Wisconsin 2018 Gov Race—On Deer, Beer and Pizza

Pictured above is a deer sighting thought to have occurred in Waupun.

Small business and municipal police states conflict

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin— There is an old-school bar and recreational joint some four miles west of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Good Badger game-day specials, wonderful people; they even cook a hearty breakfast on Saturdays.

But places such as this independently owned oasis are not thriving like one may think as the Wisconsin Badgers consolidates our perennial status as an elite college football program.

"How's business on game day," I asked a 70-hour-a-week manager weekends back, "Looks nice, man."

"It's not like it used to be," said the gentleman. "The kids are too nervous to go out, and it's risking a lot of money for a few beers."

That's one problem with municipal police states, a new feature of Wisconsin society—really bad for small business. Cops today are dishonest, hostile and Republican in the Badger state. And despite the fact that most people still don't like assholes here, politicians criticizing police and celebrating cold beer is considered taboo here by many.

But, appeals to culture are still powerful, virtual winning tickets for political office.

Scott Walker's people know this. Democratic Party types don't.

Winning cultural appeals are something Wisconsin's evangelical, narrow-shouldered, whiny, and effeminate, (nothing wrong with that), Scott Walker understands.

Walker is a horrible cultural fit for Wisconsin, but he is also a craven and good liar.

Walker avoids unscripted public appearances, lies, and lies again, then plays dress-up in Harley gear, and using an excellent PR team cranks out message after message that work with rural and small-town Wisconsin.

Kids can shoot guns, horrors

For example, this week, Walker announced he has "signed a bill that eliminates a minimum age requirement to hunt in Wisconsin," the weekend before gun season, (WISC-TV).

In practical terms, the new law means virtually nothing. Deer hunting, (gun), season begins Saturday, Nov 18, and kids getting a buck is as normal in Wisconsin as drinking a beer when you're 15.

But the bill, Assembly Bill 455, is also brilliant politics.

I'm from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Growing up in Fondy, deer hunting and lakes being frozen in January are natural. It's the way it is and I love it.

Warm memories from the 1970s:

"Hey, Mike, Susie, (young teenager), got a buck last weekend."
—Way to gooo.

Or, "Susie caught a northern, (a fish)."
—Waaaaahl.

But I swear the Iowa transplant, Scott Walker, effectively knows more about Wisconsin culture than every single, politically inept Democratic Party muck combined, and I'm not even talking about the negative appeals to racism and resentment of those black and brown people in Milwaukee.

Walker is destroying Wisconsin. Democrats' letting him get away with it commit political malpractice, which in the age of the imbecile on the White House should be a capital offense.

I'll give you an example of cultural flat affect syndrome. During the Wisconsin 2011-12 recall campaigns, a Republican state senator from Fond du Lac was knocked off by one Jessica King of Oshkosh in 2011.

Who protects pizza and beer in Wisconsin? Anybody worth
listening to, that's who.

So, as a Fondy guy I told every Democratic Party muck including King's campaign that King would be narrowly defeated in the 2012 general election in a gerrymandered district unless King made an appeal to every Fondy and Fox Valley bar and restaurant on Main Street struggling in business, (except Joe's Fox Hot where cold beer and the best pizza anywhere make the place invulnerable to anything, thankfully).

This proposed appeal calls for the elimination of prohibition for 18-20-year-olds, an idiotic law making 100,000s old enough to die for their country but not drink a cold beer.

King, being a Wisconsin Democrat, ignored the advice and lost a close race in 2012.

Utterly, irretrievably hopeless.

In other Wisconsin legislative news this week, State Rep. Adam Jarchow, (R-Balsam Lake, Wisconsin), introduced a memo that will become a bill to lower Wisconsin's drinking age. It's a good bill, won't pass but it should.

Adam Jarchow is smart.

Jarchow's legislative initiative is in the Memo stage, LRB (Legislative Reference Bureau) 4551/1, and is quickly accumulating co-sponsors.

But do you think the Christian fundamentalist really likes slamming cold beer, or do Republicans know something that Democrats don't about Wisconsin culutre?

Here's the memo from for Jarchow's proposed bill; I'm all for it:

CO-SPONSORSHIP MEMO

TO:                  Legislative Colleagues

FROM:            Rep. Adam Jarchow
                        Rep. Rob Swearingen
                        Rep. Cindi Duchow

DATE:            Wednesday, November 8, 2017

RE:                  Co-sponsorship of LRB 4551/1 relating to: lowering the legal drinking age under certain circumstances

DEADLINE:  Friday, November 17, 2017

At 19 years old, there are very few things that you cannot do. At 19, you have legally been an adult for one year. Most importantly (and honorably) can enlist in the United States military, travel thousands of miles away to fight for our country, but are not able to enjoy an alcoholic beverage.

Today, we are circulating a bill that would allow a 19 year old person to legally drink in Wisconsin as long as it would not result in Wisconsin losing our federal highway funds. If that situation is not possible, then this bill would not go into effect.

The age of 19 was chosen in order to make sure that high school students are not drinking, thus causing unnecessary distractions while still in school. However, after that, men and women 19 years of age or older should be able to make that decision for themselves whether to drink alcohol or not. Further, countless hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars go into enforcing drinking laws in this state, especially on college campuses. Those efforts could be used for other important issues such as drug abuse and sexual assaults.

If you would like to sign on to LRB 4551/1, please email Rep.Jarchow@legis.wi.gov or call 267-2365 by Friday, November 17th at 5:00 p.m.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau

This bill lowers the legal drinking age to 19 years of age if doing so will not result in this state's loss of federal highway funds.

Under current law, the legal drinking age is the age at which a person may legally purchase, possess, and consume alcohol beverages and enter premises licensed for the retail sale of alcohol beverages unaccompanied by a parent, guardian, or spouse.  The legal drinking age in this state is currently 21 years of age. Under the federal national minimum drinking age law, a state that provides for a legal drinking age of less than 21 years is subject to withholding of 8 percent of federal highway aid annually.

This bill requires the state Department of Transportation to petition the federal

Department of Transportation for a determination as to whether lowering the legal drinking age in this state to 19 years of age will result in this state's loss of federal highway aid or other federal highway safety funds.  If no such loss of federal funds will result, the bill lowers the legal drinking age in this state to 19 years of age.