Imagine this. You wake up one morning, and find that your picture is being distributed widely, with the words “REPEAT OFFENDER” in bold capital letters just above your head. Or you serve your community as a school board member and receive this email: “I am going to kill you and shoot up your next school-board meeting for promoting the horrific, radical transgender agenda.”

Both these happened recently to public servants in western Wisconsin. They brushed off these venomous attacks and continued with their reelection campaigns. They won decisive victories. They deserve a heartfelt thank you.

In La Crosse County, targeted by a mailed flyer was our incumbent County Board President Monica Kruse. The flyer stated: “Visit lacrossegop.org for more information.” The key messaging on page one was highlighted aggressively through the use of all capital letters: “Should Police Be Handcuffed by An Anti-Cop Political Activist and a Repeat Offender?”

What is Monica Kruse’s crime? Reading the fine print, she is being blasted for advocacy of an important principle: That we, the citizens and taxpayers of La Crosse County, should have some oversight over our police department, assuring that its work is fully consistent with its mission to serve and protect us all.

There is an important issue here, but it’s one that the attack ad completely turns around.

On Feb. 4, Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, labeled the investigation into the violent Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 as “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

The brutal siege, aimed at taking hostage the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House, was definitely violent; it was a violent coup attempting to replace democracy with autocracy. Among its impacts was the killing of one Capitol Police officer and the wounding of more than 100 others. Four police suicides occurred within months of the mob violence.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson has served as an apologist for this violence. After publicly reading a piece claiming that the violent insurrection was carried out by Trump opponents, Johnson later reversed course and received a spot to PolitiFact’s 2021 “Lies of the Year” with a “Pants on Fire” declaration that the insurrectionists were mostly “people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law”.

When political leaders declare as legitimate a violent attack directed at public servants and the police, the lives of both our nation’s police and our public servants are seriously at risk.

Now let’s turn to Eau Claire. The email with the threat of lethal violence at a School Board meeting was received by School Board President Tim Nordin. It came from an email account called “Kill All Marxist Teachers.”

The Wisconsin Examiner reports: “In Eau Claire, all three school board candidates who ran on anti-LGBT platforms lost to the incumbents and their allies. The three conservative candidates stoked controversy about a teacher training program they claimed excludes parents from conversations about their children’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The issue became a topic of national news stories and outraged commentary on Fox News.”

Nordin responded: “This is Eau Claire’s election. Others want to control this election by inciting fear in you and driving votes with outside money and news coverage. They, quite literally, are trying to threaten us into submission. I remain unbowed.”

Voters in western Wisconsin turned back character assassination, targeted mailings and a gruesome death threat on April 5. We all have more work to do.

For advocates of police oversight, and for teachers, need to talk sensibly about gender or identity, we need to offer protection. Speaking out publicly will deter the hate and fear mongers from trying to silence public servants with death threats and personal attack ads against a few targeted individuals.

We need to let both our public servants and our police officers know that those who believe in democracy stand with them and have their backs.