This is Republicans respecting the will of the people...
2
"It is a model pioneered in North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers in 2016 tried to restrict the power of the governor after a Democrat was narrowly elected to the post. That set off a bitter court battle that continues to this day."
So, the Republicans can get away with it. Too many of our political customs and expectations are unwritten and not legally enforced. It is ASSUMED that no party would be so indecent and anti-democratic as to retroactively change the rules after losing the game. We can no longer make that assumption.
12
The Republicans are playing dirty because they fear that they won't make it back into office anytime soon. The GOP as a whole hasn't cared about it's horrible reputation and hypocrisy for a while now, and I suspect for the same reasons. Just demographics alone will continue to push our politics to the left over the next decade, and outside of the deep red states you probably won't see many republicans elected for a long time. They're scared and lashing out on their way out the door. Plus they might realize that, in the end, Trump will destroy their party. Hard to see it working out any other way.
Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.
3
Interesting how the Democrats are trying to figure how to move the country forward after the mid-terms ('no need for partisan warfare') while the Republicans keep up their relentless quest for control, with or without the electorate. I hope the Dems learn to execute some surgical procedures on Trump and the Republicans to reduce their power. This article outlines another strategy in the Republican playbook for control without consensus.
6
This sort of power grab makes me long for 2000, when the most drastic prank by the outgoing Clinton staffers was to glue all of the 'W's' on West Wing keyboards. Ah, those were the days!
2
The Republican party now makes the characters in Bertolt Brecht's Three Penny Opera look like angels.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/corporate-cash-john-doe-files-scott-walker-wisconsin
1
Republicans in the House of Representatives are also scrambling to cut the power of their own offices. It seems that Republicans only believe in democracy when they win & are in control. When they lose seats & control, they are working overtime to tear down the democratic power of the offices & assemblies they are being forced out of. Democracy only works at all if the "Social Contract" is agreed to by all. The losers in any democracy have to accept it and not try to hamstring or shred democracy just because they are the party going out of power. It shows that the GOP has no attachment to democracy, only to ideological control - theirs. Unfortunately, the American people are now so poorly educated in our own political system, our Constitution, & all related subjects that too many are happy to say, "If I'm losing, I'm going to burn down the stadium & leave everybody else powerless among the ashes." They want to take the People's "ball & bat" & go home to plot more effective voter suppression for 2020. What I worry most is that so many alt-right Republicans are chafing at the bit to overthrow the system unless they control it completely. Sales of guns & ammo peaked nationwide in the last couple of days before the 2016 election when Trumpistas, white supremicists, and fascists thought that Hillary was going to win & they had to prepare for an armed insurgency against their own government. Remember, they have done this before, & some still think the Civil War isn't finished.
6
The Republican credo, which they now laud and exalt openly, has always been "cheat to win."
3
My God! The Republicans aren't even hiding what they intend to do and why.
Reminds me of a scene from the Mel Brooks classic, "Blazing Saddles" where the Governor laments the need to "protect our phony baloney jobs!"
3
We have and continue to send our soldiers to foreign countries to either establish or maintain democracies in which hopefully there will be “ liberty and justice for all.” Tragically Republicans suppress voting here at home. We should understand that gerrymandering is a form of apartheid. We would all honor the service of Senator McCain and President Bush if more of us spoke out against voter suppression.
2
I became politically active again after the 2016 election. If there's one thing that I've learned in the past 2 years, it's that the Republican Party leadership has walked away from democracy. Not ordinary citizens, mind you, but the Republican national and state leadership.
I wouldn't have believed it except I've followed the news so closely for 2 years. The shenanigans in Wisconsin were tried in North Carolina first. Then there are the numerous voter suppression tactics and extreme gerrymandering in Republican-dominated states. The Republican leadership believe in keeping their power at all cost, even at the expense of destroying democracy.
2
Funny at the local level they want to limit executive power yet at the national level they loath to limit executive power. Odd they had years to put these limits into effect under Walker yet they did nothing.
24
Looks like democracy is dead thanks to America hating Republicans.
8
Republicans who seek to limit the authority and duties of offices they have lost are despicable. They seem to have lost all sense of fair play and wandered into Jim Crow territory, not racial this time as much as political.
Shame on them all!
5
“...seek to undermine Democrats.”? No...seek to undermine democracy.
8
Disenfranchisement is the central republican strategy. Poll suppression followed by this lame duck ploy. Chickens will come home to roost Republicans. Americans like fair play.
5
That is why there are courts and tis is just another example of GOP dictatorships. The democrats just join the fact with Stacey and bring these scoundrel's to justice. We want democrats in power not sick GOP people and we will prevail.
Till we change the GOP everyday needs to be treated like an election day we need to cleanse the country from these people and continue the daily fight of exposing their lies and inhumanity.
2
Here in Wisconsin the Republicans control the legislature due to fine-tuned, computer-generated gerrymandering. Except that doesn't help you in a statewide race, and the fact that soon-to-be Governor Evers displaced a long-term Republican governor shows that the State is really 51% Democratic, and we would also also elect a Democratic legislature in fair elections.
The Republicans can't completely eliminate the powers of the governor, but what they're doing here is to diminish his powers as much as possible so they can run the place from the state assembly. Except we have a great tradition of good and honest government here, and my hope is the solution to this is simply to get more people voting in 2020. I'm sure they will be outraged by all of this, and finally we'll get this fixed. Of course, this will be helped by a record turnout of people coming to vote to throw out the Republican President.
5
I've always been an Independent, but my eyes are wide opened and horrified by the Republican's 'to the death' attitude and their actions towards the people's voting choices when Republicans lose an election.
How deep and dark does this go? Service to their constituency and country clearly is not the core issue here---
8
I left the Republican Party after President Reagan proved they were abandoning the middle class. I never thought they would abandon Democracy, but they have. They have proven their disdain for free elections, the heart of the American experiment. From the perversion of districts through gerrymandering, to the abundance of lies in their advertisements, and now with their dismantling of the Governor's office in Wisconsin and Michigan, because they don't like the voter's choice, the Republican party has cast democracy aside for their addiction to power.
8
Republicans are playing right into the hands of Democrats if Democrats take the opportunity to make clear how Republicans are trying to undermine and essentially cheat the election results and in the process the voice of our democracy. No one appreciates an election steal.
Further, as time passes still more people will be offended by the corruption surrounding the Trump administration. While Fox and "talk radio" will continue to try to minimize this, it is ever more apparent to most people, including all important independent voters, that our physical world is being routinely degraded by an administration that seems to care more about money than people, by its One Trillion giveaway to corporate interests, by its efforts to unravel health care protections, by a concern for the viability of medicare and social security while the Republicans remain in power, and ultimately by the Trumpists failure to show respect not only for our government but for who we are as a nation.
As long as the Democrats put forward the sort of high quality candidates they offered this past November, it's hard to imagine how they cannot prevail in 2020 after a disastrous 4 years of Trump (if he makes it that long).
2
Let's not get carried away about the Evers. He barely beat Walker. He has no mandate. Get over yourselves! Dems do the same thing when they have power!
2
When these latter-day Republicans win, they are sore winners. And when they lose, are they ever sore losers. If they can't be in power, they'll burn the house down. Whether or not the Wisconsin GOP legislators are successful in their efforts to weaken incoming Democratic officers, Democrats have every right to lambaste the GOP candidates, in particular, and in general, in every state for their poor-sport tactics. Use what's going on in Madison as an example in your campaign ads, and do it regularly. My suggestion: "The Spirit of Mean is alive and kicking in today's Republican Party" bumper stickers should be issued.
4
Truth, please!
It is NOT "Democrats" the GOP is working to undermine - it is Democracy itself. They really don't care what the majority of citizens want. They just want the power.
And they have borrowed not just a page but entire chapters from Russia's textbook on how to undermine- in the long run.
One even has to wonder if, digging down under the rocks, one might find a Russian agent or two, on the GOP "planning" committees...
7
Still waiting tor the examples of Democrats committing such acts of tyranny. NPR just played an interview in which the speaker made the insinuation that both parties are equally guilty of this, then the story ended without any substantiation of this claim on the side of the Democrats. I'm sick of hearing this. The Republican party has completely and utterly lost its soul. There is not a moral or ethical bone left in its pathetic body. If the demographic tidal wave doesn't sweep them up soon enough, there will be a new American Revolution.
5
To all Democrats who think that the way to a working majority with some measure of a voice over how the country is run is to be nice and bi-partisan...Forget it!
The Republicans obviously don’t care.
3
We need to start calling this what it is: The Republican party, for whatever reasons is a malignancy on American democracy.
Everyone is supposed to have an equal opportunity at voting; it militates against that standard with lies, deception, proactive suppression.
Every vote is supposed to have an equal effect; it manipulates, gerrymanders and electoral colleges so that my vote, for example, has a third less effect than that of someone else who may vote R.
Elections reflect the will of the people; if the people put Dem leaders in power it attempts to diminish the power those leaders can have, as in the present case and previously in NC.
An elected president has the power to appoint a SC justice; just refuse to acknowledge the proposed candidate.
A mentally ill, morally defective president is elected who damages the nation on a daily basis; just demonstrate pure spineless cowardice.
And that president is the eruption of perhaps the final tumor of the malignancy, the democracy perhaps (but hopefully not) fatally struck.
That's what it is. Let's call it that.
4
Monica,
Hello from Chicago. The question I have is whether the GOP has successfully stacked the courts in Wisconsin and Michigan to ratify the legislature’s moves. If they have, those states could see a reverse Bruce Rauner situation.
1
If Republicans have the votes to pass this legislation that is democracy at work!
3
@Nyalman. Passing a law that would let the GOP bypass the duly elected Democrat attorney general and hire a private GOP lawyer to litigate GOP causes is democracy in action? Surely you jest.
8
Their Christian beliefs made them do it.
3
“Stung by Election Losses, Lame Duck Republicans Exploit Gerrymandered Majorities to Usurp Majority Rule In States Won by Democrats.”
Fixed it.
6
Michigan voters spoke loud and clear!! The Republicans have introduced bills to KILL everything we voted for/against!! Bill 1243, 1022, 1176, 1197, 1238-1240, 1252 and 1254. Look them up folks in Michigan and get ahold of your Legislature and fight for what you voted on!!! Can't wait for 2020 / 2022 to rid Michigan of every single lawmaker involved!!
4
Such cheaters, never content with having more power. They want it ALL, and will subvert the system to get it. They do seem quite intent on destroying a representative democracy. They need to be stopped.
11
Cheaters most always get caught and when they do they will wail about the injustice of it all - just like an entitled child.
3
There are times when it does not matter whether a majority or a minority of people have the commanding ruling voice. If the ruling voice is indecent and immoral, selfish and sadistic....then the ruling few or the many......are totally wrong.
Whether republican or democrat, Christian or atheists, if what we think, say, or do is decent, moral and right...then it comes from God. If what we think, say, or do is indecent, immoral and wrong then it does not come from God. You can only lie to yourself and others, but not to God. This may be why separation of church and state exists. Blessed be those that believe in His name: who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
2
@manoflamancha the very first Amendment of our constitution tells us that there is no one religion that governs this country. It is insulting to insist that when atheists behave decently, it is "from God." That is your belief. I know plenty of atheists who are deeply moral people and plenty of people who claim to be Christians who are not. And your use of "Christian or atheists" as if there were no other option is also insulting to people who are neither Christian nor atheists but just as American and just as moral as anyone else in this country.
2
This is exactly why the Republican party has the well deserved reputation of being the party of absolute corruption. They cannot win fairly, so they must resort to lies, cheating and corruption to get what they want. Anyone who votes for a Republican is agreeing with that philosophy.
9
Per usual the only way the GOP can win is to cheat.This latest maneuver in Wisconsin is deplorable.Yet another swipe at democracy.My grandfather's GOP didn't resemble this group of corrupt clowns or they hid it a lot better
4
Lame duck sessions should be abolished.
2
These Anti-Democracy stunts by Scott Walker is why he was voted out of office by the good people of Wisconsin in the first place.
8
Wisconsin is not the only place where Republicans, simply to stay in power, are taking steps to undermine democracy itself. They have done the same in North Carolina, and their extreme gerrymandering has no other goal than to disenfranchise large numbers of voters. Likewise, Citizens United makes a hash of "one man, one vote."
These moves remind us of Russia or Turkey; they are not worthy of the oldest democracy alive. Instead, they open the floodgates to endless corruption. More than ever, the American democracy rests on the judiciary branch--which for that very reason the same Republicans are now also busy stacking with their own political hacks. This happens at the highest levels of government, as shown by Mitch McConnell's anti-democratic act of taking a Supreme Court seat hostage.
What kind of democracy do they want? A one-party rule controlled by ruthless gerrymandering, Citizens United, and anti-democratic power grabs? And what kind of democracy do we, the people, want? At stake is not the direction of the country into either a conservative or a liberal direction. At stake is democracy itself. What do we do about that?
3
"Republicans, who will retain their legislative majorities under the Democratic governor, have defended the hastily introduced package of bills as a necessary check on executive power."
That clear to even an eight year old blatant lie begs the question: If there was such a necessity to check the "executive power" then why didn't they pass the needed legislation when the uneducated Scott Walker was their governor? For a State where the voter districts have been proven sufficiently to the SCOTUS as being gerrymandered, this is another brick on the metaphoric wall; keeping out the will and the votes of the people. The voters have spoken in electing a democratic Governor and Attorney General. Respect that vote and work for the people of Wisconsin. The choice to try to limit powers of the ELECTED democrats, is to deny democracy. It speaks to the desperation of the GOP. Wisconsinites don't want their tax dollars tied up in a court case as a result of desperate republicans, who refuse to believe they LOST the election.
3
They seek to gut democracy. They don’t care the the voters have rejected them. It’s all about servicing their big donors!
2
Looks like David Frum was right: "If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy."
These outrages in Wisconsin, the ballot thefts in North Carolina, Congressional Republicans shielding Trump, and on and on show the GOP for what it is: a bunch of utterly corrupt and dishonest authoritarians. Trump is merely the most crude and blatant, and maybe not even the worst.
7
... repubs seem to always forget there are american citizens who would appreciate leaders who consider them, remember them, legislate for them. this time it is worse since they have come to fruition with anger and the focus of changing laws and normal behaviors that have been fairly useful over decades.
2
How can the Republicans say they are pro-democracy when at every turn they demonstrate they are so bloody afraid of it?
3
Has anyone ever witnessed an honest election won by GOPers...ever?
Scott Walker and his den of thieves is just the common occurrence of twisted right-wing GOPers.
5
Yes. Every election they have won has been honest. It’s folks like you that seek to delegitimize democratically elected individuals that do the greatest damage to our institutions.
2
This country moves closer to revolution every day.
4
The will of the people… the voters who voted them out of office..is being undermined by The Republicans.. Just as their voter suppression does.. Even my conservative republican Brother , Paul, couldn't vote for his party in 2016.. A first for him. benjia morgenstern
2
These blatant attempts to undo the checks and balances will certainly end up in Court. It is also irrefutable proof that the GOP has no interest in Democracy.
6
When are we going to get real grownups who work to support the will of the people and address ways to make our country work better and benefit it's citizens?
This is NOT just a single party failure, we've seen attempted dirty tricks from both sides.
The publicized SC Cavanaugh hearings showed a decidedly uncooperative and, frankly, unstatesmanlike behavior from the senators in the room. As a citizen that was simply not acceptable.
Why is anyone surprised? Republicans did this in North Carolina after losing the Governor in 2016. The Republicans believe the ends justify the means. They do not believe in following the rules, winning at any cost is all that matter. The GOP is now at war with our democracy.
2
If they just presented ideas that appealed to people, they wouldn’t have to resort to all the gerrymandering and deceit.
4
This is clear ABUSE OF POWER and the Good People of Wisconsin and other "red" states who are doing the same thing must march, demonstrate and bring massive civil suits against every lawmaker who is a part of this abuse of power.
NOW. It's the best holiday gift WE THE PEOPLE can give ourselves and future generation.
4
Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina appear to be following the same script. What role, if any, did the American Legislative Exchange Council play in crafting the Republican strategy which is clearly designed to over rule the will of the voters?
9
Talk about sore losers! If only it stopped at being a sore loser. The current Republican mentality is a surefire recipe for legislative tyranny and government instability. Tit-for tat never made anything except enemies. Is that what you want? Please think (emphasis on "think") long and hard about what you are doing to democracy and the rule of law because without it, we are just another tinpot country.
1
Jeez, Republicans have sure turned into the ultimate sore losers.
3
Desperate people do desperate things. Republicans have the biggest fiasco in US political history on their hands with trump. For the party that wanted per Karl Rove to have a permanent majority they are going down the toilet.
6
Another NYT article today, "In the Age of Trump, Can Scandal Still Sink a Politician?" pointed out that scandals are not really what they used to be. Too many people are either too numb or uninterested to actually care about the ethics of their elected representatives. I am not really surprised, TV, books and movies have been full of stories of corrupt politicians for centuries the news outlets let us know that reality might not be so much different. Nowadays, it seems as if the politicians don't even care about their facade, they know that it is more important to stay tight with the powers in and around the party than to appear honest to the people.
The people have lost the power over the Democracy and it will be very very difficult to get it back.
3
Democrats can not be trusted with power. Democrats aligned with the media and deep state bureaucrats have demonstrated to have acted illegally with reckless abandon against the people's selection to govern over them.
A case in point: the the Mueller investigation.
1
How many felony convictions so far?
7
If they act illegally as you suggest, then challenge them in court. It's called the rule of law.
What did democracy ever do to deserve a death sentence?
2
@F1Driver The GOP Potemkin Village spouts again.
3
Lots of hand-wringing and perhaps rightfully so, but let's not forget how these unscrupulous pols got where they are. The fine folks of Wisconsin voted them in, and not just once, but repeatedly. And when given the choice to dump Walker, they balked. Reap what you sow.
4
As the republicans are so fond of gloating and yelling when they steal elections, or steal ballots, or steal districts by gerrymander, "Get over it!"
They lost despite their criminal conduct to keep power and deny a fair election result. I hope Scott Walker remains unemployed for a very long time so he can mull over his misdeeds.
5
A simple definition of Trumpism:
Those who can, win.
Those who can't, cheat.
3
I have just two questions. First, how can this be legal? Seriously, there are supposed to be checks and balances in America that prevent this kind of abuse. Second, how do Republicans justify this to themselves? Come on, it's one thing to trash talk your political opponents and do everything you can to defeat them on election day, but grabbing power after the people have voted to remove you from power is blatantly corrupt.
If a politician who claimed to represent me pulled that sort of nonsense, I would never vote for them again. I would probably never vote for their party ever again either, unless the rest of their party condemned their actions.
7
The only way to exert any control over the Republican controlled legislature is economic. They do not care what the people of the state want or need. As a Wisconsin resident I called every republican assembly member and senator. It was like spitting in the wind. In 2010 I marched for two months in the middle of winter with tens to a hundred thousand people 3-5 days a week to no avail.
I hate to say this but it is up to individuals and corporations to lead an economic boycott of Wisconsin and other states where one party or the other acts to undermine the democratic will of the people. This is the time to encourage your children to attend the University of Wisconsin, this is the time to tell Wisconsin businesses that you will not buy their products, this is the time to plan a vacation elsewhere.
The Republicans here in Wisconsin are acting like an army in retreat, salting the fields and poisoning the wells.
5
@Jack M, sadly this is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it is an issue of whoever is in power is strongly inclined to abuse their power and completely ignore their own constituents.
Everything you did, calling assembly members and state senators, calling the governor, protesting, etc. we have done the same thing here in Vermont with respect to the then-one party control Democrats and their near unanimous decision to base Lockheed's budget-busting F35 fighter jet at Burlington Airport, a civilian airport smack dab in the most densely populated area of Vermont. Nearly all of the Democrats have continued to insist on destroying the health and home values of thousands and thousands of constituents, because they are all in the pocket of the Chamber of Commerce and the increasingly scandal-laden Vermont Air National Guard. The "not suitable for residential use" zone caused by the F35's basing that will gobble up entire neighborhoods, churches, daycares, elementary schools, etc. is a seemingly convenient and happy thing for Vermont's Democratic Party, the better to force denser rezoning to benefit their real estate developer campaign finance donors, such as Ernie Pomerleau,married to a relative of Senator Patrick Leahy.
It is not clear there is anywhere in America, regardless of political party, where the ruling class cares a whit about the actual voters.
2
Let's see if Pelosi & the democrats with a 12 million plus voter lead will even retake their looses.
1
Republicans are shameless in their power grab...while trying to deny that chance, to be effective and efficient in discharging their duties in office when a democrat is about to occupy that office. Don't you thing this hypocrisy of refusing the same rights they take fro granted when in power, ought to be condemned, and hope a public outcry will write their names in ignominy? The G.O.P. is playing with fire when their aim is to trample on democratic values, and honesty in defeat, and an ounce of honesty.
5
Wouldn't a better headline be "WI Republicans Seek To Subvert Democracy After Midterm Losses"?
5
"Stung by losing the White House, Democrats seek ways to undermine Trump"
Where was that headline? Oh, yes. It does not serve your liberal opinion page narrative.
You have become irrelevant.
1
The Democrats did not seek to change the rules. But Trump has, by seeking to undermine the press, the judiciary, the Justice Department, the FBI - anything that would reveal his crimes. The Republican Party follows suit with gerrymandering, voter suppression, and (in North Carolina) outright fraud.
They and the people such as you know all too well that they are doomed to irrelevancy as their crimes and lies come home to roost. The numbers that oppose you are growing ever stronger - 3m more votes for Clinton in 2016, 12m more votes for Democrats in 2018. 2020 will be even worse.
Hasta la vista, baby.
4
Will the legislature rescind these restrictions when a Republican is elected governor? That is the questions that democrats should ask them.
2
So what the republicans are saying is that democracy matters until it doesn't suit their purpose?
7
Wisconsin, like many states and, frankly, the country are split. There are far right/left extremes and then somewhere there is (hopefully) a sane majority of moderates that will actually do their job vs. worrying about the 2020 election. What is wrong with the NYTimes that they continue to promote this divide. Why not talk about the actual legislation that was signed and what it really means to all of WI. We know the teachers union was corrupt to the core - mandating that the state pay into the health insurance company they dictated, and happened to own. So don't tell me that Dems are pure and wonderful. This is just old fashion union extortion. What's the rest of the legislation about?
1
If the Speaker feels so strongly about limiting executive power as a principled action, then why wait until after the election to act?
There is only one answer.
4
You can't win honestly when all of your ideas only benefit a fraction of the very wealthy, so you have to cheat. Trying to resolve this all peaceful through the election process seems to not be working, what then is the alternative?
4
The Republican party is no longer a legitimate political party. They show no respect for the institutions of our government, they suppress the voting rights of those who might oppose them, and they blatantly ignore the will of citizens who are able to vote.
Republicans have forfeited any right to the privilege of serving in government at any level - federal, state or local. The GOP has discredited itself by showing they are not willing to follow the laws and traditions of representative democracy.
Anyone who still claims to support the Republican party because of other GOP policies shows they themselves do not respect or value the fundamental principles of democracy. Supporting the GOP means that you support taking, holding and expanding power by any means necessary - legitimate or not.
6
Pursuant to the 5th and 14th Amendments, legislation which is not reasonably related to a legitimate state interest, is unlawful. Obviously, it is not a legitimate state interest to weaken the powers of Democratic officials. An honest federal judiciary should overturn all these acts.
2
This isn’t just about Republicans versus Democrats. It’s about Republicans versus democracy, versus America.
6
Can anyone tell me one good idea that has come out of the Republican Party in the past 10 years?
Going back to Republican W Bush, the past 18 years?
The only thing that has come out of GOP is cheating, and more and more clever, outrageous ideas of how to cheat We, the voters, out of our power and out of our votes.
12
This needs to be a wake up call for the citizens of Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and in every state across our country that republicans spit in the faces of the citizens and refuse to abide by the will of the people. Even if you are a republican citizen you should be appalled by the attempts of the state legislature to tie the hands of your governor and squash what the majority of the people wanted. These sort of power grabs should be addressed and prohibited by our nation’s Supreme Court. No state’s executive branch should be allowed to strip powers from the governor as an attempt to keep power, whether they are from any political side of the aisle. The people need to make their voices heard and not back down. I hope the people from any state remembers these acts come the next mid-term elections and vote these corrupt politicians out of office. They stand against the people for their own political power. And most of all it is baffles me that even a republican could stand for the attempt to restrict the people’s rights in a blatant attempt to keep certain groups of the citizens from having their vote counted. Just look at Georgia and Florida. It is extremely likely that republicans who controlled the elections rigged them in their favor. And even if they didn’t they can never erase the appearance of corruption, but for some odd reason most republican voters don’t seem to care how their nominees won, just as long as they won. Democracy is dying and few care.
8
Democrats do not appear to understand how to convince the American people that the values and principles of the Democratic Party are those that benefit them the most. They do not have the strength of conviction, do not show much passion for their values and principles. Is it because they just don't have the wisdom and wit to stimulate and inspire We The People? Reasons to be a Democrat: take the time to read the article at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-a-democrat-anyway_us_59a46d1ae4b0b234aecad14d
1
Governor Jay Inslee of Washington is the only Democrat I've witnessed raise and shake a powerful fist at Trump and the fascist GOP. I hope he runs for President. Things aren't perfect there, but at least he faces the hard issues, and works to achieve solid governance, and the enactment of life-sustaining policies. Washington State: So close, and so far, from the authoritarian Reds of Idaho.
6
Robin Vos is worried that Tony Evers is glib f to advance a liberal agenda'. News Flash, Mr Vos .. that's EXACTLY what we, the voters of WI ELECTED him to do! this is just another shameful chapter for the formerly progressive state of Wisconsin.
11
Republican corruption has run amok. This is what happens when the head of its party, one Donald J. Trump, disrespects all laws and institutions, believes only in getting his own way, and encourages lying, cheating, and law breaking as legitimate strategies.
I had a brief moment where I thought that the GOP, having gotten pretty thoroughly trounced in last month's election, would come to its senses and realize that if it wanted to remain viable, it would have to back away from Trump and Trumpism. Well, I have regained my lucidity; that ain't going to happen.
Republican leadership will try to do anything to retain power. They will fail. They can't fool enough of the people enough of the time.
Trump is a sinking ship, and Republicans are rearranging the deck chairs when they should be getting into life boats. Even rats would know enough to flee.
14
When you have nothing to sell that voters won’t buy ,you steal from them
13
As if we needed it, here is more proof that Republicans have ceased to be a party and are now simply and organized crime entity which would commit grand theft cloaked in a thin veil of dubious legality. Obviously they learned their politics of the elementary school yard, taking the ball and going home if they don't get their way. Every election they lose has their clawmarks all over it as they refuse to accept reality.
It is long past time for Republicans to either remake themselves as an honorable party or recede into being a renegade fringe organization and let a new responsible organization take over their role. This stunt in Wisconsin is at least immoral and un-American if not illegal or only marginally so. These Wisconsin Republicans disgrace the values of our country.
11
We are quickly becoming the poster child for the death of democracy around the world. Talk about ruining our power...
15
This is nothing less than an attempted coup by the Republican Party of Wisconsin, aided and abetted by the National party. It shows just how dedicated the Right is to One Party Rule in this country. The voters of Wisconsin should rise up with righteous wrath and recall the entire Republican membership of the legislature.
10
The situation in Wisconsin is even worse than portrayed here. Republicans retained control of the state legislature only because of the enormity of their previous partisan gerrymandering: in the latest elections Democrats received well over 50% of the popular vote for state legislators, but elected only some 35% of the legislative membership. So this is not a case of legislative branch protecting its prerogatives against the executive branch. It is a case of a rejected political minority illegitimately trying to block the majority from exercising the functions the popular vote bestows on the majority party.
Trump is not the only Republican who is anti-democratic and authoritarian to the core. He didn't take over the Republican party and make it a reflection of his own autocratic impulses. He merely brought attention to the fact that Republicans are hostile to the democratic principles of our constitutional system and will destroy it in order to maintain
power even in the face of electoral defeat.
Republican legislators in Wisconsin are betraying the oaths they have taken to Wisconsin's democratic constitution.
18
@Dr. O. Ralph Raymond
For a long time now, Republicans have operated under the idea that no Democrat has any legitimate right to be in office, let alone share in governance. Despite Democrats getting the majority (in many cases, the VAST majority) of votes, Republicans keep legislative seats because of their blatant, and frankly admitted, gerrymandering.
Anyone with two connecting neurons can immediately see that WI Republicans were not at all concerned about what they identify as "executive overreach" when it was the hugely unqualified Scott Walker who was governor.
3
Nothing new here. The North Carolina GOP legislature did the same thing when they lost the governors seat in ‘16.
Republicans continue to deny the voters and will until Democrats can figure out how to play the game as well.
5
An end to gerrymandering by the institution of independent citizen panels to determine election districts needs to be a central plank in the coming Democratic Party platform.
It will have to be done on a state by state struggle. Each and every ballot initiative supporting this deserves national support.
If the media can publicize these struggles it will help get people to the polls and to open their wallets.
6
What's in a name? A lot. I don't understand why people keep referring to Republicans as the GOP. The acronym has a cleansing effect in my view.
The is nothing "Grand" about what this group of people are doing but that is the word that springs to mind when the acronym is is used.
Call them what they are.
5
“We want to ensure that the new administration doesn’t try to work around the Legislature,” Mr. Vos said, ...."
Tell that to Trump. He owns the Republican Senate, and until this January, the House. They bent to his wishes no matter what. The Supreme Leader (only I can do this), with his toadies. Now they are busy deciding how to corral and destroy any actions by the new Democratic House. They are all about "working around the Legislature." The legislature and executive branch are designed to work together to serve the people, reined in by the courts. The Republicans think this is the wrong way around, they are there to take advantage of the people for the oligarchs. See the recent tax act, so far the only Republican achievement. And they believe the law doesn't apply to them, only to the Democrats and the poor. See the raised taxes in blue states. Never, never vote Republican.
7
Many years ago we had the bosses of Tammany Hall calling the shots, engaging into patronage and stalwart leaders of corruption. The members were, well, mostly Democrats.
Fast forward to today where we now have Tammany Hall GOP style with their own set of rules for patronage, election corruption, power grabs. And this gaggle of corrupt individuals believe they are the true leaders of this country, a country that should be ruled by one party, one group of corrupt individuals.
Someone will counter that Democrats are not quite saintly in their actions. And I will concede that point. Yet, here in this state of "Life Elevated" the GOP dominated legislature, just yesterday, neutered a voter-driven initiative, a proposition on the ballot that was passed by the plebiscite, they, the GOP, did not agree with.
That is what the GOP stands for-power is only unto them and they, the new Tammany Hall members, are loathe to let any power be received or passed to the people.
10
ultimately this is just a massive indicator, or even admission, that the gop is failing stupendously, over the long term they’re doomed, in an electoral sense
4
I'm glad to see a national news organization finally paying attention to this travesty, but your headline definitely soft-pedals the nastiness of the Republicans who engage in these kinds of maneuvers. Instead of "neutralize," might I suggest some better words? Try vandalize, wreck, damage, destroy, obstruct, disrupt, spoil, ruin, undermine, threaten, or subvert. It's not being partisan to call out when a major political party has settled on thwarting the will of the voters as its major strategy. Because that's what they have apparently decided to do across the country.
8
I grow tired of reading, nearly daily, of what cheats the GOP has become. This is an incredibly, if not illegal or unconstitutional, at least a unethical power grab, like a child changing the rules after they’ve lost. To argue that “both parties do it” is a gross misstatement.
15
A patently false equivalence
3
Republicans are the new rats - gnawing at the fabric of democracy. Their political lives - not their biological lives -need to be exterminated.
10
Yet the feckless Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly and the Michigan House continue to vote for Speakers who work against them. I don't get it. Another instance of doing the same thing over again but expecting different results.
Democrats are doing the same thing in New Jersey right now. Politics is a dirty business.
4
@Mkm
It seems to me that equating utterly rampant GOP antidemocratic sleaze and occasional similar behaviour by the Dems is a false equivalence, on par with saying cancer and the common cold are both a real drag.
4
Ricky, I think the point is that our politicians are more consumed with partisanship than cooperation and it's both parties - not just Democrats and not just Republicans.
I blame Citizens United for amplifying this behavior.
1
They are not just trying to “neutralize Democrats” they are attempting to neutralize democracy. This is nothing but an autocratic coup by a legislature that lacks a democratic mandate. It should be reported as such.
11
What? A legislature ‘lacking a democratic mandate?’ The legislature was elected democratically. It’s a ‘legislature!’ By definition, a mandate! They can propose and vote on anything they want to if within the law, and democrats can make their case. The constant Democrat tactic of suing suing and more suing to evade the legislature and get in front of a favorable Democrat judge is a tactic equally as corrosive of ‘democracy.’
1
Miss KK, I doubt very seriously that the legislature you speak of was elected for eternal rule. No, the legislature of any body in the U.S. is NOT given full control. The courts ARE there as a check. To suggest that deferring to the judiciary is anti-democratic is NUTS.
I’m constantly amazed at just how much Republicans really don’t like America. You don’t like our system. You don’t really actually like the constitution. And you sure as heck don’t care for the electorate.
3
@Kelly Kk
You conveniently don't mention the blatant gerrymandering by Republican state legislatures when you talk about said legislators being "democratically elected" in these states. The same states where Republicans operate as if no Democrat has any legitimate right to even be IN the legislature, no matter democratically elected in such gerrymandered states. Where Democrats get the vast majority of votes, but not the seats that go along with that.
2
What can be done by Republicans can be done to Republicans. Only fools think they will be in power forever.
12
When you can't win fair and square, just cheat! It's the Republican Way!
15
@Sam Rosenberg I think it was Mark Twain said: "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time and that's sufficient."
Lie, steal, cheat and spin. The current crop of Republicans political strategy. Perfect bunch of little Trumps.
12
Exactly no wonder why the king of thieves
heads the party of thieves
A natural fit
Word to the wise
In ny state we VOTED OUT the worst of them and took back the legislature
Go Alessandra Biaggi!
3
Republicans hate:
Gay Americans
Black Americans
Hispanic Americans
Women
Children
Immigrants
Gay Americans
Transgendered Americans
Muslims
Rule of Law
Decency
Truth
Morality
Individual Freedoms
And most of all Democracy
They never reflect on why they cannot win elections, just try to cheat so they can govern without the consent of the governed. The exact opposite of our core American Ideals.
12
The GOP is a threat to democracy. If they can’t steal an election by voter suppression and gerrymandering, they’ll engage in dirty pool to strip Democrats of power. They literally will stop at nothing to perpetuate minority rule.
11
Thank you Wisconsin Republicans for serving your fellow citizens nationwide a robust helping of Exhibit A demonstrating that your party deserves to go the way of the Ford Edsel or dodo bird.
15
Republicans are only crucifying themselves by taking such actions. Clearly this situation is going to end up in Court at taxpayer expense just as in North Carolina.
Voters are already antagonistic against Republicans as seen in the Midterms. Actions like these simply add fuel to the fire when 2020 comes along.
8
If the Republicans, values are so great for America why is it they can only win with gerrymandering, voter suppression, and deception?
10
Sure, Wisconsin Republicans are making a blatant power grab. However, the means being used by the Republicans will backfire on them in the future whenever the tables are turned and a Republican governor faces a Democrat legislature.
However, as an anti-partisan, I welcome this move because it serves the people and democracy better than the current arrangement does. In fact, it is just this kind of change that we need a the federal level to restrain the enormous unilateral and nearly arbitrary power which the president has acquired over the past 7 decades. When the president has been a Democrat, partisan Democrats have welcomed and embraced the trend toward an all-powerful president who can act without Congress. But now with Trump in office, those same partisan Democrats see the terrible danger that such unilateral power presents to the nation.
1
I don’t see how in the long term this isn’t deemed illegal by the courts.
1) If the voters elected someone to do a particular job, changing the job after the vote seems unconstitutional. (But IS it? Let’s hope..)
2) Isn’t this exactly what Putin did when he bounced back and forth between President and Prime Minister?
-
Just keep changing the rules while you play the game. Very Republican but totally anti-American.
6
@Just Julien This is why the GOP are only concerned with packing the courts so they can make whatever they want legal. It's gross!!!
"...one that would allow Republican leaders in the Legislature to hire their own lawyers to replace the Democratic attorney general on certain lawsuits, including on issues such as voter identification and legislative redistricting."
This is not democracy in action, this is totalitarianism. The voters have spoken, and these elected public servants are subverting the democratic process in a lame duck session. This is what corrupts our system, people with power who forget their true purpose and responsibility. It is a dangerous trend and every US citizen should condemn it.
3
This is a short-term win, but not a very good long-term strategy.
1
This happened in North Carolina too. Have the Republicans no shame!
11
No; they do not.
They are a minority party that’s shrinking. The only way they can maintain power is fraud, rigging, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and LYING.
All for the sake of power and money. Shame, dignity? Nah.
6
Why is the NYT normalizing this outrageous behavior with such benign positioning of these GOP efforts? 'Neutralizing' - really?Call it out directly; don't be scared to state the truth.
21
"If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'." The Republican mantra.
14
The Republican Party, for the sake of our country’s future, needs to go way of the long extinct Whig Party and goe out of existence!
11
Newsflash. Other than sell media subscriptions and allow newly elected Democrats to grandstand for their base, house investigations of Trump will go nowhere. Everything will be a legal battle that ends up in Trumps Supreme Court. The Republicans always rule, even when the Democrats are in power. The two party system, died with Democracy, thirty years ago.
So while a real Republican lies in State in the nation's capital and the country mourns the loss of a decent and honorable man, we have the corrupt filth of Scott Walker again attempting to manipulate election results in Wisconsin. Has anyone taken a look at education, unions, healthcare or infrastructure in Wisconsin? Apparently the voters did and now the new criminal republican party elites in the State want to maintain their grip on power by ignoring democratic norms. It happens here in Florida as well. The current republican party is a cancer on all things decent and has to be removed. The world looks on in horror and Lady Liberty cries out for justice.
16
I have spent countless hours driving through Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. The signs on the side of the road on these farms were always hateful of minorities and Obama, praising the likes of Walker and his Ilk, spoon feeding them subsidies while their signs blasted programs like SNAP and CHIP as welfare or communism. There is a huge imbalance of power in these rural areas. It needs to change.
21
Nothing unusual here - pick any place on the planet and any time known to have humans and you get the same old thing: Some are willing to fight and others aren't. The fighters always win in the end because on Planet Earth "Might Makes Right".
The efforts of the current GOP lead mainly in one direction, the dissolution of democracy. From that perspective it's time to see Donald J. Trump in a different light. He might be a villain in his own right, but he is also a figleaf (a huge one, of course) for those tendencies. They began to gain strength with the Tea party, Newt Gingrich, moral majorities and so on. Ultimately they are a perfect fit for the thing George Orwell named doublethink. You say democracy or will of the people, but it's only about your own power and the submission of different minded people. So sad.
13
Republicans are rather open about their disdain for democracy. They often say out loud, “this is not a democracy; we are a republic.”
And I get it - the founding fathers DID NOT think every human being should be a part of the electorate. So a hardcore conservative has no problem with suppressing the ‘will of the people.’ It’s in their DNA as a party.
3
The GOP care not for our democratic republic. They care only for solidifying their, ill-gotten, entrenched power. When Democrats win, they simply change the rules and nullify the results. That isn't even decent sportsmanship, let alone fair and democratic leadership. After a midterm route, they see the American people have gotten wise to their shenanigans and are now terrified they might lose power, so they are trying to cripple our democracy to ensure their victory. On the off chance their underhanded cheating produces a tepid victory, they loudly proclaim it as proof the American people have given them the mandate to govern. Don't believe it. The GOP is stealing our democracy in the dead of night and throwing our republic under a bus. Every day they remain in power, they do profound damage to our country, deliberately trample our freedoms, and push us closer to tyranny.
10
This is similar to the Democrats fleeing Wisconsin and hiding across state lines to stall the legislative process. Looks like everything is normal in that state!
1
@Rowdy
Not even remotely, but nice try.
2
There should be some kind of rule (that can't be somehow ignored or broken, as so many of the things that we previously thought were standard rules) that says that a lame duck session cannot enact any laws or proclamations or any such shenanigans that aren't an extreme emergency, (which would have to be clearly defined). Probably need to make the lame duck period much shorter also. I'm so sick of this stuff!
3
As much as I dislike tactics like these, republicans are far more aggressive in their struggle of political influence, than are democrats. They are totally in their right to do so if they can get away with it.
This is, after all, a competition. I despise McConnell and hope the courts in states stop what isn't legal. Democrats need imitate republican passion. If they don't ...how can they not...they fight for us.
1
Scott Walker's brazen attempts to limit the powers of the Governor before he is run out of town on a rail should be what the RNC and other Republicans care about. Alas, they do not.
What does this tell independent voters? That a vote for a Republican is a vote for no rules barred corruption at every level.
If this persists, I'll join the millions of Americans who will never vote for a Republican again.
256
@Sarah By all means, Sarah, please join us...there has never been a more compelling reason to so!
29
@Sarah..what are you waiting for especially since you are a woman!
8
@Sarah, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and the failed attempt to gerrymander Pennsylvania all are evidence of the Republican Party's disdain for free elections and American values.
8
I had the idea democracy no longer worked for Republicans; their actions in North Carolina and now in Wisconsin and Michigan convince me even more. To win, Republicans must gerrymander districts, restrict voting, and make sure the will of the people is oppressed.
In a democracy, losers don’t burn the house down on their way out the door. Those who have no respect for the democratic process do. Those who do not accept election results do. Those who lust for power do. Those who reject democratic and American values do.
268
@Kathy White Bingo. And they have been doing this all while pretending they are the most patriotic and morally conservative.
12
@Ralph and we remember Dr. Johnson's old shibboleth which I find a propos here: "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels."
4
The Republicans not only lost, but at their own insistence destroy what’s left of the party. Voted out, they continue to hack away at democracy. Voted out, they disgrace our system of government. Adults they are not. Childish tantrums are manifested with their loss.
9
Republicans have been lying ,cheating and stealing for years. They are the party of dirty tricks and the party that gave us Nixon and Trump. They are the party of and for the rich and privileged. They are not for the people , of the people or by the people. They are for the enrichment of themselves and it is now and has been for some time party B4 country. A vote for a republican is a vote for suppression unless of course your rich.
12
We're not that stung. We have the Senate. And the President.
1
You can keep your "President" in all his lying, embezzling and treasonous glory. The nation will do much better after Pence and Trump are convicted and the next person in the line of succession puts down her Speaker's gavel and assumes the top job.
9
@Trilby Good for you, Russian. Gloat while you can: we're coming after those stolen goods, too.
8
@Trilby
Yes you do. For now. But isn't it a pity that you have absolutely no moral authority to go along with the power you are still clinging onto?
4
From a European perspective it is almost unbelievable how poorly developed democracy is in the US.
Gerrymandering, a government which has not won the popular vote, voter suppression are all impossible in Germany and most of EU members.
To change the powers of a government instution a change of the constitution would be necessary which can only be achieved with a two-thirds majority.
191
Shining City on a Hill!
5
The GOP care not for the American people or our Democratic Republic. They care only about solidifying their ill gotten, entrenched power. When Democrats win, they simply change the rules and nullify the results. How can that be considered democracy? On the off chance their cheating produces a tepid victory, they loudly proclaim it as proof they have been given a mandate to rule by the American people. Don’t believe it. They are stealing our democracy in the dead of night, and throwing our republic under a bus. Every day they remain in power, the GOP do profound damage to our country, deliberately trample our freedoms, and push us closer to tyranny.
10
"ferocious partisan split" ? is disgusting to even call it that. This is a republican attempt to circumvent democracy.
25
It's a mystery why people are running away from the Republican party. If there was only some clue.
12
Cheat to win. Cheat when they don’t win.
It’s the only way today’s GOP knows how to hold onto power.
23
George Washington, who spent 12 years in tent to overcome the British army, then, upon victory...then...
handed over all power to the fledgling US legislature in an open, blatant, statement that pushed Democracy into place in the USA. He could have pounded his chest, puffed out his lips, and, been King. He would have faced no opposition. But, he did not.
For those that are writing that what Republicans are doing is "normal" and "everyone" does it; that is a false message promulgated either by the ignorant or the malicious.
For most of the history of the US both parties respected Democracy and, even those that managed only a fourth grade education, understood history enough to know that Democracy was needed and important.
17
Folks, it's simple: Republicans have no interest in governance or the constitution; they just want to rule, pure and simple. The GOP in North Carolina has already pulled the same stunt.
12
I guess all those Republicans running around talking about voter fraud and rigged systems know what they are talking about. The only thing they left out is that they are ones doing it.
14
The GOP's latest evil strategy will backfire in 2020, as disgusted voters become even more energized to vote them out. Republicans in Congress are drowning in their own desperation, clinging to a sense of power that is quickly slipping from their grasp. We will watch them go down, and then we'll begin to rebuild our country.
4
“Democrats reacted with fury”? No! Citizens of Wisconsin reacted with fury. And rightfully so.
20
Of course they will.
So, in 2020, we have to hit Republicans harder.
And each time we hit them, we will say "Stay down!" But they won't stay down.
So, in 2022, we will have to hit Republicans even harder.
And we will say "Stay down!" But they still won't stay down.
So, in 2024, we will have to hit Republicans harder still.
And so on. Until the only people they are in a position to mess with are other Republicans.
5
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people".
Isn't it ironic that these famous words were spoken by the Republican Abram Lincoln?
But the ideal of government of the people, by the people, for the people, is indeed perishing.
7
It's only a democracy if we win.
7
It seems the slow-motion Republican coup d'état, decades in the making, has shifted into high gear everywhere. When government becomes so obviously of service only to the wealthy and powerful, bad things happen.
In France, the vests are yellow. Perhaps ours will be blue.
4
North Carolina didn't work. Wisconsin should get a rebuke from the court
1
Really? Wisconsin wants to be the new Mississippi.
2
This sort of behavior is breathtaking in it's bad faith. Perhaps there should be agreement that only uncontroversial and /or bipartisan legislation should ever be passed in lame duck periods both federal and state. Maybe one day there will be enough of the right people in the right place at the right time to agree to legislate on this but it does seem a long way off.
3
If we learn nothing else from what Republican legislators in Wisconsin are attempting to do, we learn that Republicans do not believe in representative government, do not believe in the enfranchisement of the people, the right of the people to choose their government.
Republicans have modeled their tenets of government on banana republics.
19
The party of “taking responsibility” somehow never wants to take responsibility. Instead, they look for loopholes and game the system. No wonder why they see the worst in people. It is their own reflection.
15
Sorry, but too late. Democrats have never cared about state legislatures. They usually only care to vote during Presidential elections, and have let Republicans outsmart them at the state level for more than 40 years. I'm guessing it's gonna take that long for the Dems to get their act together in order to take over more state legislatures. Forget about the red states, they're gone forever unless northerners wanna move to Alabama. :D
Bottom line: There ain't a danged thing that Democrats can do about it.
1
This article puts the notion of "false balance" on full display. The Republican-controlled legislature here in Wisconsin is pushing a power grab at basic odds with democracy. It is not merely Democrats and liberal groups that decry their position to curtail a legitimately-elected governor's power but also any politically aware observer. The partisan takeaway, I admit, is what most people care about, but it does diminish the egregious disregard for majoritarianism we're witnessing. Separation of powers cannot - and should not - vacillate between strong and weak based on the partisan makeup of office. The people of Wisconsin elected a Democratic governor for better or worse. The office - not this guy Tony Evers - must be respected.
1
Until there are serious consequences for the Republicans continued antidemocratic maneuvers they will continue to push the envelop further and further. Republicans nationwide saw that Mitch McConnell suffered no personal or legal consequences when he unconstitutionally sat on President Obama's nomination Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for a year. They took that as a sign of complacency and weakness. It's time for people to make it clear to such Republicans that this behavior stops now.
10
Here in France this American expatriate observes Macron, a Trump clone, give tax breaks to the wealthy and reveal himself to be even more conservative than Trump.
The rioting will escalate if Macron doesn’t back down. This is an old story in France since workers have no place at the table as they do in Germany.
Wages in France are low and should be increased from the profits made by the elites. Lower profits and higher wages or there will be more riots.
Trump still has his base that supports him while he doesn’t do anything to help them. Macron has no base for support but does have a majority in the Assembly to ram through his plan.
All of this is a recipe for disaster with different time frames to pull the triggers. Meanwhile, Brexit is hovering on the sidelines with the UK about to implode.
For this dug in expatriate all I see is bad government from a broad horizon. My village neighbors are mostly retired middle income Europeans who are waiting out their lives here in Provence!
3
It's time for a constitutional amendment by voter referendum to take the power of redistricting out of the hands of the legislature. Only then will the republicans lose their permanent majorities, and bills like this may then be prevented. At some point soon it will be too late, if they can control all the courts there is no stopping them unless the justices come down with a case of do-gooderism, which is unlikely for those justices hand picked by the right.
8
David Frum, who should know, nailed it: "If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." Beware.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/frum-trumpocracy/550685/
30
Thanks for the link. Very good article. I'm not usually a fan of David Frum but this one is good. Excellent points made.
6
@AlexanderTheGoodEnough
And that's exactly what has happened. Conservatives have completely rejected democracy and are seeking dictatorship.
4
I like how you quoted the Atlantic. very good news source.
3
This is a Crime - pure and simple!
Party Operatives and Senior Leadership trying to supersede and circumvent the results of an election!
People should be jailed for this...
14
This may not be the moment that this country ceases to be a genuinely representative government, but make no mistake: we are heading in that direction.
All it takes to lose a truly representative government is for the party in power not to concede and allow a peaceful transfer of power, and the next thing you know, you're a dictatorship.
The Republicans have not quite done this yet, but they are looking for every conceivable way to limit ANY AND ALL Democrats gaining power these days, just like when they accused Obama of not being willing to work with them because he wouldn't assent to completely changing his governing philosophy into extreme conservativism.
Basically, anything short of meeting their every demand was being an "obstructionist," because they had created a philosophy where anything view that was not extremely rightwing was a threat to America, that's what they had promised their supporters they would do, so there was nothing for them TO do but demand that Obama move to the right of Ronald Reagan, or the government wouldn't be permitted to function.
This is the new political conservatism: All other views are un-American and cannot be contemplated, much less compromised with.
And why? Well, because they endanger America!
And round and round the circular argument goes.
20
So Walker’s going to burn it all down because he and the GOP lost. I’m not at all surprised. Pathetic, isnt it?
28
Generally speaking it is fair to say the right wing parties of generally wealthy people in the world regard themselves as ''born to rule''.
Has always been thus.
In your US situation this is coming to a head and the people in your current right wing party want to keep power at all costs.
There is no way they will give it up without fighting desperately dirty.
It doesn't help that your so-called Christians are anything but that and are leading the charge for these power obsessed ''new'' republicans. I don't know what to say about the non= wealthy millions who are backing people who will leave them in the gutter. What is there to say?
You have a dreadful situation going on and it would be great if you could rejoin the good side of the global community.
I can't see it happening though.
9
Can anyone explain exactly why you have this overhang lame duck thing going on anyway?
In a real democracy (which yours is clearly not..sorry)..legislative houses are put into recess prior to general elections. Candidates then go on the road campaigning.
Government functions still happen due to govt departments.
The election happens. The winners gather within a couple of weeks and form new govt and arrangements between parties (in the case of NZ, sharing power) . The non- winners most certainly cannot start legislating again.
Sorry but that is ludicrous. It really is banana republic stuff and a recipe for this current type of corruption.
Get a grip America. Fix yourselves. If your constitution is broken, fix it.
If you can't fix it, you are seriously wrecked and your country is doomed.
9
@Jartin
Because when the United States was formed, the Westminster Parliament (which operates on those principles) was seen as America's oppressors. As such there was an ill-conceived decision to make the US Congress function in a different manner. Sadly, that "different manner" turned out to be a worse one. And state legislatures in the US almost always have been created by copying the structure of the US Congress.
1
This headline framing is annoying. “Struck Back?” Against whom? The voters? Tell what is really happening: “Dissatisfied with the will of the voters, republicans attempt to preserve power by unorthodox means”
16
How is this your headline? You have sanitized tactics that are undermining our democracy. 'Seek to neutralize?' How about across at least three states, Republicans abuse power to deny the officials that voters elected the chance to represent their will.
33
Yeah, if you can't win on merit then cheat. It's the Republican way.
20
by hook or by crook.
the GOP hypocrites don't care about democracy or corroborating with those they disagree with to form a more perfect Union.
nope, they just want to have EVERYTHING their way or no way.
children
13
I too am beyond tired of Republicans subverting the will of the voters so that they can continue enriching themselves and their wealthy secret donors. Vote suppression, unprecedented degrees of gerrymandering, ad campaigns of lies meant to frighten and divide, refusing to give President Obama's moderate judicial nominees even a hearing, and now this--supported at every turn by lies about what they're really concerned about.
Ever since Tricky Dick, this party has become increasingly fixated on above all perpetuating its own power and its funders' grip on our economy and distribution of wealth.
We're thankful for and admiring of the exceptions, of course. GHW Bush's decision to raise taxes, despite his earlier guarantee that he wouldn't, was a courageously honest moment. As was John McCain's gentle rebuke of a supporter who complained that "Obama" is a dangerous Muslim, and McCain's more recent insistence that the Senate was subverting an essential democratic process by moving to abolish the ACA without any discussion or debate. (Chant: "We knew John McCain, Senator McConnell, and you're no John McCain.") The Republicans (almost all of them men) running state legislatures and the U.S. Senate, from McConnell on down, are dishonest to the core, and anything but the patriots--or the "conservatives"--that they pretend to be.
It is absolutely dumbfounding how any self-respecting, patriotic American with a sense of history can support these bums.
23
It appears that Republicans here in Michigan are considering similar moves by the Republican-majority legislature. I hope the newly passed ballot initiative to put redistricting in the hands of a more nonpartisan committee, a proposal which received broad support and took direct aim at eliminating the abusive gerrymandering here, will give them pause. Else, they may pay the price of helping to strengthen the Democratic party's reach more broadly across the State and its legislature.
A lot of Michiganders are fed up with poltical "dirty tricks".
7
Power grab? The biggest power grab in America today is the Mueller investigation. Claiming you really won an election because the other side cheated in some vague and un-provable way, is the stuff coups are made of. It's not something taking place in a legislature, which is what has been going on in Wisconsin. That is quite normal, as opposed the Police State tactics of the Mueller "investigation", where the "witnesses" are arrested and are tortured until they achieve "rat-dom". Is there any witness who hasn't been charged with a crime? How normal is that?
2
@Peter Zenger WoW.....the kool aid is strong in you. An investigation is just that an investigation. The charges and evidence will follow that is how an investigation works. If crimes were committed then those crimes will be prosecuted. The orange one has much to hide and seems afraid of what will come and that should have everyone be concerned. You obviously don't have a clue as to how a plea deal works and the purpose of flipping a witness to come clean. Only criminal elements call it rat-dom and people not knowledgeable about criminal cases and what plea deals are about would think they are not normal. Many a criminal have been taken down by other criminals being given plea deals.
16
@Peter Zenger
No Peter, using lame duck sessions to pass laws stripping the incoming governor of their legal power is the stuff coups are made of.
And these aren't merely "witnesses" that Mueller is charging with crimes. They're Trump's accomplices. But for you and the rest of the Cult of Trump, I suppose you think the POTUS is above the law. At least so long as it's Trump.
7
@Margaret W.
You have assumed a great deal about me. I would seem likely, that you pre-judged the motivation behind my comment - i.e. you were prejudiced.
If you were to broaden your outlook, you would realize that the approach to justice that you support so strongly, is the reason that we constantly hear about people being released after thirty years for a crime they did not commit.
Do you support Guantanamo? Given the gleeful attitude you have towards Mueller, you should.
I certainly hope that you never find yourself subject to a Mueller style investigation - nobody should ever be.
And one question: what do you think we would find, if Hillary Clinton was subjected to that type of investigation? She wasn't, because Comey decided to give her a pass, and then pile it on her political enemy. How just is that?
I didn't vote for Trump (I voted for the Green Party Candidate), but I'm smart enough to understand that if he were to be impeached, Pence - who is far more dangerous - would be our President.
The whole Mueller investigation has no purpose other than supporting the fantastic lie that Hillary is capable of beating Trump in 2020, because she "really won" in 2016. This is exactly as smart, as saying, that Obama was born in Malaysia.
And finally, I hope the Democratic Party comes up with a decent candidate in 2020, that I can vote for, unlike last time.
Perhaps now, you will understand the motivation behind my comment.
1
As a Boomer Liberal / Progressive Democrat - I would NEVER consider anything like this, and I would vote against any Democrat who espoused this kind of action. It is despicable. And it it the kind of thing that I would, at this point, support not-so-pacifist revolution in the streets - if it Republicans do this on a much wider scale.
9
The profit maximizes who own and control the GOP, Inc. consider voting rights as nothing more than a quaint little figment left over from a bygone era. We're now back in the second coming of the gilded age where trickle up socialism has become the law of the land. The GOP, Inc.'s passage of the Welfare for Billionaires Tax Reform Act of 2017 revealed who is buttering their bread and told everyone else that we should all be so thankful that we have the privilege of living in a Banana Republican country where 99.9% of the wealth and income are received or held by the top 0.1%.
7
There is a significant number of people in the United States that don’t believe in democracy and they rule us. Truthfully if you know the history of the United States you will see that we never really did. The constitution is designed in such a way that it protects the minority at the expense of the majority. The only way we can get a democracy is to have a revolution and change the constitution. We are brainwashed from our youth to believe that we live in a democracy and so we believe that but it’s just not true. The senate is a prime example of that, the purpose of the senate is to undermine democracy and it has been very effective.
9
@Timothy Phillips
Indeed. Since I have taken such a keen interest in your politics in recent years I have to say I completely agree. Your democracy is anything but a true democracy. It is completely flawed in so many ways. I'm astonished people have put up with it for so long.
As it is..without changes, you will become a Russia. There is no doubt about it.
4
Jeez. These people are relentless. They act like they’re high on speed or something. Maybe they need to be drug tested.
10
More Republican criminality. Will voters never learn?
13
Impeach every last Republican. Now.
15
It will take more than impeachment, banishment from the U.S. is the only answer. They won't respect the will of the people so they must be forced to leave.
3
@VR, their party needs to crash and burn for a good three generations or more. And it's looking like Trump will take the GOP down with him if they continue to be corrupt slime.
4
"...Republican lawmakers..were stung by one of the major defeats in the recent midterm elections...This week, they struck back with a bold plan to slash the power of the new governor even before he takes the oath of office..." [op cit]
--
Hey, wait!
What about, "We the People,” that is, the *registered voters*, in each of our sovereign states?
--
Isn’t it the case, that once the polls close, that it's you and I who have declared, how *we* want things to go?
—
Beware my friends, of surreptitious little swarms of men, with their bloated egos and grandiose ideas—
“…Loathsome pests! Who burrow beneath the underpinnings of the State, and then begin to multiply…!” [my caption]
—
“He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” [Matthew 10:1]
***
Be careful, where you place your trust.
8
Good ole ballot harvesting!
3
From the wonderful people who brought you Joseph P. McCarthy.
8
I live a half block from the Capitol building in Madison. Tony Evers is my neighbor of mine. When he was elected I was elated. I regularly walk through the Capitol building and now that Tony has been elected, it feels like a place for democracy again. He is supremely intelligent, always accessible, and profoundly decent. In other words, he is not Scott Walker. Let the Republican rats (whom I regularly see scurrying around corners in the Capitol building in order to hide from the public) do what they will. They are pathetic and small, and pathetic and small people ultimately do not prevail, ever. To borrow from Shakespeare:
"[A Republican Wisconsin legislator] is but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his[/her] hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: [his/her policy agenda] is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."
This, too, shall pass.
12
Is Walker and his party going to rip-out all the copper plumbing and steal the mansion furniture, too? Vulgar, classless group.
27
This is exactly what happened in North Carolina.
Republicans are the sorest losers imaginable.
23
Dave T.@ I thought Hillary Clinton was a Democrat?
1
They converted NC to a banana republic.
3
@Karen
What are you talking about?
In cases where the Republicans or Democrats have tried to or been successful in changing the popular vote, they are acting fascistic.
3
Remember Mr. Ferdinand Marcos? President, then strongman of the Philippines. Eventually, he had to call an election.
His buddies got on the job. "Don't think," declared one Marcos minion, "that elections in the Philippines are like elections in America."
The election was held. Workers tallying the votes and posting them began noticing an anomaly.
The votes they were turning in--
--and the votes that were posted--
--bore no resemblance to each other.
The election was being stolen. Under their noses. They complained. Stuff happened. Mr. Marcos (eventually) resigned and left the country.
Sorry for the long excursus, New York Times.
IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN. RIGHT HERE. IN THE USA.
What's going on in Wisconsin. (And elsewhere.) Is scandalous. Infamous. A blot on American democracy.
I would gather the good citizens of Wisconsin are well aware: their vote, their choice, their electoral will--
--are being stolen away under their noses.
For what's-his-name to pronounce pious platitudes about "the executive branch" usurping power, nullifying (as it were) the powers of the legislative branch--
--PURE HYPOCRISY!
I would gather (in semi-private) this precious crew of Republicans have actually JOKED about the gubernatorial powers they were stripping away. Like branches of a tree.
Leaving (I suppose) a bare and leafless stump--
--that was once a governor.
They've got to be stopped.
IN THEIR TRACKS.
NOW.
7
Do you have someone close to you who is a Republican? I’ll bet that person is all about POWER. A Democrat close to you? All about EMPATHY. In memory of our deceased prez, who I disliked, but in today’s climate I would embrace — we need a kinder, gentler nation. Don’t count on the gerrymandering, power-grabbing, morality-devoid Republican Party!
12
Sounds like Walker & Company are vindictive, sore losers.
8
“If you don’t cheat, you’re not trying.”
Repugnant. I used to vote the candidate. Now I reject any GOP just by affiliation. Nobody’s perfect, but the GOP goes above and beyond in flouting the rules of convention (and law). Jail ‘em.
11
“Stung by midterm losses, Republicans...”
Uh, er, Republicans lost the House. But Democrats lost the Senate. In fact, it was the first midterm election since Kennedy in the early 1960s where an incumbent President - Trump - not only held control of the Senate but GAINED seats. This is a strangely ignored fact by the liberal media. This severely limits any power Democrats may have in the House.
2
@XLER
And what does that have to do with the topic of the article? (ie theft of voter's will in Wisconsin)
9
@XLER The purse strings were lost and the Senate cannot make fiscal changes without house approval. You seem to think that gaining a couple of Senate seats will maintain full power of a particular party, it won't. The Senate and House each have their own set of powers so what's your point? The Senate seats won were by such slim margins and speaks volumes of how shaky their continued capacity to hold those seats in the future will be. On a good note the GOP also lost control of a number of state houses which will put a balance or check in place for those states like the new congressional house will be a check and balance on
this current administration.
3
@XLER
You can't "lose" what you don't have. So no, Democrats did not lose the Senate. And it's abundantly clear that rigged elections in Florida and Georgia are what made it possible for Republicans to keep control of the Senate.
5
The Republicans are acting as if they are in a death spiral. This will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
5
Between gerrymandering and voter suppression, the only recourse is to take it to the courts. The GOP has been relentlessly gerrymandering, redistricting, and jury rigging the electoral system since the 2010 census. History takes time, and hopefully the judicial process in Wisconsin will sort this all out and decide where the power lies. Meanwhile the Joe Public gets shafted.
The way the forces of reactionary politics and voter suppression continue to devalue and defraud the will of the people, the idea that your vote actually makes a difference...this article makes a mockery out of that notion. SAD.
5
@Chip Lovitt
The problem is that Republicans have also been flooding the courts with as many corrupt partisan judges as they can find.
5
The Republicans reflexive reaction is - let's rig the system! It is never a sober reflection what their message could be to attract voters-what programs would make their constituents lives better.Their DNA makes them search for a way to get an unfair advantage by any means .Donald Trump is fighting the results now of his obstruction of the 2016 election.There was clearly a Democratic wave in 2018 and now the Republicans are busy as bees seeing how they can hold on to some power around the edges.This shows a cynical ignorance of the US Constitution.
8
Gerrymandering, vote fraud in NC, voter suppression in Georgia, halted recounts and undercounts in Florida ... and now this in Wisconsin.
Does anyone need any more evidence that the Republican Party cannot win and rule (not "govern") unless they purposefully and forcefully undermine the will of the people?
8
More reprehensible proof that the GOP has completely lost it’s way and is no longer a viable political party.
12
What more evidence do you need that the Republican party is executing a slow-motion coup? Change voting rules, suppress votes, gerrymander, do anything you can to win the vote. If you can't win the vote, then take all power away from the winners and obstruct anything they try to do. If they try to challenge any of this in court, pack the court with right-wing ideologues who will "legalize" any illegal measures you take.
The right wing realize that their program of further enriching the top 1%, giving large corporations free reign to do anything they please, and ensuring white dominance of the political system even while the white majority is demographically shrinking to a minority, is not a program that can be implemented in a democracy. They need a right-wing dictatorship to accomplish it.
13
I've written my state legislator urging him not to vote for or support such efforts in Michigan, and to urge his colleagues likewise. If the Michigan legislature passes the various bills setting forth those efforts, and the lame duck governor signs them, I would support a state constitutional amendment barring lame duck legislative sessions except in response to a natural disaster or a formal declaration of war. Michigan voters passed multiple state constitution amendments in November, and we can do it again.
5
"...Republican lawmakers..were stung by one of the major defeats in the recent midterm elections...This week, they struck back with a bold plan to slash the power of the new governor even before he takes the oath of office..." [op cit]
--
Hey, wait!
What about, "We the People,” that is, the *registered voters*, in each sovereign state?
--
Isn’t the case, that once the polls closed, that it's you and I who have decided how *we* want things to go?
—
Beware, my friends,
...Of surreptitious “swarms,” of little men and women, with their bloated egos and their grandiose ideas, “who like loathsome pests, burrow beneath the fragile underpinnings of our democracy,” and then begin to multiply…! [my imbeded caption]
—
“He [or she] that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” [Matthew 10:1]
***
Be careful who you trust.
3
GOP war on democracy continues - now my friends in Wisconsin time to vote to rest of these shameless, incompetent Republican political hacks out of state government.
11
Such a shame. The continuing behavior of the Tea Party conservatives who undermined the etiquette of the G.H.W. Bush era GOP. I don’t know when they’ll see themselves as others do.
Unfortunately, the incoming Ultra-Left Wing Democrat’s seem to be emulating these bloviating practices.
Wake up - We The People neither want nor admire this behavior.
Get to work and represent your constituents.
3
it's because they are authoritarian.. they dont respect democracy l.
5
Sore losers, the bunch of them. Obama is elected twice, but they worked tirelessly to thwart his efforts. They refused to even hold a hearing on the Garland nomination, let alone allow a vote.
8
Neutralize? Don't you mean 'cheat their way to more victories'?
It's the only way they can win and they know it.
9
Perhaps someone of artistic bent could create a cartoon of Mitch McConnell being bodily removed from office all the while repeating "Elections have consequences".
Eventually the republicans will fade away because they have one trait in common: They are conformists, too cowardly to be the nail that sticks up!
2
The GOP knows it is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and that demographics will render it obsolete in the not too distant future. They are truly unable to adapt. They reveal the hypocritical, terrified, angry soul of their party and their people in all the slimy, unethical, and often downright illegal actions they take. On top of it all, they pray to the lord as if they are specially favored by him, demonstrating a level of moral development that can at best be considered primitive. They represent a low water mark in human history, and the sooner they're gone, the better off we'll be.
9
Once upon a time Wisconsin was known for its clean government. Such a quick demise. RIP democracy.
8
@JCH
Also, used to have one of the most highly regarded state supreme courts in the country. With the appointment of thinly disguised right wing partisans though, no longer such high regard.
1
The GOP has long been ignoring their constituents, unless those constituents represent their wealthy donors. This is not a surprise. The other 99% will have to see them in court.
5
Our institutions are clearly worn out and semi-dysfunctional. Leaders have repeatedly demonstrated inability to operate rationally. Ideological posturing has replaced the semblance of responsibility that existed previously, diluted though it was by power struggles that have long taken played a predominant role.
It would be far better if fundamental change were to develop through an intentional process rather than as a reaction to the crises that are developing on various fronts... political, economic and environmental. Intentional deliberation on how to bring about fundamental change will take courage since it will undoubtedly be met with derision and dismissal. But these are exactly the sort of dynamics that we must replace with something more mature and effective.
I don't think that we need a particularly large number of people to initiate the process of change. We just need a core of people willing and able to operate in a fundamentally different mode. Current processes will prove weak and insubstantial as more coherent voices emerge.
4
@David Rosen, bipartisan "problem solvers" caucus in Congress has supposedly received commitments from Nancy Pelosi to change the rules of Congress to return authority back to committees and sub-committees and away from Congressional leadership; and to allow Congressional votes when there is a majority of all Congress members supporting legislation (regardless of party), instead of just a majority of the majority, as has been the case under John Boehner and Paul Ryan after him. It is a small step but could make a difference. Nation will see if she delivers.
4
As a South Floridian, we are all too familiar with living under a GOP stranglehold. I don't envy Wisconsin. America has changed, and the GOP is fighting it as if their lives depend on it. Latest polls have nearly half the electorate as independents, 1/3 as Democrats and less than a 1/4 as Republicans. The Republican party is dying and they know the only way the can stay in power is by manipulating the system in their favor because they lack the numbers and are hemorrhaging voters every year. Trump was right, the system is being rigged, its just his party that is doing it.
12
If it was so vital to limit the power of the executive in this case, then why was it not done during Walker's seven years to date?
15
Is America on the road to becoming a failed democracy?
First they try and suppress the opposition and gerrymander.
Now they want to change the powers of governors depending on flavor.
My god how did it come to this?
10
@Dave
No, America isn't "on the road" to becoming a failed democracy. We're already there.
Republicans have proven over the last decade that American democracy is every bit as fragile today as German democracy was in 1930.
2
This is the the Republican Party the centrists always want to compromise with.
Cheaters and liars, who not only don't compromise, but throw gravel in the gears.
You can't compromise with people who are trying to blow up the system and have anything good come of it. They don't believe in democracy, our even free markets. They believe everything is supposed to be rigged in their favor.
Build the base and outnumber them. It is the only viable strategy.
Fight to win.
9
Ironic that this should happen even as we bury GHW Bush. Bush gave us Lee Atwater, who gave us Karl Rove, the 2 kings of dirty political tricks.
Bush, Atwater and Rove led to 30 years of GOP sermons of fear and hate and division. They led inevitably to Trump, and to GOP anti-American shenanigans like these by the Wisconsin GOP. cynics.
7
@Jojojo, honestly, why Bush is getting so much praise beats me. He continued cultivating the religious right-wing even worse than Reagan, and helped lay the groundwork for the likes of Trump.
3
The GOP can no longer win without cheating. Period.
36
This is how democracy dies. Not from some spectacular downturn, but a slow and depressing death of a thousand cuts.
Republicans, who ironically see these measures as "protecting" democracy, seem perfectly fine with putting ideology and party loyalty before the good of the people and their rights. It seems that chipping away at and further weakening the democratic system is a small price to pay when zealots and ideologues are behind the levers of government.
These scorched earth" tactics are nothing good and the end result will be a further deterioration of an already ailing American political system.
12
What a surprise, the republicans will do anything to stay in power. Gerrymandering, voter suppression and now stripping the powers from the Governor because they lost. Gee, if this is so important as they claim and so justified, why not do it during the two terms that Walker was Governor? Ask that question and you will hear the sound of crickets.
21
The Republicans have launched an attack on democracy; gerrymandering, voter suppression, party sponsored election fraud in places like a North Carolina, and now this. They are more akin to ruling parties in Russia and a number of countries in sub Saharan Africa.
19
Stung by apparent cheating in Cali elections it seems. Astounding how many GOP leads just quietly evaporated as more Democrat ballots were just 'found' by the day. Keep counting until you get the result you want?
2
It’s well-known that California takes a month to count votes. We’re the biggest state in population and the world’s fifth largest economy. Good things take time. In 2020, every county will be allowed to mail an absentee ballot to every voter. Then we’ll really watch the GOP squirm. (In other states that is, they’re all but extinct here.)
9
@EB, it is a little weird that anyone is allowed in California to collect ballot from any other person and then deliver the ballot to the polls. Not just family member or legal guardian but literally any one can do this. May be working fine but it seems like a system that could very easily be open to abuse.
1
@Alan
There was no "cheating" in Cali, and there were no new ballots "found". And you're well aware of it. The thing that actually offends you is that California keeps counting until ALL of the votes are counted, instead of just stopping as soon as a Republican has a lead.
1
That's (today's) Republicans for you. They have completely lost track of what democracy means. To them, it all about simple power.
9
The shamelessness of Republicans is just stunning. Their willingness to flout every rule of law and fair play shows that they are actually dangerous. This is how the slide toward totalitarianism begins. They have shown themselves to be the enemies of democracy.
16
Notice how the governor's power needs to be checked when it is a Democrat. They did not object when Scott Walker had the same amount of power.
The people of Wisconsin made a big mistake when they kept re-electing this guy. He kept using his office to expand his power and now the Republicans want to scale it back.
By allowing Walker to stay in office for so long, the people have let Republicans grow their power base to the point where it is now hard to contain them.
You need to keep voting these people out office every year, no matter the office being decided. It is not just the presidential elections and the mid-terms anymore, but every single election every single year.
Vote for the state senate, state council, alderman,town supervisor, anyone to keep the balance of power away from the wrong party. At this point no office is too small.
This happened in New York State this year. The state capital has a Democratic majority for the first time in years. NY did not send one single Republican to Congress, this in spite of heavy jerrymandering. This how you stop it.
13
These types of power grabs are by the minority who find themselves in power by gerrymandering and who are afraid they may never get the power back. Time to stop the minority from controlling the majority. Republicans are in the minority, that is why they suppress the vote. When the fall comes and it will, it will not be pretty.
8
While shocking, the actions by the GOP legislature in my home state is not at all surprising. Guided by hubris since taking power in 2011, Republicans in Madison quickly gerrymandered themselves into unassailable districts for a permanent legislative majority. So crassly partisan was their plan, they even had their members sign secrecy agreements to hide its details until shortly before they voted to allow themselves to choose their constituents rather than the other way around.
The plan worked. Wisconsin voters not only elected Democrats in each of the six statewide offices on the ballot this year, 54% of them chose Democrats to represent them in the lower house of the legislature. It didn't matter; Republicans lost only one of the 99 seats and control the chamber 62-37.
Having been decisively rejected by the state's voters, GOP legislators once again demonstrate--as they have for many years--that they could care less about what the people of our state want. The party of local control has over the last few years busily undermined the ability of county and city governments to adopt any policies that are contrary to right-wing Republican ideology. They have been on a mission to make it more difficult for people to vote--because of the distinct possibility that a wider electorate won't vote for the GOP.
So none of this is unexpected. Modern Republican leaders are interested in power, not in democracy or the rule of law.
Even voting them out no longer matters.
15
@pczisny
Perhaps since the gerrymandering has made it impossible to vote these criminals out of office, it will become necessary to remove them by other means. As JFK told us, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
1
A little known fact: in Indiana, in 2012, Glenda Ritz, a Democrat and running for Superintendent of Public Instruction, actually got more votes for that office than Mike Pence did for Governor. Pence and his super-majority legislature ten proceeded to impede and obstruct Ritz at every opportunity, appointing extra members to boards to give GOP control over everything Ritz did.
The GOP is nothing if not authoritarian and refusing to accept the results of elections.
19
Are there no Republican legislators in Wisconsin who still believe that elections should be respected? Or are they all not just anti-Democratic, but a anti-democratic?
9
Sadly, the Republicans in Wisconsin will win this battle... I have little confidence in Democrats to boldly and aggressively fight back.
4
The people of Michigan and Wisconsin made it clear that they didn’t want a Republican governor in 2018. That’s the way it has to
be for the next few years. So the fact that the state GOPs are trying to curb the power of the new Democratic governors as a means of retaliation for not winning is simply very poor political sportsmanship. They don’t win? Then the new guy or girl doesn’t get a full chance to make things right. That’s what they’re saying and it’s disgusting. They did this in North Carolina after Pat McCrory was voted out thanks to his support of HB2. We need to tell them that what they’re doing is completely unfair, prejudiced and just simply wrong, and if they keep it up, it will leave a serious stain on their reputation in the future.
6
Welcome to my state, where the Republicans, if they can't have total power, will do everything they can while they have to deny it to anyone else.
9
Perhaps voters will realize that the GOP's primary interest is in authoritarian one party rule. Their actions are one step removed from dehumanizing and disenfranchising their opponents.
12
"When highly committed parties strongly believe [in] things that they cannot achieve democratically, they don’t give up on their beliefs — they give up on democracy.
As the outlook for conservatives and Republicans becomes more bleak, they’re going to face a choice: Either they accommodate some of the changes that are happening to American society, like universal heath coverage, or else they’re going to have to face up to the fact that what they believe can’t be achieved if everybody votes." --- David Frum
15
ok, but nothing they are doing is illegal.
if it passes, it's the new law, that's how it works.
Get over it Liberals, nothing wrong is being done.
1
Not only is it illegal, it is unconstitutional. This is a country that stands for the rule of law. Attempts to thwart the law will be prosecuted. The people are above the politicians.
11
Here’s why it’s wrong, even if it’s not illegal: the people of Wisconsin just elected a governor and they elected this governor under the current set-up. The voters - whom you apparently disdain - asked for change under the current system. That is what was understood when the election happened.
So instead, the Republicans change the rules before the new governor takes office. They - and you - are what we adults call a “poor loser.”
“We’re taking our ball and going home” is not an acceptable form of public policy.
Time to grow up.
13
other than the fact a majority is not interested in their backwards ways! What's the current popular refrain from Trump's supporters, get over it he won! well same logic applies here. get over it and stop messing w the laws.
8
Every day I have a more difficult time understanding why anyone votes for the repugnant and underhanded Republican party. People need to stop hoping they will somehow miraculously regain some integrity and just stop voting for them, any of them, at any time.
30
Wisconsin Republicans: I point you to North Carolina. Republicans tried to do the same thing here after McCrory lost.
13
Apparently they are.
It’s not going to work, the GOP is just marginalizing itself further ...
11
And then, if a Republican is next elected to Governor they will restore the powers.
6
The thing that sticks most in my craw is, what kind of person accepts and votes for these kind of people. It doesn't bode well for our country.
31
GOP as currently constituted is anti democracy, authoritarian, and will do anything - ANYTHING - to retain power.
18
Let's stop talking about bogus "voter fraud" and expose the GOP's election fraud.
26
Remember Citizens United and who the wealthiest 1% are and this should come as no surprise. The question now is if there is any branch of government able to change it.
4
The Republican majority in Michigan is trying the same thing. Thankfully, we just passed an anti-gerrymandering ballot proposal that places redistricting authority into a non-partisan commission. This was an amazing grass-roots effort led by a young woman (read up on the story, it’s worth your time). Their days in the majority here are numbered.
It’s too bad Wisconsin can’t shake loose the millstone of gerrymandering. Without gerrymandering, the Republicans couldn’t hold a 64% majority of seats by winning only 45% of votes.
Gerrymandering and dark money are a cancer that is consuming the body politic.
36
The book written by Robert Fulghum comes to mind, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It's clear from the continued behaviors of the GOP that they either slept through kindergarten or flunked because they didn't gain any of the basic principles outlined in this book that help the majority of us function as decent cooperative adults. Should we gift them a copy for Christmas or is it too late?
10
Republicans appear so reluctant to control the abuses of the executive branch of the federal government. I wonder why?
9
So, we continue to obstruct. No wonder the country will never move forward.
5
There's an even broader theme here. The GOP tried this in North Carolina too. They're behind some of the worst gerrymandering practices and districts, which are being challenged in court. And now we see that in places like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, they're engaged in voter suppression campaigns and even outright voter fraud, which appears to be what happened in NC-9.
The GOP is doing this because they know, deep down, that the majority of Americans reject their ideas. This is their last, most naked power grab, a brazen attempt to rip away the franchise from any American who doesn't look and think like them, and keep its power for themselves. It's unconstitutional, anti-democratic, and illegal, and we must stop it.
22
This effort by both parties to undo elections they lost is ridiculous. We have seen the Republicans extreme efforts in North Carolina the last few years after a Democrat legitimately won governor's office there; and now in Wisconsin. Democrats have done similar thing, with their lawsuits in Florida and Georgia and refusal of Ms. Abrams to concede, claiming entire thing was rigged.
Nationally speaking, it has been same thing. Mitch McConnell had zero interest in reaching across the aisle to work with President Obama, unlike his predecessor such as Bob Dole with Bill Clinton.
And bipartisan "Never Trumper" GOP and Democrats who were determined to hide FISA warrant abuse based on Hillary Clinton's hidden payments to Fusion GPS for now discredited "dossier." Campaign to try and connect Trump to Russia and release of John Podesta's e-mails. Still just smoke, no fire, a la Whitewater.
Whitewater was $75 million fishing expedition that ended up with a silly expose of a consensual relationship between adults that was private business of the parties and families involved. Anything GOP could do to try and hamstring Clinton, instead of working for benefit of the country (or run candidates on legitimate issues to beat Clinton).
So far, Mueller has been similar, a $40 million fishing expedition to try & undo an election because Democrats and most GOP have zero interest in enforcing or reforming immigration.
2
False equivalency, the new rightwing touchstone.
6
Keep telling yourself that and soon you will only have yourself to listen to. This forum is at its best when genuine ideas are brought forward in an unbiased way; with great rarity does that occur. This forum is at its worst when disingenuousness is paraded as normalcy.
3
@GRH
There was no FISA warrant abuse. The "dossier" is far from discredited, as the majority of its contents have been proven correct. And Trump's collusion with Russia has been proven as well. He can scream "NO COLLUSION!" as often as he wants, but we all see him continuing to collude right now.
1
By the end of the 2020 election cycle we will know if most of America is able to rise above and move beyond this now ridiculous caricature of what used to be a political party, or if it is doomed to fall back into the dark abyss of yesterday’s horrific mistakes. If collectively fooled yet again, our nation will then deserve the consequences of whatever choices it makes.
7
Shouldn't this headline be "Voted out of power, Republicans seek a way to veto voters' preferences"?
36
Republicans are so unpopular today because they are corrupt and undemocratic. They are accuse others of voter fraud without any evidence but give plenty of evidence of their own corruption and bad will towards this country and it's people. I hope "the people" have finally had enough and go to the polls to get the rest of these crooks out of office next election. They apparently did not get the message this past midterm election. 2020 needs to be louder and stronger. They will get the message when they are all totally out of power. What an insult they are to the voters.
24
What Republicans are doing to maintain their waning power by wresting the ability to govern from the duly elected Democratic Governor in Michigan and suppressing minority absentee Votes in N. Carolina isn't neutralization it's blatant fraud & corruption!
19
This Soviet-style stuff does not bode well for the Republicans respecting federal election results in 2020. Not that they respect our democracy now, in either Congress or the White House. They refuse hearings for an Obama supreme court nominee and appoint an acting AG that has contempt for law.
The name of the game for the GOP is not democracy, law or justice. It's sheer power.
26
@mancuroc
When Republicans lose 2020, there's better than 50/50 odds of them attempting an outright coup.
1
apparently peaceful transition of power is a meaningless value for the radicals who coopted the Republican party
17
Given what we have seen as far as the depths of the GOP’s depravity, only the imagination limits their Grand Plan. Just prior to the recent mid-terms, now Ex-Governer Walker of Wisc targeted struggling families with $100 (minimum) bribery payments for their votes. The recipients accepted the blood-money and still threw the fool out. Beautiful. Next up: increased GOP payments specifically targeted to the blue citizens of Wisc NOT to vote. Buying silence. Watch for it.
6
Take this timely tip from your California trip (affectionately borrowed from the song, Route 66):
The people of California (a blue state), by ballot initiative, voted in a law that required the congressional districts to be drawn by and independent non-partisan commission rather than by the Democratic dominated legislature.
They valued democracy over partisanship. Folks, that's what's called taking the high road. I recommend it to the good people of Wisconsin.
25
It looks like Republicans are undeterred by popular disapproval. They lose elections and turn right around and pretend they actually won, the voting public be damned. Latter day Republicans are better represented by an absolute crook like Trump than someone like either of the Presidents Bush.
11
Ruthless, power-mad, treasonous Republicans ignoring the will of the people. Again.
25
How can a national nonpartisan election district movement be nurtured to end this gerrymandered mess we have found ourselves in?
We need a national initiative movement so that voters might choose legislators, rather that the other way around as we have today.
7
I am sorry, this goes against all of the principles of elected government: the powers of the office are the same for anyone fairly elected to it.
12
Despite trying to understand (and not finding a single article authored to explain why) why after being seated, the incoming elected officials can't just reverse this maneuver done by the outgoing Republicans?
The legislature can do anything it wants, within the allowance of the state constitution.
Is there some weird law that says you can only make changes once every five or ten years?
1
The incoming legislators are still majority republicans - all because of gerrymandering. So the new governor can’t do anything...
@reid
The problem with that is that Republicans will still control the Wisconsin legislature in the new session. Despite Republicans getting only 45% of the vote, Wisconsin is so thoroughly gerrymandered that they won 64% of the seats. So the reason they're rushing this through now isn't that they'd be unable to pass the same law in the new session. It's that they can only get it signed during the lame duck period while they've still got Walker as governor. Once Evers is governor, he would veto any such bill.
There's nothing like a sore loser!
7
Republicans, take the hint. Stop being obstructionists and do your jobs. Stop cheating to win. Honor the Constitution. Try to help people, not yourselves... Or not. Keep on being jerks and you will lose again in 2020.
11
So what?
The Democrats in Massachusetts have done this to Republican Governors elected by the voters since forever.
I guess it's only newsworthy when it happens to a Democrat.
1
@Frank
Frank, name one instance where an outgoing democratic governor and the legislature sought to strip Gubernatorial power away from an incoming Governor.
It's my guess you can't name one instance, why, because it's never happened, well it has, but only on Fox News. So maybe you should stop getting your news from the one channel that spreads nothing but propaganda.
21
Give specifics please. “Since forever” is a bit vague. Unless you mean, since never.”
1
Are you paying attention, Dems? Do you now realize you have to fight fire with fire? Will you admit that compromise is not in the vocabulary of the GOP? Will you not accept that this is war?
10
The fundamental principles of our Republic - that it is based on equally applied laws and represents the will of the people – should trump all other policy considerations in terms of importance. These should not be Republican or Democratic issues, but a bipartisan desire to preserve something whose survival we alone can ensure. As Americans, we should place our allegiance to these principles far above allegiance to either party or platform. If you are not willing to vote against your party for the sake of our democracy, then you are part of the problem.
1
Wow, up here after an election the losers have no power to pull this kind of garbage because the winning party takes over immediately. You guys really have to give some serious thought to changing your system. Not only are the GOP sore losers, they also can’t win without cheating.
15
Change our system? Many of us wish we could - but rigged and gerrymandered districts, courts that allow this - have made it very difficult to change our system. But we resist and fight.
It’s easier to change our citizenship. And trust me, many of us have been tempted to move to Canada.
This is another example of democrats lack of investment down ballot. Republicans care more and invest more in these local races as they know the value that they can have (redistricting being the largest benefit). Combine this with the fact that Republicans, over the last 20 years, vote in these purple states much higher rate in non-presidential and local elections than Dems. Dems need to invest in local races to build their bench and get people in the habit of voting. Till this happens, we will continue to see these shenanigans.
I agree that Democrats and progressives have ceded control at the local and state levels over many decades. However, Wisconsin is so thoroughly gerrymandered that in this past election changing the composition of the legislature was hopeless.
5
@Kent
The issue isn't lack of a "bench". The issue is that Wisconsin is so thoroughly gerrymandered that 45% of the vote for Republicans gets them 64% of the legislature.
Democrats need to wake up and realize that Republicans have been waging “total war” on them (and, frankly, on most Americans) while Democrats have been thinking this is just friendly game. We need an LBJ-type strategist who understands the long game and is playing like it’s an actual war with real casualties - the first one being our very democracy.
8
This strategy being used by the GOP should be challenged in court.
What a bunch of vile cowards.
9
To"neutralize Democrats--or neutralize voters.
2
Viruses are a form of life.
These are the nine deadliest viruses on earth:
Ebola, Marburg, HIV, rabies, smallpox, hantavirus, influenza, dengue, rotavirus.
Republicans are a lower form of life than all of them.
5
Starting in 2010 and in full force 2012 was using the State of Wisconsin as testing ground for big-money meddling, for hugely wealthy special interest groups overwhelming a state election with millions of dollars n political propaganda ads. It worked. It kept Walker in office. It kept the GOP majority in the Assembly and Senate. As I recall, the majority of donations supporting Walker in his recall vote came from outside of Wisconsin.
As to the 2018 Election, a majority of Wisconsin voters voted for a Democrat. Yet the GOP kept its majorities. They gerrymandered the districts just for that purpose and thereby a majority of Wisconsin voters are not represented by the GOP majority, and they know that. Hence, the desperate grab for power. Actually, it is an abuse of power and must be treated as such.
11
I heard a rumor. Seems the Dems might be running on the slogan "Make America American Again."
Sounds reasonable to me.
9
The Republicans care more about maintaining their power than they care about protecting our democracy. The tactics they are using indicate they no longer have the confidence they can win other than by preventing and subverting the power and accomplishments of their opponents.
While both parties have participated in things like gerrymandering etc. the current Republican party has taken it to a whole different level.
5
@Diane L.
It's not merely that Republicans care more about power than about protecting our democracy. It's that they're actively opposed to our democracy. Republicans see democracy as an obstacle to be destroyed. They're authoritarian, with an increasingly fascist bent.
1
So republicans think they deny the will of the people? History hasn’t proven that to be a good strategy.
5
Once upon a time the two political parties had differences but came together for compromise because while each had different solutions they both wanted what worked for society. Now, Republicans, as their number shrink due mostly to their "white anger", have decided, like animals backed into a corner, to snarl and attack their way out of their self-created swamp instead of offering workable solutions. They became incompetent winners and are now proving to be immature losers.
Greed replaced their God-fearing message.
8
"For Wisconsin, a state that both parties will urgently vie to win in 2020 elections, it was one more sign of the ferocious partisan split that has rippled through the state in recent years."
WRONG. It was one more sign of the lengths to which Republicans will go to subvert democracy. When was the last time Democrats were accused of doing something like that??
This is yet another example of the false equivalence that seems to be in the DNA of SCLM reporters.
15
North Carolina redux...
Sigh
4
Was the various republican sponsored legislation being discussed here introduced after the election? If so it is obvious that the Wisconsin republicans are making an unfair power grab. They are sore losers and stacking the deck against the new governor and attorney general so they can't get a fair chance to do their job. Wisconsin voters should remember this when they vote for legislative candidates in the future. Such childish behavior should be punished.
4
Revenge politics... ought to be outlawed like most other forms of revenge... when will the governments, of and by the people, work for the people?
4
@Drew
If you want to hear republicans whine really loud, whining, just let the democrats to the very same thing, that loud shrieking noise you hear are republicans.
2
The money they spend comes back to them a thousand fold, pennies on the dollar. Teach a corporation to fish, and they'll eat for a lifetime, but teach them how to manipulate their tax code, buy lobbyists, effect propaganda that gets idiots to vote against themselves, and they stay rich FOREVER!
2
The Republicans no longer embrace democracy. It is not the party that it used to be.
4
The Republican Party in Wisconsin, just as in North Carolina and at the federal level in Washington D.C., is slowly turning into an authoritarian party in the mold of Hungary's Fidesz Party.
10
More foulplay by the Rebulicans. The have no shame.
7
So we’re going to need a list of the names of these obstructionists to ensure their efforts to undermine the will of the citizens is appropriately recognized, acknowledged and dealt with when then try to deny their culpability.
8
So... there are dirty tricks, and then there are dirty tricks.
Speaking for myself and other like-minded Wisconsinites, this degenerate move is an obvious way of corrupting the vote of the people, the *choice* of the people, and flies against every tenet of democratic government America stands for.
We will make sure this becomes the signature ploy by which Wisconsin Republicans will be known for the next quarter-century, at the very least. And, even if you snakes get away with it in the short term, we will make sure it costs you dearly in the long term. The political cost will be colossal.
A tide is coming, and when it arrives the crooks and hooligans in the state capitol-- and those supporting them-- are going to eat crow like it's their new Thanksgiving dinner. Count on it.
14
@Free Thinker 62
I wish I could believe that. I haven't seen enough retribution come down on Republican evil-doers yet to convince me of it.
Republican efforts to subvert the will of the people and undermine the constitution are "bold?" That's the adjective you chose? Come on, NYT.
4
This is the same Republican party who refused to let President Obama appoint Merrick Garland almost a year before he left office. They are only serving themselves in this evil power grab, not the voting public. Disgusting!
17
Much of the GOP no longer believes in democracy. Their legislators are like a thousand Golems all lusting after the ring of power, consequences be damned.
9
WHAT WONDERFUL NEWS !
Republicans are hurtin' ... Bad. And anything that hurts Republicans is great for the country.
Punish Republicans !
5
There used to be a time when both parties put forth ideas on how to advance this country. Today, the Republican Party is deficient in ideas and creativity. Unfortunately whatever creativity that’s left is being used to protect whatever power they have left. At some point, this strategy will also fail. Perhaps they should go back to the drawing board and come up with new ideas that are relevant to this century! Else they too will become extinct.
6
Republicans are sore losers and blatant cheats.
22
Tony Evers and the Democrats should just ignore the corrupt partisan changes the Wisconsin legislature makes before January and take their case to the people and the courts and force the Republicans to defend their power grab and don't let them get away with it.
7
Such scorched-earth tactics poison the political environment and will hurt the Republicans down the line as much as the Democrats now. But the reals losers will be the people of the state as it raises the general level of cynicism.
3
The GOP has truly reached its nadir. If they can’t or won’t find their moral compass I fear for our great republic and all that it’s stood for these last 240 years. Teach your children well.
9
It is becoming impossible to discuss the behavior of Republicans in a civil manner. Polite words are inadequate to describe the depravity of GOP party officials and their registered voters.
17
We saw it in Washington for Bush, then Obama, then Trump - and we see it in States all across the nation. Republicans DO NOT BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY! For Bush, they wanted an “Imperial President.” For Obama, an entirely blocked, weak President. For Trump: no Law at all - full autocracy!
For them, Democracy, and High Office is great - as long as they are the one in charge. Otherwise, weaken, distract, obstruct... it doesn’t matter. That it’s ridiculous to keep completely retooling a role based not on Law, but their political expediency, doesn’t impact them at all. Looking bad doesn’t matter. Legality doesn’t matter. Maximizing Republican Power, while minimizing, even eliminating Democratic Power is all that counts!
For the last 25+ years, Republicans have been engaged in warfare with Democrats - in a war many Democrats fail to recognize. The Rule Of Law is being replaced by Right To Rule. Norms and institutions are being replaced by ruthless need of the political moment. They will not stop until we have a one party country - theirs!
David Frum was right:
“Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
They already did - quite some time back...
23
Crybabies! Shut up, and eat your vegetables!
The party's over! Move the goalposts...suffer the consequences. It's that simple. Scott Walker lost. Get over it!
11
once again, the GOP shows its current / 2018 true colors, the likes of which can be easily compared to an organized crime family ....their level of disdain, hate, misinformation and hypocrisy only further establish them as definitively putting party before country ....what a utter disgrace !!!
10
"an" ....my apologies ...
3
Republicans can't win here in Wisconsin on the up-and-up, so they get what they want by cheating. They say that the Republican majority here in the assembly was wanted by Wisconsinites, but the partisan gerrymander is what really gets them their majority. Despicable.
16
Gerrymandering has really silenced the voice of us Democrats; it is wrong. What is the remedy?
3
The Wisconsin legislature is still Republican because of gerrymandering. These minions of the Koch brothers are simply evil and betray everything our country is supposed to represent.
22
This is an outrage. I hope this will thoroughly turn this state Democratic. Despicable.
14
ALEC,ALEC,ALEC...
Same script, same story, same cast of characters. Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, coming soon to a State near you.
The money of the few against the will and votes of the many.
With enough time and money their goal is to undermine faith in government, redefine "Justice" to the enhance the property rights of the fortunate few, and change the "Rule of Law" to the "Rule by Force."
Whenever Republicans can't win by convincing more voters to vote for their candidates and their platform they change the rules to seize and keep power.
26
When the reasonable Republicans eventually begin to speak out, it will be too late. They have allowed the gop to descend into a garbage heap of hypocrisy and lies bent on power and money from lobbyist and energy to sustain them in utter disregard for our country. Have they truly shamed themselves out of existence?
12
@Paul A. Brennan
"Reasonable Republicans" ?
Who are you kidding, Paul? They are the party of Trump, and are grateful for their opportunity to get Russian and Saudi money.
4
If a state is 50 % Republican and 50% Democrats,, there should be about 50% Republicans and 50% Democrats as Senators, Representatives, etc.
The GOP has Gerrymandered the State to make that impossible. The GOP has no idealism of fairness, or even government,, the GOP only shows a desire for power. And they are using it to elect embarrassments. They don't care. They just don't care.
Listen up. We are going to vote you out. Dust off your resumes. You may need them.
13
But how do you vote them out? They have arranged it so that you will never be able to be heard. Again, I ask: What is the remedy?
3
These same kind of "legislators " pulled the same kind of, sore loser, antics in my home state of North Carolina. My suggestion, is to start suing now. There is no limit to how low and underhanded some Republicans will go when faced with the loss of power.
12
Once again they cheat by a any means necessary.
17
Ah! The new south rises again.
4
Please note that not one Democratic state has done this. Every instance has been the GOP. Republicans simply cheat; somehow they feel entitled to power even if the people do not. The arrogance and hypocrisy will eventually kill off the GOP. Political parities have come and gone before throughout US history, and this kind of behavior simply indicates the GOP is already in its death spasm. At least nobody is repeated that worn out saw that there isn't any real difference between Dems/Reps.
21
Question for Republican voters: Are you proud that your party suppresses democracy?
Question for everyone else: Are you proud to know that Republicans are your fellow countrymen?
19
Exactly. Well said.
6
I graduated from UW-Madison in 2017. I also worked for the Wisconsin DNR part-time for a year and a half, under Walker, while I finished school.
I would be lying if I said I moved away primarily because of the current political situation in Wisconsin, but it certainly was a factor. Political gerrymandering and power grabbing tactics like this by the Republican party have stripped democracy away from the state. How can one continue to live somewhere where the Democratic party wins over 50% of state legislative votes, but only takes one of third of the seats? You feel powerless, like the state is literally going in the opposite direction that the populace voted for.
33
I am so sick of these clowns who claim that both parties do it; they don’t. Only Republicans have adopted an anti-democratic posture since 2000 and it should worry all of us who are not totalitarians.
47
"War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means."
-- Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)
The New Republican Version:
Politics is nothing more than war by other means. So all's fair.
Flabbergasting: What! You're kidding, right? Nope.
These guys have thrown down the gauntlet; the gloves have come off; push has come to shove. And all in broad daylight this attempted power theft is going on. Hello, Wisconsin. Is everybody awake and aware of this up there and working to stop it?
If it wasn't so depressive, it would be impressive, at least for unstinted chutzpah. They are certainly thinking and acting outside the box; no ethics required here.
Man, I really don't want to jump in the pigsty with them, but they ain't pulling punches no more. It's dog-eat-dog, thus turning distasteful politics into disgusting, shameful politics. Where is the bottom of this pit?
And these guys are not real Republicans. They are wolves in disguise as Republicans. They were always here apparently, but Trump has opened the floodgates and removed the leashes. Is this what it's like to live in a Third World country?
Maybe I'll wake up to find that this never really happened. It was just a nightmare.
8
@Jim Muncy You are wrong. They are real Republicans. They act like this all over the country, and have ALEC to spread their vile behavior.
1
@blockhead
Well, GWHB and Ike were Republicans, but, granted, these new guys are a new breed of cat. They are ethics-free. How do they justify this stuff even to themselves, especially to themselves. I guess, in for a penny, in for a pound: Let it all hang out.
Maybe they think this is a video game where nobody really gets hurt.
Well, this took long enough, NYTimes!
Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star, and other outlets were on this late last week, in real time.
It continues to be a terrifying time in WI. The Legislature has the numbers, the majority to prevail on this agenda. And they are ruthless about attaining their goals.
I don't know what can be done to stop this, other than legal challenges after the fact.
It's very Un-American, entirely the opposite of the democratic process this changing the rules and moving the goalposts after an election.
To me, the biggest danger is losing the hallmark of our democracy -- the peaceful transition of power.
Which will come in part, and pieces, by the loss of a free and unfettered press.
If not in WI, or Michigan, what happens when -- and it seems inevitable -- someone, or a large group of someones won't accept the results of an election, or the changes therein, and things are no longer peaceful?
Is it Civil War 2?
This is why these continued incursions to 'regular order' and upholding the basics of how our governmental system is supposed to work is so, so dangerous and corrosive.
The checks and balances are there. A Gov/Lt. Gov. of one party, a legislature of another. Okay, so not much gets done, but at least it's representative of the voters in this moment.
That the (barely) minority party now must grab even more power -- that's not just a slippery slope, it's a black diamond run.
And Shame on them for pursuing such a course.
14
The Republicans really believe in minority government. They don't seem to care that their base is but a minority of the population. They are willing to do anything, legislatively or legally, to ensure that they, and they alone, can control government irrespective of what the majority of the population thinks.
The new governor in Wisconsin, Evers, needs to be brutal when it comes to the budget and, as importantly, when it comes to redistricting after the 2020 census. It is a travesty that the Republicans get 45% of the vote yet control 75% of the House seats from that state (and probably similar disproportionate representation of the state legislature, though I haven't calculated it).
Our democracy is predicted on "one person, one vote", not Democratic votes are worth only two-thirds of a Republican vote!
18
The same thing happened when our state elected a Democratic governor. First, he ( republican McCrorie) wouldn’t accept losing, then the republicans thought of taking control from governor. Amazing these republicans just can’t take losing. Grow up, put your big boy pants on and stop whining and work like you were elected to do! This is a democracy after all, or have you forgotten?
14
Of course they are! The Republicans are anti-democracy, and their record and history prove it. Our Founders must be rolling in their graves knowing how their "brave experiment" is turning out.
10
Republicans aren't conservative any more.
They have become radical Fascists.
18
This is fairly typical of the modern Republican form of governance, which is merely hanging on and hanging around, trying to preserve their grip and obstruct the opposition at every turn. Other than a hastily thrown together tax bill, what legislation has the GOP put forward nationally or in Wisconsin of any substance? More importantly, what legislation has the GOP offered that has helped the ordinary American?
8
Hey, they got away with it in North Carolina, but that's the South.
People in Wisconsin are a different breed and won't let this stand.
5
@John M
Wisconsin voters voted FOR a Democratic Governor. Very different than voting for (or against) the Legislature tinkering with the Governor's powers.
Litigate your pro-democracy idea at the polls.
2
This is not the Wisconsin that I moved to from the New York suburbs more than forty years ago. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, and Bill Proxmire, originator of the Golden Fleece Award, would not recognize this place. After eight long years of regression under Governor Walker and a unified republican legislature we are hoping for a return to something similar to our Progressive past. Following the horrible example set by the North Carolina legislature, these “representatives “ are doing their best to negate the results of our last election. They have no shame.
42
Exactly what Republicans did here in North Carolina, when Democrat Roy Cooper was narrowly elected.
Same donors calling the shots nationwide?
Bunch of thugs.
20
Cheaters. Merrick Garland non-hearing. Gerry-mandering. Voter suppression. And now this. The Grand Old Party has become the Cheating Party. Cheating every chance they get. Lincoln and TR would be ashamed.
30
What is happening in Wisconsin and Michigan should be ample reason why it is always foolhardy in this day and age not to vote straight D on your ballot, from dog catcher to president.
17
And people need to vote in every election, not just when they feel "inspired". The 2010 midterm election has had ramifications that have lasted for over eight years and counting, allowing for a decade of gerrymandered districts that don't magically disappear when people decide that THIS election is important.
"If you can't win, cheat."
GOP 2018
27
Justin,
Actually, the Republican Party has been cheating for some time now (gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter intimidation and closure of polling places in minority areas to discourage people to name just a few of their dirty tactics.)
7
I truly hope Democrats don't become so incensed that they pull this bit when the tables are turned. I wouldn't blame them for feeling like it's fair game, but we must govern and act the way we wish to be treated. Though it would undoubtedly be my first instinct, it's hypocrisy to do otherwise.
3
Wisconsin produces liberal Democrats and hard right reactionary Republicans, so this graceless and anti-democratic stunt by Republicans is not too surprising. It's just weird like the extreme dissimilarities between Hubert Humphrey and Joseph McCarthy who both represented the state in the U.S. Senate.
2
@Casual Observer
I think Hubert Humphrey represented Minnesota, which is where I wish I lived right now instead of Wisconsin....
2
I’m sorry. I should have checked that fact.
The Republican Party long ago lost the ability to win elections on their ideas. All that’s left them are lies about their intentions and policies and plain old dirty tricks.
14
This is the strategy of the NC house as their GOP governor was on his way out the door. The first word that sprung into my mind seeing this strategy in yet another state was that the GOP is essentially "evil". The GOP ideology needs to be thrown on the rubbish pile of history.
10
Funny that they weren't worried about executive power when they controlled the executive, as well as the rest of state government. Has there every been a political party as grotesquely hypocritical as the modern republican party? I think not.
11
For any sane and moral citizen, seeing these attempts to deny election results, it should mean never even think of hearing from any Republican.
9
It took how long for the press to uniformly call Trump and GOP lies, "lies," but now we do. Lies are, in fact, lies, after all.
Now let's be honest again and begin to call gerrymandering, voter suppression, not bringing up S.Ct. candidates, and things like what North carolina and now Wisconsin are doing "cheating."
Cheating is, in fact, "cheating," after all.
C'mon, press. Call it what it is: GOP "cheating."
13
The lawless rogue Republicans will do anything to claw back power that voters have decided they don't deserve when they cast their ballots.
This kind of brazen power grab further erodes the foundation of our democracy. The GOP in its current state must be stopped. Vote them all out in 2020.
9
Perhaps I'm echoing a like comment but it may be yellow-vest time in Madison.
You reap what you sow.
7
This underhanded business is described by Vos as "a necessary check on executive power." Rather than admit that this is just plain old political gamesmanship, we get this mealymouthed lying, this timid dissembling meant to play on AM radio to the gullible. Mr. Vos must now explain why this sudden concern over "executive power".
5
If these GOP legislators are so concerned about expansive executive powers why didn’t they pass their raft of executive circumscription at the start of Gov. Walker’s term 8 yrs ago? The answer is simple. They are yet again trying to subvert the mandate of November’s election in the same manner as what occurred in North Carolina in 2016. I hope that the citizens of the great badger state do not take this laying down.
16
Apparently you have all forgotten about how elected Democrats tried to flee the state in 2011 when a clear Republican majority, with a Republican Governor who had won 52% to 46% wanted to pass exactly the legislation that they ran on and won on (handily).
Don't whine to the rest of the world about how unfair the Republicans are unless you do so with a large sign on your forehead, proclaiming yourself a hypocrite.
1
Wow! Talk about sore losers. Don't the Republicans know most people outgrow sore-loser pouting around 12 or 13 years old?
10
Republicans in the state legislature seem intent on reminding everyone that they are sore losers and have no respect for Wisconsin's voters.
5
Republicans need to be thrown out of every office nationally, they are unAmerican. All who believe in government by the people, of the people, for the people have to join together until Republicans have no power.
Meaning, join together, progressives, moderates and never-Trump Republicans!
13
What happened to the American sense of Fair Play??? Seems particularly lost on one party. The Win Power at all Cost Party.
8
Talk about a scorched earth policy. Wisconsin republicans would rather diminish the highest office in their state than accept that elections have consequences. Who in good conscience would conceivably trash the machinery of government instead of allowing a democratic process to run its course after an election cycle.
14
How can a democratic system exist when one of two major political parties is opposed to democratic principles? This is a real problem, and I don't know the answer.
14
@Jess
I lived in Ankeny for many years...great place...nice people. But be warned that the government you now have is using Walker’s play book.
Does the Wisconsin State Constitution define a separation of powers? Seems that the legislature can only go so far unless the WI constitution is a sieve.
3
Can a party with this little regard for democracy be trusted to hold elections and count ballots?
16
No!
6
Republicans are like that rule in sociology: If you think you've you've the reason, look lower.
I wouldn't step into an elevator with any one of them.
3
This is what the Republicans did in Norrh Carolina. Raw power is more important than fairness. This is the basic ethos in play. Until the people punish Republicans for this sort of behavior, it will continue.
16
This is Newt Gingrich’s America. Trump is his president.
12
Whatever happened to the Wisconsin that was once considered a bellwether state in New Democratic (as in Democracy) thought and practice, a la La Follette and his ilk?
The state has become co-opted by a cabal of power grabbing politicians, practiced in the dark arts of subterfuge and malignancy.
13
I sure hope Wisconsinites protest, loudly and vigorously. What a disgrace but not surprising considering it's Republicans taking actions to thwart the voice of its citizens.
The country is in mourning for the passing of George H.W. Bush. What happened to this kind of Republican - a Republican who was all about duty and service to country. The kind of leader many citizens could get behind. Most of the so called "Republicans" in office now are shameless in their quest for power and control and pursuing their own self interest, and have turned their backs on what's best for our country.
8
Actual Prostitutes have more dignity, ethics and class.
Seriously.
14
These were probably the same kids who took their balls home when they lost baseball games in their neighborhoods. Go play somewhere else you sore losers.
9
I expect that whatever Republicans are plotting, I'll be against it, but as a matter of principle I'd like to know what I'm opposing. The article doesn't say that except in hazy outline.
If there's a reason for omitting the details, like the authors don't want to give ideas to Michigan Republicans, they can say so and I'll understand.
2
Republicans are proving at every turn that they are lower than the dirt beneath their own feet. The GOP's disgusting behavior is so widespread in every state that it's simply too much to read about and still have any hope for the future of this country.
7
This shows how desperate the GOP are trying to cling to their platform of kleptocracy. They are terribly afraid of a democracy that allows fair representation of all the people. Their desired platform is about privatization of social services from schools to 401ks to prisons that will enrich their own livelihoods & ensuring that Citizens United stays the course. Because God forbid, if campaigns were equally funded, none of them could win based on virtue alone.
12
Is there anything these Trump Republicans would not do, in the name of power and money? They couldn't care less about our vital democratic traditions and rules. They are truthless, heartless, feckless and spineless.
9
Too many people ,when they loose,become very desperate. The GOP needs ago be challenged ,as to why they do not support democracy or universal suffrage ? Cannot have a republic without universal suffrage. Too many people forget their American history. There was only one major party , the Democratic Republican Party, because our founding fathers found it treasonous to divide the electorate & candidates. If the ways of Republican Party continues,disenfranchised voters will stop paying taxes.
1
It would be refreshing if once, just once, Wisconsin Republicans would stop behaving like such sore and bitter losers and actually put the interest of all Wisconsinites ahead of their own personal agendas and find ways to compromise and work together with the new Democratic governor.
13
Your have a very short memory. The first thing the Dems did when Walker was elected was to impeach him. Remember that?
2
@Marge Keller
It would also be nice if (Wisconsin) Republicans would notice the way they're acting is the exact same way they accuse Democrats of behaving, but without any ground.
This will not make America great again -- If anything, it will kill Democracy in the country that was originally founded upon it.
4
@Jesse James
and flee the state to try to prevent quorums, despite losing statewide control by substantial majorities.
ONe of the things Republicans find impossible to accept is that people are growing tired of Republican rule. Nothing other than tax cuts for the rich seems to get done. They only seem interested in making sure the top 1% gets richer, even while the rest of the world is starting to leave us in the dust. We've moved into the 21st century and the Republicans want to drag us back into the 19th.
10
Now, I really understand why Wisconsin voted for Trump. If Walker signs this perfidious bill, it should end his political career.
3
This is precisely what the Republican legislature did in North Carolina (where I've been a reporter for 35 years) with Gov. Roy Cooper. After riding racist Obama hatred to take over the governorship and both branches of the legislature in 2010, they have proceeded, in most cases successfully, to strip Cooper, who defeated the Scott Walker clone Pat McCrory in 2016, of most authority, such as appointing people to regulatory boards. Then, by gerrymandering, they rigged elections so that, despite Democrats getting the most votes in subsequent state and federal races, Republicans got the majority of the seats. Now, after attempting to exclude minority voters and Democrats from voting (a judge called the effort "blatantly racially motivated") we indeed have a legitimate case of fraud: The Republican winner of a Congressional race allegedly hired a felon already convicted of fraud to stuff ballot boxes with bogus absentee ballots. Republicans from Mr. Trump down seem to be smitten with complete contempt for democratic principles. Folks, this ain't how America is supposed to work.
20
I was just going to write that this same thing happened in N Carolina.
3
I guess Wisconsin is going to take a page from North Carolina politics. Is this like killing your parents and then asking for percy because you are an orphan?
6
"Republicans, who will retain their legislative majorities under the Democratic governor, have defended the hastily introduced package of bills as a necessary check on executive power."
That's rich - coming from the same party who's defeated candidate abused his executive power on a regular basis when he was governor. It didn't seem to matter that not one Republican felt the need to have a "necessary check on executive power" when Walker was in charge.
6
What is being proposed is something that has never been done before. Namely, the use of the lame duck session to restrict the powers of the newly-elected governor and attorney general – the same powers enjoyed by the out-going republican governor and AG.
Furthermore, municipal clerks around the state oppose changing the election dates in the spring of 2019 because doing so will cost Wisconsin municipalities millions upon millions of dollars, amplify voter confusion and further strain staff resources of the clerks' offices.
If the republicans vote to enact these changes in the special session they may perhaps pay a high political price for their overreach.
2
Amazing. The barefaced, naked grab for power, even in loss, is staggering. We used to laugh at Zimbabwe and other tinpot governments, and we still do. Now one can toss the US in the mix too. Canada is not without issues, but money is simply not allowed to play much of a role, and having more than two parties makes a huge difference. Parties do not get to draw electoral boundaries, and they cannot accept corporate/union donations. They most certainly cannot restrict the powers of a duly elected government.
6
The Republicans don't believe in democracy and the fact that power is shared with the opposition party. They also don't believe in majority rule and favor gerrymandering, voter suppression, and any machinations and rule changes that allow them to hold onto power.
They are no longer the party of Lincoln. They are reprehensible and truly Trumpian!
2
Despicable. Similar nonsense is happening in Michigan - hope this finally makes it clear that Republicans could care less about voters' preferences.
4
Yet more proof that the Midwest is third-world flyover country.
3
The Republicans are so reprehensible these days that they only think they can win by gaming the system, lying, cheating, and engaging in pure propaganda, disinformation, and smear campaigns.
And why would that be? Because they know in their conniving, shriveled, cold hearts that their political agenda--dictated and paid for by the likes of the self-serving Kochs and wealthy donors--is so destructive to the middle class, this country, and planet that it would never get passed in a fair and level playing field.
Give this fight in WI a lot of press, so the entire country sees how corrupt and embarrassing Republicans are these days. Evidently, the GOP may know no shame, nor do their big donors, but I still think a majority of the rest of this country knows what cheating is and continues to find it disgusting.
A truth-telling press and fair-minded judges are all we have left, but if Trump and the Republicans have their way, a free press and competent judicial system will be a thing of the past--like decent and democratic Republican politicians already are!
9
A modest proposal...Why doesn't the Republican legislature simply suspend the position of Governor until the next general election with the option of continuing the suspension if another Democrat is elected at that time?
4
So it's hard to keep on fighting. And if the republicans succeed, I'm afraid it'll do 2 things - first of all curb the what Evers was elected to do, which is bad enough. But probably also give the republicans more ammunition - why re-elect Evers or any Democrat, when they can't get anything done? Maybe even a third thing - completely de-moralize the voting process - why bother voting at all? Sorry - it's been a real roller coaster in Wisconsin, and it's hard to keep on rallying for the good.
7
@Patricia You're playing in the hands of the republicans if you have a defeatist attitude. They want you to give up, to get tired, to stop voting. Don't give them what they want.
6
@J. Faye Harding
Actually, he is stealing a page from the WI Democrats' playbook. By forcing a recall vote (which failed) they forced Walker onto the ballot far more often than was necessary, creating "ballot fatigue"
"It's that near constant presence on the ballot, Democrats in the state said, that worked against Walker. Evers, while a constant campaigner, was not known for his charisma on the campaign trial, with some of his supporters even describing him a dull." https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/wisconsin-governor-scott-walker-tony-evers/index.html
WI still voted in strong Republican majorities in the legislature and they are just doing their job.
1
Back in August of 2012, just months before that year's presidential election, I was on the phone with a close, longtime friend who, like me, is a committed liberal Democrat.
With everything going on around and about Romney and his vice-presidential selection, Paul Ryan, I made the comment that I just wanted the whole thing over with so we could have another four years of Barack Obama's administration, and in so doing, I said that I'd come to the point in my life where I really believed that all Republicans are basically evil.
My friend was aghast that I would say that because they had brothers who were Republicans and they weren't evil. The friendship basically died starting then.
In the ensuing six years, and certainly in reading this article, I am even more convinced that any person or group of people that can vote Republican is truly evil. They don't care about others, unless they are like-minded. Instead, the past three years have proven, over and over again, just how sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and blissfully ignorant of science and facts the Republican party and it's members truly are. Oh, and shameless.
15
I agree. This isn’t about politics or policy; this is about deep, ingrained character traits.
7
With the Republicans always lurking in the shadows in attempting to seize power through fair means or foul we must heed going forward the advice of 19th Century author Thomas Charlton the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
6
Sore losers, huh?
8
What will these people say if the pass said CITIZEN LIMITS successfully, and the day the new administration takes over they just seek to undo said CITIZEN LIMITS.
Yet the Democrats in the Michigan House continue to vote for the Republican nominee for Speaker of the House (who will no doubt push the bills that were introduced after the election.)
The Detroit Free Press hopes that Republican Governor Snyder will veto the Republican "Smash and grab" bills. Maybe because they endorsed him in 2014 and don't want to look foolish.
Despicable! If you are considering visiting Wisconsin, please reconsider and let our republican legislators know why. Thanks.
5
@BBBear. The State of Wisconsin is a dairy state. I used to send Wisconsin cheese baskets as seasonal gifts to friends and family about this time of year. Not this year!
5
GOPIGOCRACY at its finest.
2
Well, when you can't win change the laws. Repubicans are shameless.
4
Gerrymandered voting districts return outsized Republican majorities to State houses and the Congress where actual majorities of the population elected Democratic governors. We have been engaged in the resulting battle in North Carolina for the past 2 years with the State Supreme Court holding the line against what the Republican legislature is trying to accomplish by stripping the governor of his traditional powers. Unfortunately, there is no citizen led path to putting a redistricting amendment on the ballot in NC so we remain stuck as long as the citizens remain so divided. Don't expect any of this to change any time soon.
5
I was utterly appalled to learn that elections in NC were allowed to proceed despite the voting districts being ruled to be unconstitutional. Because, god forbid, they delay the ejection by a month or two to put things right.
You now have an illegitimate, unconstitutional state government.
2
All this skulduggery by republicans to win elections and grab power demonstrates how weak and unappealing their social, political, and economic stance is.
Now that almost everything they stand for has been proven to be epic failures, they need to resort to cheating and name-calling to try and win elections.
Let's hope that they're just pathetic attempts to appear requisite to a country that has moved beyond their bigotry and petty rhetoric.
1
Brought to you by today's GOP. If you can't have power, obstruct it.
9
Will Americans ever learn? The GOP do not care about country, they don't care about the republic and they especially don't care about people who have different opinions. All they care about is money and power and not necessarily in that order.
This attitude is summarily destined to destroy the GOP.
They will eat their own, but it will be a slow death.
It's already started in the west.
8
I'm originally from Wisconsin and this situation makes me sick. There is a big demonstration going on today in Madison, the state capitol. How dare the Republicans do this. Walker is a weak man and a sore loser. This is terrible thing to do on his way out of office.
15
Time to indict for
1 Election Fraud
2 Conspiracy
This idea that the fundamental laws of the land don't matter has got to stop. Bloodless coups don't stay bloodless for ever. We've already lost multiple US journalists and at least peaceful protestor. How many deaths are OK for these evil people?
7
@Tony Reardon
"How many deaths are OK for these evil people?"
That is a question many are asking, and whose answer would probably shock us all.
2
Democracy in the Republicans' America. MAGA...
2
Same thing is happening in Michigan. Republicans trying to shrink power of new Democratic Governor. What a bunch of sore losers.
6
Residents of Wisconsin should consider posting videos on YouTube explaining the impact of Scott Walker and the Republicans. Perhaps if citizens, not politicians nor journalists, explain to the rest of the country why Evers, a Democrat was elected, other Americans can come to better understand what is going on in our country.
8
Hence the reason Mitch McConnell has been hastily packing judicial seats he denied Obama with Federalist Society loyalists. The Banana Republicans have already made it abundantly clear that the will of the people means nothing to them - and they want to make sure the judiciary backs them up when they get dragged into court.
7
Those dirty Republicans - how dare they? There is only one acceptable way for a political party to diminish the power of an incoming executive - make up bizarre accusations of foreign collusion and initiate endless investigations!
2
These stories did not need to be made up. The Trumps could easily refute them with the truth.
Show us the president's tax returns. Open up his non disclosure agreements including his divorce filings. Show us your e mails and the visitors logs at the White House and Mar a Lago.
His son made public statements that Trump had lots of money/business in Russia. Show us why we shouldn't think it influences his decisions as president.
Refusal to relinquish power when they loose an election is the behaviour of fascists. One has to call them out when they cheat and you have to look at places where they cheat in their own favor. They will continue to cheat when you dont oppose them.
6
What an utterly nauseating display of shamelessness.
4
It is ALEC’s doing. The Koch Bros. have spent billions prepping this legislation in states nationwide. The Dems need to start working as a team.
8
Have they no shame?! GOP, now the party of greed, in-our-face cheating, lust for power, and indecency.
8
Republicans in that state have lost their minds. They are so focused on power and control that they defy the will of the citizens of their state. They make a mockery of liberal democratic government and turn the rule of law on it’s head. They are acting disgracefully. God help that state if the Democrats do the same in return.
4
This is no different than the Democrats in Massachusetts removing the power of the Governor to appoint a Senator when Romney was in office, only to reinstate it when there was a Democrat in the office.
4
There is huge difference, the Times didnt bother reporting that because the Dems passed that law.
4
Of course. Former Wisconsinites definitely saw this coming. After Walker, a lot of us found refuge in Minnesota, where things were going the right way. Tony Evers is vital to the recovery of Wisconsin's apocalyptic infrastructure and education system. Please help, this cannot become a precedent. We miss pre-Walker Wisconsin badly...
15
Why do Republicans hate Democracy?
10
@Joshua G
Probably because a Democracy would mean they couldn't maintain control over all three branches of government.
Just guessing...
2
When Republicans lose in the field of good ideas at any level of government, they resort to some type of rigging the system: blocking voters from the voting booth, deleting registered voters and other sleazy tactics that show everyone what they stand for. It's not pretty.
What is it that is wrong with their base? How can they ignore it?
5
Republicans have no interest or intention of respecting the will of the people.
None of them.
Here in Georgia we had a moronic, incompetent bigot running for governor even as he refused to step aside from his Sec of State post, allowing him to pull the levers of state power to suppress voters, close polling stations, make up laws and count the votes the way he wanted them counted.
Even with his blatant cheating, he barely squeaked into office - and is lying through his yellow fangs, claiming a big win and widespread support from an election that he stole from the voters.
These Wisconsin Republicans are precisely the same. Lie, cheat, undermine and then, when the public finally throws them off, change the laws so the will of the people cannot be enforced.
I used to be pretty even in my voting between parties. I'll never, ever vote for a Republican again. For anything.
16
I hope Governor Elect Evers, the Democrats and the voters of the great state of Wisconsin fight this all the way. Start now and don't give up. The GOP are the biggest bunch of sore losers. They will eventually realize that their constant and often corrupt attempts to grab power at any cost will not be tolerated.
The GOP is now the party of NO. NO compromise. NO working with others to achieve something for the people. They just Obstruct and want to impose their agenda.
9
They became the party of NO with Newt Gingrich. It just got worse with Mitch McConnell, and it's peaking with the state legislatures of North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Considering most states constitutions are modeled on the federal one, the moves in Wisconsin and Michigan would be shot down by a conservative US Supreme Court. A court which strictly interpret the Constitution and rule that such measures violate "checks and balances:.
The GOP wanted a conservative Supreme Court, and now they will find out that such a court will rule against them, where one branch tries t o usurp the power of an other. Be it at the state or federal level.
Of course this is provided that jurists at the state, and federal level, put a state or federal court puts "rule of law" above that of politics and partisanship.
6
This happens because power has be stolen from the people by money -- corporations and their politicians. People have a right to be heard and represented. It should be tax deductible for ALL citizens to travel (transport, lodge and per diem) to local capitals and to Washington DC once a year to protest and be heard by "our" public servants in government -- and by "public servants" I mean our representatives, governors, senators and president.
2
Michigan Republicans lost statewide races (governor, SOS and AG) but thanks largely to gerrymandering, they still control both houses of the legislature and are attempting the same underhanded politics as Wisconsin Republicans.
Fortunately, the writing is on the wall for them in Michigan, more accurately in our constitution. Gerrymandering will end in 2021 because of the overwhelmingly approved ballot measure that amends our constitution and establishes a citizens committee for drawing district lines.
Republicans will still win seats, maybe even majorities in the legislature, but since our general elections will be much more competitive and relevant, they and Democrats will have to appeal to moderates to win. We're going to have many fewer radical partisans in our legislature, a major step back to democracy.
8
Fighting "Bob" La Follette, Wisconsin's original Progressive.
"America is not made, but is in the making...Mere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong." -- "Fighting" Bob La Follette, "The Perils of Passive Citizenship", Speech in Washington, D.C. (August 11, 1924)
"Since the birth of the Republic, indeed almost within the last generation, a new and powerful factor has taken its place in our business, financial and political world and is there exercising a tremendous influence. The existence of the corporation, as we have it with us today, was never dreamed of by the fathers…The corporation of today has invaded every department of business, and its powerful but invisible hand is felt in almost all activities of life. The effect of this change upon the American people is radical and rapid. The individual is fast disappearing as a business factor and in his stead is this new device, the modern corporation." -- Wisconsin's "Fighting" Bob La Follette, “The Danger Threatening Representative Government” Speech (1897) (Directed at the Koch Brothers of today, and their political toadies, like Scott Walker.)
7
The Republicans have indeed become the party with no sense of decency. McCarthy would be proud.
4
what happens next, do we change the way we pick winners and losers in our sports teams when they play, so instead of the team with the highest score at the end being the winner, it could be the one with the lowest score. this is just crazy.
1
@RickyThe way the Packers are playing, they might try that.
And of course if the roles were reversed and Democrats were trying to pull off the same thing Republicans are doing now, the president would be tweeting insanely about yet another "witch hunt".
Whatever happened to the electoral process and our Democracy? .... You call this winning?
2
Now that the Democrats control the U.S. House, they are in a position to discipline the Wisconsin state legislature if the local Republicans go out of their way to diss the new governor.
This is really the time for Republicans to make nice.
5
If there's one thing Republicans truly hate, it's democracy. That's why Putin's efforts to help Trump win did not offend them. All that matters is winning and, short of that, power. That's it. Absolutely disgusting.
21
It is sad to watch the extinction of a species. The wounded flail and grab until all finally ends. The brand of Republicans Wisconsin is retiring will not be back. Tax theft and science denial are their tombstone.
8
Fitzgerald and Voss are as slimy as they come.They have no principles other than do whatever they can to maintain power. Their phony excuses about "principles of republican (small r ) government) and "equality of the branches of government" are pure garbage. Hey clowns, respect the voters of WIsconsin.
15
One of the greatest parts of our system of government is its peaceful transfer of power. This is something the Republican Party has begun to erode in the blind desire to retain power. in 2008 rather than proclaiming that congress would support our new President, work to remedy the financial crisis or curb the massive job losses, Sen. Mitch McConnell declared his colleagues primary goal was to make President Obama a one term President. If that doesn't tell you that all the GOP stands for you aren't paying attention. If that doesn't scare you, then echoes of the Soviet Union should. We are slowly turning from a government of the people, by the people and for the people to one of the party, by the party and of the party.
68
@ICEBRG - exactly - this is the real problem in a nutshell - we've lost the peaceful transfer of power by the Republican party while the Democratic party still believes in the peaceful transfer of power.
2
First, if the Republicans in Wisconsin weren't so rabid, they might have won the election. So this poor showing doesn't advance their cause.
Second, it's not clear the legislature can pass laws that favor Republicans and then alter them to disfavor Democrats. That is invidious.
Finally, the governor will be in office when the new congressional districts are drawn. Depriving him of influence is usurpation.
The presumption is staggering.
13
The Republicans play hard ball. I don’t know what the Democrats are playing, but they better start matching the tenacity of the Republicans. All I hear from the Democrats is, “why can’t we be friends” bipartisanship appeals.
10
Just look at what Democratic leaders got in return for 'playing nice' and maintaining order and civility in government. It really is time to start playing hardball.
5
@Glenn Thomas Exactly. I think we should be deeply skeptical of a party that was reduced to having almost no power, with their opposition taking full advantage of their dominant position at every turn, and now that that party is regaining some power, all it wants to talk about is working together in the "spirit of bipartisanship"?
1
@Ed Watters
Like how a bully behaves - until you show up with your posse.
1
Republicans tried this exact same thing in NC even going to far as to get a bunch of crazy ballot initiatives to limit Roy Coopers power. They don't care about this country. They care about power and themselves. This is who they are. This is what they do. It's shameful how many people continue to fall prey to the Republican con.
20
Just more proof that Republicans are pure evil, as if we needed it.
15
Republican criminals at at it again. Fair and just is never, ever in their vocabularies nor in their souls.
Corrupt, steal, lie, fabricate, hate, fear, criminal, pervert are the language they live by, teach, and preach.
Continue to vote these despicable thugs out of office and when warranted indict, convict, and lock away for many years.
11
Perhaps you can point to the similarly outraged reaction on the part of the left when MA Dems screwed around with the special election rules to deny the Republican Governor the opportunity to appoint a US Senator? What’s that you say? Such power grabs are never a problem when they’re initiated by Democrats?
So, let’s be clear: a Legislature wishes to clip a governor’s wings. This is news ... why?
In our (small r) republican system of government, executives should not have the ability to act unilaterally on much of anything; ruling with a pen and a phone is always deeply problematic.
Put simply, the Legislature trusted that Governor Walker would not abuse the power they gave him. They don’t trust Evers – and properly so. If he wants to do things, he will need to get bills passed. THAT is how government is supposed to work.
Stop whining.
@Michael - That was more than 15 years ago. And the Democrats witnessed the unintended consequences and I think learned from them as they've not done anything like it since. The Republicans have been pulling these stunts since 2008, and it's ongoing.
No, they are not the same. No, the Democrats are not just like the Republicans in how they subvert and try to destroy our national ideals. Time to stop trying to equate them and start working at preventing the Republicans from destroying our country.
10
Will never stop whining about loss of Democratic norms
1
@Michael Not at all the same thing.
Not only did Walker lose the Wisconsin election, the Republicans lost the majority in the Legislature. They are moving to pass limits on Evers that almost certainly would not be passed by their successors.
THIS is not how government is supposed to work.
2
This is why I laugh at Republicans who chide Democrats (and independents) that if they don't like what's going on they should vote. We do vote. And even when those votes overcome conservative efforts to suppress votes generally, the GOP then seeks to redefine rules further. As others have pointed out, this is precisely what Republicans did in North Carolina.
This is also, obviously, what McConnell did vis-a-vis Merrick Garland. For all his talk of how "the voters" should be able to weigh in on who should appoint Scalia's replacement his argument was disingenuous from beginning to end. First, "the voters" had already decided that Obama would appoint Justices if a vacancy occurred. Secondly, McConnell cannot make an appeal to the popular will while transferring a pick from a popularly elected president to one that is demonstrably popularly despised. Third, before election day, the GOP would not even concede that if Clinton won, they would allow her to appoint the Justice of her choosing.
These tactics demonstrate that the only "will" McConnell and the GOP seem to truly care about is their own. This is similar to the way conservatives seem to believe that a "balanced" SCOTUS is one in which conservative justices are in perpetual majority. They don't want to win votes and it's possible at this point that they don't even want to win elections. Win or lose, Republicans just seem to want power for its own sake.
27
So the Legislature in Wisconsin thinks they can subvert the will of the voters by passing self-serving legislation. Well, what goes around, comes around. Evers gets a veto in, what, about 29 days from now? By next election they'll have figured out why this wasn't such a good idea.
3
Nothing new or uncommon. Similar things have been happening at the state level in at least Michigan and North Carolina (the latter deemed as free as Iran according to the Electoral Integrity Project). This isn’t to say it is any less despicable. Only that if the blue wave is to have any effect in saving our Republic it needs to prove it has staying power.
3
I was just at the capital and there are many Wisconsinites there to speak against this egregious use of power. There are enough people there that three overflow rooms were full with people in the hallways too. I hope updates to this story include pictures of engaged and enraged citizens trying to exercise their rights, while republicans try to squash their voice- yet again.
7
These are Republican "political maneuvering"s in these states and in North Carolina. There is no political equivalence with Democrats on this issue. It's just bad form, period.
4
These proposed measures, especially moving the date of the presidential primary, strike me as the products of rather sick minds. What kind of person even conceives of such undemocratic measures? Have they no shame, have they no dignity? Also baffling: don't they realize how such measures can come back to haunt? Remember how the national GOP worked to push through presidential term limits after FDR's run of four victories in a row, but then regretted not being able to run Ronnie R, senile though he be by that time, for a third term? Or the Scott Walker tribe, who after the election two years ago, pushed through legislation to curb recount measures and now, ironically, were unable to have a recount in the Walker/Evers battle because of their legislation. The lack of dignity and self-respect is frightening!
5
I'm truly flummoxed these days when I try to figure out what Republicans stand for - their foreign policy is missing, their domestic "family values" are clearly bygone, and they no longer care about spending us into the deepest holes. They don't do real conservative things. All they seem to want is punishment for Democrats and to make the nation white only. That's a failing "policy" in the long run.
5
Hey, it's the new improved Republican Party. Bring on the attorneys and fight for your lives. Because with climate change, it is literally a fight for life.
5
Republican: it’s like having an infestation. Once they settle in you have to fight them tooth and nail to get them out. Like termites. And then you see all the damage done to your house.
If THIS horrible attempt at a power grab does not inspire every Wisconsinite to vote every last one out then nothing will. Then, if you live there, you have to accept every parasitic action they take against you. You can’t blame any longer for what they do to you: you must blame yourselves.
5
But I thought that Mitch McConnell said that *losers* go home and *winners* get to legislate - or something to that effect. Protest? 100,000 teachers and state employees walked off the job and protested Scott Walker's Act 10 which basically ended unions for teachers and government employees. Did not matter to the Wisconsin Republicans. Labor protested 'Right to Work' legislation. Did not matter. Nothing matters to Wisconsin Republicans except what they want! Despicable.
15
They have no shame.
4
Classic Republican strategy: when you can't win fair and square, just cheat!
9
Walker, Fitzgerald, Voss, et al are crooks. They have filled government positions with inept cronies and their grandsons, made deals with the devil to harm the environment for a quick buck, gutted services to the disabled, handicapped funding for education, and made local democracy a joke. Don't like a cell phone tower in the middle of your municapility's town square? Too bad; you now have no say. Shame on them for their utter contempt for goodness, ethics, and a vision of the future. History will not judge them well.
3
Oh yes, the GOP, the Party of Putin. Governor-Elect Tony, take them to court!
6
The GOP'd long-running war on democracy... Looser take all, or so it would seem.
7
Republicans who argue that this is a necessary check on the executive's power are not arguing for a similar national law. Why do they need it now as a Republican is thrown out of the office by the voters?
The Republican in the Senate appear to have a three vote majority. Hopefully there a handful of patriotic members in that group. Otherwise, so much for Wisconsin cheese this holiday season.
10
This should be against the law. It is undemocratic and un-American.
16
@scotteroo
But it's the Republican way.
3
Gotta VENT, New York Times.
Let the Democratic soon-to-be-incumbent take the rascals to court. I think we've seen this before. There's a word for it--you see that word every now and then. The word is--
--CHICANERY.
The dodges, tricks, maneuverings whereby a MINORITY party--
--twists and turns, wriggles, writhes with a view to claiming the perks and powers of a MAJORITY party.
I believe today's GOP DOES have a few principles. To wit:
(1) the culture wars. Appealing to conservative voters.
(2) tax breaks for the exceedingly rich.
Number (1) plays very strong in many places in these United States. Never doubt it!
Number (2) plays very strong in a FEW places. Notably--
--the living room of the Koch brothers. In whichever of their many, luxuriously appointed domiciles they might happen to be sitting.
Sorry! Cheap shot! I don't KNOW that they have more than ONE domicile. Betcha dollars to donuts, however--
--it ain't a shack.
To resume:
Today's GOP is (when push comes to shove) offering the vast mass of American voters--
--precious little.
Hence the twisting and turning discernible in sundry legislatures that ARE controlled by the GOP. And THAT (of course) comes of assiduous gerrymandering--meticulously carried out while the Democrats were thinking about something else.
Take 'em to court, Democrats.
Take 'em all to court.
Fiat iustitia says the old tag. Let justice be done--
--though the heavens fall.
Well then. Let 'em fall.
6
Yet another cynical move on the part of republicans to interfere with the will of the citizens of this country.
Contemptuous, criminally minded behavior.
Long after Trump is out of office the republican party will continue to behave like the Mafia unless they are flushed from their offices.
6
In case there were any doubts remaining, the Republican Party is completely opposed to the idea of Democracy! Just look at all of the examples of unjustified either actual or attempted power grabs by the GOP. Since they are determined to ignore the will of the majority, it is imperative that we grow that majority even more in the face of these repeated attempts to subvert the will of the people.
6
The only reason Republicans hold any power is by lying, gerrymandering, corporate and dark money, voter suppression, court appointees and flat out cheating!
"Republican" in all of its forms is sociopathic and undemocratic. We MUST fight back!
15
Shameful attack on Democracy
5
Politicians in power do what is good for them. It is stupid to be otherwise. People should always be after thought. Whatever they do for public, it is always part of their interest. Don’t complain if you are not in power, learn how to hit back not 10 times harder but 100 times harder. Always, outdo the opponent.
Is this how the republican party intends to win new members? Pathetic.
5
In the dictionary next to the word "cheat": (synonym - Republican)
4
This may backfire for Republicans in Wisconsin, Mich and USA.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heading into the 2020 state and presidential elections voters will likely increase their anger toward the Right and toward Trump.
"Power corrupts. Absolute power, corrupts, absolutely"
========================================
5
Wisconsin R. !!
Here we go again.
And again "Have you no shame?"
3
@boulder
Thanks for the reminder of where 'tailgunner Joe' came from.
The humane thing to do would be to accept the results of the election, not try to manipulate the system so it fits political ideology, which is subjective and a matter of outlook. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin act like their perspective is the “right” one. That position is the problem with today’s politics - i.e., positional thinking. The only time when drastic measures are needed is when there is a real, not imagined, threat to democracy.
2
“Wisconsin law, written by the Legislature and signed into law by a governor, should not be erased by the potential political maneuvering of the executive branch,”
Says the speaker of the republican State Assembly, a group that supported Trump's election.
So how does she feel about Trump's political maneuvering in the executive branch, with his major efforts to erase laws previously written by the legislature?
Is she writing to her republican Senator Ron Johnson in Washington requesting he push forward efforts to stop Trump from erasing existing legislation via executive order?
Me thinks not...there are no mirrors in the Halls of Hypocrisy.
5
The Republicans could save themselves the trouble of calling these inconvenient special sessions by simply amending the state constitution so that only Republicans are eligible to serve as governor.
3
How is that democratic? The message the Dems need to spread is that the Republican party is in opposition to the will and vote of the people. They oppose the people. Period.
Same thing happened in North Carolina.
3
It's wonderful that the Republican legislature is restricting the new governor's powers.
Democrats tend to destroy states, and Wisconsin deserves to continue to be strong and healthy.
@Rolf
I'm hoping that this comment is meant as satire, but in case it's not, please look up two recent prime examples of states that completely demolish your argument:
California vs. Kansas
5
It is time for Republicans to take back their party. There must be some true conservatives out there who could run against these people in the primaries. People who believe in democracy. People who are for the American people not just the top percent. Come on people.
2
@Carabella
This is the republican party. This is how "true conservatives" behave. The "grand old" republican party would have prevented women from voting, and wanted you to own slaves. They wanted to make sure no regulations prevented your children from working in factories. Nowadays, they want to make sure their corporate friends don't have to bother with regulations, and can destroy federal parklands. Nothing has changed except the players.
The problem here is that in a state wide vote you can't gerrymander yourself to victory. Wisconsin republicans are probably the foremost experts in modern data driven gerrymandering. They manage to win 2/3 of their house seats with 48.5 % of the vote. Not being satisfied with that sleight of hand they realized that in the Governor's race they had no ability to gerrymander a victory so they do the next best thing. Attempt to neuter the new democratic governor.
10
@Andre
Better than the Govenor's race is the race to Govenor's bridge....then onward to signpost corner
Oh, this is so familiar: Governor Roy Cooper (D) here in North Carolina has been the target of just this kind of autonomy constriction since taking office in 2017. Good luck, Governor Evers!
8
We have everything except for running gun battles in the streets . . . and we're confident in time that we'll have those in hand as well.
Welcome to the outcome of global economies...ignoring workers for 50 years, the jobs sent overseas while capital spread its wings to shade entire continents with ease. A press reflecting only the polite norms of a political world that no longer exists; they're not believed, or trusted.
A con man from a reality tv show makes a few vague promises about bringing back lost jobs and scoops up the Presidency with ease. A little anti-immigrant stuff doesn't hurt.
But still no one wants to believe ignoring workers caused this hate.
They say "white supremacy" elected him.
Walker/Trump supporters say they are 'patriots.'
The truth is somewhere in between.
77,000 workers in 4 blue wall states who voted for Obama not once, but twice, suddenly became 'white supremacists" and elected Trump? 77,000 votes and Hillary would be President today.
We used to have a middle class. One for workers, too. Not just for professionals, or the last big labor unions: law enforcement.
The divide happening now is a backlash at the loss of a life with dignity: a modest house, a vacation once a year after working hard. My kids don't understand the country that used to be at all. Not at all.
But America didn't care about its workers.
And now....this.
This didn't have to be. We're better than that.
Evers has his work cut out for him.
Good luck, sir
5
if the Democrats didn't show up, would that prevent a vote by not having a quorum? Illinois is a nice place for a month-long vacation.
2
This is Republicans' answer to the looming end of gerrymandering. More dismantling of democracy. This will not stand.
6
GOP is also doing this in Michigan lame duck session. They also have put up bills to alter the three proposals overwhelmingly approved by the voters which included ending Gerrymandering and expanding voting registration measures. Sheesh!!
4
We must disenthrall ourselves of the notion that the Republican Party is a conservative political party. Rather, pure and simple, it is an authoritarian cult.
4
Once again, the Party of God, the Republicans, show that they believe themselves to be speaking for the Lord and that they are the leaders of a theocratic state.
1
It is a blatant attempt to subvert the will of the voter. Shameful.
3
Republicans in Wisconsin are a Koch Bros. drone army. They’re a long way from representing the people. Wisconsin is awake. Now they have to take back the power from the clutches of the super-elite.
4
It reminds me of what happened in North Carolina with their new governor.
Republicans cheat , lie and steal and now it happens again in Wisconsin.When do the democrats learn to never trust the republicans?
To obstruct and corrupt has become the modus operandi for Scott Walker and his followers. Shame on them!
5
This is outrageous and should be outlawed. Maybe the democratic governor can get something passed to limit any new legislation during the lame duck period, so they can't pass stuff on their way out the door.
I remember when this was done in North Carolina, that other bastion of democracy and I"m glad it's still tied up in court.
It certainly shows the contempt Republicans have for democracy, that they show their deep belief that only Republicans should be allowed to govern, even on their way out.
I hope the voters take heed. When you think of all the barriers Republicans have erected to voting, through the gerrymander, voter ID laws, local rules changes at the 11th hour, one would actually think they only want Republican votes to matter.
That last sentence was facetious.
8
As in North Carolina, this is a sign of further decline in a failing, out of touch, and increasingly irrelevant political party--a party that has become terrified of democracy itself and of the core principles of representative government.
103
I fine example of what the GOP has become. I do not associate with people who support republicans. You are known by the company you keep.
10
I’ve worked in Wisconsin state government for nearly thirty years. We’ve had four different governors during that time representing both parties. When someone I and my coworkers didn’t vote for was elected we sucked it up, adjusted to the new administration’s policies and procedures, and carried on our work for the people of the state. We didn’t stamp our feet and try to sabotage his programs or undercut his appointees, because we respected the democratic process that put him in the office. Our Republican legislators might want to think twice about disrespecting that process now, in case one of their own should become governor again in the future.
123
So the same Republicans who say they want limited Federal government in favor of stronger state and local government now want to limit the power of the governor... just because it's a Democrat and not a Republican. I am beyond tired of the shameless hubris and hypocrisy of today's GOP.
One thing that the past few days have shown this country is that there is a world of difference between the Republican party that found it's representation in someone with the conduct and character of George H.W. Bush vs. the one today that supports the likes of Trump, Roy Moore, and Steve Miller. Today's Republican party has neither morals nor conscience.
1483
@Stephen
Oh come on now. When did the GOP ever have morals or a conscience since TR?
74
@Reality Dwight David Eisenhower.
27
@Reality
Eisenhower. Think back to his farewell speech. It warned us of the military industrial complex.
59
This is why people do not trust republicans.
33
The Democratic Party needs to start building up to running on a pro-democracy platform for 2020 at the state and federal level. There is so much ammo for them to use. They can easily paint the GOP as anti-democracy, because they are and their actions repeatedly show it. I want to see the Democrats 10 point plan of unassailable actions they promise to take at the state and federal level to streamline voting, get money out of politics, end gerrymandering, etc. It's a great reason for people to go to the polls. Democrats, the Republican are handing you an issue which your set of actions could get 80% support. Take it!
835
@Djt - Great idea. Some slogans to the Dems started:
Restore Democracy
Restore Integrity
Based On Principles
I can already see the T-shirt, that says Make America Great Again, with the word "Great" crossed out, and the following written below:
Proud
Honest
Free
Democratic
Representative
62
I would support such a platform.
13
@Djt
Great suggestions. Then again, look who our leaders are: Schumer and Pelosi. It's hopeless. Without tough, bold, effective leadership, the Democrats stand a good chance of losing.
5
Today's Republican party is about one thing and one thing only: power. Their rhetoric and ideology is a cloak to hide the naked desire for power.
It is not a conservative party; it is a power-grabbing faction of our country and as all factions always do, it will cause harm. A disrupted society is easy for thugs and those who are obsessed with a rapacious desire for wealth to get their own way. the party's political positions, such as gun control, anti-abortion, destruction of the separation of church and state, are all aimed at gaining control of the country so it can be redesigned according to their own delusional, anti-rational, fact-less, corrupt and exploitative views. everyone wants to be rich; Republicans have figured out how to get rich for themselves, and it does not include living in a country without an underclass.
592
@rjb Totally agree. The comment made by Lindsay Graham at the end of the Kavanaugh hearing illustrates. As he is foaming at the mouth, he says "All you want is power. I hope to god you never get it." He says exactly what they are all about.
36
@rjb
Term limits for Congress would be a start. Neither party will ever embrace the idea because they have much to lose where as the American people would have much to gain.
16
@Pen vs. Sword Term limits were a Tea Party favorite until they primaried the more seasoned and reasonable folk out of their party. New hands are not necessarily cleaner hands. We need to get beyond "money is speech" and "corporations are people." Reasonable limits on campaign spending are a must. The reality is that until we do this, a representative or senator––even with the best of intentions––must hit the ground fund-raising as soon as they're elected.
19
What jerks these Republicans are! They're control freaks and certainly not committed to our country's best welfare....and they call the Democrats poor losers over Trump. Wisconsin Republicans: Grow Up!
4
Standard operating principle of the GOP party of Tump and Walker.
Cheat to win.
Cheat if you win.
Cheat if you don't.
14
Even in Wisconsin...so sad. The Republican Party, once "the Party of Lincoln," is now the Party of Thugs.
19
@RR
In Wisconsin... Chicken theives are held in higher regard than Republicans.
so typical of white gop politicians. change the rules mid game to benefit yourself.
55 yr old white guy here. you guys get off my team.
21
How typically Republican. Shame is not in their DNA. They are just like their Russian pals. Start with intimidation, dirty tricks, and once in power accuse your opposition of intimidation and dirty tricks. Making America proud.....
10
What a bunch of babies.
6
Another treasonous step to hijack democracy.
6
Same nonsense the Republican-lead legislature tried to pull in North Carolina. What a bunch of fascists.
10
It has been clear for 2 years now that Republicans have chosen a criminal path to remain in power at all cost.
Following Trump’s example, greed, obstruction and corruption are now the main ingredients of the Republican party. No changes have been made after their major losses in the most recent election, they just have become determined to change America in a corrupt powerhouse, almost identical to Putins Russia, Xi’s China and all small time dictators in many small countries who see their chance to grab the money, ruin their country and then escape.
What Wisconsin is doing and what has been going on for quite awhile in North Carolina, Florida,Louisiana etc. is a systematic undermining of American values by mostly Christian and Catholic voters who are willing to forgo all Christian principles to be able to dictate what the others should think and do.
Separation of church and state, once one of the most important sections of the Constitution has been torn apart and ripped up by of all people Christians.
They have become the same like all other extremist religions and their leaders their instigators should therefor be prosecuted by the government in the same way our government rightfully prosecutes other extremist religious leaders.
538
@Johan D
That this post is has a large number of recommends is sufficient in itself to condemn democracy and any notions of diminishing the institutions that impede it, such as the electoral college and Senate.
@Johan D
The Democrats have done a poor job these past 2 years of keeping the Republicans in check. Our leadership is weak and ineffective... Schumer and Pelosi. Both should resign before January and allow new, bold leadership bring us to victory in 2020.
4
@Johan D - actually more than ten years - more like 25 - since back when Clinton was elected. Remember Whitewater? YEARS of investigation, with absolutely nothing behind it. Nobody charged, nobody went to jail - just millions spent trying to weaken Clinton. That’s where it started: they only got more ruthless with Obama...
12
This is not news. From requiring rural voters to have a street address where there are none, to disenfranchise in order to Native Americans, to closing almost all polling places in non-"white" areas, to rejecting ballots on a wholesale basis, and on and on, the Republicans have worked hard to make sure non-Republicans can't vote.
15
Once again, Republicans show their complete contempt for voters. A party that once competed on the basis of ideas now has to rig everything in order to overcome the unpopularity of their policy agenda.
44
I’m a Wisconsinite. The Walker regime, we thought, was finally done, but no.
Scott Walker has diminished everything in this state from natural resources, voting rights, public education, healthcare expansion, union rights, and more. Walker decimated union rights and then was recalled, and unfortunately won - much to many people wishing they had not voted him in at that time.
It’s been a downhill, corrupt battle ever since - but finally people came to their senses in November and kicked this no college degree, non caring for the common person out. Tony Evers fought a hard battle and won.
Today we are once again protesting Walker - just goes to show you what a turmoil he’s created - even on the way out.
The hearings will be over crowded, the legislators phone lines are jammed, and our voices once again, in a Wisconsin winter will be loud.
Voss, from the Assembly, and Fitzgerald from the Senate are as mean and sneaky, undermined with Walker going out as they were with him coming in - but we will not allow them to shut us up. Their day will come, too. They are an embarrassment to our state and to democracy.
This is not the Wisconsin we grew up in or want for our grandchildren. The Republicans absolutely have no shame.
1036
@MIMA-Scott Walker was supported by 9 PACs underwritten by Koch brother money and the state was (ab)used with A.L.E.C. written legislation to favor corporate interests. Much to rue; hopefully Wisconsinites will stand firm against this latest assault on their government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/02/18/scott-walker-cut-541-million-in-taxes-last-year-now-his-state-will-miss-a-108-million-debt-payment
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/10/voter-suppression-may-have-won-wisconsin-for-trump.html
http://www.electionprojection.com/latest-polls/wisconsin-presidential-polls.php
86
@MIMA thank you, amd good luck to you and your fellow Wisconsinites as you make your voices heard.
84
@MIMA
I live across the lake in Michigan where ALEC/Red State lame duck nullifying of elections has become common practice.
They have a stunt they pull by bringing up a version of the legislation that they know will pass and by tossing on any appropriation makes it referendum proof.
This year they are targeting not just things they might have missed before, they are targeting ballot measures that passed by overwhelming numbers. This includes minimum wage and gerrymandering.
I have no confidence Snyder will find a spine before he leaves office and will once more whine but rubber stamp the anti-democratic maneuvers being made by those who have been voted out of office and the intention of crippling the incoming Governor and State Attorney General.
53
Same thing they did in North Carolina.
Lie. Cheat. Steal.
Today's GOP is truly, in fact and in deed, no longer beholden to the American people. Except if those people are named Adelson, Koch, Walton, Uihlein or Mercer.
36
Dreadful, shameless - and spreading fungus-like from state to state.
A new level of rules and regulations need to be set in place against this type of political terrorism by the GOP.
3
One word only comes to mind . . . craven.
8
@MCV207. Oh, I can think of more words than that...
1
Maybe voters in Wisconsin should order some yellow vests.
18
You can be a patriotic American who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law or you can be a Republican.
24
This is how the game is played in partisan politics since the founding of the Republic regardless of which party is in power- republic and democratic alike. The action taken by the GOP should not be surprised and the Democrats should not feel indignant about it. The body politics of gaining on the other party while you can is rough and one should get out of the kitchen if you can't stand the heat.
23
@Ted chyn
And where is the venue for creating wise legislation and public policy, then? We are sick of these political games.
110
@Ted chyn Um....? So you like anti-democratic values. Elections are supposed to have consequences for the party that loses, they should not be allowed to use the democratic process to cement themselves in power by flouting the will of the voters.
Scott Walker had his shots and the people finally turned him out.
142
@Ted chyn To claim equivalency between the two parties when it comes to power-grabbing is specious and naive at best.
178
This is unfortunately not surprising. Republicans exclusively represent the wealthiest 0.1% of American persons (individual and corporate), and have nothing to offer the other 99.9%. If Republicans can't win by lying sufficiently to convince enough people to vote against their own interests, they can only stack the deck through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and appointing judges who pledge to represent the interests of their party and its donors.
If Republicans still don't win, they try to steal power from the winner by passing laws to restrict it, or by obstructing everything the winner tries to do. Republicans no longer care about the country, the democratic institutions and Constitution they swear to uphold, or even the voters they purport to represent. Their only priorities are Self, Party, and Donors.
It's similarly not surprising that increasing numbers of voters are waking up to the reality that the current Republican party is intellectually and morally bankrupt, with no ideas other than cutting taxes for the wealthy and destroying any government program or service that benefits non-wealthy Americans. That is not a winning agenda, especially as wages, job security, and standard of living continue to deteriorate for more and more people-- all of which the Republican agenda aggressively promotes and encourages.
What will it take to finally consign the current unsustainable Republican agenda to the ash heap of history?
351
@Ted Could not agree more!
8
@Ted
Bravo, well said! Please say it again in a few more venues. To respond to your closing question, it will take lifelong commitments to support better education, honest journalism, organizing, and action. It will take generosity of spirit and talking to our neighbors more than we've been doing for too long. It will take decades. But hey, the trek to top Mt Everest started with a single step.
13
@Ted
These Rkons we see and hear must be just paid to do their hateful divisiveness. This is their job. They do not care what harm they do to their local communities or to the USA generally. What terrible people they are--not citizens who care for their neighborhoods or for the nation generally.
They are the worst we have. Not to malign some salesmen, but these provocateurs will sell you a dangerous product that will kill you and your family.
7
Isn't it time to label the Republican Party for what it is? It's unAmerican.
16
@E
wasn't there at one time a Committee on UnAmerican Activities? Maybe there should be one investigating the republican party & elections that are questionable.
2
The Republican party is totalitarian in nature and opposed not to democrats but to Democracy.
24
@Neil. Opposed not to Democrats but to democracy. FIFY.
And Democrats are not encircling the State house with torches why?
Cut off all exits and see what they do. They move forward you move forward.
1
There is nothing this corrupt, power-abusing party won't stoop to to "win." Today's Republican leadership is every bit as ethically bankrupt as its lying leader.
20
The longer arc of history will prove that the Republican Party is a party of the past and not of the future. They are undemocratic, unashamedly so. They are mostly old, white men who have yet to get the memo that their paradigm will not sustain us. It wasn't going to be easy, it's amazing what some will do to fight any dismantling of their archaic world view, vestiges of the Middle Ages. But alas, so will they die and they will not be remembered as great leaders but refuge in the trash heap.
6
Have these people no shame?
6
Republicans keep revealing who they are. They are not patriotic, they do not defend democratic principles, and they only respect the wishes of their donors -- not the people they supposedly represent. They have shown that the only way they can prevail is to cheat early and often. This is yet another example. How can they even look at themselves at the mirror in the morning?
481
@Julz Traveler, because power justifies _everything_ to Republicans.
9
Wisconsin has moved from a progressive state to one ruled by those who would undermine basic democratic premises in every way, from extreme gerrymandering to stripping power of a position they lost. This is reprehensible and thuggish behavior by "public servants" who are now baldly instruments of their ideological party only, ignoring the voice of the voters, attempting to undermine the future. It's ugly, shameful, and childish—a Trumpist tantrum: "So what if we lost the governor/ attorney general positions, we'll just ruin it for you!" Step back, Wisconsin Republicans! Everyone is watching you and no one will forget your hideous behavior. I hope there is a lawful remedy to stop this.
38
The Republican Party has become metastatic. Let’s hope that the courts will overrule yet another attempt by this failing party to retain its cancerous control over the state.
2
These Republicans have no shame. It's convenient to say elections have consequences when it suits their purpose, but when the election hasn't gone their way they subvert democracy. I hope the good people of Wisconsin refuse to stand for this. This is a replay of North Carolina and it stinks.
13
Typical Wisconsin Republicans. Give em an inch and they take a country mile. News flash: The people of Wisconsin rejected your statewide candidates and your petty, special interest oriented wholesale brainwashing of Wisconsin from a nice part of the heartland into a conservative wasteland with crumbling roads, bad schools, shredded unions and depressed dairy farmers all while you pocketed millions from right-wing millionaires and billionaires. Respect the will of the voters who chose Democratic candidates to run your state. Stop this power hungry oligarchy nonsense and go back to Midwestern nice.
371
@Brad-Agreed. Walker's "accomplishments" in Wisconsin:
50th in the US in Short Term Job Growth - U.S. Chamber of Commerce
49th in Economic Outlook - Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
49th in Job Growth through 2016 - Forbes Magazine
45th in the Nation in Wage Growth - Bureau of Labor Statistics
44th in the Nation in Job Growth - Bureau of Labor Statistics
42nd Best State for Business - Forbes Magazine
56
@Ann-Worth noting that the Koch Brothers' funded nine PACs and A.L.E.C. to put Republicans in power and rewrite Wisconsin laws to favor their businesses. Under their outsized influence, Wisconsin became an incubator for extreme positions that effectively curtailed the State's positive momentum across most growth and quality of life indices.
http://realkochfacts.com/the-koch-brothers-and-americans-for-prosperity-in-wisconsin/
26
@Brad Agree. I just wish you Texans could have shaken off the despicable Ted Cruz and elected O'Rourke.
27
This is the continuation of the effort by the Republican Party to remove power from the people and place it securely and squarely in party hands. This is contrary to the notions of democracy. Mitch McConnell is perhaps the most frequent offender on this front, all the while talking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, with Republicans in power, McConnell is fond of saying, "Elections have consequences." On the other, we see a series of behaviors designed to purposefully limit the consequences of elections unfavorable to Republicans, such as the behavior described in this article - Wisconsin and North Carolina. To Republicans apparently, elections have consequences if favorable to the party. If not, the consequences are to be diminished, when possible. On almost every front, our democracy is being tested. I'm confident we will withstand the test but it's troubling, at best.
260
@Jason Not so much in "party hands" as in the hands of their .01 percent donors, but basically, yes.
7
@Jason Mitch needs to be taken out to a field & shot (hypothetically), this is my analogy as to what level fo disaster he has brought to the GOP, the USA and DC
6
@Jason, doesn't this kind of shameful behavior fit the definition of either sedition or treason? And I would include Mitch McConnell's imperious behavior as well. To quote their Fearful Leader, "Lock them up!"
So Republicans are only interested in democracy if they win and call all the shot. Otherwise, not so much. I believe there's a political term for this. It's not democracy.
13
When Republicans do this sort of thing, the media and Beltway consensus is that they are shrewd and savvy; when Democrats talk of doing this sort of thing, the punditry decry it as an abuse of power (which, of course, it is).
2
If the measure actually passes, this effort is heading straight towards litigation. Republicans will most likely lose. However, victory wasn't really the point. We're witnessing another page out of the McConnell/Boehner playbook. When you lose, obstruct.
No matter what happens though, hamstringing the governor with frivolous challenges to his authority will delay the full authority of the office for at least some amount of time.
If I were Evers, I would go nuclear right off the bat. Don't bother sending any legislation to the governor's office if you plan to impede the lawful execution of the governor's duties. Evers will have veto power in under a month. Republicans best keep that fact in mind.
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@Andy On a related note, I saw today that the Utah legislature is working to repeal Prop 2 (medical marijuana) in Utah. The people spoke but I guess that isn't enough anymore.... Why do Republicans hate Democracy so much?
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Another battle between the boys and girls. If would say that if the shoe was on the other foot, the Democrats would do the same thing. We’ll see if the courts agree with the Democrats. In the meantime, Wisconsin, get your wallets out. The Democrats are back in town, locked and loaded in appeasing their constituencies by redistributing wealth. Does anyone know if Wisconsin’s books are better than they were 10 years ago?
@Jim
Demanding decent public education is not appeasement, it is wise.
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@Jim. The Democrats controlled the Wisconsin legislature when Scott Walker was elected governor eight years ago. They did not pass a bill diminishing his powers before he was sworn in. When the shoe was on the other foot, to use your phrase, the Democrats did NOT do the same thing.
Accepting the outcome of an election is fundamental to the functioning of a democracy. This appalling tactic by Wisconsin Republicans must be condemned by everyone, regardless of party.
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@JimThe Democrats have never done something similar, I challenge you to provide a single example in the past 20 years. And your attempt to compare the books now with the financial failure 10 years ago is also false (I have no idea whether they were better then or now, but the comparison is not appropriate either way).
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If it hasn't sunk in by now, I don't what will. Republicans are a party of maintaining power at ALL costs. They do NOT believe in democracy and never have.
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