What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics
For more than a century, Wisconsin has been known nationwide for its progressive ideas and government. It famously served as a "laboratory of democracy," a cradle of the labor and environmental movements, and birthplace of the Wisconsin Idea, which championed expertise in the service of the common good. But following a Republican sweep of the state’s government in 2010, Wisconsin’s political heritage was overturned, and the state went Republican for the first time in three decades in the 2016 presidential election, elevating Donald J. Trump to the presidency.
The Fall of Wisconsin is a deeply reported, searing account of how the state’s progressive tradition was undone and turned into a model for national conservatives bent on remaking the country. Dan Kaufman, a Wisconsin native who has been covering the story for several years, traces the history of progressivism that made Wisconsin so widely admired, from the work of celebrated politicians like Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette and Gaylord Nelson, to local traditions like Milwaukee’s “sewer socialism,” to the conservationist ideas of Aldo Leopold and the state’s Native American tribes. Kaufman reveals how the “divide-and-conquer” strategy of Governor Scott Walker and his allies pitted Wisconsin’s citizens against one another so powerful corporations and wealthy donors could effectively take control of state government. As a result, laws protecting voting rights, labor unions, the environment, and public education were rapidly dismantled.
Neither sentimental nor despairing, Kaufman also chronicles the remarkable efforts of citizens who are fighting to reclaim Wisconsin’s progressive legacy against tremendous odds: Chris Taylor, a Democratic assemblywoman exposing the national conservative infrastructure, Mike Wiggins, the head of a Chippewa tribe battling an out-of-state mining company, and Randy Bryce, the ironworker whose long-shot challenge to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has galvanized national resistance to Trump.
The Fall of Wisconsin is a deeply reported, searing account of how the state’s progressive tradition was undone and turned into a model for national conservatives bent on remaking the country. Dan Kaufman, a Wisconsin native who has been covering the story for several years, traces the history of progressivism that made Wisconsin so widely admired, from the work of celebrated politicians like Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette and Gaylord Nelson, to local traditions like Milwaukee’s “sewer socialism,” to the conservationist ideas of Aldo Leopold and the state’s Native American tribes. Kaufman reveals how the “divide-and-conquer” strategy of Governor Scott Walker and his allies pitted Wisconsin’s citizens against one another so powerful corporations and wealthy donors could effectively take control of state government. As a result, laws protecting voting rights, labor unions, the environment, and public education were rapidly dismantled.
Neither sentimental nor despairing, Kaufman also chronicles the remarkable efforts of citizens who are fighting to reclaim Wisconsin’s progressive legacy against tremendous odds: Chris Taylor, a Democratic assemblywoman exposing the national conservative infrastructure, Mike Wiggins, the head of a Chippewa tribe battling an out-of-state mining company, and Randy Bryce, the ironworker whose long-shot challenge to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has galvanized national resistance to Trump.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published July 10, 2018
145 people are currently reading
2148 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
July 20, 2018
This is the perfect book to give someone trying to understand what exactly happened in Wisconsin over these past thirty-or-so years so that a staunchly progressive and friendly state who looked after their own fell prey to a group who wanted to break that sense of community and, as Scott Walker told the national Republicans, “divide and conquer” the unions. Well, that they did, and a whole lot more and now the state is so heavily gerrymandered even majority Democrats don’t have a chance to elect their preferred candidates.
Kaufman manages to get us up to date on the state of the economy there, the threat of environmental degradation, and the lack of funding for public projects like universities. We learn which candidates who have run in the past and who is running now, including Braveheart Randy Bryce in District #1 who took on the “head of the snake” Paul Ryan and managed to slay Ryan's political future.
Bryce still has a battle with Steil, Ryan’s handpicked successor, but he’s got national support and attention for his fight. What Kaufman does particularly well is the backstory—why certain candidates ended up on the ballot, what they bring, and who supports them.
Norwegians instilled a kind of communitarian ethos in the area southwest of Milwaukee where they settled in the mid-nineteenth century, moving up from Chicago. At the same time northeast of Madison abolitionists gathered and decided to call themselves Republicans after the Latin for “the common good.” How much has changed! in the years since.
Chippewa Indian tribes, also called Ojibwe, who have retained some land rights in Wisconsin, have been strong proponents of environmental conservation and preservation. This has put them at loggerheads with people who call themselves conservatives but who have supported open-pit mining in the headwaters of Indian land, a poor site that had been rejected many times over by previous prospectors looking for good sites.
One of the more heartbreaking stories Kaufman tells is that of the tar-sands pipeline that crosses under the free-flowing Namekagon River in northern Wisconsin. Owned by the Canadian company Enbridge, it was responsible for several hundred spills in the past decade, including one in 2010 that counts as the largest and most expensive inland oil spill in American history.
Like the Keystone pipeline, Enbridge’s pipeline carries tar-sand, which needs to be mixed with chemical solvents so that it will flow. When exposed to air, these chemicals release a toxic gas, and the sticky tar sands sinks in the river & requires dredging to remove it. Here we have proof that tar-sands pipelines invite environmental disasters and we are still hearing about that will not happen with Keystone because of all the protections. We really must place that particular lie where it belongs and expose the damage this absurd refusal to see alternatives is leaving us.
Very quickly Kaufman sketches the strong progressive values inculcated in state residents since the earliest days and draws a line to present political incumbents. Despite Paul Ryan being a native son growing up in Janesville, he calls progressivism “a cancer.” Scott Walker’s family moved in from Colorado by way of Iowa. He was a religious crusader who felt God had given him a mission in Wisconsin to break the unions. Randy Bryce, a veteran and cancer survivor, on the other hand, became a strong proponent of the labor movement just at the time Walker was looking to cripple it.
For years before Scott Walker came to office, there had been an assault on public institutions in Wisconsin, including universities and public schools. Walker instituted Act10 in 2011, which limited the right of public employees to collectively bargain, and then in 2015 attempted to change the mission statement of the university system from “to educate people and improve the human condition” to “meet the state’s workforce needs,” showing us the limits of his imagination. We do not know why Walker appears to have failed out of Marquette University, but we can see that he appears to fear what comes and so looks backward, to what he learned in childhood--not facts perhaps, but beliefs. No soaring rhetoric for him, by God.
The portraits of individuals becoming desperate to put up a fight against the prevailing winds in Wisconsin are both heartening and discouraging. National opposition parties to the GOP, like Democrats, have their national goals wound so tightly around their axle they can barely cast a glance at states not putting up a good fight on their own.
Which is why, once Bryce broke a certain level of consciousness nationally, the Democrats were willing to contribute some money and some people. But Bernie Sanders recognized a fellow traveller in Bryce, someone whose values are in line with Wisconsin’s historical Scandinavian ethos of progressivism and in contrast to his states’ current conservative climate.
Finding and funding candidates is a huge step towards putting up a good fight in Wisconsin. I used to be disappointed well-trained and -spoken lawyers didn’t make more of an effort to help lead, but no more. Voters in Wisconsin are going to have to fight for what they want, and one of the first steps to effective forward movement is a fire in the belly and an awareness of history. Kaufman does a brilliant job of making key elements of this history come alive with personality and human foible. We can, we must fix this. Wisconsin is not just the heartland, it is our heart.
Kaufman manages to get us up to date on the state of the economy there, the threat of environmental degradation, and the lack of funding for public projects like universities. We learn which candidates who have run in the past and who is running now, including Braveheart Randy Bryce in District #1 who took on the “head of the snake” Paul Ryan and managed to slay Ryan's political future.
Bryce still has a battle with Steil, Ryan’s handpicked successor, but he’s got national support and attention for his fight. What Kaufman does particularly well is the backstory—why certain candidates ended up on the ballot, what they bring, and who supports them.
Norwegians instilled a kind of communitarian ethos in the area southwest of Milwaukee where they settled in the mid-nineteenth century, moving up from Chicago. At the same time northeast of Madison abolitionists gathered and decided to call themselves Republicans after the Latin for “the common good.” How much has changed! in the years since.
Chippewa Indian tribes, also called Ojibwe, who have retained some land rights in Wisconsin, have been strong proponents of environmental conservation and preservation. This has put them at loggerheads with people who call themselves conservatives but who have supported open-pit mining in the headwaters of Indian land, a poor site that had been rejected many times over by previous prospectors looking for good sites.
One of the more heartbreaking stories Kaufman tells is that of the tar-sands pipeline that crosses under the free-flowing Namekagon River in northern Wisconsin. Owned by the Canadian company Enbridge, it was responsible for several hundred spills in the past decade, including one in 2010 that counts as the largest and most expensive inland oil spill in American history.
Like the Keystone pipeline, Enbridge’s pipeline carries tar-sand, which needs to be mixed with chemical solvents so that it will flow. When exposed to air, these chemicals release a toxic gas, and the sticky tar sands sinks in the river & requires dredging to remove it. Here we have proof that tar-sands pipelines invite environmental disasters and we are still hearing about that will not happen with Keystone because of all the protections. We really must place that particular lie where it belongs and expose the damage this absurd refusal to see alternatives is leaving us.
Very quickly Kaufman sketches the strong progressive values inculcated in state residents since the earliest days and draws a line to present political incumbents. Despite Paul Ryan being a native son growing up in Janesville, he calls progressivism “a cancer.” Scott Walker’s family moved in from Colorado by way of Iowa. He was a religious crusader who felt God had given him a mission in Wisconsin to break the unions. Randy Bryce, a veteran and cancer survivor, on the other hand, became a strong proponent of the labor movement just at the time Walker was looking to cripple it.
For years before Scott Walker came to office, there had been an assault on public institutions in Wisconsin, including universities and public schools. Walker instituted Act10 in 2011, which limited the right of public employees to collectively bargain, and then in 2015 attempted to change the mission statement of the university system from “to educate people and improve the human condition” to “meet the state’s workforce needs,” showing us the limits of his imagination. We do not know why Walker appears to have failed out of Marquette University, but we can see that he appears to fear what comes and so looks backward, to what he learned in childhood--not facts perhaps, but beliefs. No soaring rhetoric for him, by God.
The portraits of individuals becoming desperate to put up a fight against the prevailing winds in Wisconsin are both heartening and discouraging. National opposition parties to the GOP, like Democrats, have their national goals wound so tightly around their axle they can barely cast a glance at states not putting up a good fight on their own.
Which is why, once Bryce broke a certain level of consciousness nationally, the Democrats were willing to contribute some money and some people. But Bernie Sanders recognized a fellow traveller in Bryce, someone whose values are in line with Wisconsin’s historical Scandinavian ethos of progressivism and in contrast to his states’ current conservative climate.
Finding and funding candidates is a huge step towards putting up a good fight in Wisconsin. I used to be disappointed well-trained and -spoken lawyers didn’t make more of an effort to help lead, but no more. Voters in Wisconsin are going to have to fight for what they want, and one of the first steps to effective forward movement is a fire in the belly and an awareness of history. Kaufman does a brilliant job of making key elements of this history come alive with personality and human foible. We can, we must fix this. Wisconsin is not just the heartland, it is our heart.
August 23, 2018
I received a free e-copy of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics from Goodreads for my honest review.
An extremely informative read. Growing up in Wisconsin, taking Wisconsin history was a required course in High School. I wish we would have had this book to study from. This should be required reading and would be a great tool for the schools. Although brutally sad, this is such an important part of Wisconsin's history.
An extremely informative read. Growing up in Wisconsin, taking Wisconsin history was a required course in High School. I wish we would have had this book to study from. This should be required reading and would be a great tool for the schools. Although brutally sad, this is such an important part of Wisconsin's history.
April 3, 2023
Fall of Wisconsin, Dan Kaufman, 2018, ISBN 9780393635201.
Not just about 2011, when our Koch-puppet governor & legislature began repealing 100 years of good government. Sets the stage with some of the history, and sequel, 1793 through Mar. 2018.
The Kochs & a few other billionaire extractive-industry barons have taken over state governments in over half the states, using their "American Legislative Exchange Council" (ALEC, see alecexposed.org) to push through antienvironment, antiworker, probillionaire laws.
The book came out before the 2018 election, when Democrat Tony Evers won the governorship. Since then, the wholly-Koch-owned Republican legislature hasn't got all its own way. Neither has Evers been able to undo the damage, with still-Republican legislature, and still-corporate-vassal Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The history tells us it's always like this. 1800s politicians were owned by railroad, lumbering, and other monied interests (pp. 20-24). They must be re-beaten in every generation if there's to be a government of the people. (Fighting Bob LaFollette, p. 5)
"Which shall rule--wealth or man; which shall lead--money or intellect; who shall fill public stations--educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?" --Edward G. Ryan, Wisconsin Chief Justice, 1873 (pp. -6, 22)
Gerrymandered Wisconsin:
Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
Dan Shafer: https://recombobulationarea.substack....
Don Moynihan: https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/th...
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
(Remember that Democrats, when they were in power, could have, and did not, institute a fair, neutral, districting process. Just as Republicans are now doing, Democrats wanted to, and did, draw districts in their own favor when they had the opportunity.)
The author says, "conservative," where he means feudalist, all-for-the-billionaire, screw-the-populace, rape-the-planet.
Veterans are disposable. (pp. 37-38)
Janesville Congressman Paul Ryan (R) waged war on community's safety net. (p. 42) Wanted to privatize Social Security, eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest of the gains of the past 100 years. (pp. 44-45)
Fri. 2/11/2011 Gov. Walker announces Act 10: eliminate collective bargaining for public employees, take $1 billion/yr. from them in pensions & insurance. (pp. 46, 55) (And cut corporate taxes.)
Billionaire Diane Hendricks: can we crush unions? Gov. Walker: We'll divide and conquer: public-employee unions now; next private sector. (pp. 47-48) As Reagan broke air-traffic-control union in 1981.
Duty of government: protect the weak from the strong. Power and wealth mean the subjection of the many. --John Bascom, University of Wisconsin president, 1874-1887, "the guiding spirit of my time" --Fighting Bob LaFollette (p. 57-58)
1901, Gov. Bob LaFollette establishes Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau: university experts write model bills, reforming a process that had been corrupted by lobbyists. (pp. 58-59)
1911 Wisconsin passes fair, progressive, state income tax, written by a professor. By 1920, 11 states had followed suit. (pp. 59-60) 1911 workers' compensation for on-job injury. (p. 60) For companies, workers' lives were cheap.
1892 University of Wisconsin "Magna Carta of Academic Freedom." (pp. 60-61) Economists whose views scared off donors from other universities, came to Madison. (p. 61) Need govt. & unions to curb capitalist power. --Professor Richard Ely. Influenced Presidents Roosevelts & Wilson. (pp. 61-62; Donald R. Stabile, /The Living Wage: Lessons from the History of Economic Thought/, 2008)
Living wage Wisconsin law 1913 removed by Gov. Walker 2015. (p. 62)
Fourteen Socialists in 1911 Wisconsin legislature. (p. 62) Pushed Republicans to the left. Socialists so organized, could print flyers in twelve languages and deliver to every Milwaukee home, in the appropriate language, within 48 hours. (p. 63) Lobbyists knew that they couldn't influence Socialist politicians. Incorruptible. --William Ejuve (p. 64) Socialist Milwaukee mayor Hoan: transparent government, higher minimum wage, libraries, schools, parks. (All that Socialist stuff. pp. 64-65)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees founded in Madison in 1930s to save Civil Service from replacement with machine-politics patronage system. (p. 66)
Racial & economic justice are inseparable. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (p. 67) "when slaves get together, Pharaoh can't hold them in slavery." Anti-conspiracy law was written to bust unions. (p. 67)
President LBJ pushed Memphis mayor to recognize sanitation workers' union (AFSCME) after Martin Luther King was murdered, 1968. (p. 68) Millions of public workers gained by strikes. (pp. 68-69)
1948-1979, unions nearly doubled average U.S. wages, and lowered the white/black wage gap. When unions dwindled, white/black wealth gap spiked. (p. 69. epi.org's graph of flat wages & soaring productivity since then: https://www.epi.org/chart/labor-day-2... The Reagan years began seeing the return to a lords-&-serfs world, amplified under every president since. Only in 1942-1981 did top 0.01% take less than 165 times average U.S. income. Hundreds of times avg. now. That graph used to be at Thomas Piketty's world inequality database, https://wid.world/country/usa/ )
Bill Clinton's NAFTA closed thousands of U.S. plants. (p. 70)
Republican state senator Scott Fitzgerald admits the mining company wrote the mining bill that repealed environmental and good-government protections. Mining billionaire Chris Cline donated $15M to Gov. Walker & Republican legislators' campaigns. (pp. 104-106)
Gov. Walker & Republican legislature gave $4.5 billion of public money to Foxconn, a Taiwanese company--and rewrote laws to protect it from lawsuits. pp. 110, 266. (And took $ billions from public education. p. 125 And cut environmental protection jobs. p. 201)
David Koch: "We're spending money in Wisconsin" to shape government to enrich extractive billionaires, to everyone else's cost. (114)
Bill Clinton & Obama pushed for taking money from public schools & giving it to private for-profit & religious schools. And for ending welfare. (p. 116)
Some of Peter Berryman's "Bring Back Wisconsin to Me" lyrics, p. 117. Full lyrics: https://louandpeter.com/i-don-t-get-it See end of this review for full lyrics
Weaponized philanthropy funded the feudalist ascendancy. See Jane Mayer, /Dark Money/, 2016. (p. 117) Weaponized philanthropy lowers billionaires' inheritance taxes, and is bringing back feudalism. (p. 119) Weaponized philanthropy launched Milwaukee's school-voucher program. (p. 120) Public money taken from public schools, given to private for-profit and religious schools.
ALEC has been in control since Republicans gained over 700 seats in state legislatures in 2010. Anti-public-education, antivoting, antilabor, antienvironment. Anti-safety-net. Wisconsin: statewide school-voucher law, right-to-work(-for-less, no union shop), voter ID (disenfranchise young, old, poor, minority). Legislators wholly-owned by the billionaire class. (pp. 121-125)
After Republican gerrymandering, Democrats have never held more than 39 of 99 assembly seats, even with a large majority of total votes. (pp. 151, 218. Democrats had refused to set up a nonpartisan redistricting process when they were in power.)
The fatality rate in construction trades is 40% higher in right-to-work (no union shop) states. (p. 168) Right-to-work generates no economic gains, but drives down wages for all workers. (p. 172) Wisconsin passed right-to-work in 2015. (p. 174)
Northern blue-collar voters for racist George Wallace, let Nixon win in 1968. (p. 179; /Unsteady March: Rise & Decline of Racial Equality in America/, Philip A. Klinker, 1999; /Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City/, Barbara J. Miner, 2013.) But union members supported Obama much more than nonunion. (p. 180)
Hillary Clinton: 1986-1992 corporate lawyer, on board of rabidly antiunion Walmart. She was part of those decisions. Unsafe work, wage theft, sex discrimination. Waltons donated to her 2016 campaign. Hillary cheerled for NAFTA. Hillary praised Trans-Pacific Partnership throughout her term as secretary of state. Subordinates national sovereignty to corporate profit. Hillary: TPP is "gold standard" of free-trade deals. As presidential candidate, suddenly claims to oppose TPP. Lobbied Congress to pass Colombia free trade as secretary of state. Claimed as presidential candidate to oppose it. 143 Colombian labor leaders have been assassinated since it passed (2011 - Mar. 2018). NAFTA lost .7M U.S. jobs to Mexico. China WTO entry cost U.S. more than 3M jobs. Hillary cheered. 75% of the losses were in more-unionized manufacturing sector. Private-sector union membership 15.7% 1993 when NAFTA passed, to 6.4% 2016, when Hillary lost to Trump. Since 1960, no Democrat has won presidency w/o winning Wisconsin primary. Trump claimed to oppose free trade. Clinton talks labor out 1 side of mouth, but fat cats pull her strings. Right-wing populist beats corporate Democrat. Walker did 3 times. (pp. 183-186) Sanders beat Hillary by 136,000 votes, 13 percentage points in WI primary, won 71 of 72 counties. (pp. 189-190. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... But Democratic-party profoundly antidemocratic rules gave Clinton 47 Wisconsin delegates, Sanders 49. Nationwide, Sanders would've had to beat Clinton about 60%-to-40% to have overcome the Democrats' pro-establishment superdelegate bias. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... Trump beat Hillary in Wisconsin by 23,000 votes, 0.8 percentage point. And in Michigan by 11,000 votes, 0.2%; Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes, 0.7%. Bernie could've won these states, and therefore the presidency, had Democratic-party leadership not forced a Clinton nomination. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... )
Amazing article by Barbara Lee With on Democratic leadership's throwing the nomination to Hillary--and on the particular corporate cabals whose creature Hillary is: https://wcmcoop.com/2019/05/21/why-th... Donna Brazile, who was interim Democratic Party chair after Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, tells us Hillary took /all/ the Democratic party's money for her own campaign: https://www.politico.com/magazine/sto... From her book, /Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House/. Also /What Happened to Bernie Sanders/, by Jared H. Beck: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Decline in union membership correlates with rising income inequality. (p. 191) Right-to-work(-for-less) laws decrease Democratic vote share by 3.5%. (p. 191) If Act 10 (no public-sector collective bargaining) is enacted in 10 more states, Democratic Party will have no power. --Grover Norquist. (p. 192)
Trump used unauthorized foreign workers to build Trump Tower. (p. 199)
Windigos are the spirit of greed & excess. The more they eat the hungrier they get. Also known as billionaires. (pp. 204, 231) Walker supported frack sand mining, 26,000-pig factory farm near Superior lakeshore, wolf hunting. (p. 205) Ojibwa prophesy: if wolf goes extinct, man will soon follow. (p. 208) Enbridge pipeline through Wisconsin. Hundreds of Enbridge spills in past 10 years. Canada tar to Chicago & Gulf coast. (p. 209) 2010 Michigan Enbridge spill .8M gallons tar crude in Kalamazoo River. (p. 210) Carcinogenic benzene piped to dissolve tar. Walker's Dept. of Natural Resources: only token fines for polluters, fire over half of scientists. Wisconsin legislature pushed through laws prohibiting pipeline liability insurance requirements, & granting Enbridge the right to seize private property to build an adjacent pipeline. (pp. 211-213)
Wisconsin unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. (p. 217) Democrats can't win more than 39 of 99 seats. (Though Democrats get a majority of total votes for legislators. pp. 151, 218)
Koch interfere in Iron County Board elections (site of GTac mine. p. 218)
Chapter 7: Which shall rule, wealth or man? Since 2011, Wisconsin: child poverty, stagnant wages, defunded education, polluted water, $2 billion budget deficit after tax cuts for the rich. (pp. 233-234)
Bob's bride, Belle LaFollette in 1881 made minister remove "obey" from vows. (p. 237) We need Bob now. (We do have Democrat Tony Evers as governor, since Jan. 2019. He's a huge help.)
Kathy Cramer, /The Politics of Resentment/, 2016: Rural vs. urban. Resentment continues even after the tall poppy is cut down. Taking wages & benefits from someone else doesn't make you happier about not having them! (pp. 239-245)
After Trump won, fans yelled racial slurs at high-school girls in a soccer game. (p. 244)
Wisconsin Republicans repealed mining moratorium, Dec. 2017. (p. 246)
No state has yet repealed a right-to-work law. (p. 269) Most states now have them.
BRING BACK WISCONSIN ©2011 L&P Berryman (melody traditional, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean) https://louandpeter.com/i-don-t-get-it
Wisconsin whose motto was “Forward”
Was populist as it could be
But now the new motto is “Backward”
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
CHORUS:
Bring Back, bring back ! !
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me, to me ! !
Bring back, bring back ! !
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
They’re trying to stifle our voices
They’re trying to keep us derailed (No train!*)
They’ll find it’s not easy to do though
(Joe) McCarthy once tried and he failed
Though we may be “God’s frozen people”
We bask in the warmth of our plea
Don’t bury our rights in a snowbank
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
Our Mother Wisconsin is fragile
It’s very upsetting to see
She wandered away with a Walker
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
Wisconsin's employers are hiring
It’s just like the governor says
And soon there’ll be no unemployment
In Beijing, Mumbai or Juarez
(* Gov. Walker cancelled Obama's Wisconsin high-speed-rail plan--after money had been spent and manufacture begun.)
Current events, reported by Wisconsin Citizens' Media Co-op: https://wcmcoop.com/
trivia:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
Not just about 2011, when our Koch-puppet governor & legislature began repealing 100 years of good government. Sets the stage with some of the history, and sequel, 1793 through Mar. 2018.
The Kochs & a few other billionaire extractive-industry barons have taken over state governments in over half the states, using their "American Legislative Exchange Council" (ALEC, see alecexposed.org) to push through antienvironment, antiworker, probillionaire laws.
The book came out before the 2018 election, when Democrat Tony Evers won the governorship. Since then, the wholly-Koch-owned Republican legislature hasn't got all its own way. Neither has Evers been able to undo the damage, with still-Republican legislature, and still-corporate-vassal Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The history tells us it's always like this. 1800s politicians were owned by railroad, lumbering, and other monied interests (pp. 20-24). They must be re-beaten in every generation if there's to be a government of the people. (Fighting Bob LaFollette, p. 5)
"Which shall rule--wealth or man; which shall lead--money or intellect; who shall fill public stations--educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?" --Edward G. Ryan, Wisconsin Chief Justice, 1873 (pp. -6, 22)
Gerrymandered Wisconsin:
Heather Cox Richardson: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack...
Dan Shafer: https://recombobulationarea.substack....
Don Moynihan: https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/th...
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
(Remember that Democrats, when they were in power, could have, and did not, institute a fair, neutral, districting process. Just as Republicans are now doing, Democrats wanted to, and did, draw districts in their own favor when they had the opportunity.)
The author says, "conservative," where he means feudalist, all-for-the-billionaire, screw-the-populace, rape-the-planet.
Veterans are disposable. (pp. 37-38)
Janesville Congressman Paul Ryan (R) waged war on community's safety net. (p. 42) Wanted to privatize Social Security, eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest of the gains of the past 100 years. (pp. 44-45)
Fri. 2/11/2011 Gov. Walker announces Act 10: eliminate collective bargaining for public employees, take $1 billion/yr. from them in pensions & insurance. (pp. 46, 55) (And cut corporate taxes.)
Billionaire Diane Hendricks: can we crush unions? Gov. Walker: We'll divide and conquer: public-employee unions now; next private sector. (pp. 47-48) As Reagan broke air-traffic-control union in 1981.
Duty of government: protect the weak from the strong. Power and wealth mean the subjection of the many. --John Bascom, University of Wisconsin president, 1874-1887, "the guiding spirit of my time" --Fighting Bob LaFollette (p. 57-58)
1901, Gov. Bob LaFollette establishes Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau: university experts write model bills, reforming a process that had been corrupted by lobbyists. (pp. 58-59)
1911 Wisconsin passes fair, progressive, state income tax, written by a professor. By 1920, 11 states had followed suit. (pp. 59-60) 1911 workers' compensation for on-job injury. (p. 60) For companies, workers' lives were cheap.
1892 University of Wisconsin "Magna Carta of Academic Freedom." (pp. 60-61) Economists whose views scared off donors from other universities, came to Madison. (p. 61) Need govt. & unions to curb capitalist power. --Professor Richard Ely. Influenced Presidents Roosevelts & Wilson. (pp. 61-62; Donald R. Stabile, /The Living Wage: Lessons from the History of Economic Thought/, 2008)
Living wage Wisconsin law 1913 removed by Gov. Walker 2015. (p. 62)
Fourteen Socialists in 1911 Wisconsin legislature. (p. 62) Pushed Republicans to the left. Socialists so organized, could print flyers in twelve languages and deliver to every Milwaukee home, in the appropriate language, within 48 hours. (p. 63) Lobbyists knew that they couldn't influence Socialist politicians. Incorruptible. --William Ejuve (p. 64) Socialist Milwaukee mayor Hoan: transparent government, higher minimum wage, libraries, schools, parks. (All that Socialist stuff. pp. 64-65)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees founded in Madison in 1930s to save Civil Service from replacement with machine-politics patronage system. (p. 66)
Racial & economic justice are inseparable. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (p. 67) "when slaves get together, Pharaoh can't hold them in slavery." Anti-conspiracy law was written to bust unions. (p. 67)
President LBJ pushed Memphis mayor to recognize sanitation workers' union (AFSCME) after Martin Luther King was murdered, 1968. (p. 68) Millions of public workers gained by strikes. (pp. 68-69)
1948-1979, unions nearly doubled average U.S. wages, and lowered the white/black wage gap. When unions dwindled, white/black wealth gap spiked. (p. 69. epi.org's graph of flat wages & soaring productivity since then: https://www.epi.org/chart/labor-day-2... The Reagan years began seeing the return to a lords-&-serfs world, amplified under every president since. Only in 1942-1981 did top 0.01% take less than 165 times average U.S. income. Hundreds of times avg. now. That graph used to be at Thomas Piketty's world inequality database, https://wid.world/country/usa/ )
Bill Clinton's NAFTA closed thousands of U.S. plants. (p. 70)
Republican state senator Scott Fitzgerald admits the mining company wrote the mining bill that repealed environmental and good-government protections. Mining billionaire Chris Cline donated $15M to Gov. Walker & Republican legislators' campaigns. (pp. 104-106)
Gov. Walker & Republican legislature gave $4.5 billion of public money to Foxconn, a Taiwanese company--and rewrote laws to protect it from lawsuits. pp. 110, 266. (And took $ billions from public education. p. 125 And cut environmental protection jobs. p. 201)
David Koch: "We're spending money in Wisconsin" to shape government to enrich extractive billionaires, to everyone else's cost. (114)
Bill Clinton & Obama pushed for taking money from public schools & giving it to private for-profit & religious schools. And for ending welfare. (p. 116)
Some of Peter Berryman's "Bring Back Wisconsin to Me" lyrics, p. 117. Full lyrics: https://louandpeter.com/i-don-t-get-it See end of this review for full lyrics
Weaponized philanthropy funded the feudalist ascendancy. See Jane Mayer, /Dark Money/, 2016. (p. 117) Weaponized philanthropy lowers billionaires' inheritance taxes, and is bringing back feudalism. (p. 119) Weaponized philanthropy launched Milwaukee's school-voucher program. (p. 120) Public money taken from public schools, given to private for-profit and religious schools.
ALEC has been in control since Republicans gained over 700 seats in state legislatures in 2010. Anti-public-education, antivoting, antilabor, antienvironment. Anti-safety-net. Wisconsin: statewide school-voucher law, right-to-work(-for-less, no union shop), voter ID (disenfranchise young, old, poor, minority). Legislators wholly-owned by the billionaire class. (pp. 121-125)
After Republican gerrymandering, Democrats have never held more than 39 of 99 assembly seats, even with a large majority of total votes. (pp. 151, 218. Democrats had refused to set up a nonpartisan redistricting process when they were in power.)
The fatality rate in construction trades is 40% higher in right-to-work (no union shop) states. (p. 168) Right-to-work generates no economic gains, but drives down wages for all workers. (p. 172) Wisconsin passed right-to-work in 2015. (p. 174)
Northern blue-collar voters for racist George Wallace, let Nixon win in 1968. (p. 179; /Unsteady March: Rise & Decline of Racial Equality in America/, Philip A. Klinker, 1999; /Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City/, Barbara J. Miner, 2013.) But union members supported Obama much more than nonunion. (p. 180)
Hillary Clinton: 1986-1992 corporate lawyer, on board of rabidly antiunion Walmart. She was part of those decisions. Unsafe work, wage theft, sex discrimination. Waltons donated to her 2016 campaign. Hillary cheerled for NAFTA. Hillary praised Trans-Pacific Partnership throughout her term as secretary of state. Subordinates national sovereignty to corporate profit. Hillary: TPP is "gold standard" of free-trade deals. As presidential candidate, suddenly claims to oppose TPP. Lobbied Congress to pass Colombia free trade as secretary of state. Claimed as presidential candidate to oppose it. 143 Colombian labor leaders have been assassinated since it passed (2011 - Mar. 2018). NAFTA lost .7M U.S. jobs to Mexico. China WTO entry cost U.S. more than 3M jobs. Hillary cheered. 75% of the losses were in more-unionized manufacturing sector. Private-sector union membership 15.7% 1993 when NAFTA passed, to 6.4% 2016, when Hillary lost to Trump. Since 1960, no Democrat has won presidency w/o winning Wisconsin primary. Trump claimed to oppose free trade. Clinton talks labor out 1 side of mouth, but fat cats pull her strings. Right-wing populist beats corporate Democrat. Walker did 3 times. (pp. 183-186) Sanders beat Hillary by 136,000 votes, 13 percentage points in WI primary, won 71 of 72 counties. (pp. 189-190. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... But Democratic-party profoundly antidemocratic rules gave Clinton 47 Wisconsin delegates, Sanders 49. Nationwide, Sanders would've had to beat Clinton about 60%-to-40% to have overcome the Democrats' pro-establishment superdelegate bias. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... Trump beat Hillary in Wisconsin by 23,000 votes, 0.8 percentage point. And in Michigan by 11,000 votes, 0.2%; Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes, 0.7%. Bernie could've won these states, and therefore the presidency, had Democratic-party leadership not forced a Clinton nomination. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_... )
Amazing article by Barbara Lee With on Democratic leadership's throwing the nomination to Hillary--and on the particular corporate cabals whose creature Hillary is: https://wcmcoop.com/2019/05/21/why-th... Donna Brazile, who was interim Democratic Party chair after Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, tells us Hillary took /all/ the Democratic party's money for her own campaign: https://www.politico.com/magazine/sto... From her book, /Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House/. Also /What Happened to Bernie Sanders/, by Jared H. Beck: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Decline in union membership correlates with rising income inequality. (p. 191) Right-to-work(-for-less) laws decrease Democratic vote share by 3.5%. (p. 191) If Act 10 (no public-sector collective bargaining) is enacted in 10 more states, Democratic Party will have no power. --Grover Norquist. (p. 192)
Trump used unauthorized foreign workers to build Trump Tower. (p. 199)
Windigos are the spirit of greed & excess. The more they eat the hungrier they get. Also known as billionaires. (pp. 204, 231) Walker supported frack sand mining, 26,000-pig factory farm near Superior lakeshore, wolf hunting. (p. 205) Ojibwa prophesy: if wolf goes extinct, man will soon follow. (p. 208) Enbridge pipeline through Wisconsin. Hundreds of Enbridge spills in past 10 years. Canada tar to Chicago & Gulf coast. (p. 209) 2010 Michigan Enbridge spill .8M gallons tar crude in Kalamazoo River. (p. 210) Carcinogenic benzene piped to dissolve tar. Walker's Dept. of Natural Resources: only token fines for polluters, fire over half of scientists. Wisconsin legislature pushed through laws prohibiting pipeline liability insurance requirements, & granting Enbridge the right to seize private property to build an adjacent pipeline. (pp. 211-213)
Wisconsin unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. (p. 217) Democrats can't win more than 39 of 99 seats. (Though Democrats get a majority of total votes for legislators. pp. 151, 218)
Koch interfere in Iron County Board elections (site of GTac mine. p. 218)
Chapter 7: Which shall rule, wealth or man? Since 2011, Wisconsin: child poverty, stagnant wages, defunded education, polluted water, $2 billion budget deficit after tax cuts for the rich. (pp. 233-234)
Bob's bride, Belle LaFollette in 1881 made minister remove "obey" from vows. (p. 237) We need Bob now. (We do have Democrat Tony Evers as governor, since Jan. 2019. He's a huge help.)
Kathy Cramer, /The Politics of Resentment/, 2016: Rural vs. urban. Resentment continues even after the tall poppy is cut down. Taking wages & benefits from someone else doesn't make you happier about not having them! (pp. 239-245)
After Trump won, fans yelled racial slurs at high-school girls in a soccer game. (p. 244)
Wisconsin Republicans repealed mining moratorium, Dec. 2017. (p. 246)
No state has yet repealed a right-to-work law. (p. 269) Most states now have them.
BRING BACK WISCONSIN ©2011 L&P Berryman (melody traditional, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean) https://louandpeter.com/i-don-t-get-it
Wisconsin whose motto was “Forward”
Was populist as it could be
But now the new motto is “Backward”
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
CHORUS:
Bring Back, bring back ! !
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me, to me ! !
Bring back, bring back ! !
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
They’re trying to stifle our voices
They’re trying to keep us derailed (No train!*)
They’ll find it’s not easy to do though
(Joe) McCarthy once tried and he failed
Though we may be “God’s frozen people”
We bask in the warmth of our plea
Don’t bury our rights in a snowbank
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
Our Mother Wisconsin is fragile
It’s very upsetting to see
She wandered away with a Walker
Oh bring back Wisconsin to me
Wisconsin's employers are hiring
It’s just like the governor says
And soon there’ll be no unemployment
In Beijing, Mumbai or Juarez
(* Gov. Walker cancelled Obama's Wisconsin high-speed-rail plan--after money had been spent and manufacture begun.)
Current events, reported by Wisconsin Citizens' Media Co-op: https://wcmcoop.com/
trivia:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
September 6, 2018
Didn’t really acknowledge race like at all, except to quickly sweep it under the rug. Thought that was a major disservice considering Milwaukee is one of most segregated cities in America. And huge part of “divide and conquer” strategy. The labor and environment analysis as well as Wisconsin dark money was well worth the read. Though, again, some race analysis needed all over that.
November 6, 2018
Having just moved to Wisconsin I felt like this book was the perfect crash course in Wisconsin politics. I had seen the protests around Act 10 in the national news, but not having an understanding of Wisconsin's history I didn't fully appreciate how big of a turnaround it was. Kaufman gives a brief history of Wisconsin's role as a progressive force in national politics and then explains how it was all turned around starting with Act 10 on up to flipping Wisconsin for Trump.
There has been a lot of ink spilled about how Russian interference and deceptive social media ads gave us Trump, but in Kaufman's view these are relegated to the backseat. Kaufman puts the blame squarely on unlimited political money from outside interests and conquer and divide attacks on unions.
Kaufman's thesis is a compelling explanation for much of the rightward shift that has happened in the past few years, but it doesn't fully account for the partisan venom and denial of facts that dominate the national conversation. Kaufman leaves the anti-immigrant racist incidents out until his final chapter. The Koch brothers and union busting may be a big part of why things went wrong, but we really do need to understand why some people seem to have totally gone off the deep end.
There has been a lot of ink spilled about how Russian interference and deceptive social media ads gave us Trump, but in Kaufman's view these are relegated to the backseat. Kaufman puts the blame squarely on unlimited political money from outside interests and conquer and divide attacks on unions.
Kaufman's thesis is a compelling explanation for much of the rightward shift that has happened in the past few years, but it doesn't fully account for the partisan venom and denial of facts that dominate the national conversation. Kaufman leaves the anti-immigrant racist incidents out until his final chapter. The Koch brothers and union busting may be a big part of why things went wrong, but we really do need to understand why some people seem to have totally gone off the deep end.
November 25, 2018
This book is frightening and important to understand. While there are several factors involved, including the weakening of Union solidarity, or Union based solidarity, as well as gerrymandering and tearing down of State institutions that worked for the common good, I believe the most important is manufacturing of consent, which most people are not aware of, at least regarding ALEC and the legislative pairing with conservative think tanks drafting deliberately obfuscated model bills . This is where the importance of critical thinking, and truly Democratic access by all citizens to all lawmakers is key.
March 28, 2019
I try to stay current on U.S. politics, however depressing it is and I try to keep an eye on our neighboring state, to the north, but this excellent look at Wisconsin politics, caught me by surprise and I realized how little I knew about how progressive the Badger State has been, over the last 2 centuries. It is a fascinating, at times horrifying, impeccably well-researched, look at the past and current political environment, of the good ole US of A. Highly recommended.
May 24, 2018
I received a copy of this book, free, through Goodread Giveaways.
Wisconsin has a long, often bipartisan, history of progressive legislation and mindset. People like Robert La Follette being supported by large European immigrant communities that had suffered at the hands of authoritarianism and the acceptance, and the embracing, of unions as positive structures of working communities. Wisconsin had all that.
But the skull duggery of moneyed interests and their long range plans, seen here mostly, though not only, in the figure of Scott Walker. Kaufman offers a measured account of the use of divide and conquer, gerrymandering, and jumping on the bandwagon of the right wing populism that lead to the Trump win. This success in Wisconsin, and in the nation is an important lesson.
Is Kaufman biased? Absolutely. (Beware those books on history and politics that purport not be carry a bias. “Thare be dragons.”) He makes his case through clear research and the weaving of facts.
I read an “advance reading copy” of the book with a request not to quote from it until it was in its final form. Alas, there were a plethora of good quotes to share—on the accumulation of individual wealth, egalitarianism, the right ward swing of the Democratic Party, the Ojibwe story of the windigo. I guess you’ll need to read it and find them for yourselves.
Wisconsin has a long, often bipartisan, history of progressive legislation and mindset. People like Robert La Follette being supported by large European immigrant communities that had suffered at the hands of authoritarianism and the acceptance, and the embracing, of unions as positive structures of working communities. Wisconsin had all that.
But the skull duggery of moneyed interests and their long range plans, seen here mostly, though not only, in the figure of Scott Walker. Kaufman offers a measured account of the use of divide and conquer, gerrymandering, and jumping on the bandwagon of the right wing populism that lead to the Trump win. This success in Wisconsin, and in the nation is an important lesson.
Is Kaufman biased? Absolutely. (Beware those books on history and politics that purport not be carry a bias. “Thare be dragons.”) He makes his case through clear research and the weaving of facts.
I read an “advance reading copy” of the book with a request not to quote from it until it was in its final form. Alas, there were a plethora of good quotes to share—on the accumulation of individual wealth, egalitarianism, the right ward swing of the Democratic Party, the Ojibwe story of the windigo. I guess you’ll need to read it and find them for yourselves.
June 30, 2018
Excellent mini-view of why American Progressives need to rise up and protect democracy from moneyed interests. We must stop fascism from creeping, ever so slowly, into our government. No one is above the law!
August 18, 2024
It’s always a weird feeling when you learn about events you lived through, but in my defense I was in middle school and didn’t know how unions actually worked beyond what they showed in Newsies. This research did an excellent job connecting with actual Wisconsinites— and especially indigenous leaders— to feel hopeful about the future. My only complaint is in the audiobook he pronounced it as Wa-kee-sha when it’s Wah-ca-shaw 🦡🦡🦡🦡🦡🦡🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀
September 16, 2018
This is an excellent book that looks at how the conservatives have systematically destroyed what was one of the most progressives states in the US. It starts with a look at the ideals the state was founded upon and then how Walker and others have destroyed the unions, the school system, the superb University system and are going after environmental regulations.
I wish I had bought my copy instead of getting a library copy. I wanted to highlight passages.
Excellent read.
I wish I had bought my copy instead of getting a library copy. I wanted to highlight passages.
Excellent read.
May 31, 2018
A Wisconsin native, the first half of this book repeatedly made me cry (and, occasionally) scream with frustration. Kaufman wonderfully ties together the history of our great state with the reality of the looting that has happened in the last decade. However, there were points where I wanted to say, "okay, yes, feeling left behind or like they weren't heard was a major factor in rural residents voting for Trump, but also it was a lot of racism and sexism and homophobia and bigotry that produced the environment where people can vote against someone who says 'I'll help you by doing the thing you want me to do,' and instead vote for the person who has actively taken the opposite stance because they 'hope' that the latter will change their mind. This is a valuable book - and also clearly aimed at being Randy Bryce's big write-up in the lead-up to the election. For that reason alone, I'm in. But it could have used a deeper analysis of some important social issues.
November 6, 2018
There’s hope in this book, as odd as that may sound. It’s a sobering overview of the dismantling of a powerful political legacy, and it highlights many battles lost, but there are tiny beacons of hope. That’s what will stay with me as I head to the polls today.
Read
June 20, 2019"Which shall rule - wealth or man; which shall lead - money or intellect?"
September 20, 2018
The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics by Dan Kaufman is a look at how the thinking of the people of Wisconsin changed their politics. I disagree with the politic views of the author but Dan Kaufman does a good job of covering the changes in Wisconsin. Whether you are a Progressive or a conservative you need to see the changes in WISCONSIN TO KNOW THAT CHANGE IS Always possible and never to take anything for grant. It is well written. This book is a great addition to any library that is into history or ppolitics or American election process.
I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
September 25, 2018
Incredibly useful book for understanding one of the three states that most directly delivered us Trump. The 2016 stuff is less interesting than the deep history of progressivism and unions in a state where both have been decimated, for now.
May 24, 2018
I received an advance reading copy of this book, for free, through Goodreads First Reads program in exchange for my honest review.
Let me preface my review by stating that Wisconsin is one of my favorite places. I often spend part of my summer there, and I am seriously considering moving to Wisconsin, as I hope someday to permanently return home to the Midwest. Let me also state that politically, I lean to the right. That said, I realized I was not going to agree with the author’s viewpoints. However, I was hoping this book would at least provide an interesting and thought-provoking look at Wisconsin politics. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Dan Kaufman’s The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics (Whew! That was a mouthful of hyperbole) could just as easily have been titled, Some Cheese To Go With Your Whine. The Democratic Party in Wisconsin has fallen on hard times. Republican Scott Walker was elected governor. They didn’t like it, so they tried to recall him. He not only survived the recall, he was also re-elected. There can only be one explanation, right? Gerrymandering! * insert eye roll here *
Unions, schools, the environment… You name the topic, Kaufman complains about Walker’s handling of it. Each chapter reads like a magazine article. However, instead of being five paragraphs long, these articles/chapters are forty to fifty pages long. They go on, and on, and on, and on. And on, and on, and on. Solutions are rarely offered. Instead, the author simply complains and longs for the “good old days” of Bob La Follette and Milwaukee’s socialist mayors.
“Actually it’s pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que’, which is Algonquin for, ‘the good land’. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it’s the only major American city to have ever elected three socialist mayors.”
“Does this guy know how to party or what!”
Okay, so that quote is from Wayne’s World and NOT from The Fall of Wisconsin, but Kaufman does introduce readers to some, ahem… “interesting” characters. There’s a state assembly member who infiltrates conservative political meetings. There’s also an ironworker who sneaks into a speech by the President of the United States… just so he can walk out on him. And they wonder why they’re not winning any elections.
That’s about all there is to say about this book. As expected, it is biased, but it also repetitive, dry, and overly long. Residents of Wisconsin, who did not vote for Scott Walker, perhaps may enjoy this book. Everyone else, I would recommend skipping The Fall of Wisconsin.
Let me preface my review by stating that Wisconsin is one of my favorite places. I often spend part of my summer there, and I am seriously considering moving to Wisconsin, as I hope someday to permanently return home to the Midwest. Let me also state that politically, I lean to the right. That said, I realized I was not going to agree with the author’s viewpoints. However, I was hoping this book would at least provide an interesting and thought-provoking look at Wisconsin politics. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Dan Kaufman’s The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics (Whew! That was a mouthful of hyperbole) could just as easily have been titled, Some Cheese To Go With Your Whine. The Democratic Party in Wisconsin has fallen on hard times. Republican Scott Walker was elected governor. They didn’t like it, so they tried to recall him. He not only survived the recall, he was also re-elected. There can only be one explanation, right? Gerrymandering! * insert eye roll here *
Unions, schools, the environment… You name the topic, Kaufman complains about Walker’s handling of it. Each chapter reads like a magazine article. However, instead of being five paragraphs long, these articles/chapters are forty to fifty pages long. They go on, and on, and on, and on. And on, and on, and on. Solutions are rarely offered. Instead, the author simply complains and longs for the “good old days” of Bob La Follette and Milwaukee’s socialist mayors.
“Actually it’s pronounced ‘mill-e-wah-que’, which is Algonquin for, ‘the good land’. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it’s the only major American city to have ever elected three socialist mayors.”
“Does this guy know how to party or what!”
Okay, so that quote is from Wayne’s World and NOT from The Fall of Wisconsin, but Kaufman does introduce readers to some, ahem… “interesting” characters. There’s a state assembly member who infiltrates conservative political meetings. There’s also an ironworker who sneaks into a speech by the President of the United States… just so he can walk out on him. And they wonder why they’re not winning any elections.
That’s about all there is to say about this book. As expected, it is biased, but it also repetitive, dry, and overly long. Residents of Wisconsin, who did not vote for Scott Walker, perhaps may enjoy this book. Everyone else, I would recommend skipping The Fall of Wisconsin.
August 5, 2018
This book is an essential read for anyone wishing to understand some of the what has been happening around the country politically in terms of the dismantling of worker's rights and the complete and utter attack on the working class by the GOP. Being from Wisconsin, it was wonderful seeing stories of brave social justice fighters from my home state such as Randy Bryce, and environmentalists like Mike Wiggins working to try to retake and retain the things that make not just Wisconsin great, but America great, we need clean water, we need clean air, we need people to stand united and pick each other up, we are all connected, we are all in this together, a leaking oil pipeline through pristine forests hurts us all, hunting wolves to extinction hurts us all, stripping pay and benefits from teachers and hardworking folk hurts everyone. This book has lit a fire in me to fight harder than I'd been fighting, to do more than I'd been doing, because inaction only serves to let the greedy and the powerful run roughshod over us all.
August 12, 2018
Such a lot of good information. I wanted to post on Facebook many of the quotes and other information in the book. I also want to buy a copy to read again, highlight sections and do more research to better understand my history, being born and raised in Wisconsin. I was finally able to understand much of my own ideas and feelings and where they came from. I do wish I would have understood this in high school and better realized my own identity. I’m recommending it to everyone, including the Norwegians, and Swedes, and Germans and Native Americans and even black Americans. This book touched on the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin, why weren’t we taught this in school? Fascinating, absolutely fascinating!
August 19, 2018
You learn a lot about Wisconsin. My less than stellar rating is less about Kaufman's abilities than more of my own expectations. I was hoping for a little more data. The anecdotal examples are really noteworthy, although it does seems to jump around a bit from policy, to environmental, to Wisconsin's indigenous population. I wanted more policy and more data and there were so many opportunities for Kaufman to buttress his admirable case studies with hard data that would have made his arguments more convincing. I definitely recommend this book as the battles of Wisconsin, especially the chapter on ALEC, represent a microcosm of the contemporary American political condition.
August 5, 2018
A great analysis of the historical and political trends that made Wisconsin the laboratory for the conservative movement. Kaufman writes in a clear, readable style that illuminates the corrosive effect of right-to-work laws and Act 10 on working people and families. This book also serves as a searing indictment of the failures of the Democratic Party to act decisively against the onslaught perpetuated by Walker, AFP, ALEC, and big industry. I really enjoyed reading this book!
August 8, 2018
Thorough & informative, this book traces how Wisconsin's political shift had been effected by shady special interests. It even seems to be showing a very possible future for the country. In the 60s, there were 2 beacons of progressivism: Berkeley & Madison, both now a shadow of what they once were & promised to be. On a brighter note, I really liked the flow of the writing. Though full of heavy info, the book read like a good novel. I received a Kindle edition from a Goodreads giveaway.
August 3, 2018
I grew up in blue state WI, moved to CO 20 yes ago, and have watched and felt WI’s transition to a red state. This book stressed me out- the presence of ALEC, gerrymandering and voter ID laws will ensure that the liberal WI I knew won’t be back anytime soon. Interestingly, the attack on unions did such damage to workers rights, and affected elections. It just made me so sad to read this one.
August 11, 2018
Enlightening and depressing; demonstrates how the "conservative infrastructure" has transformed the birthplace of progressivism (and one of the cradles of environmentalism) into a plutocracy by pitting worker against worker and citizen against citizen.
August 14, 2018
Astonishing that we have allowed this to happen in our great state. Very disappointed in myself not to fight harder. Thank you to the author for his ten-year odyssey, watching and recording the spiral.
April 28, 2020
Having moved to Wisconsin four years ago and not being interested in politics or history at the time, I knew little about the state. I had heard of Scott Walker briefly and knew Wisconsin had some Nordic roots and lots of cheese, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
I grew up in Illinois and, as part of my curriculum, learned about Native American history, Lincoln, party machines, and H. H. Holmes. While important and sometimes interesting, I didn't feel any sense of awe or connection to my home state. However, in reading The Fall of Wisconsin, I caught myself tearing up at times learning about Wisconsin's folksy, heartwarming, and community-focused upbringing; seeing how different things are today deeply saddened me.
Wisconsin used to be a state emboldened by the "Wisconsin Idea," a tenet that government should be ran by voters and assisted by experts in law, economics, and science, untarnished by businesses or corporations. What a crazy idea! Created by former governor, senator, and progressive champion of Wisconsin, "Fighting" Bob La Follette, the Idea was embedded in statues, laws, and helped establish Wisconsin's progressive foundation. As a result, Wisconsin had one of the nation's first progressive income tax laws, workers comp laws, direct primaries, banning of corporate donations, and others. Just as important, Wisconsin had strong union participation and environmental protection laws (the creator of Earth Day is from Wisconsin!). But everything changed when the fire nation attacked.
Reeling off of Jane Meyer's Dark Money, Dan Kaufman shows how special interest groups such as the Bradley Foundation, the Koch brothers, and ALEC have seeped into every aspect of Wisconsin life. Politicians as high as the governor and low as district representatives began accepting money and ideas from these groups to help seal Republican control and turn back the clock on progressivism. These groups helped gerrymander Wisconsin, weaken unions, let corporations pollute our state, and worst of all, turn communities against each other.
The book's only hopeful notes in fixing Wisconsin lies in knowing this history and reminding citizens that we have more in common than not. Reading a book like this makes me wonder if it's worth staying here to help revive the Wisconsin Idea or give up and move somewhere that isn't as far gone. I want to believe. The communities here are great and I look forward to attending my first La Follette Days this year. The election of Governor Tony Evers and Supreme Court justice Jill Karofsky gave me hope that the Wisconsin Idea may be coming back; that their victories were a feature, not a bug.
I grew up in Illinois and, as part of my curriculum, learned about Native American history, Lincoln, party machines, and H. H. Holmes. While important and sometimes interesting, I didn't feel any sense of awe or connection to my home state. However, in reading The Fall of Wisconsin, I caught myself tearing up at times learning about Wisconsin's folksy, heartwarming, and community-focused upbringing; seeing how different things are today deeply saddened me.
Wisconsin used to be a state emboldened by the "Wisconsin Idea," a tenet that government should be ran by voters and assisted by experts in law, economics, and science, untarnished by businesses or corporations. What a crazy idea! Created by former governor, senator, and progressive champion of Wisconsin, "Fighting" Bob La Follette, the Idea was embedded in statues, laws, and helped establish Wisconsin's progressive foundation. As a result, Wisconsin had one of the nation's first progressive income tax laws, workers comp laws, direct primaries, banning of corporate donations, and others. Just as important, Wisconsin had strong union participation and environmental protection laws (the creator of Earth Day is from Wisconsin!). But everything changed when the fire nation attacked.
Reeling off of Jane Meyer's Dark Money, Dan Kaufman shows how special interest groups such as the Bradley Foundation, the Koch brothers, and ALEC have seeped into every aspect of Wisconsin life. Politicians as high as the governor and low as district representatives began accepting money and ideas from these groups to help seal Republican control and turn back the clock on progressivism. These groups helped gerrymander Wisconsin, weaken unions, let corporations pollute our state, and worst of all, turn communities against each other.
The book's only hopeful notes in fixing Wisconsin lies in knowing this history and reminding citizens that we have more in common than not. Reading a book like this makes me wonder if it's worth staying here to help revive the Wisconsin Idea or give up and move somewhere that isn't as far gone. I want to believe. The communities here are great and I look forward to attending my first La Follette Days this year. The election of Governor Tony Evers and Supreme Court justice Jill Karofsky gave me hope that the Wisconsin Idea may be coming back; that their victories were a feature, not a bug.
January 27, 2019
As a self-proclaimed expert in Wisconsin politics, I want to warn you all that unless we can stop these nefarious libertarians and greedy conservatives who are destroying the environment, polluting the water, defunding public education, cutting any and all social safety nets, restricting and eliminating collective labor bargaining, giving tax breaks to billionaires and their companies, and successfully employing their divide and conquer strategies across the state and the country, we’re all doomed.
Also, Scott Walker and Paul Ryan are dumb, evil men and although I don’t believe in hell, I do believe there is a special place reserved for them there. (That’s the spoiler, sorry)
Also, Scott Walker and Paul Ryan are dumb, evil men and although I don’t believe in hell, I do believe there is a special place reserved for them there. (That’s the spoiler, sorry)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2019
This book brought back all of the rage I felt during the whole Act 10 debacle and so many of the facts in this book just confirmed why I hate Scott Walker and everything he did to me personally, my profession, and the state of Wisconsin. Here's some of the facts that just lit me up:
*"It is likely that no group has benefited more from the labor movement than African Americans. Between 1948 and 1979, the period with the greatest union density in the U.S., hourly compensation for the average American worker rose by 93 percent" (69). Compare that to the nonexistent growth that is currently happening.
*All of the information about ALEC and how that group has corrupted government and legislation and how they "diverted public school budgets to private education, restricted voting rights, and decimated labor unions and environmental regulations" (122)
*The gross, underhanded, and covert ways that the Republicans gerrymandered Wisconsin to ensure their victories. (146).
*". . . many protesters noted that the first step the Nazi Party took to cement its hold on power was banning independent trade unions. The analogy seemed like gross hyperbole at the time, but with the rise of white nationalism since Trump's election, the parallel has become more disturbing" (192).
*The dictate that the words "climate change" not be used in discussions at the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands and eventually completely watering down any discussion of climate change at the Wisconsin DNR (221-223).
*"Since 2011, Wisconsin has experienced a dramatic increase in child poverty rates, nonexistent wage growth, steep cuts to K-12 public schools and the state university system, and a significant decline in water quality" (233).
*Rural schools are taking a hit, even though many of them supported Walker's plans, because fewer teachers are available ("UW-Wisconsin's education department has seen applications drop by 2/3") and those currently working teachers are moving to better paying suburban districts.
The whole point of the book is that as goes Wisconsin, very often so goes the nation. What has happened to Wisconsin does not bode well for the rest of America.
*"It is likely that no group has benefited more from the labor movement than African Americans. Between 1948 and 1979, the period with the greatest union density in the U.S., hourly compensation for the average American worker rose by 93 percent" (69). Compare that to the nonexistent growth that is currently happening.
*All of the information about ALEC and how that group has corrupted government and legislation and how they "diverted public school budgets to private education, restricted voting rights, and decimated labor unions and environmental regulations" (122)
*The gross, underhanded, and covert ways that the Republicans gerrymandered Wisconsin to ensure their victories. (146).
*". . . many protesters noted that the first step the Nazi Party took to cement its hold on power was banning independent trade unions. The analogy seemed like gross hyperbole at the time, but with the rise of white nationalism since Trump's election, the parallel has become more disturbing" (192).
*The dictate that the words "climate change" not be used in discussions at the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands and eventually completely watering down any discussion of climate change at the Wisconsin DNR (221-223).
*"Since 2011, Wisconsin has experienced a dramatic increase in child poverty rates, nonexistent wage growth, steep cuts to K-12 public schools and the state university system, and a significant decline in water quality" (233).
*Rural schools are taking a hit, even though many of them supported Walker's plans, because fewer teachers are available ("UW-Wisconsin's education department has seen applications drop by 2/3") and those currently working teachers are moving to better paying suburban districts.
The whole point of the book is that as goes Wisconsin, very often so goes the nation. What has happened to Wisconsin does not bode well for the rest of America.
October 25, 2020
Mr. Kaufman narrates in a pleasant way how Wisconsin lost its once-proud 'purple state' distinction. The plot itself is of course not pleasant, but compliments to Kaufman on his skill in dramatizing my home state's tragic fate. He pulls the reader irresistibly along, as Sophocles might, so that even as dread and despair begin to dawn one can't help carrying on to see what awful thing happens next.
Story is the key word, here. Based on the title, I anticipated an analytical treatise, but what is delivered instead is a series of anecdotes, liberally interlaced with quotes, claims and conclusions. Where do all those come from? Which pieces of this book are sourced from or backed by other authorities, and what is entirely the product of Mr. Kaufman's private investigation and imagination? It is hard to discern. Citations are buried in endnotes, and there is no numbering throughout the book to signal when or where the reader can look for more information. An ambitious reader must instead start from the endnotes, which gives only page number and the first few words of the sentence, and then do a reverse-search for what part of the story a given citation is supposed to substantiate.
In short, the book suppresses its 'boring' side – proof - and it does so, as far as I can tell, for two conflicting purposes. One is inspirational: to illuminate anew Wisconsin’s progressive and socialistic legacy, and frame in mythic terms all the good that this accomplished for the people of this state and for the country at large. The other purpose seems almost accidental, and competes with the first: this is to have a bitch session over the pillaging of Wisconsin by mustache-twirling executives of Evil Corp (i.e. the GOP).
In the first regard, the non-rigorous, narrative approach works well. Kaufman perceives that the people – and the land – are suffering through a period of fresh conquest, suppression, and exploitation by powers offended by how long they have been forced to share with the peons. Through his eyes and through my own damned senses I experience the violent fragmentation and degradation of concepts like livability, individual dignity, the common good, truth, and above all custodianship: the belief that one of the highest callings of humanity is not rule, not possession, not twisting whatever one holds to whatever purpose one wishes to force that gift to serve, but humble, compassionate custody of the stuff of life, which does not belong to any one person, but rather is something all of us have been entrusted with.
But in such a predicament, cold lists of facts or even prescriptions are not much help – not at first, anyway. For millions of people stooping beneath the shackles of a corporate feudalism that is ever-more belligerent about its tyrannical ambitions, inspiration is needed at least as much as information. So Kaufman gathers readers around the fire, gives everyone a glass of warm milk, and rekindles hope. This book delivers a hybrid Native/European folklore of Wisconsin, resurrecting and reinforcing fundamental figures and values of the state’s early days (and the days long before it was a state).
The rallying power of myth, and this book’s aspirations thereto, emerges in Kaufman’s relationship with Mike Wiggins, Jr., onetime chairman of the Bad River Band of the Ojibwe Tribe of Lake Superior. More than once, Mr. Wiggins tells stories from Ojibwe (aka Chippewa) lore. The tales are sobering but also invigorating. They demand self-reflection but they also offer something in short supply these days. When Mr. Wiggins tells his stories, Kaufman is as still and attentive as I am, watching through his eyes. That thing we both hunger for keeps us there. Hope is nourishing. Hope is fertile.
The second function of Mr. Kaufman’s book may be purposeful or it may be an unconscious effect of indignation and/or despair, but in either case it works at counter-purposes to the first goal. Especially when one is trying to rouse hope, bitching and moaning is…not proceeding in the same direction.
On one level I comprehend why Kaufman wants to carry on about Scott Walker (which he does at great, great length). The same goes for Paul Ryan and Scott Fitzgerald and the ALEC organization and DT. I understand that there are evils Kaufman wants to lay bare. This wilderness in which we find ourselves tripping over pipelines and masking, somewhat fatalistically, against not just COVID but all the other pollutants which some seem perversely bent on thrusting into our bodies and minds – perhaps describing such things in painful detail explains why he’s invoking the spirits of forebears like Fighting Bob Lafollette to begin with.
On the other hand, to whom are these evils not apparent, and of the people to whom they are not apparent, who will read Mr. Kaufman’s book or be convinced by it? Especially as the text repeatedly yields to the temptation to describe Democrats as grimy-handed, hard-laboring, long-suffering saints while characterizing Republicans (other than Dale Schultz) as three-piece-suited villains out of, not even James Bond but Austin Powers? And for which of those people who are convinced by Kaufman’s assignations of blame will his relatively binary assessment be truly edifying?
To be fair, Kaufman levels a fair bit of criticism at what the Democratic machine has become. He castigates Obama and Clinton for their abandonment of Wisconsin in moments of need, and chastises both the DNC and some unions for losing their sense of solidarity, throwing some kids onto the train tracks to save others. Yet there is a subtle profundity in the book’s title which becomes an echoing missed opportunity whenever the text loses itself in a fever of ‘let me tell you about this other really, really bad thing a Republican did and about the tragic, finger-in-the-dike Democrat who couldn’t stop it.’
To put it plainly, Wisconsin was progressive. Not Democratic, not Republican, but some weird, beautiful, work-in-progress monster-baby hybrid. At least, that has been my personal folklore, as I only grew up in Wisconsin, then lived out west for most of my young adulthood. It is only recently that I have witnessed, as an adult, the abuse and neglect folks like Walker and Ryan have inflicted on I state I was once so proud to hail from (and of which I would love to be proud again).
But I digress. I found myself disappoint that Kaufman could not quite disentangle himself from the propagandistic rhetoric that has overwhelmed so much modern discourse, the reductive strain of, ‘I have flaws but you are Evil.’ And I believe that everyone can sense the strain in that strain of conversation. As the bitchfest proceeds, people instinctively recognize its fallacies and they often react in one of two ways: racing one another to a pinnacle of hyperbole, as if further exaggeration will shore up the exaggeration beneath it, or else shaking their heads and walking away, thinking, ‘well, this is just insincere.’
To give one example, much as people of a more liberal persuasion like to crow that Republicans are not what they used to be, it is high time that we all confess that the Democratic party, whatever good it might have been strong-armed into in the 60's, is pretty well tied up in corporate money and special interests itself. The parties are machines. Corporate money owns the machines. We the people do not own the parties. The parties serve interests, the intersection of those interests with those of the people is at the pleasure and convenience of Not You, and I suspect probably often for motives we would not find pleasant.. For more eloquent and entertaining commentary on such issues, I refer people to Cody Johnston of Some More News.
Back to the point, I am not accusing Kaufman of intentional insincerity, but rather the sort of insincerity I myself am prone to in any situation wherein a) something is tangled which I think ought not to be tangled and b) I am already under duress. In such moments, part of me wants to castigate myself for the state of affairs, and part of me wants to castigate anyone else. Ironically, neither of those instinctive options contains the whole truth. If I am really on my toes, a third part of me reminds me that not only is it not either/or, it might not even be both/and. Stuff is just complex as all hell, and that’s just in my personal life. By what factor of complexity do we multiply when we are speaking of a whole state, a whole nation, across the sweep of history? And by what right do we decompose a whole country to “we good they bad?”
As Kaufman himself observes toward the end of his book, the path to renewal is through solidarity, integrity, and commitment to ideals. Part of the terrible, beautiful complexity of these values is that it must involve tension, ambiguity, conflict, errors as well as successes, and above all, uneasy truces (which we can only hope progress to more understanding, compassionate truces). As I find myself frequently reflecting, while too many people fantasize about exiling or exterminating their enemies, the reality is that tomorrow, we all have to share this world. After every election, every protest, every police action, every layoff, every fight or celebration, we are (most of us) still here. We still have to live with one another. Stop pretending that we don't.
The fall of Wisconsin has not been a fall from Democratic influence into Republican influence. The true fall is something Kaufman himself narrates (if not explicitly states), and which has been increasingly evident in the US, in its latest forms, for decades. It’s been a fall from integrity and a fall from solidarity in the face of differences. It’s been a descent into ever-more-abhorrent behavior excused with emaciated ‘us vs them’ whining. It's been a descent from ignoring problems to no longer being able to ignore them, and wondering if perhaps we can just kill them instead.
But in what mythic time were integrity and unity foregone conclusions? Furthermore, I’d suggest that Wisconsin’s, and the US’s, recent fall is underwritten by a much longer-lasting fall from empathy, from intellectual honesty, from circumspection, and from humility. In short, the fall of Kaufman’s book results from a long-untreated disease: abdication of custodianship. Our shared duty to care for one another and for this world. Dare I say it? Our duty to love one another.
From this perspective, it is perhaps more accurate to talk about anomalous rises rather than sudden falls. What rare moments in history deliver us glimpses of the heroism we might aspire to when we rouse ourselves from a habit of slumber to act for a few moments toward a greater good? What titans of local or national history and myth can all look to?
Kaufman offers some good examples, and so at last I prefer to reemphasize this constructive side of his book. What would Fighting Bob do? What would our native predecessors, who persist and hope in the face of inexpressible injustice do? What would you do? How can we elevate our moment? Because this is the only moment we have, and only we choose what direction to go with it.
Story is the key word, here. Based on the title, I anticipated an analytical treatise, but what is delivered instead is a series of anecdotes, liberally interlaced with quotes, claims and conclusions. Where do all those come from? Which pieces of this book are sourced from or backed by other authorities, and what is entirely the product of Mr. Kaufman's private investigation and imagination? It is hard to discern. Citations are buried in endnotes, and there is no numbering throughout the book to signal when or where the reader can look for more information. An ambitious reader must instead start from the endnotes, which gives only page number and the first few words of the sentence, and then do a reverse-search for what part of the story a given citation is supposed to substantiate.
In short, the book suppresses its 'boring' side – proof - and it does so, as far as I can tell, for two conflicting purposes. One is inspirational: to illuminate anew Wisconsin’s progressive and socialistic legacy, and frame in mythic terms all the good that this accomplished for the people of this state and for the country at large. The other purpose seems almost accidental, and competes with the first: this is to have a bitch session over the pillaging of Wisconsin by mustache-twirling executives of Evil Corp (i.e. the GOP).
In the first regard, the non-rigorous, narrative approach works well. Kaufman perceives that the people – and the land – are suffering through a period of fresh conquest, suppression, and exploitation by powers offended by how long they have been forced to share with the peons. Through his eyes and through my own damned senses I experience the violent fragmentation and degradation of concepts like livability, individual dignity, the common good, truth, and above all custodianship: the belief that one of the highest callings of humanity is not rule, not possession, not twisting whatever one holds to whatever purpose one wishes to force that gift to serve, but humble, compassionate custody of the stuff of life, which does not belong to any one person, but rather is something all of us have been entrusted with.
But in such a predicament, cold lists of facts or even prescriptions are not much help – not at first, anyway. For millions of people stooping beneath the shackles of a corporate feudalism that is ever-more belligerent about its tyrannical ambitions, inspiration is needed at least as much as information. So Kaufman gathers readers around the fire, gives everyone a glass of warm milk, and rekindles hope. This book delivers a hybrid Native/European folklore of Wisconsin, resurrecting and reinforcing fundamental figures and values of the state’s early days (and the days long before it was a state).
The rallying power of myth, and this book’s aspirations thereto, emerges in Kaufman’s relationship with Mike Wiggins, Jr., onetime chairman of the Bad River Band of the Ojibwe Tribe of Lake Superior. More than once, Mr. Wiggins tells stories from Ojibwe (aka Chippewa) lore. The tales are sobering but also invigorating. They demand self-reflection but they also offer something in short supply these days. When Mr. Wiggins tells his stories, Kaufman is as still and attentive as I am, watching through his eyes. That thing we both hunger for keeps us there. Hope is nourishing. Hope is fertile.
The second function of Mr. Kaufman’s book may be purposeful or it may be an unconscious effect of indignation and/or despair, but in either case it works at counter-purposes to the first goal. Especially when one is trying to rouse hope, bitching and moaning is…not proceeding in the same direction.
On one level I comprehend why Kaufman wants to carry on about Scott Walker (which he does at great, great length). The same goes for Paul Ryan and Scott Fitzgerald and the ALEC organization and DT. I understand that there are evils Kaufman wants to lay bare. This wilderness in which we find ourselves tripping over pipelines and masking, somewhat fatalistically, against not just COVID but all the other pollutants which some seem perversely bent on thrusting into our bodies and minds – perhaps describing such things in painful detail explains why he’s invoking the spirits of forebears like Fighting Bob Lafollette to begin with.
On the other hand, to whom are these evils not apparent, and of the people to whom they are not apparent, who will read Mr. Kaufman’s book or be convinced by it? Especially as the text repeatedly yields to the temptation to describe Democrats as grimy-handed, hard-laboring, long-suffering saints while characterizing Republicans (other than Dale Schultz) as three-piece-suited villains out of, not even James Bond but Austin Powers? And for which of those people who are convinced by Kaufman’s assignations of blame will his relatively binary assessment be truly edifying?
To be fair, Kaufman levels a fair bit of criticism at what the Democratic machine has become. He castigates Obama and Clinton for their abandonment of Wisconsin in moments of need, and chastises both the DNC and some unions for losing their sense of solidarity, throwing some kids onto the train tracks to save others. Yet there is a subtle profundity in the book’s title which becomes an echoing missed opportunity whenever the text loses itself in a fever of ‘let me tell you about this other really, really bad thing a Republican did and about the tragic, finger-in-the-dike Democrat who couldn’t stop it.’
To put it plainly, Wisconsin was progressive. Not Democratic, not Republican, but some weird, beautiful, work-in-progress monster-baby hybrid. At least, that has been my personal folklore, as I only grew up in Wisconsin, then lived out west for most of my young adulthood. It is only recently that I have witnessed, as an adult, the abuse and neglect folks like Walker and Ryan have inflicted on I state I was once so proud to hail from (and of which I would love to be proud again).
But I digress. I found myself disappoint that Kaufman could not quite disentangle himself from the propagandistic rhetoric that has overwhelmed so much modern discourse, the reductive strain of, ‘I have flaws but you are Evil.’ And I believe that everyone can sense the strain in that strain of conversation. As the bitchfest proceeds, people instinctively recognize its fallacies and they often react in one of two ways: racing one another to a pinnacle of hyperbole, as if further exaggeration will shore up the exaggeration beneath it, or else shaking their heads and walking away, thinking, ‘well, this is just insincere.’
To give one example, much as people of a more liberal persuasion like to crow that Republicans are not what they used to be, it is high time that we all confess that the Democratic party, whatever good it might have been strong-armed into in the 60's, is pretty well tied up in corporate money and special interests itself. The parties are machines. Corporate money owns the machines. We the people do not own the parties. The parties serve interests, the intersection of those interests with those of the people is at the pleasure and convenience of Not You, and I suspect probably often for motives we would not find pleasant.. For more eloquent and entertaining commentary on such issues, I refer people to Cody Johnston of Some More News.
Back to the point, I am not accusing Kaufman of intentional insincerity, but rather the sort of insincerity I myself am prone to in any situation wherein a) something is tangled which I think ought not to be tangled and b) I am already under duress. In such moments, part of me wants to castigate myself for the state of affairs, and part of me wants to castigate anyone else. Ironically, neither of those instinctive options contains the whole truth. If I am really on my toes, a third part of me reminds me that not only is it not either/or, it might not even be both/and. Stuff is just complex as all hell, and that’s just in my personal life. By what factor of complexity do we multiply when we are speaking of a whole state, a whole nation, across the sweep of history? And by what right do we decompose a whole country to “we good they bad?”
As Kaufman himself observes toward the end of his book, the path to renewal is through solidarity, integrity, and commitment to ideals. Part of the terrible, beautiful complexity of these values is that it must involve tension, ambiguity, conflict, errors as well as successes, and above all, uneasy truces (which we can only hope progress to more understanding, compassionate truces). As I find myself frequently reflecting, while too many people fantasize about exiling or exterminating their enemies, the reality is that tomorrow, we all have to share this world. After every election, every protest, every police action, every layoff, every fight or celebration, we are (most of us) still here. We still have to live with one another. Stop pretending that we don't.
The fall of Wisconsin has not been a fall from Democratic influence into Republican influence. The true fall is something Kaufman himself narrates (if not explicitly states), and which has been increasingly evident in the US, in its latest forms, for decades. It’s been a fall from integrity and a fall from solidarity in the face of differences. It’s been a descent into ever-more-abhorrent behavior excused with emaciated ‘us vs them’ whining. It's been a descent from ignoring problems to no longer being able to ignore them, and wondering if perhaps we can just kill them instead.
But in what mythic time were integrity and unity foregone conclusions? Furthermore, I’d suggest that Wisconsin’s, and the US’s, recent fall is underwritten by a much longer-lasting fall from empathy, from intellectual honesty, from circumspection, and from humility. In short, the fall of Kaufman’s book results from a long-untreated disease: abdication of custodianship. Our shared duty to care for one another and for this world. Dare I say it? Our duty to love one another.
From this perspective, it is perhaps more accurate to talk about anomalous rises rather than sudden falls. What rare moments in history deliver us glimpses of the heroism we might aspire to when we rouse ourselves from a habit of slumber to act for a few moments toward a greater good? What titans of local or national history and myth can all look to?
Kaufman offers some good examples, and so at last I prefer to reemphasize this constructive side of his book. What would Fighting Bob do? What would our native predecessors, who persist and hope in the face of inexpressible injustice do? What would you do? How can we elevate our moment? Because this is the only moment we have, and only we choose what direction to go with it.
February 14, 2022
Fascinating, well-researched book about the shift to conservative control in Wisconsin after it’s progressive roots.
Main takeaways - republicans built up infrastructure across the state with think tanks, big money foundations, and cohesive messaging that stoked people’s resentment.
Main takeaways - republicans built up infrastructure across the state with think tanks, big money foundations, and cohesive messaging that stoked people’s resentment.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews