Wisconsin's Fight for Voting Rights Means Preserving Democracy Against Racism

Molly McGrath (L), a voting rights attorney with the ACLU,
works with Madison residents to get the IDs they need
to vote under Wisconsin’s restrictive voter-ID law.
(Courtesy of Molly McGrath); used at In These Times.

Madison, Wisconsin — In Wisconsin, Republican electoral success depends on appealing to white supremacists, and blocking black, brown and young voters from casting ballots.

It's a grand, racist tradition, ole-time religion supported by white Evangelicals.
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"What do you call 1,000 niggers at the bottom of the ocean?" asks a popular joke at a Fond du Lac elementary school, Liz Waters, in the 1970s.

The punchline is, "A good start."

You get it?

The answer to this riddle is not what the niggers are doing at the bottom of the ocean — that's a red herring.

Rather, the significance is the niggers are dead and drowned, and this is just the beginning of the whimsical genocide Wisconsin parents bequeathed to their children during family-time.

Wisconsin is about race — no matter that race is a psychological delusion, and an enduring deadly myth.

Wisconsin racism is why, for example, U.S. Rep Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac, (1979-2015)), voted against establishing the Martin Luther King, Jr, federal holiday in 1983.

Racism undermines human rights, and racism props up the Republican Party's hold onto power by attacking voting, (Isthmus, In These Times).

Voting as a human and civil right is a societal defect to be overcome for the Republican Party.

As a political issue, opposing voting rights and being seen as opposing voting rights is red meat for the white base of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Because while 1,000 dead niggers at the bottom of the ocean doesn't play well, lies of voter fraud and illegal voting is soothing to Republican whites in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's Suicide Caucus—Ron Johnson, Four Wisc GOP Reps Vote for Gov Default

Paul Ryan leads Wisconsin Suicide Caucus; Now Looking to Slash
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as Their Next Crusade

Update - China's credit rating agency Dagong has downgraded the U.S. rating from A to A-, reports the Business Insider.

Five out of six members of the Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation voted not to open government, and avert an unprecedented financial default in a vote late last night.

This manner of Tea Party campaign is incredibly reckless action that has world economists wondering if Republican Party extremism will destroy the United States Dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Wisconsin Republicans did their worst.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is one of only 18 senators to oppose the Senate bill opening government, and avoiding a government default that economists say would have thrown the United States back into a recession.

Reps. Sean Duffy (R-Ashland), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wauwatosa) all voted "No" in joining Sen. Johnson.

Rep. Reid Ribble (R- Green Bay) is the only Wisconsin Republican in Congress to vote Yes to opening the government and avoiding default.

The Republican-engineered shutdown is estimated to have cost the U.S. domestic economy and American families $Billions is lost income and economic production.

The House voted 285-144, with all 144 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The Senate voted 81 to 18, with all 18 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The shutdown, perilous to the American economy, is also seen as a political body blow to the Tea Party or suicide caucus to which most Wisconsin Republicans have attached themselves.

Around the world, there is relief as well as disbelief that Republicans would perpetrate the 16-day shutdown bringing the United States of America close to default and financial catastrophe.

James Meikle, Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts report in The Guardian:

Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea initially reflected relief after the Republicans finally capitulated in their failed attempt to undermine Obama's healthcare reforms. But in Asia and Europe stock markets overall displayed a muted reaction with traders apparently expecting another battle in Washington early in 2014.

The shutdown is estimated to have cost the US $24bn – £1.5bn a day – according to ratings agency Standard and Poor. China's official Xinhua news agency had accused Washington of jeopardising other countries' dollar assets. China is the US government's largest creditor.

Obama signed the necessary legislation to fend off a default shortly after midnight on Thursday after a Republican split in the House of Representatives. The bill had passed easily with broad bipartisan support in the Senate, where Democratic and Republican leaders forged the agreement. It offers a temporary fix, funding the government until 15 January and raising the debt ceiling until 7 February.

The GOP Is Crazy, Some Are Taking Notice

The GOP and the Tea Party are nuts.

It ought not be that difficult to voice this truism.

A few steps in the right direction are noted by Eric Alterman at The Nation:

Scot Faulkner, personnel director for the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980, and Jonathan Riehl, former speechwriter for the right-wing Luntz Global consulting firm, recently complained of the corrosive effects of a "Republican world view that was devoid of facts and critical thinking," combined with the creation of "a new self-perpetuating political echo chamber." This follows on the remarks by longtime Republican congressional staffer Mike Lofgren, who noted two years ago that "the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe." And respected scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein announced last year that "The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition."

That's, ah, fine. Within four year, three rational columns by Republicans.

But what about rational commentary from one GOP member of Congress, from one state, say Rep. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac, Wisconsin)? He has nothing to lose.

How about Petri picking up the phone, calling the city desk at the Fond du Lac Reporter and saying, 'the GOP is going off the rails and American families are suffering because of it.'

Rep. Petri would find much support for stating the incredibly obvious.

As for Wisconsin's other five GOP/Tea Party members of Congress; well one at a time.

Today Is a Good Day for Freedom

Update II: Live feed

Update: MAL's crazy, young nieces are great sports as the hours-long, snaking lines funnel towards the capitol. And a thank you to Rep. Tom Petri's office (R-Fond du Lac) whom my sister reports as the most gracious, welcoming presence that she has encountered during this truly beautiful experience.

Today is a victory for the terrorists. Wait a minute, that's the GOP's SOP McCarthyite lies.

Today, Americans are reinvested with hope that our government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Liberty, privacy, the Bill of Rights: we now have a president who actually believes in these demands and rights of the people.

How strongly Obama acts, and how intently he repudiates through action the ideology of America's worst presidency is the measure of our success for the next four years.

And speaking of demands for liberty, I read that our Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen opposes the proposed police roadblocks that are all the rage: Good for you Van Hollen, don't let the liberty-hating, don't-go-anywhere-without-the-cops-checking-on-you liberals prevent a stand for privacy and freedom that ought to exist when one walks, drives, works or stays home and reads a book.

This is our country, and not Kathleen Falk's personal drama.

GOP Voter Fraud Hoax Gets Kocked Around

The desperate GOP is lying in unison. It's what they're good at.

And truth and civil rights aren't going to stand in the way. It would nice if just one GOP official would stand up and say, 'This is wrong. Suppressing voters is wrong,' Dare to dream.

- "Today, Senator Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) and Representative Rich Zipperer (R-Brookfield) wrote a letter to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen asking him to protect the integrity of the election process by protecting every legal vote in the upcoming November election." (WisPolitics)

"On Tuesday, U.S. Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) and Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) sent letters to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and to Wisconsin's two U.S. attorneys, Steven Biskupic and Erik Peterson, calling for an investigation into ACORN." (MJS)

Andrew Burmon has a piece in Salon knocking down the lie: Behind the GOP's voter fraud hysteria As Republicans warn of catastrophe at the polls, an expert on election fraud explains the real partisan hoax -- the suppression of Democratic votes.

Let’s talk about the Ballot Access and Voting Integrity initiative that was started under Ashcroft in 2002. It was advertised as a program that would combat voter fraud and voter suppression equally. But if you look at the program, it actually was geared almost entirely toward voter fraud. They wanted to see if they could bring cases against individual voters. The [federal] government has spent a lot of money pursuing this over the years and convicted almost no one. Then we hear all this propaganda about how much voter fraud there is.
At the very least the Department of Justice has had its priorities backward. There are thousands of people having trouble casting ballots and the federal government has decided to go after poor people in Milwaukee and Florida to create the impression that there is voter fraud. The U.S. attorney firing scandal made it hard for anyone to claim that the Bush Justice Department wasn’t politicizing voter fraud. ...The Democrats in this age have no reason to pretend that voter fraud is a serious issue, but the Republicans, particularly this year, have a very good reason to say that voter fraud is rampant. It is a simple three-step process. Fraud allegations lead to restrictive voter laws, which lead to a class-skewed electorate. As the Democrats try to get out the vote, Republicans will try to stop it.

House Passes New GI Bill; Tom Petri Is Lone Republican Wisc House Member to Vote for Bill

via mal contends - Bears repeating from headline: Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac) is the lone Republican Wisconsin House member to vote for the new GI Bill.

Good for Tom Petri; bad for the House Republicans. Republicans talk a good game about supporting our troops; they do not walk the walk.

I mean is the thought that we honor troops who serve merely one or two tours of duty really that repulsive to Republicans?

Final vote
Voted for (256)
Voted against (166)
Did not vote (12)