Politics of the personal
Sometime soon, Dave Zweifel will write about the good old days when Democrats and Republicans could sit down and get blotto together at the old Congress Bar off Madison’s Capitol Square. If the editor emeritus asks what happened to those days, ask him to read his own newspaper.
The Capital Times is up this week with an editorial opposing Ron Johnson. What else is new? Dog bites man. It’s Pavlovian, et cetera et cetera. The hyper-partisan “progressive voice of Dane County” attacks Republicans like mosquitoes at the church picnic. It is just what they do. Never said a kind word about Tommy Thompson in the 14 years he was governor.
We get political differences. But, more and more, the CT goes low where Michelle Obama would go high. Under the print newspaper heading “A sick and twisted man,” the publication calls Sen. Johnson “a sick and twisted excuse for a human being.”
We know Ron Johnson a little, have conversed with the man several times. More sincere than a thousand Kamala Harrises. Ron serves on the board of directors of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay even though he’s Protestant. He walks the talk on helping disadvantaged minorities through his largely unheralded work in the Joseph Project, a faith-based effort to help the poor become self-sufficient. Saw through the lies of the Russian conspiracy hoax. Asks the tough questions instead of going along to get along, like Wisconsin’s other U.S. Senator.
If there is a single lesson we can take from January 6, it’s quite simply that when you tell tens of millions of Americans that one political party is trying to steal an election, then some subset of those Americans will act like a party is stealing an election. They’ll do something about it…. It’s as if New Right activists believe the times are just too desperate for the Constitution. — David French, The Dispatch.
The Werkes happens to disagree with the senator on the same issue that drives the CT into the gutter. January 6 was, indeed, an insurrection. A failed insurrection and one conducted without firearms, as the senator notes. But it is clear that a core group of Trump supporters halted a democratic transfer of power as ordained by the Constitution, however temporarily. Maybe a 2 on a scale of 10 — ten being storming the Bastille. It is also clear that the insurgents acted with Donald Trump’s encouragement. Even today, the likes of retired general Michael Flynn are calling for an armed coup.
Our theory is that the establishment’s unreasoned hatred against Donald Trump produced its own irrational counter reaction. (If Trump says the Covid-19 pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory then it must be wrong.)
Blaska’s Bottom Line: One of us — Blaska or the senator — is wrong about January 6. Maybe even dead wrong. Neither of us is sick or twisted.
The irony is the Capital Times’ scorched-earth rhetoric is the very thing that makes enemies out of opponents. That was one of Saul Alinsky’s strategems: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” It is the kind of hate that motivated the insurrectionists of January 6.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Mr. Blaska — I like what you did here.
You first prioritized the truth and civilized discourse. Your disagreement with RJ (over his opinions/issues) came second.
I wish this type of journalism was more popular.
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Since the late 2000’s, dealing with Madison’s left ALWAYS ends up with the name-calling, race-baiting, judging, lying, you name it. You can’t deal with them, especially when they don’t have a rebuttal, which is MOST of the time.
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First, an insurrection without firearms (or other forms of lethal weapons) is an oxymoron (with an emphasis on the moron). If no firearms are involved, it’s a demonstration. If only the events of Jan. 6th had qualified as a genuine insurrection.
Second, deplorable as the Cap Times article on Sen. Johnson is, it’s not the only act of butchery in the latest issue. Paul Fandlund bemoans the ‘ttribalism’ among white Republicans (Trump’s fault, of course) but has not a word to say about the results of decades of Democrat-instigated tribalism known as identity politics. The reason this country is as fractured as it is can be traced to the cynical power politics perpetrated by Democrats at every level of government (in Madison, it’s in the very air we breathe). It’s why ever-increasing numbers of Americans identify first and in many cases exclusively with their skin color, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, etc., etc. and see themselves as victims rather than citizens, Meanwhile, politicians like the miserable old scarecrow in the governor’s office hoist a tribal flag over the seat of state government and call it an act of “pride.” I knew Obama’s third term would signal a descent into madness, but I held out hope it would be gradual rather than headlong. We live and learn.
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You covered it all, and saved me from posting my rant. Just a comment on Zwiefel…he’s definitely not the Dave that I knew, back in the day.
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Far as we know, no firearms in the June 2020 “demonstrations” on Madison’s Capitol Square. Firebombing the city-county building. Toppling statues. Smashing windows. Beating legislators and passersby. General vandalism. But no firearms. Which, under Gary Kriewald’s tortured definition, means it wasn’t a riot but a “demonstration.” Was it “mostly peaceful,” Gary?
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kinda like saying no election fraud. If I didn’t see it, didn’t happen.
fyi, just a couple months later:
Jordan A. King, 25, of Verona, is charged with criminal damage to property after striking the memorial at the corner of Pinckney and Mifflin streets 23 times, according to a criminal complaint. Police say he had a loaded handgun when arrested, and also faces a misdemeanor charge for not having a concealed-carry permit.
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“The U.S. Department of Justice has charged at least three people on gun charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, including one whom prosecutors said Metro police found carrying a loaded handgun with an extra magazine. …A bomb squad also recovered 11 Molotov cocktails from Coffman’s truck, according to the affidavit, and Coffman also was carrying two handguns.”
“On Jan. 7, the day after the riot, the FBI investigated a text message that Cleveland Meredith, of Georgia, allegedly sent claiming that he was considering going to Pelosi’s speech “and putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” Meredith told the FBI that he arrived from Colorado in Washington too late for the Capitol riot. FBI agents discovered a pistol, assault rifle “and approximately hundreds of rounds of ammunition” during a search of Meredith’s trailer.” — USA Today
Fact is, for all the criticism, the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was better policed than Madison was last June — or the insurrection would have been much worse.
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By my definition it wasn’t an insurrection (the aim of which is to topple an existing government); it was a demonstration, a wantonly destructive one–or a riot if you prefer. And there’s only one qualifier in my definition of insurrection, which hardly makes it “tortured.”
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Here’s more of the same via VID, RE: “name-calling, race-baiting, judging, lying, you name it”, per Ian’s accurate post. Even shows a typical Lefty-loony lookin’ deranged as she flips off her own neighbor. And concerning Gary’s comprehensive and true post, there’s hope: “I knew Obama’s third term would signal a descent into madness, but I held out hope it would be gradual rather than headlong. We live and learn.”
Fight over critical race theory pits neighbor against neighbor
https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-parents-face-retaliation-speaking-out-against-crt
I DO believe that the crazier it gets, the more folks (normal real people) will hit the “delete” button and speak out. “C’mon, Man!”
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Dave’s working Lefty’s “muh insurreckshun” like Good Dog works his favorite chew toy.
Even while a 2 on a scale of 1-10 and more like a political panty raid, he won’t give it up.
So. Enjoy a musical interlude with two of my top fave artists.
Van Morrison wrote and Eric Clapton performs;
“Stand and Deliver”.
Hereitis: https://youtu.be/tMkV4vYr_ik
Van “The Man” also has recorded and performed “No More Lockdowns”.
Checkitoot.
Want to win politically? Want to win more young hearts and minds?
First, you gotta win the Culture War. Politics runs downhill from the ‘culture’.
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The Werkes will give up the Insurrection when the Trumpster gives up his stolen election scam.
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He probably won’t do that until after the for forensic recounts in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania .
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Pardon my stutter.
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“Politics run downhill from the ‘culture.'” If only Republicans had listened to pat Buchanan back in the ’90s when he was a lone voice crying out this truth. Now that the loony left has laid claim to every feature of American culture, it’s too late.
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