David Michael Miller
All legislative majorities contain the seeds of their own destruction.
It can take longer for some seeds to germinate, but the one that usually takes root first is arrogance. And Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is a veritable Johnny Appleseed of arrogance.
In fact, last week was an absolute arrogance fest in the state Senate. First, Fitzgerald and his 18 GOP colleagues ousted Gov. Tony Evers’ agriculture secretary Brad Pfaff. It’s the first time the Senate has rejected a cabinet appointment in at least three decades. And the stated reason? Pfaff had the temerity to criticize the Legislature and to advance a rule that would give adjacent landowners some relief from farm odors. These are not what might be called high crimes and misdemeanors. Evers was right when he accused Fitzgerald & Co. of sending a message to his other cabinet appointments that so much as a raised eyebrow in the direction of Republicans will cost them their jobs. I guess the Senate’s snowflake Republicans are really sensitive to micro-aggressions.
Next Fitzgerald blocked a series of bipartisan homeless bills that had already passed the heavily GOP-controlled Assembly. He didn’t stoop to offer an explanation other than to suggest that some of his caucus members don’t like to spend money. Well, actually they do like to spend money on tax breaks aimed at corporations and rich folks. Oh, yeah, and they did authorize spending buckets of money on Foxconn. But they draw the line at spending money on efforts to get homeless folks off the street during the coldest early November in recent memory. Maybe their hearts will thaw come spring, when it’s closer to election time and the money will be less needed.
But wait. There’s more. The governor called them into special session to deal with two sensible gun safety bills. One would expand background checks while the other would create a “red flag” law to make it easier to deny guns to people who have indicated instability or violent intent on social media or in other venues. Both bills have approval ratings of around 80 percent even among gun owners. But Fitzgerald and friends know better than the public. They killed Evers’ proposals without so much as even allowing Democrats to debate them. If they really believe that even the mildest gun safety laws are violations of the Second Amendment, then why not stand on the Senate floor and explain why they think that? I guess they just don’t have the courage to stand their ground.
And all that was just last week. Since the start of this legislative session in January Fitzgerald has scheduled only nine floor days. Meanwhile, the list of important issues the body has failed to act on grows and grows. No action on chronic wasting disease as it spreads, no action on PFAS chemicals in our drinking water, no action on accepting Medicaid money that would provide Wisconsin with hundreds of millions of dollars and increased health care services for our citizens.
No action, no guts, no vision, no compassion, not even the decency to explain why they won’t do anything. Just lots of arrogance. The arrogance of a party that thinks that it has so rigged the system through gerrymandering and voter suppression that it doesn’t have to move even on popular proposals or bother to tell the public why it won’t.
The heck of it is that this is probably true in the Assembly. The overwhelming 63-36 majority that the GOP holds there is likely cemented by their gerrymandered maps and probably will be for another decade or more.
But it’s harder to lock in your majorities in the Senate because each district is three times larger. That’s not to say that it can’t be done and Fitzgerald sure has tried, but it’s still not out of the question that, with the right breaks, the Democrats could win back three seats and take back the majority there.
That’s why Democrats need to thank Scott Fitzgerald for his never-ending gifts of arrogance. He has stuffed so many presents under the tree that the challenge for Democrats will be to resist the temptation to move from one shiny toy to another. Instead, they need a simple, powerful, consistent message.
It could be simply “the do-nothing Republican Senate.” But I think that’s too broad. For one thing, a lot of people want their government to do less in the abstract even while they want it to do a lot more on one or two issues they really care about. So, the smart thing to do would probably be to find that one issue, like pre-existing conditions was in the 2018 mid-terms, that resonates with everyone.
I’m sure Democratic leaders and groups will poll and focus group the heck out of this question over the coming months. But what’s crucial is that they pick one, strong, clear, unifying message and then have the discipline to ram it home for an entire election cycle.
Scott Fitzgerald is trying to give the Senate away. He’s doing his part. Now the Democrats have to do theirs.
Dave Cieslewicz is the former mayor of Madison. He blogs as Citizen Dave at isthmus.com.
