Following a proposed crackdown on Quinton’s Bar & Deli
for selling slightly too much alcohol, the future of city politics has become
painfully clear. Madison has a new political battlefield.

Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc. has convinced the Alcohol
License Review Committee to consider revoking Quinton’s liquor license because
a bare majority (50.82 percent) of its sales are alcoholic beverages ? in
violation of city law. This is the same organization that spearheaded the
Alcohol Density Plan, which banned any new bars or liquor stores from opening
in the downtown area. Their primary assertion is that fewer bars downtown will
lead to fewer problem drinkers.

As the demographics of Madison shift toward more families,
retirees and professionals, University of Wisconsin students will find their
political interests increasingly marginalized and under attack. To counter
CNI’s irrational assault on Madison’s downtown culture, students must coalesce
around a broad ideal. Because it is so hard to pass specific policy legislation
from generation to generation, the best our elected officials can do is plant
the seeds for a new liberal revolution. And that means liberal in the classical
sense: self-determination. We are not a herd to be controlled by
well-intentioned special interest pseudo-parents.

The new political reality contains echoes of what larger
cities face as suburban and exurban residents move to ultra-urban condominiums.
The new inhabitants and concurrent business interests use superior political
organizations to transplant an inner-city culture they’re not comfortable with
back into the shadows. Of course, Madison is a unique case ? the criminal
elements these interests seek to remove are mainly white college students who
get too rowdy and drink too often for CNI’s taste. The motivation of groups
like Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc. revolves around the self-delusion that their
petty legislative efforts to crack down on small business will somehow cause
downtown culture to become more ?adult?-friendly.

Quite frankly, they don’t feel the need to make much sense
because students so rarely flex their political muscle. Proponents of the
Alcohol Density Plan essentially want fewer drunk people in that compact area
to reduce crime. While that would certainly improve the morale of those who
don’t like dealing with drunken hoards, it drives students farther and farther
away from heavily-policed areas in moments when they are at their most
vulnerable. The plan was approved because UW students failed to bring their
political power to bear and allowed it to pass in a sparsely attended meeting.
Our political interests really don’t matter unless we back them up with votes.

This is why local government is so important. Sure, it might
not be as exciting as the bombastic rhetoric of national politicians, but only
at the local level can a special interest wage war on a culture they find
inconvenient and be nearly unnoticed among the people they target.

Of course, we must be wary of the danger political dynasty
poses (Austin King can attest to that), but students need more leaders like
Ald. Eli Judge to carry the flag for students who resist the notion that a free
market isn’t capable of determining how many bars should operate downtown.

A flag for students who don’t believe being packed into
increasingly crowded bars will somehow improve their safety, for students who
don’t believe a responsible bar should be closed for selling .82 percent more
beer than sandwiches, for students who don’t want their descendants to inherit
a city dominated by the puritanical politics of self-important moralists. These
students need their flag to be held high, even though popular ignorance of
local politics has allowed these policies to pass with a mere modicum of
popular outrage.

The only chance UW students have against the CNI agenda is
to institutionalize their political interests around the philosophy of a new
(or old) liberalism. That’s the only way to defeat an influential lobby that
will exist longer than most of us will attend school.

But that doesn’t mean we should be blind to compromise.
There will be extremes on both sides of the debate, and there is a public
benefit to ensuring every business on State Street isn’t a bar. That can be
done without malicious crackdowns on slightly mismanaged businesses like
Quinton’s Bar & Deli, venues that are victim to a misguided political
movement to stamp out alcohol that reeks of prohibitionist philosophy. It?s
high time to show special interest lobbies like Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc.
that students do have a voice; we just needed some time to clear our collective
throat.

Bassey Etim ([email protected])
is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.