"The Fall of Wisconsin": How GOP Transformed Once-Progressive State into Union-Busting "Laboratory"
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Published 2024-07-15
Wisconsin holds significance for today's Republican Party, not only as the site of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, but also as a bellwether for American conservatism, argues Dan Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics. Kaufman shares Wisconsin's history of progressive state politics, and how that progressivism was overtaken and eroded by Republican governance, particularly under former Governor Scott Walker, who dismantled organized labor's power in the state. "Walker himself boasted that, 'If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere,'" explains Kaufman. "So, in terms of becoming a national laboratory, [Wisconsin] became an important symbol for the transformation of Republican politics."
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All Comments (21)
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I'm a state employee and still need a part-time job to make ends meet. Also a student in the UW system. Walker ruined this state. Evers can only do so much. Our neighbors in MN are doing much better now. Walker: the slippery slime ball. 😒
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Thank you Amy’s Army!
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Act 10 has made it nearly impossible for Wisconsin's technical colleges to attract and retain qualified educators, especially in healthcare, manufacturing, welding, machining, automation, and engineering.
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Dystopian Future we can stop.
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I remember protesting at my college and in Madison against what we called the "clusterf*ck bill". We had taken over the student union at UWSP and were staying there when they passed the bill in the middle of the night. For CD7, Elsa Duranceau is an incredible candidate! Elsa for Congress ✨️
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Not one mention of the fact that one of the most notorious of American right-wing politicians, Joseph McCarthy, also came from Wisconsin.
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excellent interview again very insightful about the State of Wisconsin . Wish too see more interviews like this and how states in the U.S. are really doing.
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I'm such an Amy Goodman fangirl. Watching every night from Cardiff, Wales. Always say the greeting out loud with you! xxx
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So glad & relieved to see Amy and DMN! cover this convention! I have less than compete confidence in usual media suspects...
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Plus "Uprising" by John Nicols documents the protests during the Scott Walker administration. A good companion to the Dan Kaufman book.
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What is happening to our world?
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WI is my motherland, I’m sooo sad what’s happened to it!! Ps. Please go visit the MAM while you’re there, it’s a beautiful art museum!!
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Great reporting! The nation has moved so far to the right since Reagan that the political landscape is unrecognizable. The attacks against labor are unrelenting. My home state, Rhode Island, in the person of Gina Raimondo (and a host of others in state government), took the cost of living adjustment away from public service retirees. Union leaders and much of the rank and file fell into line in this financial grab. That Raimondo is Biden’s secretary of commerce tells much about how far to the right the Democrats have moved. A guess, having been involved for decades in the political system, is that there is no easy way out of this right-wing juggernaut.
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Amy, please have Jill Stein on as a guest. Thank you
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What a world
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What a pity for Wisconsin 😮
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The John Birch Society's headquarters is in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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G'dang y'all know your stuff.
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One of the best examples of: CORPORATE MEDIA is: today's Monday's. 7/15/24. 4 PM. opening segment of. Deadline White House.
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This is exmplary of very interesting commentary, with fascinating socio-economic dimensions of American history recalled . It made me think of a masterpiece of an article I once read in Harper's about Iowan politics in relation to the Iowan economy. It was a touchstone of compact comprehensiveness, titled 'The Trouble With Iowa' - well worth a read if you can find it online, where I think it can somewhere be read for free
