We The People by Ed Burgess

I watched Tony Evers’ State of the State speech that he gave last week. I confess that I haven’t watched many of these in the past. The news was great and our governor’s delivery was excellent. What initially struck me was that none of the Republicans were wearing masks. I suppose that they were staying true to form. They have downplayed the pandemic and obstructed Tony Evers’ attempts to mitigate the crisis. It is no accident that the vast majority of currently hospitalized Covid cases are unvaccinated followers of these people. 

The other thing was their lack of response to our Governor’s plans to use the 3.8 Billion dollar surplus to support small businesses and to return money to the taxpayers. He had many other proposals to help ordinary people. It looked like they were attending a funeral. They squirmed in their chairs as they perceived all he said as bad news for the Republican Party. This will, no doubt, gavel in and gavel out the special session that the Governor called, to determine the best use of two billion dollars of the surplus. They are hoping that Evers will lose in November and then it will be their money. They probably will want to pump money into charter schools.

We have always had our differences of opinion, that is human nature. In the founding of this country it was decided that in rejecting the control of England we would use their model of government but give control of the country to the will of the majority, excluding women and slaves. Over time the franchise was made more equitable so that all citizens had the right to vote but still the central feature was majority rule. Our laws reflect this and our elected representatives understood that after votes were cast in chamber, the winners were able to get their preferred legislation enacted. 

The Republican Party of today is rejecting this basic tenet of the constitution. They are a minority party using whatever tactics allow them to remain in control where they have it. In order to do this they are relying on gerrymandering and voter repression to weed out Democratic voters. They have become flat earthers as they seek to overturn the last election and sow distrust in our electoral process all without a shred of evidence that anything improper took place. Their use of anger and hate to manipulate their base is appalling. In the end I believe that the Republican Party will need to reinvent themselves. They will need to broaden their appeal by really delivering for the middle class. They will need politicians of principle who value the needs of the country ahead of their partisan interests.  

This next election will test the strength of our democratic form of government. Republicans are busy passing laws that will allow legislative bodies that they control to overturn the election results that they don’t like. We can’t count on the judicial branch of government to hold them in check. The only check on their ambitions is for voters of good will to turn out and deliver a message that will cause Republicans to reflect on their values.

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