Hong steps on her own story

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Francesca Hong ran an impressive race in the primary to succeed state Rep. Chris Taylor in that east side district. She emerged out of a crowded field that included some seasoned local pols. Now she faces token opposition in the general election. There’s no doubt that she’ll succeed Taylor. 

That Assembly district has produced U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who held the seat from 1993 until 1999, and Congressman Mark Pocan, who succeeded Baldwin in the Assembly until he succeeded her in Congress in 2013. And before Baldwin, David Clarenbach held the seat from 1975 to 1993. All three are strong progressives, but they are something else: effective. 

That effectiveness stems from the fact that they are all likable people. Baldwin is about the most dignified, decent person I’ve ever met in politics. Pocan has a great sense of humor and a way of getting along with people with whom he has strong disagreements. While in the Assembly he even cultivated a warm working relationship with Robin Vos, the Prince of Darkness. 

Clarenbach’s greatest legislative achievement was to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1982, making Wisconsin the first state to do so. I worked as a young aide in the Legislature during that debate. My boss, a conservative blue-collar Democrat, voted for that bill largely because he liked and respected Clarenbach. 

And Taylor, while edgier than her predecessors, never crossed the line from passionate advocacy into vulgarity. But now Francesca Hong has done that even before taking office. 

In a tweet last week Hong wrote, “Please note that the corrupt, crooked, c----s at The Tavern League do not represent the interests of all bars and restaurants. Since March I have pleaded that we need united messaging, a plan and policy in place to protect public health and local economy. We still have neither.”

She blew up a perfectly fine statement with one disastrous and offensive word. Hong was referring to a lawsuit brought by the Tavern League to overturn Gov. Tony Evers very sensible order limiting capacity in bars and restaurants to 25%. Hong has added credibility on this issue because she co-owns a restaurant. 

And she’s right about the Wisconsin Tavern League. In fact, their effort to stop an important and reasonable effort to slow the pandemic is only part of it. (On Monday a judge ruled against the League and their lobbyist said they would not appeal.) The pandemic will eventually go away, but the Tavern League has spent decades fighting reasonable measures to combat an even worse long-term epidemic in our state: drunk driving. 

Wisconsin has the weakest drunk driving laws in the country almost entirely due to the opposition of the powerful Tavern League. Hong is absolutely right to take them on. 

So what was the point in using the word? All it did was switch the focus from the League to her. It doesn’t help that the Madison city council has tied itself up in knots over the alleged use of the very same word by one of its members. Now we’ve got a side debate about who gets to use a deeply offensive insult. Let’s agree that nobody should use it and move on. 

The real issue is a pandemic that is raging in Wisconsin largely due to Republican resistance, now aided by the Tavern League, to reasonable attempts by Evers to slow the disease. With one word Hong has made the Tavern League a subject of sympathy and herself the source of more “there goes Madison again” derision across the state. 

Whether she likes it or not Hong represents Madison and the Democratic Party now. Every intemperate word she says will be taken out of context and blown out of proportion by people who don’t like either to reinforce negative narratives. “See, Madison is full of nutty militant leftists! And, see, the Democratic Party has been taken over by radicals!”

Use of profane, militant language seems to be in fashion on the left. Even Pocan disappointed me by calling Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) a “dumbs--t” in a recent social media post. When a mob ripped down statues on the Capitol Square then Madison state Senate candidate Nada Elmikashfi, now an Isthmus contributor and soon to be Hong’s chief of staff, tweeted “f--k your statues.” And Madison Ald. Max Prestigiacomo reposted a post that said, among other offensive things, “F--k the Madison police.” 

I guess the thinking is that they are just expressing their moral outrage, their righteous indignation. On some parts of the far left civility, common decency and even values of a liberal society, like the free press, are viewed as tools of the oppressors, believe it or not. “Niceness, also known as civility, hasn’t worked because it is, by design, a means of avoiding conflict or accountability,” Emily Mills, a former Isthmus blogger, wrote in a recent opinion piece in the Cap Times. “It’s a tool of the powerful and the oppressors.”

Civility and decency are also tools to win elections and these are politicians. Their job is to win elections all over the state and all over the nation — not just in liberal enclaves — so that they can gain majorities so that they can actually do things. Spouting off like this is a strategy to turn off persuadable voters and to remain powerless.