Author Archives: Ron Malzer

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Sets the Record Straight in Latest Ad

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***Volunteer to Save Democracy—Do a Shift of Door-Knocking or Phone Calls***

Dates: Every weekend between now and Election DayTimes: Saturdays 9 AM, 12 PM, and 3 PM;Sundays 12 PM, 3 PM, and 6 PM.

Contact Ailey Brumley at ailey.brumley@wisdems.org, or (219) 384-6593

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes Sets the Record Straight in Latest Ad

“Look, we  knew the other side would make up lies about me to scare you. Now they’re claiming I want to defund the police and abolish ICE. That’s a lie. I’ll make sure our police have the resources and training they need to keep our community safe and that our communities have the resources to stop crime before it happens. I’ll bring back manufacturing, and I’ll pass a middle-class tax cut. And if that’s too scary for Washington, then so be it. I’m Mandela Barnes, and I approve this message.”

Gov. Evers Builds Economy– GOP Extremism Continues

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$25 Million More for Main Street: Gov. Evers Does the Right Thing for Wisconsin Small Businesses

On Tuesday, Gov. Evers announced an additional $25 million investment in his Main Street Bounceback Program, which, to date, has helped more than 6,200 Wisconsin small businesses and nonprofits open their doors or expand in our state.

To learn (and share) more about what Governor Evers has done in your county, click on the map on this page!

Tim Michels, Eric Toney Headline Fundraiser with Disgraced Election “Investigator” Michael Gableman

Last weekend, Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels and Attorney General candidate Eric Toney joined the disgraced election “investigator” Michael Gableman at a GOP fundraising dinner.

Michels has said that illegally decertifying the 2020 presidential election will be “on the table” and will not commit to certifying Wisconsin’s vote for president in 2024 if he becomes governor and Trump loses.

Election deniers should not be choosing the people who oversee our elections—period.

Two Rons Don’t Make a Right: WisDems Call Out Ron Johnson, Tim Michels for Aligning with Ron DeSantis

Today, WisDems joined Rep. Kristina Shelton, Social Security recipients Kim Javns and Karen Hayward, and Women’s Rights Green Bay Co-Organizer Adrianna Pokela to condemn Ron Johnson and Tim Michels for aligning with Ron DeSantis and his radical policies.

Biden Takes Down MAGA-GOP Extremism–“The Continued Battle for the Soul of Our Nation”

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President Joe Biden’s September 1 Independence Hall Address:                 Excerpts by Ron Malzer

President Biden:  “As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault.  We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise. Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.

“There is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.  MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair.  They spread fear and lies –- lies told for profit and power.

“But I see a very different America. And I will not stand by and watch elections in this country stolen by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost.

“In my view, MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution.  They do not believe in the rule of law.  They do not recognize the will of the people.

“They refuse to accept the results of a free election.  And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.

“They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th — brutally attacking law enforcement — not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.

“They are a “clear and present danger” to our democracy.

“There are far more Americans — far more Americans from every — from every background and belief who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it.  And, folks, it is within our power, it’s in our hands — yours and mine — to stop the assault on American democracy.

“MAGA Republicans have made their choice.  They embrace anger.  They thrive on chaos.  They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.

“We’re all called, by duty and conscience, to confront extremists who will put their own pursuit of power above all else.

“Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans: We must be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving American democracy than MAGA Republicans are to — to destroying American democracy.

“So I want to say this plain and simple: There is no place for political violence in America.  Period.  None.  Ever.

“We saw law enforcement brutally attacked on January the 6th.  We’ve seen election officials, poll workers — many of them volunteers of both parties — subjected to intimidation and death threats.  And — can you believe it? — FBI agents just doing their job as directed, facing threats to their own lives from their own fellow citizens.

“History tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.

“For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not.

We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it — each and every one of us.

“We can’t afford to leave anyone on the sidelines.  We need everyone to do their part.  So speak up.  Speak out.  Get engaged.  Vote, vote, vote!

“And if we all do our duty — if we do our duty in 2022 and beyond, then ages still to come will say we — all of us here — we kept the faith. “

 

Semi-Fascism and the GOP

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Written by Ron Malzer, La Crosse County Democratic Party,                                       & Ben Wikler, Chair, Democratic Party of Wisconsin

“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of extreme MAGA philosophy,” President Joe Biden declared last week. Calling out those he labeled as “extreme” Republicans, Biden said: “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins. …  I’m going to say something; it’s like semi-fascism.”  [1]

When neo-Nazis came to Charlottesville to stage an anti—Black, anti-Jewish rally that kills someone, and then-President Trump responded with “very fine people on both sides”, that was fascism. When refugees are called “drug addicts and rapists”, and children are separated from their parents, that’s fascism. When Donald Trump declares he will stay in the White House for life as America’s ruler, and calls in a mob to try to make that happen, that’s fascism.

So when Ron Johnson, Tim Michels, and Derrick Van Orden refuse to denounce these actions by Trump, they are choosing to go along for the ride; “semi-fascism” is not too strong a word for that.

All three have employed dog whistles: Johnson called for decertifying Wisconsin’s voters’ 2020 votes; Michels also wants to de-certify; and Van Orden tells us he was in Washington DC on the infamous day of January 6, 2021, but refuses to tell us whether or not he took part in the illegal,, unpermitted, White House to Capitol march.

Trump, and Trumpism, are very much on the ballot in 2022. What we in Wisconsin do in these next ten weeks will shape the future of American democracy, the question of whether our government fights for working people or sides only with the wealthiest special interests, and define fundamental freedoms—including control over our own bodies. And it will determine whether we lapse back into Trumpian denialism about this existential risk, or whether we continue to spread our wings into a cleaner and brighter future, where green jobs support families in all of our communities, and where our kids know that the earth they inherit will safely sustain them and their own kids for centuries and millennia to come.

Presidential scholar Michael Beschloss declared earlier this year: “W]e are all in existential danger of having our democracy and democracies around the world destroyed,” adding that if a Mussolini-styled government takes hold in America, we could suffer through 50 or more years of dictatorship.

Whether you are progressive, conservative, or somewhere in-between, you need to do your part to save democracy, and vote for candidates who believe in the democratic process, not semi-fascism.   –406 words–

[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/25/biden-trump-philosophy-semi-fascism-00053831

 

GOV. TONY EVERS, MANDELA BARNES LOOK GOOD IN EARLY POLLS

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Written by Democrats’ State Chair Ben Wikler, edited by Ron Malzer

Reasons to see success for Tony Evers, Mandela Barnes, and Down Ballot Candidates:

*Ron Johnson continues his assault on Social Security—saying he wants to “fix” Social Security and that funds should be invested in the stock market. This builds on his proposal to put Social Security on the Congressional chopping block, his defense of Big Pharma and opposition to negotiations on drug prices, and his vote against capping insulin costs. His record is clear—he wants to help special interests rip off Wisconsinites—Republicans, independents, and Democrats alike; white, Black, and brown; in rural communities and cities and suburbs.

*Meanwhile, in the Governor’s race Tim Michels is in hiding, running ads to try to bamboozle Wisconsinites into forgetting the ultra-Trumpist extremism we saw on display mere days ago, on everything from reproductive freedom to public safety to democracy itself. We’re not going to let him get away with that. All over Wisconsin, ads are on the air explaining just how vicious and extreme a politician Tim Michels really is—using video of his own words.

But it’s not enough to explain how bad the other side is. As Democrats, we win when we also show who we are and what we’re for—and then turn out and protect the vote.

*Mandela Barnes is the son of a third-shift auto worker and a public school teacher, and is working to fight against outsourcing so we build things right here in Wisconsin.

Governor Evers, a former teacher, wakes up every day to do what’s right, and is ready to invest even more in our schools, connect even more families to broadband, pave even more roads, and send money from our budget surplus home to Wisconsinites to help people deal with rising costs.

THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT IS NOW LAW, signed by President Biden. Every Wisconsin Democrat in Congress voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. Every Wisconsin Republican in DC voted against it.

The Inflation Reduction Act:Moves Wisconsin’s economy, and the country’s economy, forward;

*Brings down families’ healthcare costs;

*Tackles the climate crisis,

*Requires the wealthy and big corporations to pay more of their fair share.

The latest polls have us up in both the Governor (by a hair)  and Senate races—and our candidates down ballot have tremendous energy and momentum. But we have to expect that there will be ups and downs in the 81 days until November 8.

Be prepared for GOP commercials claiming tof stand for “law and order”. As for “law”, Ron Johnson was part of the sedition caucus publicly seeking an illegal election overturn, Tim Michels agrees, and Derrick Van Orden brags “I was there” at the January 6 insurrection, but won’t tell us what he did or didn’t there. He is a known bully.

The GOP will try to divide and distract at every turn. We’ll bring the focus back to making Wisconsin a state that works for everyone. We’ll lead with our values—and we’ll make history.