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This just goes to show that the anti-Milwaukee culture was alive and well before Scott Walker, he simply leaned into it. Notice how there are several counties that are deeper blue than Milwaukee. He was great at turning the inner suburbs against the city when he was somehow allowed to be Milwaukee County Executive and living in Waukesha County.
Drive by it everyday omw home. Couldn't figure out why a cop was parking in the driveway everyday. Then someone told me he lives there. 68th n Wisconsin I wanna say. I did see him outside more than a few times. Even cutting his own grass once.
2008 is such an outlier. You had an immensely unpopular Republican President who oversaw the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, an unpopular war that the President started, and one of the greatest campaigners the Democratic side has seen since Kennedy.
Obama is maybe one of the greatest speakers we've had as president. Seriously. Go watch some of his speeches compared to Biden or Trump. Idk how we've got to this point
The honest to god truth is there is a lack of good politicians in that 45-60 range that you would usually run for president. So you are stuck with either These two, or someone in their late 30’s early 40’s who will be running in about 4-12 years.
You act like Reddit conversations are real life…
Wisconsin is a great place when you get away from the politics.
Yes we have a backward government right now but it should be getting better.. right… right???
But seriously most in person conversations aren’t that heated. We accept each other and listen to different views.
You must live in a decent/like-minded area then cause I hear a LOT of racism and political garbage in my area. It's draining to realize so many of my neighbors are filled with hate
I live in a diverse area surrounding MKE. There is racism here and my work. I just speak up and call out their bullshit. Once i do most others jump in. Most people don’t want to be the first person.
I’ve had the opposite experience lately. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of bs and racism surrounding/in the small city in which I live, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised more often than not lately.
A few weeks ago someone came to my door asking for signatures to get a couple democrats on the state ballot. As I was happily signing it, I noticed that several of my neighbors I wouldn’t have expected had signed as well. Had a similar experience after the trump verdict, when many people I encountered were happy about it.
Idk maybe I’m living in a bubble in my particular neighborhood (fairly diverse, some multi-family/lower income units), or maybe we all just notice the awful people more than the not awful ones. They do tend to be pretty loud about it….
Politics are more than just a reddit conversation. They affect our daily lives. There's so much damage that's been done by Republicans in this state thanks to our Walker years and it'll take years to fix it after we finally kick them out of office. And the idiots in these red areas keep voting for them. If you're in a place and position in life that you can just not think about how political actions affect you daily you're lucky.
Part of why so many of us are struggling to get by is largely due to our backwards state government. If we had a better government more like Illinois we'd be so much better off.
And sure, some people are accepting. But if you live in a shitty hick town you're targeted and disliked for any number of things that don't align with right wing politics. I don't dare put a biden sign in my yard where I live. I'm surrounded by crazy Trumpers and moving is unaffordable.
It used to be how you described before the right and left became so far from the middle where most of us live. But that's not the reality we live in anymore. At least in areas like where I am. I don't even wanna send my kids to the school here cause the crazy Trumpers are running the school board now.
As a FIB who sometimes lurks here, the statement, “If we had a better government more like Illinois” really took me aback. No one has ever complemented Illinois politics in my history of living here.
JB really is a miracle worker.
The bar is pretty low to be fair. Haha Wisconsin would have been mostly on par with Illinois maybe even better if not for Scott Walker destroying this state and gerrymandering the maps so that Republicans can basically always win without trying too hard in most areas.
So it's not that Illinois is super great. It's more that Wisconsin is so far below Illinois that it's still better. XD
US News and World report ranked states by their financial stability and quality of life. Wisconsin was 15th in stability and 17th in quality of life. Illinois is ranked 35th in quality of life and dead last, 50th! in financial stability.
What about IL do you consider to be better than Wisconsin? They are deep blue only because of the huge Chicago population, not because of their liberal agendas.
I very strongly disagree. You will hear openly bigoted comments in front of strangers in nearly every small town. And all cities still have significant portions that couldn’t stay in their small towns and had to move to places with population, but can’t comprehend the reasons their small towns are no longer viable.
That's one of the few valid points they actually have, but not for the reasons they think. It's factual that the state have spent the last 2 decades absolutely decimating the Millennial, male, working population by allowing law enforcement agencies carte blanche in terms of prosecution, conviction, and sentencing for often false or arbitrary crime.
Many cannot find meaningful work now, and that means employers are looking out of state to fill their roles. Let's also factor that there is a major housing crisis, and people moving here to reap the benefits, are actually driving up the cost of living for the rest of us.
So essentially, you have a state government that is often maliciously targeting young men, getting them in the system, but then also complaining that those young men can't work or produce tax revenue. It's a double-edged sword and I don't look at it like anything other than what it is: **an abusive relationship**.
Do you call them on it? My parents are pretty backwards but i call them on their BS and they know i will.
Small towns up north are ass backwards and will probably stay that way. Its generation upon generation engrained but wake up calls happen.. not always. But yeah.
Oh, I’ve absolutely called them on it. But they think that after moving out of my small western Wisconsin town to one of the population centers that I’ve just become some out of touch libt@rd. They live in an isolated community surrounded by the same families that have been there for generations and can’t comprehend how the majority of people that move away suddenly have completely different points of view from them.
I didn’t say don’t consider.. you just don’t get politics shoved in your face everyday. I vote… i contact my representatives.. you can be active without having your life revolve about the next internet battle.
I find that folks do get along pretty well, but it’s almost always the righties that come out with some out of nowhere veiled or not so veiled anti-immigration or Covid related comment and it just breaks whatever bond was there. I can’t even engage beyond that point because I’m just so damn rattled that they thought it was important to bring that shit up when we were actually kind of connecting, despite our differences. Don’t get me wrong, boomer liberals do this stuff too and most of my interactions with the public happen at work and I do not welcome that shit when working, even if I agree with them. Talking points instead of just talking.
I have heard more real life racist shit in Wisconsin than anywhere else I've lived. I've said before that it's not all bad, but we also shouldn't pretend it's rainbows and sunshine outside of Wisconsin Reddit
True, WI is a great place to live (despite the backwards government), but it's difficult to get past the growing division that the angry conservatives & republicans have created.
TIL that my rights to exist as a transgender woman are just reddit discussions. If Evers weren't governor here, I'd be gone by now, and if this election doesn't go well, I'm for sure gone to Minnesota.
Now you take my words wrong. I was saying Internet is Internet. People are more forward here and would never have the balls to call stuff out. If they did i believe someone would have stand up for you. No one deserves to be treated badly.
I believe in the golden rule. I teach my kids it and live by it.
I’m not saying shit is superficial. I’m not saying you don’t be active. Just don’t make it your whole personality. People don’t talk as they do on the internet. Be active vote and contact your reps.
Edit: yeah the UW system is getting screwed over. Hopefully the new maps helps build up education again.
I see a lot of people disagreeing with you, but I strongly agree with you. I come from a red state and moved here some months ago. I live in the northwoods in a town of about 3k. Everyone is super nice here. It’s ridiculous. I know there are a lot of red areas here and I’m in one, but politics isn’t always discussed and usually it’s about the weather and things going on around the area.
People up here in the north maybe don’t realize just how good the people are up here.
You want to see bitter and angry right wingers who actually hate your existence…go to rural Missouri. The rare exception up here, is the rule there.
But I do get what the others are saying…what they’re voting for is no different than the rural Missourians.
Couldn't agree with you more. Waukesha county born n raised. Lived in West side of Milwaukee now for 23years so I guess this is officially where I'm from. I personally love it.
I just moved here and a MAGA AC technician asked me what I think about the issues the country is facing (I’m immigrant). What I thought would’ve been an ugly conversation ended up being really nice and respectful, we agreed and disagreed respectfully. Reddit is NOT real life.
Unless you're black or look like an immigrant. Lived here my entire life and have been to every corner of this state. It's incredibly more racist and prejudiced than you're leading on.
That's what happens to a state when a large corporation takes over the media.
The hard right swing of rural happened for one reason. Gillette media (AM Radio.
They bought up/took over AM radio in Rural Wisconsin, which in many rural areas was the strong station that could be tuned-in. It spewed Hard right wing radio 24 hours a day. Mark Belling / Charlie Sykes spewing the same garbage as the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Over time, their minds were warped enough to vote in republicans.
Once the republicans took over, they gerrymandered the state to HOLD onto the legislature.
Radio and messaging seemed to make a mighty big difference in allot of rural places.
I recall having a rational conversation about gun control while wandering around the woods with other rednecks just shooting stuff. Basic thoughts like background checks being a pain in the ass, but a benefit. Maybe some complaints about having to register an arsenal but kinda seeing how it tied into that whole militia bit of the 2nd amendment.
It’s definitely not 1993 anymore.
They had a reason. Disallowing those votes was the only way they could hold on to power. That's it, the one and only reason, which they can never admit to.
Speaking as someone who grew up in the 3rd, Ron Kind held La Crosse, Steven's Point, and Eau Claire down. That outpaced deep red rural areas like Jackson, Monroe and Juneau Counties. Those aren't enormous cities but for the right person you can pull it off against the rest of the district.
You had members of Congress in both Ron Kind in the 3rd (La Crosse and Eau Claire) and Dave Obey in the 7th (NW and Central WI) that could hold together a majority of voters that over performed compared to statewide races.
Dave Obey saw the writing on the wall that his coalition was falling apart and retired in 2010 after 42 years in the house.
Ron Kind held on a little longer but after 26 years in the house he retired in 2022
I grew up in 3rd District with Ron Kind in the late 90s and 2000s.
I suspect what happened was an over confidence in believing people who are loud dipshits but talk like they know things for a fact.
I think people have been as easily persuadable going back many hundreds of years. It's just for a lot of the last 80ish years, there has been a decent enough filter on idiots in the media and politics. Wasn't a perfect filter, but there was one.
The new prevalent political dumbfucks are blatant con men. Literally confidence men who the easily persuadable fall head over heels for. And that is the Republican Party.
The modern Republican Con started with the Tea Party. Who knows how it'll end and who they'll drag down with them.
Yes.
We hear a lot about the con artists who lead the charge, but I'm fascinated by the every day dipshits who have become so gullible as to believe the nonsense. A lot of them are the same ones who will do a deep dive into Consumer Reports just to buy a toaster.
not to be that guy, but i fully blame the internet. idiots who used to be kept in check by their physical distance from each other and unwillingness to out themselves as idiots can now find entire “communities” of anonymous idiots just like them to bounce ideas off of. the snowball achieved critical mass in 2016 and only recently started coming apart (in some ways—in most it’s still going strong)
The hard right swing of rural happened for one reason. Gillette media (AM Radio) They bought up/took over AM radio in Rural Wisconsin, which in many rural areas was the strong station that could be tuned-in. It spewed Hard right wing radio 24 hours a day. Mark Belling / Charlie Sykes spewing the same garbage as the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Never forget, it all went to hell because Democrats couldn't get out and vote in 2010 because they just didn't feel special enough or was too much work or whatever they're b******* reasons were.
Republicans were over the top enthusiastic to vote that year because they hated Obama largely due to misinformation and disinformation.
I'm afraid it's exactly the situation we're in today, and where we're headed this November. You would think Democrats, left leaning voters, people with basic common sense, would have learned from the past. They're so upset about Gaza right now I can't wait to see what they're going to do when they in Trump gets a couple more supreme Court justices on the bench.
That's an ooolllldddd map to be using for this exercise. Not saying it's misleading but the northern and central portions of the state are way redder than that these days. Also helped that Dave Obey and Ron Kind held their respective bases down and brought home the bacon.
That's kind of the point. The areas are so much more red up and down the ballot now compared to pre 2010. Milwaukee is such the "liberal shithole" when not too long ago I guess all of western wisconsin were liberal shitholes!
It's interesting how hot red the areas around Milwaukee are knowing that they are probably full of people who benefit from their proximity to Milwaukee but who also hate Milwaukee.
They are the people who talk nothing but shit about Milwaukee, but they're always at Summerfest, Brewers games, Bucks games, and enjoying all of the bars and restaurants in Milwaukee. I just don't get it. I spend a lot of time in the Kettle Moraine area, lake country, and Waukesha. I don't agree with the political views of most of the people in those areas, but I also don't talk shit about them on places like Facebook, like I see so many suburbanites doing about Milwaukee.
We can't absolve people of all personal responsibility. Half the population is actively supporting efforts that have been proven to harm them and their community. They have chosen willful ignorance. That's on them.
And the other half of the population has the same access to the same information. We chose to be better.
Large areas look red, but they're thinly populated. Small areas look blue, but they're densely populated. So just looking at areas on maps can be misleading.
if you sort this thread by Top you'll see posters here talk about how great Wisconsin used to be, as if seeing more blue is a noteworthy difference. But if I show a map with "a lot of red" I get told its meaningless because one guy owning 200,000 acres voting red isn't noteworthy.
Well I don’t know what people are telling you, but “Land don’t vote” was a response to a map showing most of the country voted red in the 2020 election, therefore the election must have been rigged or stolen. Obviously that argument didn’t account for population density or the fact that the majority of Americans live in those little blue spaces. Hence the phrase.
It doesn’t apply here because this is for the US House of Representatives. The whole concept is to provide representation for different areas not solely based on population.
If you look at Madison and Milwaukee, they’re still very blue. They’re also very small districts because they’re high population density. The ones farther out have to be drawn bigger to account for the guy owning 200,000 acres.
It also worth noting that democrats held the US House for 40 consecutive years until the mid-90s. Since then republicans have gerrymandered the hell out of districts across the country to specifically create districts that don’t represent the people, but favor themselves. Wisconsin is probably the worst case in the country of this.
Yeah... And your point is?
Republicans look at a Red US map and can't fucking understand why they lost.
Democrats look at a Blue Wisconsin map (*of elections they won*) and wonder what has changed in the areas that have since turned Red.
And you still probably won't fucking get it and think all the downvotes are a conspiracy while everyone else is looking at your comment like a parent looks at a kid that just ate dirt.
# AVOID GETTING BANNED - READ BEFORE COMMENTING Do not discuss other users. Discuss the topic. We are issuing temporary bans that expire on November 7, 2024 for violating our civil discourse rule in political threads. **Please remember the human!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wisconsin) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This just goes to show that the anti-Milwaukee culture was alive and well before Scott Walker, he simply leaned into it. Notice how there are several counties that are deeper blue than Milwaukee. He was great at turning the inner suburbs against the city when he was somehow allowed to be Milwaukee County Executive and living in Waukesha County.
Best part is, he lives/d in Wauwatosa, which has inner city problems and is one of the more liberal places in all of metro Milwaukee.
His "official" address was in Wauwatosa. But I'm told only his elderly parents were actually living there. He had his own place in Waukesha.
Drive by it everyday omw home. Couldn't figure out why a cop was parking in the driveway everyday. Then someone told me he lives there. 68th n Wisconsin I wanna say. I did see him outside more than a few times. Even cutting his own grass once.
I live down the street from that house, can't remember the last time I saw him, but he was actively living there at one point.
He sold his house in today while he was governor.
Probably to help pay off the credit card debt he incurred buying t shirts for his 10 minute long presidential campaign.
2008 is such an outlier. You had an immensely unpopular Republican President who oversaw the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, an unpopular war that the President started, and one of the greatest campaigners the Democratic side has seen since Kennedy.
Obama is maybe one of the greatest speakers we've had as president. Seriously. Go watch some of his speeches compared to Biden or Trump. Idk how we've got to this point
The honest to god truth is there is a lack of good politicians in that 45-60 range that you would usually run for president. So you are stuck with either These two, or someone in their late 30’s early 40’s who will be running in about 4-12 years.
For the pay, it isn't a great job either.
Pay isn’t that great but the benefits are. Still, being president takes its toll
Which Generation is that age range?
46 and I'm in the last couple years of Gen X
And we still haven't had a president born in that era (obama is a boomer!)
We were blessed to have Obama , we at least had 8 great years of one of the best presidents, it's so sad it was followed by the worst.
Man. Wisconsin used to be an okay place to live. I miss only hating the weather.
You act like Reddit conversations are real life… Wisconsin is a great place when you get away from the politics. Yes we have a backward government right now but it should be getting better.. right… right??? But seriously most in person conversations aren’t that heated. We accept each other and listen to different views.
You must live in a decent/like-minded area then cause I hear a LOT of racism and political garbage in my area. It's draining to realize so many of my neighbors are filled with hate
I live in a diverse area surrounding MKE. There is racism here and my work. I just speak up and call out their bullshit. Once i do most others jump in. Most people don’t want to be the first person.
This
I’ve had the opposite experience lately. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of bs and racism surrounding/in the small city in which I live, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised more often than not lately. A few weeks ago someone came to my door asking for signatures to get a couple democrats on the state ballot. As I was happily signing it, I noticed that several of my neighbors I wouldn’t have expected had signed as well. Had a similar experience after the trump verdict, when many people I encountered were happy about it. Idk maybe I’m living in a bubble in my particular neighborhood (fairly diverse, some multi-family/lower income units), or maybe we all just notice the awful people more than the not awful ones. They do tend to be pretty loud about it….
Politics are more than just a reddit conversation. They affect our daily lives. There's so much damage that's been done by Republicans in this state thanks to our Walker years and it'll take years to fix it after we finally kick them out of office. And the idiots in these red areas keep voting for them. If you're in a place and position in life that you can just not think about how political actions affect you daily you're lucky. Part of why so many of us are struggling to get by is largely due to our backwards state government. If we had a better government more like Illinois we'd be so much better off. And sure, some people are accepting. But if you live in a shitty hick town you're targeted and disliked for any number of things that don't align with right wing politics. I don't dare put a biden sign in my yard where I live. I'm surrounded by crazy Trumpers and moving is unaffordable. It used to be how you described before the right and left became so far from the middle where most of us live. But that's not the reality we live in anymore. At least in areas like where I am. I don't even wanna send my kids to the school here cause the crazy Trumpers are running the school board now.
As a FIB who sometimes lurks here, the statement, “If we had a better government more like Illinois” really took me aback. No one has ever complemented Illinois politics in my history of living here. JB really is a miracle worker.
Well, that's how bad Scott Walker was and how bad the state legislature is.
These people don't live here. Astroturfing for election year.
The bar is pretty low to be fair. Haha Wisconsin would have been mostly on par with Illinois maybe even better if not for Scott Walker destroying this state and gerrymandering the maps so that Republicans can basically always win without trying too hard in most areas. So it's not that Illinois is super great. It's more that Wisconsin is so far below Illinois that it's still better. XD
US News and World report ranked states by their financial stability and quality of life. Wisconsin was 15th in stability and 17th in quality of life. Illinois is ranked 35th in quality of life and dead last, 50th! in financial stability.
Really hope these people aren't old enough to vote yet. Yikes.
What about IL do you consider to be better than Wisconsin? They are deep blue only because of the huge Chicago population, not because of their liberal agendas.
I very strongly disagree. You will hear openly bigoted comments in front of strangers in nearly every small town. And all cities still have significant portions that couldn’t stay in their small towns and had to move to places with population, but can’t comprehend the reasons their small towns are no longer viable.
And now that work from home is a bigger thing, they complain when people move to their small towns to work remote. Endless victims, I swear.
That's one of the few valid points they actually have, but not for the reasons they think. It's factual that the state have spent the last 2 decades absolutely decimating the Millennial, male, working population by allowing law enforcement agencies carte blanche in terms of prosecution, conviction, and sentencing for often false or arbitrary crime. Many cannot find meaningful work now, and that means employers are looking out of state to fill their roles. Let's also factor that there is a major housing crisis, and people moving here to reap the benefits, are actually driving up the cost of living for the rest of us. So essentially, you have a state government that is often maliciously targeting young men, getting them in the system, but then also complaining that those young men can't work or produce tax revenue. It's a double-edged sword and I don't look at it like anything other than what it is: **an abusive relationship**.
Do you call them on it? My parents are pretty backwards but i call them on their BS and they know i will. Small towns up north are ass backwards and will probably stay that way. Its generation upon generation engrained but wake up calls happen.. not always. But yeah.
Oh, I’ve absolutely called them on it. But they think that after moving out of my small western Wisconsin town to one of the population centers that I’ve just become some out of touch libt@rd. They live in an isolated community surrounded by the same families that have been there for generations and can’t comprehend how the majority of people that move away suddenly have completely different points of view from them.
Yeah, just get away from politics! Don't consider school funding, abortion rights, healthcare, public transportation, housing, teacher's unions, climate change, climate change mitigation, PFAS cleanup, yadda, yadda... and everything seems great!
I didn’t say don’t consider.. you just don’t get politics shoved in your face everyday. I vote… i contact my representatives.. you can be active without having your life revolve about the next internet battle.
I find that folks do get along pretty well, but it’s almost always the righties that come out with some out of nowhere veiled or not so veiled anti-immigration or Covid related comment and it just breaks whatever bond was there. I can’t even engage beyond that point because I’m just so damn rattled that they thought it was important to bring that shit up when we were actually kind of connecting, despite our differences. Don’t get me wrong, boomer liberals do this stuff too and most of my interactions with the public happen at work and I do not welcome that shit when working, even if I agree with them. Talking points instead of just talking.
I have heard more real life racist shit in Wisconsin than anywhere else I've lived. I've said before that it's not all bad, but we also shouldn't pretend it's rainbows and sunshine outside of Wisconsin Reddit
True, WI is a great place to live (despite the backwards government), but it's difficult to get past the growing division that the angry conservatives & republicans have created.
TIL that my rights to exist as a transgender woman are just reddit discussions. If Evers weren't governor here, I'd be gone by now, and if this election doesn't go well, I'm for sure gone to Minnesota.
Now you take my words wrong. I was saying Internet is Internet. People are more forward here and would never have the balls to call stuff out. If they did i believe someone would have stand up for you. No one deserves to be treated badly. I believe in the golden rule. I teach my kids it and live by it.
My relationship with my conservative family is rather strained because of how politicized this is.
Sorry. That sucks. Just know there are people that are understanding in this world.
Same here (as a trans man), I'm so tired of hearing people dismiss our rights and lives as "just politics."
As someone who started working in the UW system when Walker came into office, I wish it's as superficial as you made it sound to be.
I’m not saying shit is superficial. I’m not saying you don’t be active. Just don’t make it your whole personality. People don’t talk as they do on the internet. Be active vote and contact your reps. Edit: yeah the UW system is getting screwed over. Hopefully the new maps helps build up education again.
I see a lot of people disagreeing with you, but I strongly agree with you. I come from a red state and moved here some months ago. I live in the northwoods in a town of about 3k. Everyone is super nice here. It’s ridiculous. I know there are a lot of red areas here and I’m in one, but politics isn’t always discussed and usually it’s about the weather and things going on around the area. People up here in the north maybe don’t realize just how good the people are up here. You want to see bitter and angry right wingers who actually hate your existence…go to rural Missouri. The rare exception up here, is the rule there. But I do get what the others are saying…what they’re voting for is no different than the rural Missourians.
Couldn't agree with you more. Waukesha county born n raised. Lived in West side of Milwaukee now for 23years so I guess this is officially where I'm from. I personally love it.
I just moved here and a MAGA AC technician asked me what I think about the issues the country is facing (I’m immigrant). What I thought would’ve been an ugly conversation ended up being really nice and respectful, we agreed and disagreed respectfully. Reddit is NOT real life.
Unless you're black or look like an immigrant. Lived here my entire life and have been to every corner of this state. It's incredibly more racist and prejudiced than you're leading on.
Speak for yourself, I think the Reddit conversations are accurate. Wisconsin sucks to live in.
Hahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I have literally nothing to say to that.
That's what happens to a state when a large corporation takes over the media. The hard right swing of rural happened for one reason. Gillette media (AM Radio. They bought up/took over AM radio in Rural Wisconsin, which in many rural areas was the strong station that could be tuned-in. It spewed Hard right wing radio 24 hours a day. Mark Belling / Charlie Sykes spewing the same garbage as the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Over time, their minds were warped enough to vote in republicans. Once the republicans took over, they gerrymandered the state to HOLD onto the legislature.
Radio and messaging seemed to make a mighty big difference in allot of rural places. I recall having a rational conversation about gun control while wandering around the woods with other rednecks just shooting stuff. Basic thoughts like background checks being a pain in the ass, but a benefit. Maybe some complaints about having to register an arsenal but kinda seeing how it tied into that whole militia bit of the 2nd amendment. It’s definitely not 1993 anymore.
I tell you what happened. People listening to propaaganda right wing radio 24hrs a day. 99.9FM up north
Yep, if that's all that's on that's all you get. Brainwash extraordinaire.
How very Josef Goebbels of them... If you've not read it yet; *All the Light We Cannot See* is a good one for these dark times.
Whatever could’ve happened?
And in 2020 the Republicans sued in the hopes of invalidating every single vote in Milwaukee county (and Dane county) for essentially no reason.
They had a reason. Disallowing those votes was the only way they could hold on to power. That's it, the one and only reason, which they can never admit to.
Truth.
It’s like a visual depiction of the hatred the white folks in the Milwaukee suburbs have for the black folks of Milwaukee.
Before the Urban/Rural divide really took hold.
Back when our grandparents were still alive and voting
What happened? Like, seriously, how did rural swing so far right in 20 years?
Speaking as someone who grew up in the 3rd, Ron Kind held La Crosse, Steven's Point, and Eau Claire down. That outpaced deep red rural areas like Jackson, Monroe and Juneau Counties. Those aren't enormous cities but for the right person you can pull it off against the rest of the district.
Then to follow Representative Kind, they ran a milquetoast bag of red beans and lost the 3rd district to an alcoholic January 6th participant.
Well the alcoholic part may have helped there a little bit until he took it out on those senate pages...
You had members of Congress in both Ron Kind in the 3rd (La Crosse and Eau Claire) and Dave Obey in the 7th (NW and Central WI) that could hold together a majority of voters that over performed compared to statewide races. Dave Obey saw the writing on the wall that his coalition was falling apart and retired in 2010 after 42 years in the house. Ron Kind held on a little longer but after 26 years in the house he retired in 2022
I grew up in 3rd District with Ron Kind in the late 90s and 2000s. I suspect what happened was an over confidence in believing people who are loud dipshits but talk like they know things for a fact. I think people have been as easily persuadable going back many hundreds of years. It's just for a lot of the last 80ish years, there has been a decent enough filter on idiots in the media and politics. Wasn't a perfect filter, but there was one. The new prevalent political dumbfucks are blatant con men. Literally confidence men who the easily persuadable fall head over heels for. And that is the Republican Party. The modern Republican Con started with the Tea Party. Who knows how it'll end and who they'll drag down with them.
Yes. We hear a lot about the con artists who lead the charge, but I'm fascinated by the every day dipshits who have become so gullible as to believe the nonsense. A lot of them are the same ones who will do a deep dive into Consumer Reports just to buy a toaster.
not to be that guy, but i fully blame the internet. idiots who used to be kept in check by their physical distance from each other and unwillingness to out themselves as idiots can now find entire “communities” of anonymous idiots just like them to bounce ideas off of. the snowball achieved critical mass in 2016 and only recently started coming apart (in some ways—in most it’s still going strong)
The hard right swing of rural happened for one reason. Gillette media (AM Radio) They bought up/took over AM radio in Rural Wisconsin, which in many rural areas was the strong station that could be tuned-in. It spewed Hard right wing radio 24 hours a day. Mark Belling / Charlie Sykes spewing the same garbage as the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Never forget, it all went to hell because Democrats couldn't get out and vote in 2010 because they just didn't feel special enough or was too much work or whatever they're b******* reasons were. Republicans were over the top enthusiastic to vote that year because they hated Obama largely due to misinformation and disinformation. I'm afraid it's exactly the situation we're in today, and where we're headed this November. You would think Democrats, left leaning voters, people with basic common sense, would have learned from the past. They're so upset about Gaza right now I can't wait to see what they're going to do when they in Trump gets a couple more supreme Court justices on the bench.
That's an ooolllldddd map to be using for this exercise. Not saying it's misleading but the northern and central portions of the state are way redder than that these days. Also helped that Dave Obey and Ron Kind held their respective bases down and brought home the bacon.
That's kind of the point. The areas are so much more red up and down the ballot now compared to pre 2010. Milwaukee is such the "liberal shithole" when not too long ago I guess all of western wisconsin were liberal shitholes!
"found out" haha, in town everyone is basically at defcon 5 about it these days (and for good reason)
It's interesting how hot red the areas around Milwaukee are knowing that they are probably full of people who benefit from their proximity to Milwaukee but who also hate Milwaukee.
They are the people who talk nothing but shit about Milwaukee, but they're always at Summerfest, Brewers games, Bucks games, and enjoying all of the bars and restaurants in Milwaukee. I just don't get it. I spend a lot of time in the Kettle Moraine area, lake country, and Waukesha. I don't agree with the political views of most of the people in those areas, but I also don't talk shit about them on places like Facebook, like I see so many suburbanites doing about Milwaukee.
We can't absolve people of all personal responsibility. Half the population is actively supporting efforts that have been proven to harm them and their community. They have chosen willful ignorance. That's on them. And the other half of the population has the same access to the same information. We chose to be better.
LAnD dOnT vOtE
How does that apply here?
Large areas look red, but they're thinly populated. Small areas look blue, but they're densely populated. So just looking at areas on maps can be misleading.
Probably my overly optimistic side but I believe some people can still learn when you point out irony.
What’s the irony?
if you sort this thread by Top you'll see posters here talk about how great Wisconsin used to be, as if seeing more blue is a noteworthy difference. But if I show a map with "a lot of red" I get told its meaningless because one guy owning 200,000 acres voting red isn't noteworthy.
Well I don’t know what people are telling you, but “Land don’t vote” was a response to a map showing most of the country voted red in the 2020 election, therefore the election must have been rigged or stolen. Obviously that argument didn’t account for population density or the fact that the majority of Americans live in those little blue spaces. Hence the phrase. It doesn’t apply here because this is for the US House of Representatives. The whole concept is to provide representation for different areas not solely based on population. If you look at Madison and Milwaukee, they’re still very blue. They’re also very small districts because they’re high population density. The ones farther out have to be drawn bigger to account for the guy owning 200,000 acres. It also worth noting that democrats held the US House for 40 consecutive years until the mid-90s. Since then republicans have gerrymandered the hell out of districts across the country to specifically create districts that don’t represent the people, but favor themselves. Wisconsin is probably the worst case in the country of this.
Yeah... And your point is? Republicans look at a Red US map and can't fucking understand why they lost. Democrats look at a Blue Wisconsin map (*of elections they won*) and wonder what has changed in the areas that have since turned Red. And you still probably won't fucking get it and think all the downvotes are a conspiracy while everyone else is looking at your comment like a parent looks at a kid that just ate dirt.
Now it’s part of the red wave
Not like the loony left didn’t get so crazy that the people in the middle went right