Scott Fitzgerald's Going to Skate to Congress. That's Sad.

In a perfect example of the corruption of gerrymandering. Scott Fitzgerald, majority leader of the Wisconsin Senate, is most likely going to skate his way to succeeding James Sensenbrenner in Wisconsin's 5th Congressional District. Fitzgerald has opposition, a fellow named Tom Palzewicz, but he's obviously poorly funded, since we haven't seen much of him on television and here we sit with less than three weeks to go before the election.

Fitzgerald needs to be called out, and loudly. He and his fellow conspirator, Robin Vos in the Assembly, haven't convened the legislature since the spring. When Governor Tony Evers wants it to convene, they do so with the shallowest of tokenism. Think there's possibly some things to do? Me, too.

The pandemic, for example. But all they want to do is file suits to get in the way of Evers. And all Evers wants to do is get people to wear masks and limit public gatherings in places like bars and restaurants so the incidence of Covid-19 is cut down.

But Fitzgerald and Vos filed suit back in the spring, and the badly biased Wisconsin Supreme Court went along with it. The result? Well, it took a while, but Wisconsin is now the poster child for the spread of the pandemic. It set a record of individual cases six days ago, and yesterday, surpassed it.

Seventy percent of Wisconsin's voters think Evers' executive order requiring people to wear masks was a good idea. Doesn't faze Fitzgerald and Vos a bit. They have power, and by golly, they're going to hang onto it.

Have they met with Evers to try to work things out? Of course not. Have they asked to do that? Of course not. That would dilute the power they have. Allowing a legislative discussion might do the same thing, so they won't allow that, either.

Does Fitzgerald want to help that? Obviously not. Has he commented? Not that I've seen.

Where is his opponent? Underfunded because with gerrymandering about, people tend to give up on competitive elections. It's not as if the Democrats aren't trying. But they've brought a spoon to a knifefight.

Palzewicz should have enough resources to be up on television, decrying this horrible irresponsibility. He should be saying something like, Think he's going to legislate for you? He hasn't when it's been most badly needed--right now. Think he'll be anything but someone's bus boy? Think again. He wants to represent you by doing what he's doing right now: nothing.

Palzewicz should be ripping Fitzgerald to shreds. He should be connecting him to 45, whose support in Wisconsin is slowly ebbing. What does he have to lose?

Instead, Fitzgerald's token, dog whistle radio ads chirp about how he'll protect Wisconsin businesses. Of course he will, to the detriment of nearly everyone else, who are fooled into believing that that's in their best interests. Neither he nor 45 give a tinker's damn about them.

Fitzgerald has been waiting for this opportunity for years. Like Glenn Grothman, another terrible mistake in the 6th District, the path has been cleared through gerrymandering.

There's been no dust dredged up about this. There's been nothing, or next to nothing, on the internet. He's going to skate into the back door, and once there, it's difficult to get people out.

This is the legacy of gerrymandering: People give up on democracy. Wisconsin is the prototype for it now. Fortunately, I live in the 4th District, where Gwen Moore is practically guaranteed re-election, too. But I would give that up if I knew someone had a chance to beat Grothman and Fitzgerald. I would take that chance. 

I would rather have competitive races everywhere than this sham. I would get out and campaign for someone. But this is practically useless.

Wisconsin tried to loosen this up in the Supreme Court two years ago, but the Court punted and threw it back to the states. That solved nothing. It froze everything in place.

Does it matter? You bet it does. Beyond the basic lawmaking, there's a showdown a-brewing. The majority of members of the House of Representatives on a state-by-state basis, although in aggregate they're quite far behind, are now Republican. And that might matter in just a few weeks if 45 manages to hold up the presidential election, prevent the determination of the Electoral College vote and throw it into the House, where a majority of state representatives would determine each state's single vote, with a majority of states, 26, determining the winner.

The single member of the House in states like Wyoming, North and South Dakota, and Alaska will make up four of the Republican votes. They will count the same as California and New York, which favor Democrats in the aggregate but that means nothing in a vote like this. We may have careened into the rocky shores of minority rule. We certainly have in Wisconsin, where an easy majority of voters have gone Democratic in the last two elections but have barely made a dent in an overwhelming Republican Assembly majority.

Right now, the Republicans have control of exactly 26 states, even though they're far behind in absolute numbers. That could change November 3, of course, but it will be as close as the determination of the U.S. Senate will.

This is undemocratic, with a small 'd'. It is yet another indication that Republicans know--they know--that, if put to a total vote anywhere in any fair way, their positions on a number of topics, indeed their philosophy and manner of governance, constitute the minority position. The only way to guarantee a spot for them at the table is to fix the results so they never lose power. They can only do that so much, but they can do it enough to gum up the works.

It's why Scott Fitzgerald is going to slip into the back door of Congress with barely a peep. He will not be a leader; he will be someone's follower without a genuine voice, as opposed to the person he's replacing, who at least once in a while took on internal power and called it out. He will sound like the other Republican sirens--boring, repetitive, simple-minded, pretentious. And he will not be best for those he represents.

To me, it is the number one problem we face. It is a battle we must engage.

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

Mister Mark