Wisconsin Republicans' Coup Against Reality

In our democracy, we the American people have a vested, sacred interest in protecting our families' health, safety and lives.

When our society through legislative bodies enacts legislation, the process whether at the municipal, state or federal level, is supposed to be orderly and process-driven in which all parties and interests are equal under the law—broadly speaking.

But equality in the legislative process is not a feature of contemporary America.

This inequitable dynamic has accelerated in modern America as the Republican Party has worked for polluting industry, while erecting measures in many realms to disable and eliminate competing interests of industry, e.g. those families and communities that do not wish to be poisoned by industry-produced toxic wastes.

The legislative process where Republicans work as majorities suggests another realm for Republicans to rig the process: the judicial branch. Inequality for industry before adjudicating bodies is the industry-desired standard against families and communities working together to protect their health and very survival.

Rigged Judicial Hearing

As legislative action at the federal and state level the last 60 years has yielded laws and and agencies protecting health and safety, Republicans have inserted mechanistic language in statutes and legislation stating remarkably that courts examining governmental action will always arrive at predetermined results favoring a vague private interest as a protected class of litigants: Property owners and their "free" use of property, (Strifling, Marquette University Law School, Mal Contends).

In 2014, an orderly, neutral state administrative law hearing led to a result explicitly recognizing the rule of law against polluters producing toxins on their property, (Wisconsin Watch).

Among the Republican Party's counteroffensive is an audacious statutory and legislative framework that industrial property owners can do virtually anything, including inflicting costs onto society.

REINS - Regulation from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny

At this moment there are two bizarre bills in the Wisconsin legislature that call for automatic triggers if a state agency issues regulations: the REINS - Regulation from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny - Act, (Senate Bill 15, and Assembly Bill 42). SB 15 passed the Senate on August 8 2017. The legislation was tabled from consideration in the Assembly on June 14, 2017.

The radical REINS Act is effectively a legislative veto process of state agency regulations that Republicans want to protect polluting industry.

An amended REINS Act bill could be used in theory to protect families from polluting industry, a clean water advocate points out.

For example, a state administrative action issuing a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) under a state program that vectors manure into the environment could be halted under the theory that real dollar costs to society in healthcare, real property devaluation, road repair, well contamination/remediation costs, county-level conservation compliance and enforcement costs, nutrient management plan costs and so on make Big Ag-friendly administrative rules a cost that society, families and communities should not be made to bear.

But in Republican land, a regulatory action or rule is destructive if it protects families and communities against industry polluters because of the fact families are not real and do not exist in the current reality.

Look for new exposure in the months to come of a new and dangerous conception of property rights pushed by Republicans who are selling out Wisconsin families and communities and will not stop this perverse project.