In all political movements or campaigns, rule number one is not to lose a message. Barack Obama’s 2008 message, “Change we can believe in,” trumped John McCain’s infighting with Sarah Palin. John Kerry’s scattershot 2004 campaign covering multiple issues wasn’t enough to beat George W. Bush’s national security message.
I worry we can now add another recent example to the list: the left wing’s resurgence in Wisconsin. This winter, the Wisconsin Left had more positive energy and momentum than any conservative counterpart. No rally in the short history of the Tea Party could outdo the diversity and attitude of the Capitol’s occupation. Democrats and leftists were united again around a common cause: the rights of the worker.
But similar to the Tea Party’s recent devolution into embarrassing economic extremism, Wisconsin’s leftist movement has devolved into a radical conversation assailing anyone who affiliates with the Republican Party. Today, independents aren’t agents of compromise, they’re agents of stagnancy.
To today’s liberals, Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck are not counterproductive because they harm civility in our national political conversation, but because they hold right-wing views. The same progressives who decry Fox News just as easily cheer an equally divisive figure like Ed Schultz, who has become a regular visitor to Madison and has created a more alienating climate to independents who hate Gov. Scott Walker’s recent assault on unions.
And even worse, the protesters who regularly set up shop in Madison have taken control of the conversation away from elected representatives who in any other time would be widely lauded for their progressive credentials. The political heroes of this winter’s uprising, folks like Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and Senators Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee and Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, have gradually lost their clout as union supporters because of their affiliation with the Democratic Party, despite their backbreaking work for unions in February and March.
The true grassroots beginnings of the uprising largely centered on public employees pleading with benevolent Democrats to do anything to stop the budget repair bill. The Democrats delivered.
But because of missteps in Washington and a president who is, compared to most Democrats, anti-labor, any Wisconsin politician with a ‘D’ after their name is seen as an inhibitor of progress – just as bad as Walker or the brothers Fitzgerald.
Because of this, the movement’s message has spiraled downward from an intelligent conversation led by public figures like Barca and Taylor to a confused mess of protest songs and fulfillment of Walker’s claim that out-of-state interests have been flooding into Madison.
Progressives here are forced to trust people like Schultz and Michael Moore as the leaders of a movement they didn’t even start. And if you don’t? You’re not a true progressive.
And so the left in Wisconsin has become what progressives often ridicule about Tea Party conservatives: divisive, plagued by in-fighting and unattractive to “normal,” independent Wisconsinites. Considering the unity of the left six months ago, this indicates a huge failure in message that could lead to even more failure next year if no action is taken.
Do I want to see Scott Walker recalled? Of course. Does Wisconsin face an unapologetically radical conservative agenda that needs to be stopped? Sure.
But for now, progressives should go back to what was most successful six months ago: leaving the conversation to the grown-ups. That will make stopping Walker much easier.
Ryan Rainey ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and Latin American studies.
