We’re voting Tuesday for none of the above!
Trying to work up a reason to get out of the lawn chair to vote next Tuesday. Wisconsin’s partisan primary election is 08-13-24. Who are the Brewers playing that day?
This is not a change election. It’s a more of the same election, which in Madison WI means which progressive is more progressiver? We cannot improve on Dave Cieslewicz’ observation that:
If you’re a center-left moderate in Dane County, well, you don’t have much to choose from in the Democratic primaries. All the candidates are pretty much the same, which is to say hard, not center, left.
It’s even worse for RINO Reagan Republicans like the Head Groundskeeper. Tuesday’s ballot is a Dear John letter to a draft dodger, a summons to an inquisition, a past due notice from a made man.
The only contest on the Republican side is to choose who will lose to U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who is (at the least) an honorary member of The Squad but not as hateful as Jamaal Bowman or Cori Bush, both of whom have been shown the door by more moderate Democrats. Wisconsin’s Second District Republican contest is a rematch from two years ago, when Erik Olsen edged out Charity Barry. It’s a coin flip.
The entire Dane County courthouse contingent — district attorney, clerk, treasurer, register of deeds — are Democrats and unchallenged Tuesday and in November. (What is a progressive register of deeds? Discuss amongst yourselves.)
Candidates in 17 state legislative districts are on various ballots around Dane County — some of them just slivers of districts lying mainly in other counties. In only 8 of the 17 districts will Democrats face Republican opponents in November. Democrats have primary choices in 6 of those districts; in 5 districts the sole Democrat on the ballot gets a free ride — no challengers, either Democrat or Republican. As always, voters cannot mix and match between party ballots; they have to choose one.
→ Dane County Assembly districts
Dane County is for progressives
Dane County Executive is also on the primary ballot, even though the job is nominally nonpartisan. Nominally. The real question is who will come in second to Melissa Agard, who is leaving her state senate seat, for the final determination on November 5.
The lady is a vacuum cleaner of money and endorsements — Ms. Agard lists over 100 names — even the mayor of Milwaukee! Challenging her are County Board Supv. Dana Pellebon, Madison Ald. Regina Vidaver, and guy named Wes Sparkman. Did we say they are progressives? From Madison’s Isthmus publication:
Vidaver: I generally don’t really like labels, but I think “progressive” is an appropriate one.
Agard: I do define myself as a progressive candidate.
Sparkman: I would say [I’m] moderate to progressive.
Pellebon: Yes, I am a progressive candidate.
All four are climate change alarmists, want to empty the jails, and embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hellz bellz, Wes Sparkman is in charge of the county’s Equity & Inclusion Office. (Even so, he’s endorsed by Mike Koval and Kaleem Caire!) Then Sparkman it is!
Speaking of progressive, dig this gem from The Nation magazine’s interview with a Susan Neiman, who wrote something alleging “The Left Is Not Woke”:
‘The Left is not Woke’
The Nation: You criticize “progressives” for what you see as an excessive focus on victimhood and identity politics, in which people are lumped together according to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and so on, with massive assumptions made about what they want and need. You want universalist values. But isn’t a major feature of today’s left that people are demanding the right to speak up for themselves about their own issues and problems?
Susan Neiman: Traditionally, the left was concerned with universal justice, which included the right to speak up about each group’s own problems but was never confined to it. …
The Nation: You support universalism over what you call tribalism, but where does that leave women and minorities?
→ Also in The Nation: “We Must Defend Imane Khelif! Transphobia also hurts cisgender women like the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who don’t conform to a narrow, Eurocentric vision of womanhood.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: It’s settled! We will vote, if only to support the two constitutional referenda questions to put the legislature back in control of spending budgets. We made the case for Yes here. And for Wes Sparkman.
16 responses to “Progressivism is on our ballots”
It’s sad to see so many uncontested elections. I guess modern politics has gotten so bad that most people don’t want to get involved except for maybe voting. I am one even tho I am a poll worker.
Welcome to the one-party state! I too voted only to cast two NO votes on the referenda. “What is a progressive register of deeds?” you ask. Answer: Someone who will use the power of his office, no matter how insignificant it is, to push the progressive agenda, no matter how far removed that agenda is from the function(s) of his office. I can hardly wait for Nov. 5th when we’ll get to choose between Trump’s second term and Obama’s fourth.
That surprises me Gary. I would have predicted “yes” for both from you.
Well, that goes to show how convoludtedly worded those referenda are. Actually, I did vote two YESes but the fact that I remembered them as NOs proves my point.
Totally agree with you on the wording.
Proglibocrats©™® know what’s best for us; heck, they gave us Eugenics, an effort to…um…regulate reproduction and the population which wasn’t restricted to a certain segment of humanity. A strong case can be made that they were far more diabolically hateful, bigoted, discriminatory, elitist, classist, and RAYcist over a far greater spectrum than any fringe group of White Supremacists or the Ante-Bellum South.
Why? Because they sought a Greater Good with the approval of their own consciences.
At the turn of the 20th century, the newly minted (currently gargantuan) BIG GUBMINT Administrative State was coming off a clear victory of disabling the EVIL Corporate Trusts. A goal achieved no longer motivates and, feeling their oats, what next? Hey, howse about improving humanity?
Natural selection improved society over time, but a glacially slow pace; could our betters jump start that with “Scientific Selection?”
Flora-n-fauna are improved by selective breeding, am I right? Why not similarly…er…craft better humans? Heck, what could possibly go wrong?
Anywho, right here on campus, the U.W. Madison was in the thick of the Eugenics craze; selective breeding, forced castrations & sterilizations, work camps, elimination of “INFERIORS,” ad infinitum ad naseum, Eugenics had everything nascent totalitarian Proglibocrats could want, and then some.
U.W. academics Charles Van Hise, Edward Ross, John R. Commons, and “Progressive Political Economist and Social Gospel Advocate” Richard T. Ely were of…um…similar mindset; all but Ross would be considered for a Bucky Mt. Rushmore.
Have their books, awards, scholarships, plaques, buildings, their memories, been the subject of any weepy hand-wringing or cancelling?
And Van Hise Elementary School suffers no well-earned ignominy while Van Hise Hall remains on campus.
The Gotch
Now look at what you did Dave.
MODERATOR MODERATOR> 265 words. I demand a banning. BAAAAHAAAHAAAA
The fact that you actually counted the words is pretty sad.
Especially when you factor in a laughable inability to get past ten when an idiot’s shoes are on…
The Gotch
you better double check my counting.
Engaging a RANK IMBECILE Is Like Trying To PLAY CHESS With A Pigeon, It Knocks The Pieces Over, $#!T$ On The Board, And Struts Around Like It Won
The Gotch
did you steal that line from Hovde or Vance?
Maybe your post, as Vance put it, was a “thought experiment.” A quote for the ages.
Yes, the candidates on my ballot are trying to out leftist each other. I’d sooner vote for Bernie Madoff.
Pocan is Squad lite. But mark my words, he’d go full Squad if his district only encompassed Dane and Rock county. Oh, and he’s got enough hate to fit in with the rest of them. When he was in the state Assembly, he had a quote on the front page of his personal website that said “It is easier to be a Republican than a Democrat because it is easier to give people the finger than a helping hand.” He hasn’t changed a bit, he’s just better at hiding it.
PokeMan displays unerringly obsequious fealty to the Religion of Peace©™®, many of whom would toss him off a roof, after torture, without a second thought; Stockholm Syndrome on steroids.
The Gotch