Excerpted from Dave Cieslewicz’s blog today:
Just a sample of Max’s brand of gentle persuasion in response to a piece I wrote last week:
“Your views on race are just a few steps to the left of Tucker Carlson, this should tell you something about yourself you are too chicken sh*t to admit to yourself. When you look around and most of the people who would be willing to publicly agree with your views on race and racism are white, male, and conservative maybe it is you who has the problem.”
Now, I’m not sure who Max is, but I suspect he’s a young former Madison alder. In any event, Max’s comments are spirited. … I am no longer a revolutionary. What made me a moderate, more than anything else, was eight years as mayor of one of the most liberal places in America.
For one thing, mayor is the most hands on, practical of political jobs. People want you to collect the garbage, plow the snow, fix the streets and mow the grass in the parks and medians. And then, in Madison, they’d also like it if you could tidy up 400 years of racial politics.
And it was the left, my own people at the time, who drove me most to distraction. They were constitutionally incapable of being happy. They saw a compromise in which they got 75% of what they wanted not just as 25% short of their goal, but as a 100% sell out.
Because their identity was so steeped in victimhood they could not get their heads around being “the man.” The ability to actually govern — and the compromise and nuance that that requires — was just not in their DNA. After awhile I came to the realization that the biggest thing that stood in the way of the policy goals we shared was the left itself. They tripped over their own rhetoric.
I entered office in 2003 as idealistic and liberal as I ever was. I left in 2011 a moderate who wanted to figure out a better way to get the snow plowed.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
This is comical.
Too bad the left has no humor.
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Hopefully more will follow him!
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“The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell.“ Welcome to the real world Mayor Dave.
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Kinda likin’ the new & mature version of Mayor Dave. Makes me think there’s hope yet for a moderate approach to life & politics that would benefit us all. And his disillusionment w/ the Left during his glory daze, (The glass 75% full appeased no Leftie) resonates today. Why B happy when there’s minutiae to complain about. Thanks, Squire, had ya not posted this, I’da never seen it -and it’s an important & honest revelation by a former FAR-Left-leanin’ politician.
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It will be interesting to see if the comments to his blog are supportive or not. (I, like you, tried to acknowledge his stance, but my user name might be “problematic”.
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I think this old adage is true:
‘If You Are Not a Liberal When You Are Young, You Have No Heart, and If You Are Not a Conservative When Old, You Have No Brain’
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It would have been nice if he had acknowledged all this, if not while in office, at least on his way out the door. How about a comeback Dave? I’d vote for you over Satya any day.
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Glad he’s finally catching up, and I hope this gives him a better understanding as to why so many of us left the Democratic party YEARS AGO.
I don’t know any sensible person who thinks the new left is sane.
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In my opinion Dave Cieslewicz is not really a true moderate, he’s a MIRO (Moderate In Rhetoric Only). Dave is just as illiberal as many of the extreme progressives out there and will choose to vote against Republicans every time and vote for an extremist progressive simply because they have a “D” for Democrat behind their name. He only supports liberal policies and the Democratic Party and he won’t back up his MIRO rhetoric that comes out of his mouth with votes against the extremes in his own party, so he’s an extremist enabler and he’s too partisan biased to recognize this in himself.
I’ve had it with the false facade rhetoric from those claiming to be moderates in the political left, like Dave Cieslewicz, these self proclaimed moderates, aka MIRO’s, need to take action against the extremists in their own party, either STOP VOTING THE EXTREMISTS INTO PUBLIC OFFICE or own up to the enabling actions you take in the voting booth when you allow your bigotry to choose who to vote against and cast your vote for the extremists in your own party. Take a stand and publicly campaign against the extremists in your own party.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
P.S. I think it’s really interesting that the commenter “Max” is allowed to comment on Dave’s blog after posting a comment calling Dave “chicken sh*t” but I’ve been de facto banned for doing nothing more than publicly challenging what Dave has written and offering opposing opinions.
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Yes to everything you wrote.
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To support my hard stance that Dave Cieslewicz talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk and that he is not a true moderate and instead he’s a partisan Democrat that only supports Democrats, here is Dave’s own words…
Dave admits to being biased in the first sentence and then proclaims himself to be a moderate in the second then in the third sentence he contradicts himself proving that Dave doesn’t understand what the word partisan means or he’s trying to hide behind the false facade of being a moderate. As for the third sentence; from what I’ve heard from my Liberal and progressive friends, there’s no such thing as a moderate Republican and I don’t believe that at the point that Dave wrote that, on March 4, 2021, that Dave had ever voted for a Republican for any public office.
By the way; I don’t see it as a problem if Dave chooses to be a partisan Democrat, the problem is the false facade of being a true moderate that doesn’t support the extremists in his party at the voting booth and would cross political party lines to stop the extremism in his own party. He needs to be honest with himself and others, he’s a purely partisan Democrat and he’s not likely to change that stance.
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Would you do the same for extremist Republicans?
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David asked, “Would you do the same for extremist Republicans?”
Absolutely yes and I already have; I haven’t hid the fact that I didn’t support Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 nor did I vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election; I chose elsewhere.
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P.S. I won’t support Donald Trump as the GOP nomination in 2024 either.
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“P.S. I won’t support Donald Trump as the GOP nomination in 2024 either.”
I do hope Trump decides not to run in 2024 so that DeSantis can step in. Trump is a distraction at this point, while DeSantis is a leader like few have been in recent history.
When Biden’s press secretary called out DeSantis’s “lack of leadership” with COVID, most politicians would have hid under a rock, but DeSantis pushed back by rightfully calling out Biden’s disastrous border policy.
The audacity to focus on Florida’s COVID cases (and we all know why they’re doing it) while allowing illegal aliens unfettered access to our country. Was reading that the border has seen a 900% increase in COVID cases. And American citizens are the problem?
That’s a leader, and someone who I want fighting for me and this country. We need more like him, not cowards, and certainly not corporate Republicans.
With that said, if it’s between Trump and a Progressive it’s not even a close call for me. I’d rather deal with an arrogant, loud, off-putting personality than live in a country that’s quickly becoming unrecognizable to me. Our country is in crisis.
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Steve, I think you are absolutely correct with ” he’s an extremist enabler and he’s too partisan biased to recognize this in himself”. The anomaly is that he recognizes, and speaks to, the vicious maniacal lunacy of the “woke”. (and, in doing, gets a small taste of it himself)
His blog, so far, is not an attempt to build bridges or find common ground with the Right (or even “moderate” Right for constructive ends. It is instead aimed at fellow Liberals, and few of them will be brave (or foolish) enough to speak out against “hive dogma” and tactics.
There-in is the flaw. Banning honest dialogue with those who disagree with him is a dead-end. Finding points of agreement, defending one’s views, and inviting others to do the same is the road to progress.
Armadillos end up dead in the road because their reaction to cars is always the same (they jump straight up, impacting the front or underside of the vehicle) They don’t move to the left or right, just the same predictable reaction. (with the same predictable result)
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pANTIFArts wrote, “Banning honest dialogue with those who disagree with him is a dead-end. Finding points of agreement, defending one’s views, and inviting others to do the same is the road to progress.”
Here’s part of what I wrote on my blog about Dave…
I even nominated Dave for the honorary status of Ethics Hero over at Ethics Alarms for his public stance on it being ok to reject critical race theory.
When it comes down to it, I know good and well that I didn’t violate any of Dave’s rules for commenting so I think Dave banned me because he, or others that might have complained about my presence, didn’t want my challenging points of view being represented on his blog.
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Correct to everything you just said.
“The anomaly is that he recognizes, and speaks to, the vicious maniacal lunacy of the “woke”. (and, in doing, gets a small taste of it himself)”
Yes, and my added take: the moment he had a divergent thought, the Progressives pounced on him and it hurt his sensibilities. He got a taste of what his own party dishes out regularly and didn’t like it. Doesn’t mean he’s become a moderate or that he ever was.
“There-in is the flaw. Banning honest dialogue with those who disagree with him is a dead-end. Finding points of agreement, defending one’s views, and inviting others to do the same is the road to progress.”
Indeed. A hallmark of Marxism is the willingness to shut down dissenting though. What does it tell you when he’d rather block polite, conservative, Steve than a condescending Progressive?
Mayor Dave hasn’t changed a bit in my mind. He’s the same as he’s always been.
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I just posted my second comment to the “Max” story on his blog, I went after “Max” (not Pastagerkimo, or whatever). Still “in moderation”, but 1 for 2 so far. He can only dump it in loyalty to the cause, or post it as my right to an opinion.
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Update: Despite stepped on “woke” toes and a few gored oxen, Mayor Dave posted my comments to “Max”. (all is good)
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As grandfather used to say:
Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.
Actions speak louder than words.
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Bingo.
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As for Dave looking like a moderate in comparison to the extreme progressives in the Democratic Party, sure in comparison to the lunatics in his party his facade might “look” like a raving moderate, heck even as far left as Speaker Nancy Pelosi is she “looks” like a raving moderate compared to the lunatic “squad”, but then again, even Pelosi’s false facade is slowly being peeled away.
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I bet that a huge number of regular, common sense, rational, down to earth democrats, are really really wishing the election had not been stolen.
Dems can add being responsible for the ongoing disastrous covid SUPER spreader infusion (plusunknownnumberofvariants) along the southern border to their legacy of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow.
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” bet that a huge number of regular, common sense, rational, down to earth democrats, are really really wishing the election had not been stolen.”
If they’re still part of the Democratic party after everything that’s happened, then I can’t see them ever leaving. They’d rather put up with record crime, a border crisis, attacks on free speech, double standards, cancel culture, and Marxism than admit they were wrong.
Welcome to the smart ones who are defecting. I left in 2016 and have never looked back.
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