The old adage that “all politics is local” often rings hollow in election years, especially when multitudes of Americans have been persuaded by rhetoric, which borders on the ridiculous, that this election has more relevance to them than other ones. In fact, the presidential election, like all major contests on the national level, may have a profound impact on the lives of the anecdotal “Joe the plumber.” However, speculation is an inadequate substitute for action. With a recent shift in the agenda of the University of Wisconsin’s own College Republicans toward more local races, particularly the state Legislature, a national election whose conclusion is essentially foregone has taken a backseat to more pertinent local ones. And with such a local focus on their plate, Republicans in the state may yet have their golden opportunity to drag higher education to the guillotine.
The College Republicans aren’t pursuing an insidious agenda — the sincerity of their belief is not on trial — but it bears pointing out that the candidates they will inevitably support have made no secret of their distaste for higher education. Take Tammy Baldwin’s congressional opponent, Peter Theron. Theron claims federal aid for low-income students in fact impairs their ability to pay for college because it gives universities a blank check to raise tuition to their heart’s content, secure in the knowledge that the feds will pick up the tab. Then again, Theron doesn’t have an education section on his campaign website.
On the other end of the seemingly interminable spectrum are the College Democrats, smugly anticipating an election night that will, barring a cataclysm, yield them victory on the national level. It will be a victory worth watching. And yet the significance of a victory for Obama will be powerfully diluted by a local Republican Party that can still claim control of the state Assembly when the dust has settled. The nagging sense of fear that a Republican-controlled Assembly should provoke is not the result of the inherently evil premise of a school of thought that preaches small government but rather the degree to which the supposed practitioners of that school have strayed from such a message. Spending for the Department of Corrections in the state increased by 14.6 percent in 2007, and a slew of new prisons have been constructed to accommodate the flow of inmates. In the meantime, Republicans in the Legislature managed, despite their pretensions to non-interventionism in citizen affairs, to enact a ban on gay marriage in 2006.
It is true that Barack Obama has pledged a colossal tax credit for college-bound students who need it, which he claims will make the first $4,000 of tuition free. Unfortunately, the standard bearer of American liberalism has also promised other things, including helping to create five million new jobs with a paltry $150 billion investment in new sources of energy. He’s also going to provide universal health care. And expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. And naturally, Obama will not, under any circumstances, put up with crap from trigger-happy, nuclear-armed Pakistan.
As the list of initiatives with little or no feasibility winds on, the College Democrats, here and elsewhere, should engage in the cold, unpleasant game of numbers that is the essence of electoral politics. Barack Obama will win Wisconsin, and the triviality of whether his margin shatters our very conception of the state’s voting history or not is irrelevant. The College Democrats have a base that resembles the political machine of Chicago in numbers and motivation — with an iota more of idealism. The race to decide control of the State Assembly will by no means be as glamorous as wearing a pin with everybody’s favorite demagogue imposed upon it — but come Election Day, the trudge through the accumulated mud of local politics will pay far greater dividends.
Sam Clegg ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in economics.
