Author Archives: Ron Malzer

Vital Votes Tues. August 9: Evers, Kaul, Billings, & Doyle

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Can you imagine the awful legislation that would become Wisconsin law if the Republican-gerrymandered state legislature is joined by a Republican governor? Extreme right-wing ideas would be written into law.

*Government, not those who are pregnant, would make the decision about who carries to term, and some contraceptives could be banned completely;                                   *Same-sex marriage and gender-affirming care could be outlawed;                            *The state of Wisconsin would be telling local school districts what they cannot teach.

To prevent this nightmare from becoming reality, you need to cast votes Tuesday August on the Democratic side for:

*Gov. Tony Evers, so that he can defeat the extremist Republican candidate in November; *Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is already in court along with Gov. Evers to overturn bad current law; and Representatives Steve Doyle and Jill Billings, who stand firmly on progressive values.

 

Re-Elect Gov. Tony Evers and AG Josh Kaul to halt Republicans’ war on reproductive health

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 By Ben Wikler, Chair, Democratic Party of Wisconsin

This month, a far-right majority on the United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of protected access to safe and legal abortion. This decision comes after Republican politicians, like Ron Johnson, have waged a decades-long war on reproductive health – upending years of judicial precedent, directly contradicting the advice of countless medical professionals, and taking away rights from people across our country.

After years of trying to manipulate the system and rig the courts, the GOP has gotten exactly what it wanted. And when people across our country die because they are denied access to abortion care, the blame will lay at the feet of Republican politicians and their ultra-MAGA agenda.

Here in Wisconsin, an abortion ban that passed into law in 1849 – before the Civil War – could be enforced. This law effectively bans almost all abortions in our state, and would throw doctors in jail for doing their jobs.

As if this dystopian siege on reproductive health care weren’t enough, Republicans across our state are gaming to push the law even further. As we approach the August gubernatorial primary, the Republican candidates for governor have been engaging in an all-out sprint to the right – with each candidate vying to be the most extreme and most divisive choice.

Trump-endorsed candidate Tim Michels has gladly adopted the anti-women, anti-choice rhetoric that defines the Republican Party. In recent weeks, Michels has doubled down on his support of banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and has voiced his support for the legislature to make Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban even harsher.

Make no mistake: in moments of unfathomable darkness, when survivors of rape or incest are faced with a pregnancy resulting from assault, Tim Michels said it’s “not unreasonable” to force victims to give birth. The nightmare of a Michels administration does not end there – he was recently asked about “abortion pills that are being passed off as contraception”—a common right-wing way to refer to emergency contraceptives like Plan B.

Michels’s response? “They’ll be illegal in Wisconsin.”

Michels’s spokesperson, no doubt realizing just how out of step with Wisconsinites this idea would be, refused to give a clear answer to subsequent questions from reporters about whether Michels would sign legislation to ban emergency contraception. Michels himself waited nearly a week before clarifying that he was “not against contraception” – but this would seem to be at odds with his past support by Pro-Life Wisconsin, which opposes all contraception.

Rebecca Kleefisch also lives on the radical fringes of the anti-choice Republican Party and supports a total ban on abortion in Wisconsin – even in cases of rape, incest, or when the patient’s life is at risk. In a horrifying moment of callousness, Kleefisch agreed that rape victims should, “turn lemons to lemonade” if they should become pregnant after an assault. To suggest that anyone’s mother, sister, or family member could and should turn such an attack into “lemonade” is shocking. Kleefisch’s radical and divisive rhetoric, like her even more radical divisive policies, has no place in Wisconsin.

Whether Rebecca Kleefisch or Tim Michels wins next month’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Republicans’ war on reproductive health is just beginning. In a Wisconsin run by ultra-MAGA candidates, Republican politicians would ramp up their campaign to extend the power of the state into hospital rooms, OB-GYN clinics, and doctor’s offices.

All of this makes the stakes in an already high-stakes election year even higher. Wisconsinites must re-elect Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul as the last lines of defense to protect access to abortion care in Wisconsin.

Gov. Evers and AG Kaul will continue to be a brick wall against Republicans’ attacks on health care, and will continue to defend the very simple idea that medical decisions are not political. The most intimate and personal decisions about people’s lives should be made by the people themselves, in consultation with their doctors and their families – an idea supported by the medical community and a majority of our country and state.

 

Voting Democratic to Push Back for Reproductive Justice

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written by Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler

 

This month, a far-right majority on the United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending 50 years of protected access to safe and legal abortion. This decision comes after Republican politicians, like Ron Johnson, have waged a decades-long war on reproductive health – upending years of judicial precedent, directly contradicting the advice of countless medical professionals, and taking away rights from people across our country.

After years of trying to manipulate the system and rig the courts, the GOP has gotten exactly what it wanted. And when people across our country die because they are denied access to abortion care, the blame will lay at the feet of Republican politicians and their ultra-MAGA agenda.

Here in Wisconsin, an abortion ban that passed into law in 1849 – before the Civil War – could be enforced. This law effectively bans almost all abortions in our state, and would throw doctors in jail for doing their jobs.

As if this dystopian siege on reproductive health care weren’t enough, Republicans across our state are gaming to push the law even further. As we approach the August gubernatorial primary, the Republican candidates for governor have been engaging in an all-out sprint to the right – with each candidate vying to be the most extreme and most divisive choice.

Trump-endorsed candidate Tim Michels has gladly adopted the anti-women, anti-choice rhetoric that defines the Republican Party. In recent weeks, Michels has doubled down on his support of banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and has voiced his support for the legislature to make Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban even harsher.

Make no mistake: in moments of unfathomable darkness, when survivors of rape or incest are faced with a pregnancy resulting from assault, Tim Michels said it’s “not unreasonable” to force victims to give birth. The nightmare of a Michels administration does not end there – he was recently asked about “abortion pills that are being passed off as contraception”—a common right-wing way to refer to emergency contraceptives like Plan B.

Michels’s response? “They’ll be illegal in Wisconsin.”

Michels’s spokesperson, no doubt realizing just how out of step with Wisconsinites this idea would be, refused to give a clear answer to subsequent questions from reporters about whether Michels would sign legislation to ban emergency contraception. Michels himself waited nearly a week before clarifying that he was “not against contraception” – but this would seem to be at odds with his past support by Pro-Life Wisconsin, which opposes all contraception.

Rebecca Kleefisch also lives on the radical fringes of the anti-choice Republican Party and supports a total ban on abortion in Wisconsin – even in cases of rape, incest, or when the patient’s life is at risk. In a horrifying moment of callousness, Kleefisch agreed that rape victims should, “turn lemons to lemonade” if they should become pregnant after an assault. To suggest that anyone’s mother, sister, or family member could and should turn such an attack into “lemonade” is shocking. Kleefisch’s radical and divisive rhetoric, like her even more radical divisive policies, has no place in Wisconsin.

Whether Rebecca Kleefisch or Tim Michels wins next month’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Republicans’ war on reproductive health is just beginning. In a Wisconsin run by ultra-MAGA candidates, Republican politicians would ramp up their campaign to extend the power of the state into hospital rooms, OB-GYN clinics, and doctor’s offices.

All of this makes the stakes in an already high-stakes election year even higher. Wisconsinites must re-elect Governor Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul as the last lines of defense to protect access to abortion care in Wisconsin.

Gov. Evers and AG Kaul will continue to be a brick wall against Republicans’ attacks on health care, and will continue to defend the very simple idea that medical decisions are not political. The most intimate and personal decisions about people’s lives should be made by the people themselves, in consultation with their doctors and their families – an idea supported by the medical community and a majority of our country and state.

– Wikler is  chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin

Republicans in the House of Representatives continue to attack basic civil rights and support policies that make life harder for working families.

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by Alice Benson, Member, La Crosse County Democratic Party Communications Team

If we want to protect our planet, our health, our unions, and our basic civil rights, we must do all we can to elect Democrats in November. Democrats will continue to pass policies that improve the lives of working families.

The US House of Representatives Republican Study Committee (RSC) released a budget document in June 2022 that details the group’s priorities. Nearly 75% of Republicans in the House are RSC members, so these priorities are shared by a majority of the GOP caucus.

Highlights of the Republican Study Committee budget document include plans to do the following:

  1. Raise the Social Security Eligibility age by three months per year through 2040, at which point the new age requirement to receive full Social Security benefits for people.
  2. Lock prescription drug pricing reform and stand in firm opposition to any government-led efforts to bring down pricing.
  3. Gut programs to help low-income families by taking away programs that:    *help poor families to heat and cool their homes;                                                 *allow schools in very low-income areas to provide free meals to all students;                                                                                                                   *allow challenged families access to needed healthy food; and,                       *allow children access to vitally-needed healthcare.
  4. Eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program that helps poor families heat and cool their homes and eliminate an initiative that allows schools in very low-income areas to provide free meals to all students. RSC members favor converting other programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program into block grants with less federal money, requiring states to pay more.
  5. Ban and restrict abortions across the entire county. The RSC wants to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X grants that help clinics provide cancer screenings and birth control prescriptions to low-income and uninsured individuals. The group also endorses bills that would prohibit fetal stem cells from being used for research and would give legal rights to fertilized eggs.
  6. Attack Unions by eliminating the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that protects workers’ rights to organize, oversees union elections, and steps in when employers attempt to use union-busting tactics.
  7. Eliminate sensible gun protections by removing silencers from regulation and blocking state laws that regulate silencers.
  8. Eradicate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which enforces consumer protection laws and supervises financial institutions to ensure they’re following financial regulations.
  9. Attack transgender rights by codifying under federal law that “sex refers to the biological sex of an individual at birth.”
  10. Roll Back Climate Change Initiatives and continue to hamper the EPA. The RSC opposes Biden’s decision to reenter the Paris Climate agreement and supports a bill that would prohibit federal dollars from reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The RSC also wants to stop all EPA grant funding and close all regional offices.

These issues are so vital! We need to tell everyone we know to make sure they are registered to vote, and to make a firm plan to vote Democratic across the board in November.

Violence promotion by media personalities and political leaders needs to stop. Reprinted from the Madison Cap Times.

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Tucker carlson

The horrifying tragedy in Uvalde leaves us all reeling, and wondering what kind of a country we live in. One factor underlying this all is the climate of violence created within our political system, and the media reports and comments on it. Fomenting violence has become commonplace. That needs to stop.

For the last six or seven years, America’s political discourse has been very ugly. We are marinating in a broth created by people in positions of power, employing the most vicious and dangerous falsehoods against millions of people, and amplified by people enjoying the suffering of others.

Three sources are fomenting violence through fabrications of evil: the “Fox News” outlet, disinformation-saturated social media, and politicians playing on resentment and fear to justify the taking of power, by force or violence if necessary.

Enter Fox’s Tucker Carlson. Arguably the most popular cable network talk show host in the country, he is employed by the Fox outlet to spread hate-based disinformation. During his violence-promoting diatribe on Fox, the outlet posted this banner: “DEMOCRATS ARE LOSING THEIR MINDS BECAUSE PARENTS WANT TO PROTECT THEIR KIDS FROM GROOMING.”

Vicious libel against America’s teachers through a charge that they are “grooming” their pupils is now commonplace. Public school teachers have been selected as the latest target in the vilify-and-attack program for two reasons: They are a predominantly female group; and their mission is to promote the common good, which is anathema to those working to shred America’s institutions.

Jan. 6, 2021, should not have come as a surprise. Two years prior to his “fight like hell” command, then-President Donald Trump declared that his opposition had no way to win, because he had on his side the combined firepower of Bikers for Trump, America’s police, and the U.S. military. As we now know from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s recently published book, Trump also repeatedly asked high-level aides to look into firing bullets into protesters’ legs and lobbing missiles into Mexico.

Trump had previously issued a call at a police conference for police to commit criminal assault via head-banging against those being arrested and had offered praise to a Republican Montana congressman for body-slamming a journalist. Living in infamy is Trump’s pronouncement that the neo-Nazi group that killed a peaceful protester in Charlottesville included “very fine people.”

Four days prior to Jan. 6, 12 Republican U.S. senators, including Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, announced their plan to violate their oath of office and constitutional duties by voting to nullify the results of the 2020 election. CNN’s Jake Tapper accurately named the group “the sedition caucus” and pointedly named the campaign to decertify the election an attempted “bloodless coup.”

Then came the violence of Jan. 6. It took the lives of five people, including three Capitol Police officers, and injured about 150 other officers.

Very telling, following the violent attack, was Ron Johnson’s joyful shout-out to those who had descended on the Capitol: “ I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn’t concerned.”

Calls for violent attacks against teachers and journalists, calls for violence against persons being arrested and killings of peaceful protesters and other unarmed persons all make us an endangered society. The violent coup attempt on Jan. 6 to overthrow the constitutional order and impose autocracy show that democracy is threatened with collapse.

Violence-legitimizing has become integral to the campaigning of a major political party, with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel on Feb. 8 labeling the bipartisan investigation of the insurrection as “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Unless we find a way to stop this breakdown of the democratic process, we are headed for a situation like the one being imposed in the Philippines, where armed vigilantes have governmental blessing to roam the streets to kill poor people (“drug users”), and journalists reporting on these killings are subject to repeated arrest and imprisonment.

There are two things we have to do to head off the demise of the limited parts of our democracy and democratic institutions that are still standing. First, we need to be glued to our TV sets as the House bipartisan panel paints the full picture of who was responsible for the killings on Jan. 6, and we need to be certain that each and every individual behind the multiple killings in the Capitol is held accountable.

And then, all of us who believe that elections should be decided by the ballot box, not by bullets and bear spray — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — should march to the polls on Nov. 8 and say “no” to the dismantling of democracy we are witnessing.

Ron Malzer heads the communication team of the La Crosse County Democratic Party.