Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor says if he wins, only Republicans will win there in the future

[Muse]

Republican says party ‘will never lose another election’ in Wisconsin if he wins

Gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels’ comment is ‘a danger to our democracy’, Democrat opponent Tony Evers says

www.theguardian.com

The R party is wigging out. This is their way of bringing back duels, it seems. Elect me and the other guys disappear... forever.

 

[Fenixgoon]

This is crazy, and yet it is 100% normal for Republican candidates.

I am moving overseas for a few months for work. I feel like I'm getting out at just the right time

 

[K1052]

Wisconsin is such a weird place where Republicans went way off the deep end well before the rest of their neighbors. I have some suspicions about why.

 

[Amused]

Wisconsin is such a weird place where Republicans went way off the deep end well before the rest of their neighbors. I have some suspicions about why.

Oh don't tease!

 

[K1052]

Oh don't tease!

Basically racism. I'm no stranger to hearing racial comments growing up in downstate IL but the few years of work I did in and with people in WI was fairly shocking. More vicious and casual than I was ever used to. Milwaukee is referred to in sort of the same way that Chicago is by much of the non-urban population but with a much much harder edge with this kind of stuff.

 

[nOOky]

Last weekend I travelled to another county in Wisconsin for a funeral. I was actually surprised at the number of Democrat yard signs I saw. That was Buffalo county, I live in Trempealeau county which is still solidly Republican for some reason.

I know a few farmers here that think Trump fixed the China problem and are happy receiving government assistance and associate that with the Republican party helping them.

 

[IronWing]

Basically racism. I'm no stranger to hearing racial comments growing up in downstate IL but the few years of work I did in and with people in WI was fairly shocking. More vicious and casual than I was ever used to. Milwaukee is referred to in sort of the same way that Chicago is by much of the non-urban population but with a much much harder edge with this kind of stuff.

Growing up in Wisconsin, I agree that racism is a large factor and "casual" is a very good descriptor. Add de-industrialization as a stressor and off to la-la land we go. As I posted previously, Bill Clinton's pivot strategy in 1992 also played a big role in handing Wisconsin to the Republicans. Wisconsin's blue collar workforce bought into Reagan's bullshit so, to get the votes, Clinton dumped the Democrats' traditional alignment with labor and went for the upper middle class voters. Labor policy was the glue that held together the coalition of educated liberal professionals and blue collar industrial workers in the Wisconsin Democratic Party. What worked for Clinton in one election permanently destroyed that coalition. The blue collar vote ended up going to Republicans even though Republican policies are horrible for blue collar workers. At least the Republicans take the time to lie to these folks.

 

[vi edit]

Fragile white males that didn't get educated, hid behind manipulative labor unions, had corporations (UAW/Cat/Deere/ect) erode their value and move factory jobs away. And then Fragile While Male went from voting blue to to voting red to own the libs instead of the guys that actually took the jobs away. Racism was always there.

 

[Jaskalas]

Fragile white males that didn't get educated, hid behind manipulative labor unions, had corporations (UAW/Cat/Deere/ect) erode their value and move factory jobs away. And then Fragile While Male went from voting blue to to voting red to own the libs instead of the guys that actually took the jobs away. Racism was always there.

Republicans offered to blame Mexicans....
What did Democrats offer?

 

[vi edit]

Republicans offered to blame Mexicans....
What did Democrats offer?

Terrible messaging. That's what they offered. Nationally dems moved to identity politics and as a party couldn't rally around income disparity and how fucked over we are by big corporations. Of course, there's many old school life time dem leaders that are living comfortably on big corp dollars so there's little incentive to bite that hand too hard.

So you end up with Bernies that are big time old man screams at cloud energy. AOC's that the GOP demonizes as woke green new deal partisans. And should have been focusing on the Fetterman's and Tim Ryan's this whole time for the rust belt states.

 

[fskimospy]

Republicans offered to blame Mexicans....
What did Democrats offer?

Health care for those who lost their jobs, retraining into new industries, tax cuts for the middle class, etc.

The thing is those are all complicated concepts because public policy is complicated. Saying 'I hate Mexicans' is simple and simple messages are more effective.

 

[fskimospy]

Terrible messaging. That's what they offered. Nationally dems moved to identity politics and as a party couldn't rally around income disparity and how fucked over we are by big corporations. Of course, there's many old school life time dem leaders that are living comfortably on big corp dollars so there's little incentive to bite that hand too hard.

So you end up with Bernies that are big time old man screams at cloud energy. AOC's that the GOP demonizes as woke green new deal partisans. And should have been focusing on the Fetterman's and Tim Ryan's this whole time for the rust belt states.

Seems odd to say the Democrats are losing because they moved to identity politics in response to a post about how Republicans are demonizing Mexicans. That's 100% identity politics!

 

[K1052]

Seems odd to say the Democrats are losing because they moved to identity politics in response to a post about how Republicans are demonizing Mexicans. That's 100% identity politics!

Just click on Fox News and its fucking wall to wall white American identity and how "others" are stealing America away from you.

 

[fskimospy]

Just click on Fox News and its fucking wall to wall white American identity and how "others" are stealing America away from you.

The entire Republican Party platform is identity politics yet I never see anyone say identity politics is why they lost in 2018 and 2020.

 

[vi edit]

It's different. Dems ignored white men in the middle of our country. Republican's reached out to that demographic and said "Join Us". Trying to pander to pronouns, blacks, the LGBTQ community, ect just further drove them away.

 

[fskimospy]

It's different. Dems ignored white men in the middle of our country. Republican's reached out to that demographic and said "Join Us". Trying to pander to pronouns, blacks, the LGBTQ community, ect just further drove them away.

So... identity politics?

 

[vi edit]

Whatever you want to label it. It failed for democrats.

 

[Zorba]

The entire Republican Party platform is identity politics yet I never see anyone say identity politics is why they lost in 2018 and 2020.

Because white and masculine identity politics is why they almost won with absolutely no platform or plan.

 

[fskimospy]

Because white and masculine identity politics is why they almost won with absolutely no platform or plan.

That's not true though as both elections were blowouts. The reason they almost won is the system is so tilted in their favor that they had a chance of winning DESPITE their unpopular identity politics, not because of them.

Just imagine if Republicans won by identical margins in both elections. They would have had absolutely massive victories and everyone would say to the Democrats 'see, identity politics doesn't work!' Should work both ways.

 

[vi edit]

There's a *lot* more going on there too.

I still go back to 2016 and just how few overall votes actually decided that election. less than 100k votes over a handful of states decided who lead our country for the next 4 years even though the loser had several million more overall. Democrats aren't playing the map game.

 

[fskimospy]

There's a *lot* more going on there too.

I still go back to 2016 and just how few overall votes actually decided that election. less than 100k votes over a handful of states decided who lead our country for the next 4 years even though the loser had several million more overall. Democrats aren't playing the map game.

The map game is the exact reason they nominated Biden.

 

[vi edit]

The map game is the exact reason they nominated Biden.

And you can go back and take check me on that. I said Dems would get crushed if Kamala or Warren were at the top of the ticket for that very reason. I was team Joe because of his appeal. It still hasn't really fixed anything. It was a bandaid for that moment. There's still a gushing severed artery under it.

 

[fskimospy]

I think Democrats' main issue is that their activist groups are very, very electorally unhelpful. The actual politicians are smart and know what to do for the most part.

As someone pointed out Republican activist groups are better at this because they are more centrally organized. You don't have anti-abortion groups running ads bragging about how overturning Roe is just the start and they can't wait to come after contraception after they're done banning abortion because they know their positions are extremely unpopular. Democratic interest groups should take a cue.

 

[K1052]

The map game is the exact reason they nominated Biden.

And a good argument for moving the first D primary to states that best represent the party's current political coalition. Iowa should get zero party attention for the D presidential race.

 

[fskimospy]

And you can go back and take check me on that. I said Dems would get crushed if Kamala or Warren were at the top of the ticket for that very reason. I was team Joe because of his appeal. It still hasn't really fixed anything. It was a bandaid for that moment. There's still a gushing severed artery under it.

It did stop America from descending into despotism so I view that as a plus.