In These Times: What’s the Matter With Wisconsin? [View All]

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What’s the Matter With Wisconsin?
The state’s motto is “Forward,” but it’s now turning its back on a rich progressive history.

By Theo Anderson


At the turn of the last century, Wisconsin was a critical incubator of early progressivism. In one year alone, 1911, Wisconsin’s legislature passed laws that created the nation’s first compensation fund for injured workers, a state income tax, environmental conservation programs and protections for women and children in the workplace.

Now, Wisconsin is at the vanguard of a movement that aims to undermine the political tradition it helped to create. The outcome of the 2010 congressional races in Wisconsin suggests sobering challenges for progressives at the national level. Democrats lost two seats in the House races, giving Republicans a 5-3 advantage. It’s the first GOP majority within Wisconsin’s congressional delegation since the mid-1990s. In the Senate, Democrats lost progressive stalwart Russ Feingold to a plastics manufacturer and Tea Party favorite son, Ron Johnson, who has dismissed the science of global warming as “lunacy.” Johnson’s campaign focused primarily on job growth, which he believes will be accomplished by lowering taxes and slashing government regulations.

But it’s in the realm of Wisconsin’s state-level politics that the rising challenge to progressivism comes into stark focus. The GOP took control of both houses of the Wisconsin legislature and also won the governorship—a one-day power shift unparalleled in Wisconsin since 1938. The new governor, Scott Walker, served as the Milwaukee County Executive before the election. As with Sen. Johnson’s, the central themes of Walker’s campaign were fiscal responsibility and the promise of a less regulated, more “pro-business” Wisconsin. Walker’s time in office will offer an interesting test of the 19th-century dogma that has defined the GOP for three decades—”supply-side economics,” the idea that lowering tax rates actually increases tax revenue by promoting economic growth. On other fronts as well, Wisconsin appears ready to blaze a trail back to the nineteenth century:

Killing public works projects. Walker campaigned aggressively against a proposed high-speed train linking Milwaukee and Madison, calling it a “boondoggle” that would saddle the state with unsustainable repair and upkeep costs. In December, the $810 million in federal construction funding that had been awarded to Wisconsin was redirected to several other states. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6935/whats_the_matter_with_wisconsin