive.  Isn't that a good qualification for a Commerce Secretary?  Oh, maybe not.

- Barry Orton

Doug Moe's Six Madison Landmark Events

Doug Moe wrote a timely column Monday, identifying six landmark events in Madison's History. Three were political, one was musical, and the two were sporting events. Where were you for landmark events?

Curiously, despite my aversion for crowds, I was at four of them, and none were sporting events.

I would not dispute Doug's list but I would only include the Clinton-Gore campaign appearance October 1, 1992 and last February's Obama rally at the Kohl Center on my own list.

To round out a list of four more I would add:

• The October 1963 rally on the steps of the Memorial Union protesting the presence of U.S. military advisors in Vietnam. Only 200 participated but it was to have  a major impact on building the antiwar movement in Wisconsin and the United States.

• The Dow demonstration on October 17-18, 1967, which was to see Madison police officers make a unilateral decision to club students out of the Commerce Building, rather than using the rule of law. That demonstration was to alter the nature of the anti-war movement throughout the United States.

• The Mifflin Street Block Party, May 5-6, 1969 which was not the brain child of the Mifflin Street Co-op. (I have been in recent contact with one of the creators of that non-event.)  It was to forever change the course of events for thousands of people, including me.

• The night Richard Nixon resigned.

As for the 1992 Bill Clinton-Al Gore appearance, I had the privilege of opening that event and then introducing the speakers leading up to then-candidates Gore and Clinton. We were to start the proceedings when the candidates' caravan was about one hour from Madison on the interstate coming from a Milwaukee campaign appearance.

Everything went perfreclty, the last speaker before Al Gore was ready to go when I was pulled aside and told to get back there. I had to buy time and speak again, and fill another thirty minutes.

Not 20 minutes outside of Milwaukee, Bill Clinton decided he needed an ice cream cone.

As a result, when they finally arrived, all of the other speakers were down in the Capitol doing a private meet and greet with the candidates and I was on the steps of the Capitol buying time.

Other notables:

• State street, December 3, 1993,the night the Badger football team beat Michigan State in Tokyo to clinch the Big Ten title and head for a Rose Bowl win over UCLA

• Kohl Center in 2003 when the men's basketball team beat Illinois for the Big Ten Championship

• Several Coliseum concerts including:

• Steve Miller, I think it was 1975
• Bob Dylan 1976?
• Elvis's first Madison appearance

• Barry Goldwater speech at the State Capitol, fall, 1964,
• George Wallace speech, Union Theater, 1967?

 

Pete Seeger - A report from a friend on his recent concert

I attneded my first Pete Seeger concert when I was around eight or nine. It was probably at Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago. I do not know how many of his concerts I attended over the years, perhaps a half a dozen. Some were fund raisers for the secular, South Side school of Jewish Studies (for several years we were located in a YMCA) which I attended.

Each one was fresh and and exciting.

When PBS broadcast the American Masters program last February, Pete Seeger, The Power of Song, I regretted that I had not seen him in concert in over thirty years.  I figured I would never get an opportunity to see him perform again.

Yesterday I got a message from friend Vicki Gabriner who was Miss Sifting and Winnowing at the 1967 Dow Demonstration. Vicki mentioned that she had seen Seeger, who will be ninety in May, in concert. 

I told her that when I saw him perform, on at least one occasion, he chopped a log as he sang a chain gang song.

I asked Vicki to share her thoughts:

No axes or chopping wood but there's still that essential Pete Seeger-ness, his optimism, good humor, good politics, smart lyrics, ability to pull the audience along with him even though his voice is nothing like it used to be. My favorite song was AMAZING GRACE, holding note after note for a long time, feeling the vibrations of the notes. And amazingly, he ended with BLUE SKIES (nothin' but Blue Skies do I see . . . ) and OVER THE RAINBOW.

I missed Woodstock, Dylan at Newport, great performances at Monterey, and I missed one more Pete seeger concert. Drats. And it would have been fun to see him with old friends. That is the way life should be.

Also from the New York Times: Pete Seeger, Still Singing His Message at 89

Kutler on Blagojevich, Burris, and the Constitution

The nice thing about reading Stanley Kutler's* commentary on national affairs that have their roots in thorny Constitutional issues is that he informs, he educates, and he knows the topic. It's like going back to school. I did take four courses from him as both an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Wisconsin.

Writing at Truth-dig, he cogently outlines the political and legal issues facing the United States Senate and the Democratic Party with the appointment by humbled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich of his nominee, Roland Burris (Burris refused seat in US Senate.):

Understanding the Constitution sometimes is like interpreting the Talmud.  Two scholarly readings bring forth three opinions. Article I, Section 5, of the Constitution is rather straightforward: “Each House shall be the judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualification of its own Members..."

Nice. Now what do they do? For the full story, go to Kutler's article: Blagojevich vs. The Senate:

 *Waxing America's favorite Emeritus Professor in the entire galaxy, the esteemed University of Wisconsin Constitutional scholar Stanley Kutler

Blagojevich: Sleaze vs. Crime

Last Friday I was on Wisconsin Public Radio's Week In Review with Joy Cardin and fellow guest and blogger at Boots and Sabers, Owen Robinson.

When the conversation turned to embattled Illinois Governor Blagojevich, I made the observation that:

On the sleaze meter the guy is off the charts, but that so far, the complaint against him has no concrete proof that he either specifically asked anyone for a bribe or that her ever received anything of value.

All of which poses a dilemma, namely when does a politician cross the line from playing hardball politics in appointing only friends and supporters, to the world of extortion and criminality?

The New York Times took up this question on Monday, In Blagojevich Case, Is It a Crime, Or Just Talk?

Ever since the country’s founding, prosecutors, defense lawyers and juries have been trying to define the difference between criminality and political deal-making. They have never established a clear-cut line between the offensive and the illegal, and the hours of wiretapped conversations involving Mr. Blagojevich, filled with crass, profane talk about benefiting from the Senate vacancy, may fall into a legal gray area.

The best advice for any politician, is do not go near that line. You do not want to be in the gray area or any other area that comes near crossing the line.

Harvey Milk and George Moscone

Tonight we saw Milk.  The first two minutes were as emotional an introduction to any film I have ever seen.

My reaction to the film is a reflection of the quality of the movie.  It is also a response from living through those times.

It was powerful and moving. Everything said about Sean Penn's outstanding performance is true.

The city of Madison adopted its equal opportunity ordinance protecting all individuals regardless of sexual orientation or sexual preference in the spring or summer of 1976.

Unlike Dade County, Florida, Minneapolis, or Eugene, Oregon, despite our best efforts to bait Anita Bryant, we could not lure her to Madison.  

June  1977 was the last time I saw San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. It was probably Friday June 17 at the conclusion of a hard week of work.

Moscone, U.S. Conference of Mayors President, Ken Gibson from Newark, and  Mayor John Rousakis of Savannah were at the hotel swimming pool.

Gibson and I were in the water, Moscone and Rousakis sunned themselves on lounge chairs when a young photographer from the Tuscon Citizen appeared. He had been trying to get pictures of mayors not working and he had his victims. I spotted him and alerted the others. Gibson and I simply turned our backs to his camera lens.

Moscone was exhausted since every crazed Tusconian with a San Francisco connection had called his hotel room the previous night. Moscone simply draped a towel over his face.

Rousakis did not care and did not move.

The kid snapped a few pictures and walked over to Rousakis. He asked for names. The mayor pointed to Moscone and then himself, "He is Michael Blandic, the new mayor of Chicago, and I am Maynard Jackson, the mayor of Atlanta." (Jackson left, Rousakis right)

Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk were assassinated on Monday November 27, 1978. The moment hearing of the tragedy and seeing Dianne Feinstein on the news announcing their deaths was as real last night as it was that day.

On Tuesday November 28, 1978 I made reservations for San Francisco. That night our city council met. We had ended the practice of opening the meetings with a formal prayer and instead rotated among the council members who would begin each session with some thoughts of their own. Alderman Jim Yeadon began with words memorializing the two slain leaders. Two years earlier, as a citizen serving on the Equal Opportunities Commission, Jim was instrumental in the adoption of Madison's ordinance protecting gay rights. From the Wisconsin State Journal Friday December 12, 2008:

The assassinations of Milk and Moscone marked a poignant moment for Yeadon, who asked to open the first council meeting after the slayings with a remembrance.

"I get shivers when I think about it," he recalls. "I said, 'Yesterday there were three openly gay elected officials in the country. Today there are two. And I don't know how many good mayors there were in the country, but today the world is one the less.' Then I asked people to bow their heads and pray and give their thoughts to the people in San Francisco. I was almost crying. It really brought it home."

On Wednesday November 29, 1978 I flew to San Francisco where I caught up with some friends from Madison in a city numb with grief.

to be continued