David Michael Miller
Three days after the election, Mayor Paul Soglin held a press conference where he only briefly called President-elect Donald Trump out for his hateful speech on the campaign trail. Soglin offered few words of comfort to address constituents’ fears. Instead, the mayor expressed mild hope for a Trump presidency. To be fair to Soglin, many liberals were trying hard to extend an olive branch in those first few days before Trump announced his cabinet appointment of hate-speech publisher Steve Bannon.
At the Nov. 11 press conference and in at least two blog posts, the mayor has decided to spend his time calling out the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton for errors made in the campaign. Now, the mayor makes good points in these postmortem think pieces. It just doesn’t feel like the place he should be directing his energy.
Tens of thousands of people have written election postmortem think pieces. There’s countless opinionated blog writers, but there’s only one mayor for the city of Madison. Compared to the ample time the mayor had available to knock the Clinton campaign, the lack of attention paid to Madison’s many diverse communities and the very real, very raw fear they were feeling was glaring.
It seems like the mayor needed external motivation to respond. After mayors from New York to Seattle came out to say they would continue to avoid reporting nonviolent civilians to immigration officials, the mayor and Police Chief Mike Koval joined the chorus and said that the city of Madison would not change its policies towards working with immigration officials. They stated that Madison would continue to be a kinda-sorta sanctuary city where cops don’t report people to immigration unless they are charged with a violent crime. It was a nice statement, even if punishing people who have been charged with a violent crime — but not yet convicted — seems to violate our whole innocent-until-proven-guilty principle.
Madison could lose out on federal funding for taking this stand, but it is a stand worth taking. I’m glad Soglin and Koval made the announcement, but I’m just a little sad it only happened after a bunch of other cities took the lead. I feel like the Soglin of the 1970s would have been leading the charge.
Which brings us to the Madison Common Council. Last week, the entire council, along with Mayor Soglin, unanimously sponsored and passed a resolution reaffirming Madison’s commitment to values of inclusion, equity and justice. It was a nice moment of togetherness and purpose for a mayor and council that were in the process of brutally clashing over the budget. In a macro sense, it was an important statement for a city that has struggled to live up to those lofty values listed in the resolution.
In addition, I’ve seen several alders on social media listening to constituent concerns and answering questions to the best of their ability. It reminded me how many strong voices we have on the council right now.
Over the last few elections, our city has built up an impressive list of alders. For the first time in the 15 years I have lived in Madison, we have a council that looks close to what Madison looks like. They are diverse in age, from young campus-area alders, like Sara Eskrich and Zach Wood, to the more — ahem — mature alders. They are more diverse in ethnic background, religion, sexuality, gender. How many other local legislative bodies have two people like Samba Baldeh, a Muslim immigrant, and Mike Verveer, a very white guy, come together to reaffirm a commitment to educating citizens about civil rights?
There aren’t really any conservatives, but, come on, they have absolute control over the state and the nation. Trust me, we feel their voices whether we want to or not.
Many of our alders are members of groups that will be targeted, in speech or in action, by the Trump administration. As Trump continues to fill his inner circle with more and more dangerous extremists, the city of Madison and other municipalities will likely have to face more tough choices on immigration and other public policy issues.
The council should take the lead in making these tough choices. Mayor Soglin should guide and advise these alders; he is an incredibly smart man with a lifetime of political experience. I still expect the council and the mayor to get into dust-ups over liquor licenses and budgetary amendments. But when it comes to a federal government against nearly everything Madison stands for, I expect our council and our mayor to stand together and speak in one voice.
Alan Talaga co-writes the Off the Square cartoon with Jon Lyons and blogs at Madland.