David Michael Miller
Tony Evers has gotten off to a surprisingly strong start in his bid for the Democratic nomination to take on Gov. Scott Walker.
While Rep. Dana Wachs and Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik also formally announced this summer, they seemed to follow up lackluster announcements with long fishing trips. We just haven’t heard much from them since.
But Evers stayed aggressive, hitting the campaign trail hard and being the first to launch radio ads. And those ads have gone right at Walker’s perceived strength. Evers is attacking the awful Foxconn deal with full force. Only two weeks into his formal campaign the buzz is that he’s the front-runner. For a guy with an appropriately bookish demeanor in a low-profile job, the state superintendent of public instruction has come charging out of the gate. Good for him.
But here’s the thing. As a man who aspires to be a credible mainstream candidate, Evers did just what you’d expect him to do after a Republican spokesman labeled him a “Madison bureaucrat.” He rejected the label, calling himself a “Plymouth progressive.”
He grew up in Plymouth, Wisconsin, a town of 3,000 souls in Sheboygan County. So, the geography is fair enough, I guess. And he used the standard dodge for liberal politicians who always call themselves progressives instead. Nobody bothers to try to explain what the difference is; we just know that calling someone a “liberal” is labeling them as elitist and out of touch while “progressive” seems to be less obnoxious somehow.
Now, in the hierarchy of Republican insults, I’m not sure if “Madison bureaucrat” is worse than “Madison liberal,” but why the GOP didn’t just go for the trifecta and call Evers a “liberal Madison bureaucrat” is unclear. Maybe they just want to have something in reserve should he win the nomination.
Look, I get it. Evers is a politician trying to win an election. And if eschewing the toxic, Madison liberal and/or bureaucrat label gives him a better chance of unseating the current occupant, well, that’s probably just fine with all the genuine Madisonians who count themselves as liberals or bureaucrats or both.
But as someone with no remaining political ambitions, let me say it loud and say it proud. I am a Madison liberal.
I love Madison. It’s a beautiful place. The people are interesting. There is a really good selection of beers pretty much anyplace you go. The housing prices and taxes are a little steep, but you get what you pay for.
As for our politics, well hey, it drives me nuts a lot of the time too. “Madison liberal” is intended to be an insult and bring to mind preachy, self-righteous, know-it-all types. And, in truth, a lot of us were the kids in grade school who always had their hand up and always had the right answer, to the point where the teacher would sigh, look around the room, and ask, “Anybody, besides Megan? Anybody?”
Every fourth grade class has one of those kids and when they grow up they all move here.
But if having some respect for facts, if believing that a solid education is the best thing we can give our kids, if having a concern for clean air and water, if owning a desire for clean, honest and transparent government, if thinking that the greatest wealth inequality since the Great Depression is a bad and dangerous thing, and if being willing to admit that the American project of fairness and inclusion is nowhere near done, well, then, count me guilty as charged.
The broader problem is that since at least Ronald Reagan, liberals have allowed the other guys to define the word as something akin to “ax murderer.” As a result, Republicans just call a candidate a liberal and watch with glee as the candidate spends the rest of the campaign explaining why the label doesn’t fit.
I understand why one candidate figures he can’t turn back four decades of political branding. So, I have to accept Evers’ “Plymouth progressive” label as a pretty fair attempt to deal with the problem. But I can’t help but yearn for a candidate who, when charged with being a Madison liberal, responds by redefining the label, instead of just running from it.
