Political Heat

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND CORONAVIRUS and how it behaves has proved difficult, even for the experts. Knowing how the disease works and what practices are best to prevent its spread has been hard to figure out. But we do know that social distancing measures have proven to be effective. Wear a mask — wash your hands, often — stay six feet away from other people, if you have to venture out at all — and limit your travel to only necessary trips outside of the home . Unfortunately, with many states relaxing their social distancing rules (either on purpose, like Florida and Texas have, or by judicial decree, as what happened in Wisconsin), the disease looks to be making a strong comeback. People aren't following social distancing rules that are advised by the CDC. Coronavirus hasn't disappeared, but many Americans, nevertheless, are acting like it has . Disturbingly, we're now seeing cases go up to their highest levels ever. On Friday, the U.S. surpassed 40,000 new cases in a sing...

IN THE WAKE OF Tuesday night's events in Madison, after protesters tore down well-known statues on the Capitol Square and assaulted a lawmaker, I decided not to say much of anything right away about my feelings on the matter. I wanted them to be hashed out, and to understand other people's perspectives first, before formulating my own. That's sometimes important to do, especially during uprisings that have everything to do with inequities and the unjust society that we live in. My privileged opinion should not be shouted out loud from the get-go — and, having read the statuses and statements of others before me, I feel I can adequately address what happened, and my opinion on things, with a clearer mind. As with everything that's going on these days, there are no "blanket statements" that can be made about what happened. Not every protester engaged in the uprising last night was involved in actions that brought down statues of "Forward" or Hans C...

Reporters on the ground saw no evidence of demonstrations preventing access to Trump's "big" campaign event in Tulsa The campaign team for President Donald Trump are trying to explain away his low attendance numbers by blaming protesters outside of his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday evening. Getting people to go to the event should have been a cinch. Trump won the state in 2016 by more than 30 points . Presently, Trump is leading Biden by around 20 points . The president is clearly popular in Oklahoma. Trump had expected the campaign event, the first he's held since March due to coronavirus concerns across the country, to be a huge event. He even claimed five days ago that a million individuals had requested tickets to be there . Having so many seats noticeably sit empty on Saturday evening was an embarrassment, to say the least, for him and his campaign team. It necessitated a response, even if it was based on a flat-out lie.  "Sadly, protestors int...

Even among Republican respondents, American pride has never been lower. If you've ever been to a festival in Wisconsin during the summer, you've probably heard the Lee Greenwood anthem dedicated to American pride called "God Bless the USA." And if you've heard the song, you probably fit into one of two camps: you either believe it to be the epitome of what it means to be truly American, or you think it's one of the most cringe-worthy songs ever written. American pride isn't a song, of course, so even those who don't like Greenwood's screed can appreciate this country. But according to a new poll from Gallup , there appears to be a downward trend of people who say they are "proud to be an American," running counter to the lyrics of Greenwood's famous song. A strong majority of citizens are still "extremely" or "very" proud to be American, with 63 percent in this year's poll saying as much. But a decade ag...

A new report suggests the president doesn't actually care about millions of his constituents' concerns. The office of the president has commanded respect from the citizenry for many years. Even during periods of vast partisanship, it was understood that the president of the United States was meant to be a president for all, was supposed to push politics aside during times of crises, and at least try to understand the concerns of the people they served, even those who didn't vote for them. Donald Trump is the exception to the rule. He does not seem to care about anyone but himself, and through that lens, he only cares about the constituents who plan to support him, even when it's time for him to be the healer-in-chief. During this trying time in our nation's history, when the struggle for racial equality has literally hit the streets of dozens of cities across the country, the current occupier of the White House doesn't seem to give a damn. He has contempt f...

Rep. Janel Brandtjen dismissed her aide's ignorance as a mere Facebook squabble. On Thursday, I posted an article decrying Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for saying COVID-19 was more rampant in one of the counties he represents because, in his words, it had more of an "immigrant culture." The blatantly racist statement by Vos is not, however, the only one made within the Republican Party of Wisconsin this week. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that an aide to Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen named Bill Savage was engaged in a Facebook debate with a church leader from Milwaukee by the name of Marty Calderon . Calderon said that the Ku Klux Klan ought to be labeled a terrorist organization. Given its history of violent harassment, and yes, killing people of color in the United States, it's hard to understand why Savage decided to become a KKK apologist in that discussion . But lo and behold, that's exactly what he did. Savage responded that he "wasn...

The Assembly Speaker says it's just "science" in a cringing way that's reminiscent of Ron Burgundy. Well, there appeared to be a reason why Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was so indignant about being secretly recorded by a staffer for Gov. Tony Evers — they caught Vos saying something incredibly racist . During the May 14 meeting between Republican leaders and the Democratic governor, in which the two sides came to no decision on how to address coronavirus in the state, Vos made clear what he thought was the main driver of coronavirus in Racine County, part of which he represents. It was immigrants' faults, he said . "I know the reason at least in my region is because of a large immigrant population where it’s just a difference in culture, where people are living much closer and working much closer," Vos said.  Discussing his comments with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Linda Boyle, co-president of the Racine Interfaith Coalition, decried Vos's re...

The adviser to Trump has demonstrably racist viewpoints, and was the chief architect of the family separation policy. One of President Donald Trump's favorite and most-trusted non-familial advisers, Stephen Miller,  is reportedly writing the president's planned speech on race relations  in the United States.  Trump's  comments  on the subject  as of late , which were prompted after the police killing of George Floyd in late May, provides ample evidence to demonstrate this speech will be an epic disaster —  but Miller's inclusion as the principal author will mean it will likely be full of racist dog-whistles  that will placate Trump's base and do little to help further the current conversation of police brutality and societal racism in general toward Black Americans.  Miller is, after all, a noted racist himself. This is not the simple opinion of a person sitting behind a keyboard — leaked emails of his have demonstrated that the presiden...

Research doesn't demonstrate any tangible benefits for having police in schools; conversely, evidence shows such disciplinary action toward students is structurally racist. Amid the uprisings across several cities in the United States in reaction to the police killing of George Floyd late in May, some communities are announcing actions intended to reimagine what policing should look like. Madison is no different. Protesters for the past week or so have called for drastic changes in order to ensure that policing is less structurally racist. Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI) is joining that call, announcing over the weekend that it wants to see the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) move away from having police officers, called school resource officers (SROs), in their hallways. The teacher union organization emphasized that a police presence can sometimes be detrimental to the mental health of some students of color. It also said that it didn't want to see officers...

Trump assuming that George Floyd is "looking down" on him, and thinking he's done good for race relations, is beyond the pale of distaste. Even for Trump's standards. President Donald Trump received an enormous amount of criticism today, and for good reason: he tried to suppose what George Floyd was thinking in regard to what his administration's response to his own death might be. "Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying there’s a great thing happening for our country. It’s a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody," Trump said at the White House on Friday . A lot of news organizations messed up on this quote, saying that Trump was talking about the economy when citing his belief on what Floyd might be thinking. But trying to say that Floyd, who died early last week after having a knee compressed on his neck by Minneapolis police officers for more than 8 minutes, would be impressed by Trump's actions so far is, in itse...

Republicans must reconcile with the fact that they are supporting a dangerous man to lead our nation — or better yet, end their support for him altogether. Dear Republicans, conservative friends, and relatives, thinking about voting for Donald Trump this year: I do not understand. When the president of the United States has citizens tear-gassed or hit with rubber bullets , When the president takes religious leaders, who are engaged in non-violent protest on the property of their own church, and  physically removed from that location , When he does these things just so he can hold up a Bible for a photo op , How do you support that? How do you support any of that? This is not family values. This is not strong leadership. This is not a man adhering to the tenets of our nation's founders. This is not anything you allegedly stand for. So why do you? Stand up against these actions. Decry them. DEFY him. Do not continue to support a man who is threatening to use th...