Rural Wisconsin is NOT voting for The Squad, John Nichols!
Whenever someone begins an argument by saying “there is no question,” be certain their proposition is more questionable than a Nigerian prince’s embargoed millions. Someone has to counter John Nichols and his rank partisanship. We are happy to oblige. Comrade John asserts “there is no question that rural areas in this state suffered from a lack of representation because of the Republican gerrymander.”
Rural Wisconsin, John avers, is Lil’ Abner’s Dogpatch after 13 years of Republican legislatures. Dairy farms are disappearing, schools are “struggling,” and “rural hospitals are in crisis.” Not that Tony Evers, the Democrat(ic) governor has anything to do with public policy. Must … Blame … Republicans! That’s highly questionable on its own terms!
Let’s check in with Tony Evers’ old shop at WI Public Instruction: Wisconsin’s failing schools are overwhelmingly centered in Milwaukee and its union-first teachers. There are, indeed, fewer dairy farms — that’s because they are consolidating. The margin on raw milk is vanishingly thin; a loss leader at your corner stop and rob. Thanks to genetics, each cow produces more milk than in Grandpa Jones’ day. As for failing hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Counties, Wisconsin Republicans directed $15 million toward them. Republicans did not enact ObamaCare.
Fun fact #1: “Dozens of Minnesota dairy farms folded in November, alarming farm advocates.” In Democrat(ic) Farm-Labor Party Minnesota!
Fun fact #2: Last election, the WI Farm Bureau endorsed 53 legislators — 48 of them Republican.
Fun fact #3: The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a bill that would prohibit local governments from adopting animal regulations in areas zoned for agricultural use that are more restrictive than the state law. It is Assembly Bill 957, commonly known as the Protect our Farmers Act. Has eight sponsors; all Republican.
Fun fact #4: A Democrat(ic) governor, Jim Doyle, tried to stop assessing farmland according to its agriculture value rather than its speculative value for real estate development. Fortunately, the courts over-ruled him because, without the change, farmers were forced to sell out to developers precisely because they were taxed off their land.
Fun fact #5: Only 14 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties voted Biden over Trump four years ago and two of those were Dane (Madison) and Milwaukee counties.
Blue is Biden Democrat; red is Trump Republican
John contends that the new legislative maps forced by the Spell It With Me state supreme court will “renew rural democracy.” He means to say the new maps will elect more Democrats by cordoning enough voters out of blue cities like Madison into Democrat-gerrymandered districts that reach into the countryside precisely to dilute the rural vote. (“This time, Democrat(ic) maps!)
Don’t pay no union dues
John’s greatest Hail Mary is that defund the police, pro-abortion Democrats like State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) have a manure spreader’s chance at a faculty luncheon in places like Mondovi and Mishicot. He might be thunderstruck to learn that rural Wisconsin is outraged by Joe Biden forgiving loans taken out by college grievance study majors. John would be gobsmacked to learn rural Wisconsin supports secure national borders, opposes reparations, and is outraged by Antifa’s arson and looting in Madison and Kenosha.
The rural people we know don’t want men in their daughters’ locker room. They own guns and eat what they shoot. They buy their shirts and pants at Farm & Fleet. They think AOC is a nut case; they listen to Toby Keith.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Those are the rural people Blaska knows, and most of them (we must admit) are voting Trump for a third time. No question!
Platinum Subscriber Bonus Bottom Line: Having trouble remembering any farmers hereabouts who served in the legislature as Democrats. Lyman Anderson, Rick Skindrud, Gene Hahn, Keith Ripp — all, at one time — represented rural Dane County. All were Republicans. Oh, wait, Jonathan Barry was a Democrat when he served — but soon after switched to the GOP. Can think of one other farmer Democrat way back in the 1960s — my old man, Jerome Blaska. Eventually explained he didn’t leave the Democrat(ic) party, it left him. Never came back.
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“Rural Wisconsin is NOT voting for The Squad”
Seems even idiot Lefties (forgive the redundancy) no longer…um…prefer moron Squadders Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman; a real pity, that, am I right?
Anywho, the only Bluer than Blue county other than Dane? The gimmee gimmee welfare haven of Menominee County.
There doesn’t seem to be a top to bottom, comparative ranking of the state’s individual districts at the DPI website, none The Gotch could find, leastways; wouldn’t be because because it might show rural districts beating Urban $#!tholes like rented mules, would it?
And whaddya think would happen to statewide figures were they to delete the …um…results from Milwaukee and Madison: Would they go up, stay the same, or go down?
The Gotch
They can be found here: https://apps2.dpi.wi.gov/reportcards/
Larry Day
The only time Madison liberals give a rat’s a$$ what happens outside their deep-blue bubble is when someone up north shoots a wolf or some other member of an “endangered species” or when there’s a proposal to turn some desolate marsh into a mine or anything else that would provide jobs for the benighted residents of rural Wisconsin. They would never dream of actually setting foot in such places, but never hesitate to support legislation that punishes them for the unforgivable sin of (gasp!) voting for Trump.