Republicans in Wisconsin? Sucking A Little Wind

I don't know if anybody's noticed, but Wisconsin Republicans don't look so good anymore. Suddenly, things have gone downhill.

Their chickenshit stance on the election, disguise as macho--making people stand out in the rain, with virus all around, and so the number of urban polling place are reduced so to play toe percentages and give themselves the beset possible chance of victory for a bad incumbent in the state Supreme Court race--backfired horribly, losing by eight percentage points. The memory of Robin Pos dressed like Spaceman Spiff resonates.

Then there effort to involve that same court in twisting Governor Tony Evers' arm behind his back and make him open up the state completely, despite the pandemic, has hit an interesting kind of wall. The case was heard last Tuesday, now eight days ago. The conservatives still hold, however briefly, a 5-2 edge. Funny that a decision's taken this long. Could it be that they don't know what to do when confronted by--as incumbent candidate Daniel Kelly tried to keep insisting he relied upon--the plain language of the statutes?

What's taking them so long? Cat got their tongues? Do Rebecca Bradley and ImPatience Roggensack suddenly have a problem, once they actually looked at the law and realized that freedom, in this case, means death to hundreds of stupid people?

The governor has stuck to his guns. Despite tragedies at food-packing plants in Green Bay and Janesville-Beloit, the numbers of ill and dead, though awful, remain low for a state of this size. His metaphor of 'turning the tail instead of flicking a switch (perhaps borrowed from Minnesota, whose governor uses the same terminology, or vice versa) is proving to be one of the few calming gestures amidst a culture constantly on the edge.

Plus, simply, it's smart and defuses Republicans angst, genuine or otherwise. A consensus is developing here and elsewhere that, however we may reopen the economy, we have to do it smartly to give everyone the chance to enjoy life again. Allowing retail to open with no more than five customers in a store cuts close to honoring that consensus. (And it says here that those businesses should adapt the Costco Concept and prevent anyone from entering without a mask. Whining will ensue, briefly. Then people will get on with it.)

The calendar also work in Evers' favor. We know have less than two weeks left in the extension of the Safe At Home restrictions that Republicans have railed against. Each day that the state supreme court delay its decision makes that decision more moot, and makes Evers appear genuinely statesmanlike. Vos can scream bloody murder about regional openings and the need to open up the whole state, but with each hour that moves toward Memorial Day, it rings more hollow.

Without Mr. F. Gow--most recent former governor of Wisconsin, in initials--at their back, to clean up and legitimize their radicalism, Wisconsin Republicans appear rudderless and out on a limb. They look worse by the day. Tony Evers has taken their legislative advantage and shunted it aside with deft, measured moved designed to exude calm as well as deal with this terrible disaster, fomented on us by a clueless, horrible president who, day-by-day, fits the walking definition of "useless."

More on that later. In the meantime, it's been fun to see meanness turned into mush, into empty grumbling. Gerrymandering will be with us a while, so we must celebrate small victories when we can get them.

And they will never be one-sided in this, perhaps the ultimately purple state. The northernmost, most rural Congressional District, the 7th, has just elected a climate change objector by 15 points. But the margin for 45 in 2016 was 20. That five percent may be the difference this time around. Their second thoughts may yet save Wisconsin--and, perhaps, the republic. But it looks nowhere near as dismal as it did four years ago.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark