There is a palpable change in Wisconsin’s political atmosphere since Inauguration Day.
“We’ve gotten away from who we are and the values that make Wisconsin great,” Gov. Tony Evers declared in his inaugural address. “Not Democratic or Republican values, but Wisconsin values: Kindness and respect, empathy and compassion, and integrity and civility.”
Kindness?
That word was never associated with state politics in Wisconsin during the Scott Walker era.
Republicans in the state Legislature, of course, are still holding on to their values: snarkiness and division, grabbing power, bending the truth, and relentlessly attacking the other side.
After holding a lame-duck session to stage a last-minute power grab, ramming through legislation to seize authority from the newly elected governor and attorney general, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been busy taking shots at Evers appointees: “The individuals appear to be well-qualified but, for the most part, lack significant state government experience,” he said (as if, my colleague Bruce Murphy points out, a long record working in government were something the Republicans previously held in high esteem.)
Vos once threatened Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, saying it “wasn’t the wisest decision” for Lasry to greet President Barack Obama when he came to Milwaukee to campaign for Democrat Mary Burke back in 2014, and implied Republicans might retaliate by refusing to help the Bucks stay in Milwaukee. He called members of his own party “terrorists” for daring to break ranks and cut their own deal on budget priorities with Walker. And he explained the Legislature’s power-grab from the incoming governor by saying “We are going to have a very liberal governor who is going to enact policies that are in direct contrast to what many of us believe in.” Never mind that a majority of Wisconsinites voted for that governor and the policies he promised to enact.
If Tony Evers personifies Wisconsin nice, the Republicans who control our Legislature are doubling down on their own brand: Wisconsin mean.
Which will prevail?
It’s an important question not just for our state, but for the entire country. The last decade or so of Republican nastiness has poisoned the atmosphere and trampled civil discourse. In 2016, Walker’s “divide and conquer” strategy metastasized into the Trump presidency, bringing national politics to a new low.
Evers, by temperament and as a strategy, has chosen to rise above all that.
In his inaugural address, he promised to “set aside politics and personal ambition and work together on solving problems.” It was easy to believe him.
His gentle, self-effacing demeanor stands in stark contrast to other politicians’ aggressive ambition. Joking with his charismatic young lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes — only the second African American to ever hold statewide office in Wisconsin — Evers thanked Barnes for bringing down the average age of the campaign’s ticket, and graciously ceded the spotlight.
That’s an approach that sits well with the diffident, northern European culture of Wisconsinites, who have had enough of being divided and conquered for eight years.
Meanwhile, Republicans are sticking with meanness. “If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority,” Vos declared, attempting to justify his “rebalancing” act in the lame-duck session. Republicans in the Legislature have managed to draw a map so gerrymandered they increased their legislative majority in 2018, even as Democrats won every single statewide race. But they did not succeed in erasing the state’s two largest cities.
And depending on the outcome of current lawsuits, they may have to face a fairer map even before the 2020 census forces them to redraw their districts, working with a Democratic governor who has veto power.
Walker successfully appealed to a sense of grievance in a state that is struggling through a massive farm crisis, the collapse of manufacturing, and a general neglect of rural people’s concerns. Evers has offered to do more than stick it to Milwaukee and Madison. He offered to actually listen, and to try to do something about people’s problems.
How about that for a change?
It’s a relief to have a breather from all the resentment the Republicans have stirred up — of teachers, city-dwellers, liberals, non-gun-owners, environmentalists, and, of, course, Latin American immigrants (who form the backbone of our state’s dairy industry).
On Inauguration Day, children sang Spanish songs in the Capitol rotunda, and even Walker, after some hesitation, felt compelled to stand up and join in the applause when Evers said kids deserve an opportunity “whether or not they were born here.”
Evers is speaking to the better angels of our nature. And his timing might be just right.
Ruth Conniff is editor-at-large for The Progressive magazine.
