How Dems can win
Dave Cieslewicz recommends in his recent article (“Out of the Ashes, a Democratic Governor?” 11/10/2016) that Wisconsin Democrats should reconnect with white, rural, working-class men in the next gubernatorial race. But how? I have a suggestion.
Do -NOT- elect a candidate from Madison or Milwaukee in the Democratic primary. Even Dane County is poison!
I hate to throw out candidates, potentially the “best” ones, just because of where they happen to reside. But in a winner-take-all contest, putting up the second- or third-favorite candidate who can win is infinitely preferable to a progressive darling who loses.
Try this exercise. Imagine Democrats had run Buffalo County resident and actual farmer Kathleen Vinehout instead of Tom Barrett in the recall election. Vinehout was nowhere near as popular with Democrats in the primary. But had she been put up against Scott Walker, how many Democrats would have voted the other way? How many would have stayed home? Damn near zero. She would have won those votes same as Barrett. But she also would have likely won more independent votes, more white votes, more rural votes, more farm votes. We’ll never know, but I believe it would have made the difference. Even more likely if she could have run in 2014 because many votes in the recall were protests against the recall itself.
Fair or unfair, Madison and Milwaukee are viewed as isolated, urban, privileged (state jobs), elitist (UW), and the home of the establishment. It’s too easy to slap a label of “Madison liberal” on a candidate and make it stick. Just working in Madison made it stick to Mary Burke and she lost by almost identical numbers as in the recall loss.
Ron Koch (via email)
Stand by me
Re: “Not My President” (Isthmus.com, 11/11/2016): Trump disgusts me, and the fact that nearly half of the voting public voted for him disgusts and horrifies me, but protests do not seem like a constructive way to begin moving forward. The man won fair and square. Real thoughtful dialogue is going to be a better (and much more difficult) path.
Lydia Bertrand (via Facebook)
These protests are not about contesting the election. They are a powerful way of showing vulnerable people here in Madison that we stand with them and we will protect them. Protests are not in opposition to thoughtful dialogue.
Cora Allen Coleman (via Facebook)
Correction
An article in last week’s Isthmus, “Life Prevails,” incorrectly stated that Nov. 17 is the birthday of artist Manabu Ikeda’s middle child. It is the first birthday of his third daughter.
