The result of last night’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election should be deeply disappointing to each and every person who takes the time to frequent this site. Whether you are a supporter of Secretary Clinton or Senator Sanders, electing a died in the wool Republican Supreme Court justice who has already enabled the Scott Walker agenda in Wisconsin is a loss that our side can simply not afford.
I’m a Hillary supporter and a long-time lurker on this site. In my search for coverage on the results of the WI SC race, I ran headlong into the pie fight that has erupted between the supporters of our two fine candidates over whose fault it is that Bradley (the Walker appointee) won a full term.
To which I say, people, people, people. Focus, please.
As one of the sane comments to those pie fight diaries astutely points out,
R turnout: 1,101,046 total votes
D turnout: 1,003,919 total votes
This isn’t an aberration or an anomaly. This isn’t as a consequence of disproportionate interest in the freak show that is the Republican nomination fight. This isn't some sudden revelation on the part of Midwest Republicans that Trump must be stopped, and so they needed to turn out.
In states of the upper Midwest, where the Koch money flows like fracked oil, the Republican GOTV effort is downright frightening. Equally frightening is the Republican’s current level of organization and engagement that one sees in all races, at every level of government, in these upper Midwestern states that used to be at least purple, but that now are becoming reliably red.
A supporting anecdote — my father, a retired college professor and a lifelong Democrat — lives in a small town in northwest Iowa. He keeps me in touch with the local politics there, and his reports are dire. The Republicans now field and support candidates for each and every local position, including positions like county auditor, county Board of Supervisors, and even the lowly county Board of Adjustment. And they are getting out the vote, even for things like completely off-calendar special elections. Slowly but surely, every elected position in the county courthouses are becoming filled with Republicans.
The issue coming out of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race isn’t whose supporters did or did not turn out to support a down ballot candidate. The issue is, quite simply, we need to get our people out to vote. Period. If the Wisconsin turnout in the general election mirrors the primary, neither Hillary nor Bernie will take Wisconsin. More importantly, Senator Feingold will lose to that clown Ron Johnson. Again. And there goes the Senate, and the Supreme Court as well.
