Rally for Voting Rights!

  • La Crosse, Wisconsin, La Crosse Democratic Party, 1:30P.M. September 23, 2017, Cameron Park

To help celebrate U.S. Constitution Week, the La Crosse County Democratic Party (LCDP) is sponsoring a voting rights rally. Partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression schemes are threats to our fundamental right to vote.

Moderated by John Medinger, former Mayor of La Crosse and former state representative, Professors Keith Knutson and Mike Smuksta (retired) of Viterbo University, will speak on:

Gerrymandering and its corrosive effects on democratic participation. This practice lets a party use data mining and sophisticated software to draw party-favored districts. This is the case in Wisconsin, and it’s why the U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear a case about whether these techniques are legal. One of the plaintiffs in that case, Emily Bunting, will also attend the rally and will give a short summary of the case.

President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity and its effort to suppress voting rights. In an effort to prove that he didn’t lose the popular vote, the President is asking for confidential information on U.S. voters.

Voter ID laws and other voter suppression efforts, especially among minority voters.

Local, state and federal officials will make brief statements; Democratic gubernatorial candidates have been invited to this event, and many have accepted. Immediately following the rally, the candidates and public officials will be available to answer questions from the press and public at the Brick House, across the street from the park. This will give people an opportunity to speak one-on one with the candidates and learn more about each one’s positions.

The rally is being sponsored by the LCDP in an effort to reinvigorate participation in the Democratic process. The LCDP is committed to strengthening public education, safeguarding civil and human rights, providing health care for all, protecting the environment, and ending gross income inequality.

Cooperation between Democrats and Republicans

The September 17 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contained an article that should give all of us hope.  The article was co-authored by our own Congressman Ron Kind, and a conservative Republican Congressman from the eastern part of the state, Jim Sensenbrenner.

The title was, “Let’s keep bipartisanship alive,” and it focused on the fact that both men have made cooperation a priority even in today’s hyper-partisan political climate.  The article states that both men work hard to take the responsibility of public service seriously.

Between the two of them, they have sponsored more than 20 pieces of bipartisan legislation so far this year, including the AFFIRM Act and the National Scenic Trails Parity Act.

The article goes on to say that our state is neither blue nor red, but rather purple with a long history of leaders from both parties.  So, the state’s leaders should take a bipartisan, common-sense approach to problem solving, with a culture of respect and appreciation for one another.  Although these men have different ideological beliefs, they will continue to look for ways to solve the problems of the people in our state – and all Americans – by working across the aisle and actually working on “compromise,” a word that seems often to be forgotten in today’s political environment.

The true meaning of compromise is that neither side is completely happy with the outcome – because both sides have to give on some issues to reach an agreement that all can live with.  Disagreements will always happen, but it is possible to find common ground.

Both Congressmen will continue to encourage open discussions, listening and respecting each other’s point of view.  Hopefully everyone in Wisconsin’s statehouse and the US Congress as a whole will once again embrace bipartisanship as the way to solve our problems.