Wisconsin's Moment of Truth

Many of my friends are shocked when they learn that I, used to be a Republican. How could a good progressive Gay man like me, ever have been a member of the GOP? The answer is found in a conversation I had one afternoon when I was thirteen years old.

I was attending an event hosted at Vilas Hall, on the University of Wisconsin Madison Campus. The event was to promote a media literacy and education organization I was heavily involved with at the time. 

Like many such events I attended, I spoke early in the program, and was the youngest person there. I would then have to sit there while speaker after speaker began to blur together, and my 13 year old mind began to wander. Realizing. I was in danger of nodding off, I quietly excused myself, and ducked out into the adjacent "green room" to get a drink of water.

As I walked into the lounge area I heard the sound of a Television, and saw an older gentleman sitting on the couch watching the University of Wisconsin Football game. With his curly white hair and trademark red vest, I instantly recognized former Wisconsin Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus.

 I had met him a few times previously, and was friends with his daughter Susan, with whom I worked with on media literacy and education projects. He saw me, motioned me over (remembered my name), and cheerfully announced that the Badgers were up by 7. I sat down next to him, and we watched game for a few minutes in companionable silence.

He then turned to me and asked how I was doing. I. talked briefly about the Media education project I was there to promote. Then I got up my courage and asked if I could ask him a personal question. Governor Dreyfus smiled and said; "So is this an interview Dave?". I assured him we were off the record, he laughed and gestured for me continue. I said; "Why did you want to be Governor?" Dreyfus had recently finished a very successful term, but then not run for re-election. A move that had surprised most, and frustrated many, inside the Wisconsin Republican Party. As the conventional wisdom was had he run again, he would have won re-election quite easily.

Looking back at the television to check the score, he turned the sound down and then asked me if I had ever noticed the murals in the rotunda of the WI State Capitol building. I proudly replied that I had, and eager to demonstrate my knowledge, rattled off the names of the four murals at base of the rotunda.  

Government, Justice, Legislation, and Liberty.

The former Governor of my home state then went on to give me the best civics lesson I have ever had. He explained that he had benefited from the education system and professional and economic opportunities that living in Wisconsin had provided. Consequently, he felt an obligation to "do his part" to ensure that those opportunities and advantages he had enjoyed, were protected and expanded.

He went on to say that our system was set up to make that possible. The executive branch (Government) worked with the Legislature and the State Senate to craft and pass the laws (Legislation) that were then interpreted by the courts (Justice). Combined, this system of checks, balances and cooperation between all three entities, ensured freedom and opportunity for everyone (Liberty).  

 He looked at the television, then back to me, saying, it was to ensure others had those same opportunities he enjoyed, was why he had gotten into politics.

It was at this point his daughter poked her head into the room and chided us both for. "hiding out" and said we should re-join the event next door. I shook Governor Dreyfus' hand and thanked him for taking the time to talk with me. "My pleasure Dave", he said, and we went back into the next room.

It would be a conversation that would stay with me for years, and it was on that day, at the ripe old age of 13, I decided that I , like Lee Dreyfus, was a Republican. I would join the Young Republicans, campaigning for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Two years later, I would cast my first vote. While a student in Germany in 1986, I proudly walked into the. American Consulate in Munich, filled out my absentee ballot and cast my first ever vote, for Republican Tommy Thompson for Wisconsin Governor.

That next year  I would stand  at  Berlin wall while Ronald Reagan challenged the then Soviet Leader to  "tear down this wall!"  The pride I felt as an American would only reinforce my belief that the Party of Lee Dreyfus, Tommy Thompson and Ronald Reagan was where I was meant to be.

I would go on to become an active member and officer of the College Republicans, even chairing the CR election efforts on campus for. Bush-Quayle '88 and '92. My reasons were clear. It was a Republican who had showed me the power of our system of government to make the lives of Americans better, and by extension, the world a better and safer place.

So what happened? Why did I leave the GOP? The most concise way to answer that question is  to simply say,  the  GOP left me. Or more accurately,  the GOP left me, Lee Dreyfus, Tommy Thompson, George HW Bush, Bob Dole and yes, even left Ronald Reagan.

Wisconsin was the birthplace of the Republican Party. I used live in the town of Ripon Wisconsin and would regularly go past the landmark where the GOP had its creation. The Republican Party on the ballot next week in Wisconsin bears no resemblance to the that party. Let alone party of Lee Dreyfus.

The Party of Scott Walker sees our great system of cooperative branches of government, with its checks and balance, as an obstacle not an asset. Scott Walker is a man who serves a small select group of corporate and financial interests. The people of the great state of Wisconsin, are at best a nuisance to be tolerated, and in truth, often seen as a threat to the agenda those interests have tasked Walker to deliver for them

The Republican Party is addicted to crazy. It has embraced the darker politics of division and fear in place of faith in our system and public service to our citizens. Like many addicts, the Wisconsin Republican Party, doesn't want to get better.   The only way for the GOP to stop digging the deep dank dark hole it as been wallowing in, is to finally hit rock bottom.

This isn't just an election. It's an intervention. For the GOP, it's time for tough love. A vote for Scott Walker and the GOP is a vote to return to 50 million Americans with out access to health insurance. It is to turn the stunning natural beauty of the state of Wisconsin into a strip mined, fracked toxic wasteland where contaminated water catches fire when it comes out of the tap.

A vote for Scott Walker is to hand what is left of the WI public purse over to unregulated special interests and then gut public education and services to pay their bar tab. It is to sacrifice Wisconsin's place as America's Dairyland in favor of becoming the. Mississippi of the North. An under-educated, under-employed, over polluted gilded swamp of the very rich, the very poor and nothing in between.

Trump Supporters like to scream about how they want to “Make America Great Again!", which is nothing more than code for not wanting a people different from them to have any rights. Well,   I want to make the GOP great again. I want a Republican Party that believes in the synergy of Government, Justice , Legislation and Liberty.

It;s time to give the GOP a time out. It's for the people of Wisconsin to step up and save the Republican Party. How?   By voting for Tony Evers, and voting for the Democratic Party.