Before we Badgers (or others) break our arms patting ourselves on the back for the much, much higher than normal turnout we managed in yesterday's spring election, I think we should keep two very simple things firmly in mind:
(1) The VAST majority of our fellow Cheeseheads did NOT bother to vote yesterday. In very round numbers, there are about 3.5 million registered voters in Wisconsin. Something in the neighborhood of 1.5 million voted. So about 2 million registered voters (and tens of thousands of eligible but unregistered voters) did NOT vote -- in a hugely important, extremely well-publicized election. That's appalling. The fact that we've grown accustomed to something far worse does NOT make the non-participation of 3 in 5 of our fellow citizens okay. It damn sure isn't okay.
(2) Our hair's breadth Supreme Court election provides an extremely powerful teachable moment for non-voters. Admittedly, most of us don't generally hang with lots of non-voters, but at least on the fringes of our spheres, there are definitely some. If the opportunities present themselves, the time couldn't be more right for spending a few congenially informative moments with some of those folks in order to encourage and motivate them to engage with their republic. Three out of five of our fellow "citizens" is a damn big untapped pool of folks -- many of whom could be encouraged and nurtured in the direction of becoming real, fully-engaged citizens. If this isn't one highly teachable moment, I don't know what is.