Author Archives: Ron Malzer

Democrats Work to Help Families While Republicans Falsely Cry “Fraud”

Posted on by

Alice Benson, La Crosse County Democratic Party Communications Team

Very real and fundamental freedoms are at stake in the November mid-term elections, critical freedoms that are crucial to the bedrock of our democracy.

Watching the January 6 Committee, it’s clear that we cannot take our many freedoms for granted. Democrats are focused on protecting Americans’ rights and liberty and providing help and support for people’s everyday concerns.

While many Republicans, including those in Wisconsin, appear to be stuck in 2020, still railing against election fraud that doesn’t exist, making efforts to curtail voting rights, and spending taxpayer dollars on a dead-end investigation, Democrats are focused on developing policies and passing legislation that helps working families and protects everyone’s freedom.

Democrats brought you a tax cut for American Families with children aged 17 and younger through an expansion of the Child Tax Credit and another tax cut for workers under age 25 without children and those over age 65 through an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. The majority of Republicans voted against those tax cuts for regular working people, instead pushing through tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans.

Senator Ron Johnson pressed to pass a special tax break in the 2017 GOP tax bill that he, along with his largest donors, benefitted from. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the top 1% of Americans by income received 60% of the tax savings from the tax provision passed by Republicans. Democrats cut taxes for the rest of us, not just the 1%.

Democrats are focused on helping working families, and in the House of Representatives, passed The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which would authorize funds for Federal-aid highways. Republicans voted against this investment in job creation and infrastructure.

Democrats in the House of Representatives also passed The For the People Act which would expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, and ban partisan gerrymandering. Republicans voted against protecting voting rights and are actively working, across the county, to suppress voting rights.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in 2022, Republican legislators in at least 27 states have introduced or carried over 250 bills focused on restricting voter access. Democrats continue to stand up for all Americans, striving to protect the right to vote.

Republicans voted against capping the price of insulin, an expensive and life-saving medication that too many people struggle to afford. With gas prices at an all-time high, Republicans voted against legislation that would protect consumers from the price-gouging of big corporations.

Over and over, Democrats are focused on delivering for the American people. Whether it’s jobs or tax cuts, lowering costs for working families, or protection for vital civil rights and freedoms, Democrats never forget who they are working for. Democrats are working for all of us and can be counted on to protect the average person from the Republican plans that will endanger our freedoms and weaken our democracy.

 

 

Violence Promotion in the Media and Politics Must Be Ended

Posted on by

 

La Crosse Tribune—Sunday June 5, 2022

 

“I don’t understand where the men are. Like where are the dads? You know, some teacher is pushing sex values on your third grader. Why don’t you go in and thrash the teacher?” Fox’s Tucker Carlson, on April 8. [1]

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 that reports and comments on it. Violence-fomenting 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 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.” [2]

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: 1) They are a predominantly female group; and 2) Their mission is to promote the common good, anathema to those working to shred America’s institutions.

January 6, 2021 should not have come as a surprise. Two years prior to his “Fight like Hell” command,  then-President 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 US military. [3] As we now know from Defense Secretary 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. [4]

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. [5] 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 January 6, 12 Republican US 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 Capitol violence campaign an attempted “bloodless coup”. [6]

Then came the violence of January 6. It took the lives of seven people, including three Capitol Police officers, injuring about 150 other officers.  [7]

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.”  [8]

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 January 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 February 8 labeling the bipartisan investigation of the violent insurrection at the US Capitol as “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.” [9]

Unless we find a way to stop this breakdown of 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. [10]

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 January 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 November 8 and say “no” to the dismantling of democracy we are witnessing.

 

 

The answer to school mass shootings is NOT more guns in schools   

Posted on by

Important Message from  LCDP Board Member Ralph Knudson

 Apparently, Republican leadership has decided that it’s OK to move beyond prayers after the last school massacre.  Robin Vos, Republican House speaker, and our area’s Coulee Conservative group have said that the solution for mass shootings in schools should be to “arm teachers”; and not to limit access to assault weapons in any way.  There’s actually nothing new about these statements..  Republican leaders depend on corporate gun manufacturers’ lobby money and talking points, and simply repeat them without question.   So let’s just explore this proposal a bit further, and put some thought into it: 

We now know that trained police in Uvalde were reluctant to actually go into the school classroom to confront the gunman, who was armed with an AR-15.  Instead, they waited in the hallway for border patrol agents to arrive an hour later, while the gunman continued to murder children in the classroom, even as still alive children called 911 for police help.  Why?  Did police feel outgunned?  Were they aware of the miserable odds of facing an AR-15 with their service revolvers?  

So what weapons would “experts” like Mr. Vos and the Coulee Conservatives recommend that teachers arm themselves with to confront the next shooter armed with an assault weapon?  A handgun?  What caliber? How many rounds?  Where should it be kept? On her/his hip? In a desk? Or should each school be required to have its own assault weapons on hand? Where? How about also arming custodians and administrators?  Just wondering….can’t be too careful. Writing meaningful laws requires such details…  

The assault weapons are out there: 20 million in the US since the assault weapons sale ban was struck down in 2004 by the US Supreme Court.  Before, we “only” had 400,000 assault weapons in civilian hands when the ban was in place.  With 120 weapons per 100 people in the USA compared to 20-30 per 100 in other developed countries, we now have 8 times the number of homicides per capita compared to those same developed countries.   Children now die by gun death more than any other cause in our country; mass homicides have tripled since 2004…and the rate is accelerating. But the gun corporations want us to pretend that those numbers don’t mean anything.  They simply want to sell more guns.   

 

If teachers would be required by law in Wisconsin to be armed, what type of weapons training would also be required to get and maintain a teaching certificate in Wisconsin?  Close combat, moving target training?  How would this impact teacher recruitment and retention and teaching quality?  Imagine a young college graduate hoping to be a kindergarten teacher under such circumstances.  He or she would be expected as part of teaching duties to rapidly and effectively pull out a weapon, without warning, in a classroom of children and bring down an intruder using an AR-15.  Such a shoot-out fantasy succeeds only in bad movies…with lots of choreography.   

 

Republicans also tout mental health support, but have not supported substantial ongoing state funding for mental health services in our schools for years, cutting funding for school counselors and socio-emotional support staff in past budget proposals. (What little research we have finds  that bullying and alienation was often experienced by mass shooters…often in schools)  So much for words and prayers without substance by Republican leaders. 

 

  Mass shootings have tripled since 2004… and are accelerating. Why is our country the only one plagued by repeated mass killings in schools and public places?  Will we become the only state or nation which “protects” our children and schools by  suggesting that the only answer is to require more guns and prayers in schools while we make it easier for almost anyone to get assault weapons?  

If you give these NRA Republicans your vote,  we will soon learn how effective their fear-stoked more-guns fantasies actually play out.  All they need is your vote ..or just your decision to stay quiet, and to NOT vote.  Same difference. 

Thoughtful information and discussion to develop multiple interventions against this complex public health crisis are needed, not pray and “return fire”  fantasies promoted by gun dealers.      

Democrats Rally to Protect Roe

Posted on by

Many pundits like to say that the 18-to-24 age group is politically apathetic. If any of them made it to the LCDP rally on Thursday, they will be busy rewriting that opinion.

A large  throng of people, many of whom were women under the age of 25, lined Fourth Street on Thursday afternoon in a rally called by La Crosse County Democratic Party Chair William Garcia. “We will not let the government tell us what to do with our bodies” Garcia declared. Many Wisconsin Democratic Party candidates for office came to the rally to deliver that message.

Continue reading →

President Biden Provides Strong Support to Ukraine

Posted on by

Opinion | Ukraine and America: a tale of two phone calls

  • By Ron Malzer | guest column
 
Joe Biden and Donald Trump mashup, AP generic file photos (copy)

Joe Biden and Donald Trump

ASSOCIATED PRESS
A CNN headline on Feb. 23 says it all: “Trump sides with Putin as Biden tries to stop a war.”
 
April 13, 2022. The White House, CNN reporting: “President Joe Biden on Wednesday told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the US was sending his nation an additional $800 million worth of weapons, ammunition, and other security assistance. It comes as US officials warn of a potentially bloody new phase in the ongoing war.

“Biden detailed the new announcement in a midday telephone call with Zelensky that lasted for about an hour.”

In response, President Zelensky tweeted: “Continued constant dialogue with @POTUS. Assessed Russian war crimes. Discussed additional package of defensive and possible macro-financial aid. Agreed to enhance sanctions.”

 

The Biden-Zelensky conversation drew on Biden’s 33 years in the Senate, including two terms chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He knew Zelensky and Ukraine well.

On July 25, 2019, a very different phone call took place, also between an American president and President Zelensky. It lasted 30 minutes. We know what was said because a brave whistleblower laid bare then-President Donald Trump’s communication in an “Urgent Concern” memo.

“In the course of my official duties,” the whistleblower began, “I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” That foreign country was clearly identified in the transcript: Ukraine.

Trump desperately wanted dirt to use against Joe Biden. Trump informed Zelensky that he was making an end-run around our own State Department. Former U.S. Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch — “that woman” Trump called her — was “bad news.” Going forward, he told Zelensky, U.S.-Ukraine relations were to be handled by Rudy Giuliani.

And then, in an evil and concealed unilateral action that will live in infamy, Trump imposed a halt in military aid shipments to Ukraine. Zelensky knew that the Russian bear was licking its paws, and breathing hard down Zelensky’s neck. Zelensky bravely held firm and refused to call the false-narrative press conference that Trump had demanded.

Has America in its nearly-250-year history ever seen anything approaching that treachery? Accordingly, on Dec. 18, 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives.

Had the Senate held firm to its constitutional duties, Trump would have been convicted unanimously and removed from office. But 47 of 48 Republican senators, from moderates such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to hard-right members Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson, rallied around Trump and cast “not guilty” votes.

 

Trump’s history of admiration of Vladimir Putin is a long one. The relationship goes back to the 2013 Miss Universe contest in Moscow, where Trump declared of Putin, “I do have a relationship with him,” adding that Russia’s strongman had “done a very brilliant job.”

Trump accepted Russia’s help in his 2016 election campaign, later employing outrageous denial in the infamous Helsinki summit: “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he declared of the bot-powered social media-dominating Russian election interference.

Trump was also willing to overlook Putin’s killing of dissident journalists with his ‘we kill people too’ brush-off response to a query about Putin’s brutality.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine did nothing to deter Trump’s admiration. One day after Russian troops began their march into eastern Ukraine, Trump took to talk radio to declare the invasion a stroke of “genius” — “there was a television screen … Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”

We cannot remedy the precedent-setting Senate vote that broke the guardrails against presidents seeking foreign involvement in U.S. elections. We can’t blunt the impact of the 2019 interruption of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. What we can do is put pressure on the current Congress to hold fast to President Biden’s pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia foreign policy. Emails and phone calls to the members of Congress on this are essential.

There are sacrifices we must make to aid our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. The price of gasoline in Wisconsin has nudged at times above $4 a gallon; in Illinois and other states, paying $5 a gallon is not unusual. As we make these sacrifices, we need to focus on the brutal hardships and deaths being endured daily in and around Kyiv, and in Mariupol.

 

The four years of America’s foreign policy being pro-Putin and anti-Ukraine have ended. America now stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. As Putin continues to pummel Ukraine, we must assure that Biden’s pledge to President Zelensky is carried out, not undermined.

There is no place for partisan politics when the lives of the proud and resilient people of Ukraine are at stake.

 
 

Ron Malzer is a freelance writer who lives in La Crosse.