‘The stuff that cannot be quantified’
After she defeated Blaska for Madison school board, Ali Muldrow invited your scribbler to her talk show on WORT-FM. Like any good progressive, the host Defunded the Police and sponsored race-based outcomes. The station itself sometimes resembles Radio Free Hamas.
Ms. Muldrow’s first question: “Are you carrying?” (“You don’t want to know,” apparently, was not the right answer.) The point of this rather lame anecdote is that the young black woman (it appeared) had never encountered such a rare specimen — an actual living, breathing, hetero-normative, pro-life Christian Republican willing to admit as much. (No wonder Blaska lost!)
Gotta love Madison WI! The County Board of Supervisors just declared August as transgender history month.
America is self-gerrymandering
California’s Republicans are fleeing to Texas. Texas Democrats recently returned from gerrymandered Illinois. Some Democrats greet Republicans with the Hitler salute. Too many Republicans wallow in Deep State conspiracy theories (like blaming Nancy Pelosi for the J6 insurrection).
Unlike the prime time crew, Michael Smerconish Saturday mornings on CNN is as balanced as a waiter’s tray on the Bois de Boulogne. Smerconish proposed that what ails America these days is something lost since The Greatest Generation: civic involvement.
At my father’s funeral, I attempted to list all the organizations to which he belonged: Lions Club, VFW, Legion, Farmers Union, Democratic Party of Dane County, Knights of Columbus, Holy Name Society, Catholic Order of Foresters, Sun Prairie Volunteer Firefighters, Oak Lawn school board, Wisconsin State Assembly. Probably missed a few. My old man didn’t just mail in his dues and get a newsletter. Organized the preservation of a pioneer log cabin church our ancestors built, cooked hamburgers at the Legion stand, built a bridge at the Lions Club camp, took minutes at the school board, awoke in the night to fight barn fires, scrambled eggs for June Dairy Month on the Farm.
All the while coming in for supper wearing the silt loam of his farm fields; pater familia to six kids. He came out of World War 2, where this country’s mosaic joined forces for a common good.
Meet you at the parish beer tent
“More Americans used to join cross-class community organizations like the Rotary or the Elks clubs,” David Brooks observes. “But gradually, highly educated people left them for professional organizations filled with others more like themselves.” All the while taking over the commanding heights of the information industrial complex: academia, journalism, and entertainment. They elected Donald Trump.
Democrats are the party of the elite managerial class … I’ve read dozens of pieces from Democratic pols on how their party can turn things around. Each one — promoting this or that policy — is more pathetic than the last. … they are prone to the kind of thinking that does not see the sinews of our common life — the stuff that cannot be quantified. — David Brooks
A favorite story: Back when Catholics actually attended Mass and dressed for it, two of the ushers at the 11 o’clock Mass at Sacred Hearts were Republicans — Sun Prairie WI Mayor Ted Chase and Emden Schey, a housing developer. Jerome Blaska and farm neighbor John Krebs were Democrats. After passing the collection plates, they retired to the usher’s room in back of the church to count the cash. As the Mass wore on, those in the back could hear them arguing politics. They were not afraid to mix politics and religion. They kept on ushering.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: All four would have been appalled at forgiving college loans for grievance studies majors, criminal catch & release, racial reparations, bans on gas kitchen ranges, homeless encampments, boys in the girls’ locker room, open borders — the whole progressive check list. Not because they were knuckle-dragging troglodytes but because they worked together for the common good on the ground, where they lived, where it had to be real.
10 responses to “It IS the culture, stupid!”
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What insurrection? And Nancy Pelosi is to blame.
When I was a kid back in the ’50s, I looked forward all year to the Lincoln County Fair, which was–and still is–held during the first week of August. Along with the rides and games (rigged, of course, but who cared?) were the parish beer tents, which featured tasty food prepared by an army of dedicated church ladies as well as an endless supply of booze. The St. John’s Lutheran tent was known for its fried chicken, while the St. Francis Catholic tent was known, naturally, for its fish fry. One day, while walking between the two establishments, my gaze was caught by the sight of the pastor of St. John’s and the priest of St. Francis’s, both garbed in clerical black from head to foot, having a friendly chat–each one holding a glass of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. As a proper little Lutheran, I felt somehow betrayed by the light as we were taught that Catholics stubbornly held onto their superstitions and foolishness despite the noble efforts of the Protestant Reformation to enlighten them. Why was my pastor hobnobbing with the enemy? Looking back on it now, I recognize it as a bit of homegrown ecumenicalism. Would we could all set aside our differences–theological, political, social, cultural–and throw back a tall cold one with our neighbor, even if only once a year.
Live in a small(ish) town. The many daily interactions are not dependent on beliefs, similar or not. You don’t have to know or like someone to wave to or greet them or stop to chat.
However, none of these interactions can be done while staring at a phone.
Defund the police. Does trump taking all the money from DC cops fit that statement? Yep. Like republicans screamed that the 2020 census was hogwash yet that’s the census they are using right now in their gerrymandering.
Don’t wax indignant, Lesiak. You support defunding police.
My father worked for Milton Eisenhower during the war in DC , came back to Wisconsin to farm as a Democrat as most farmers were, at that time.
Had heated political arguments every Sunday with another fellow Dem farmer all the time remaining great friends with Milton.
J. Henry
fine column! thanks.
Like always, conversations happen, disagreements arise. Some of us are still working and living in dane county. Where it is best to keep mouths shut if u vote for GOP in order to continue to make a living.
Because tolerance, diversity.