Progressive Thinking

Our American national political system is corrupt, but we still have the capability to create a revolution by our vote for a candidate at the ballot box - both in the primaries and the general election.

STOUGHTON, WI - To say that America is in flux is an understatement.

I argue our American national political system is corrupt, as all political systems have been corrupt throughout history.

Kings, queens, emperors, prime ministers, dictators, presidents, etc. are a few of the names of the political bosses. The eternal problem has been how to reduce the arbitrary power of the boss.

In America, a few white (mostly well to do) men designed, after a few false starts, a representative form of government for white men – not women, Blacks or Native Americans. At first only state legislators chose US Senators and the president was elected by legislators. Under centuries of political pressure from progressive forces and a Civil War, we now have popular vote of all persons over 18 of all colors voting for U.S. senators and presidents.

But we have far to go to create a fair election system. We are in a long term effort to change the operation of the American political and economic systems. In military terms we have won and lost battles but have not yet won the war. The 1%ers won the war decades ago. And we probably will not win the progressive war against them for years.

The presidential primary is a combined system of primary voting (closed and open), caucuses and Super Delegates which all combine at the Democratic Party national convention to select the Democratic nominee.

Americans rightfully see a “rigged” system - rigged to favor two parties, big money, and smoke filled back room deals by white guys and now a few women.

Americans want to do away with the caucuses, closed primaries, SuperDelegates and 1%ers and corporations flooding the system with big money asking for big favors from those elected.

Americans want open primaries, public financing of campaigns and then let the chips fall where they may.

But under the present corrupt system, we still have the capability to create a revolution by our vote for a candidate at the ballot box - both in the primaries and the general election.

This year a Revolution DID happen for the Republicans/Tea Baggers - they unexpectedly got Mr. Trump.

“The Revolution” did NOT happen for the Democrats/Progressives in the primaries.

Sanders, advocating political revolution, did NOT win the majority of those who voted Democratic in the primaries. Thus Sanders has lost the primary vote and pledged delegate race. As of yesterday, the SuperDelegates became the deciding factor.

Why? The parties have designed a Rube Goldberg primary system under which the two major parties control the process - pushing big corrupt money into and pushing other parties/candidates out of the presidential election process.

We could have a national system of a couple of primary days. All candidates run in the parties of their choice (Republican, Democratic, Green, etc.), people vote for the top two candidates in the party of their choice, month of TV debates ensues, a month or so later in a second primary citizens vote again for their top choice in the party of their choice, we then have a nominee for each party, more debates, a final election and a winner based upon the popular vote. The federal government would have to set the standards and supervise the elections rather than a mass of local jurisdictions. And Americans want public financing for elections.

At this point, we have several groups or forces in contention for power.

Group 1: On the Right, we have Mr. Trump who would create the political Revolution the conservatives have dreamed of: A nice clean America where the white rich boys run it all, push down women and minorities, get most of the income and wealth, privatize most government functions to make a buck and have the monopoly on “power.”

But they are screaming that the right winger who has brought them to the top of the mountain, where they can see their dream of taking the White House, Congress and the Judiciary is Trump. He’s a right winger who is just too crude. And he can NOT be depended upon to toe the right wing line. He reminds them too much of the crude right wing 1%ers who fund all their campaigns and think tanks.

Group 2: The Clinton dynasty has been pushing for 30 years to get rid of the progressive streak in American politics. They have been successful - one 8 year presidency, a 2008 strong run and a 2016 strong run. But oh my the baggage Ms. Clinton carries into the nomination.

Group 3: Because of Clinton’s “baggage” prosecutors and whistle blowers have the power to derail Clinton’s speeding train into the White House. The corruption of our political system is vast and nearly impenetrable. Various investigations can be leaked – think voting “irregularities in NY, CA and elsewhere. Or, President Obama’s Democratic duct tape damn preventing the Department of Justice from finishing the investigation into Clinton private email server and alleged transmission of sending secret information over unsecure lines can burst.

Or, investigation results can be leaked – remember Deep Throat?

Group 4:  Sanders and or his supporters have a number of options.

A.    Because Clinton does not have enough pledged delegates to win the majority on the first ballot, Sanders can try to neutralize the power of the Democratic party’s kings and queens called SuperDelegates or try to win them to his side.  And win the nomination.

B.   Clinton can choose him as her vice president nominee effectively shutting down his mouth.

C.   Sanders can immediately bring various law suits to challenge the voting in some states, ask for injunctions and possibly cause re-votes in places like NY where alleged “irregularities” have taken place.  Then he could win or lose based upon re-votes.

D.   Sanders can choose to stay in the Senate and campaign for Clinton urging supporters to do the same.

E.   Sanders can choose to run an independent presidential campaign or combine with a party like the Green Party and continue fighting for political Revolution in November.

It is likely that what happens in the next 7 weeks prior to the Democratic convention and at the convention will determine what he decides to do.

Right now in pledged delegates Clinton has 2,203 and Sanders has 1,827 - he is behind by 376. Only the Wash. DC primary June 14th remains with 20 some delegates.

So Sanders can NOT win based upon pledged delegates. Only hundreds of SuperDelegates flipping from Clinton to him can make him win – unless courts require re-votes.

So what can progressives do? Our horse in the race may or may not be chosen the nominee at the Convention. As stated a thousand times, the political Revolution is not about Bernie – it is about us.

The weekend of June 17-19 progressive groups are conducting The People’s Summit in Chicago. Readers can google The People’s Summit and join the thinking process of what we can do to push the political Revolution in America this summer and the years ahead.

The one thing we can NOT do is give up our Hope for a better America with a good future for our little kids. We, as adults, must Fight Back against the powers that wish to enslave Americans economically and politically.

And we must fight for political Revolution with peaceful means!

The genie of violence once out of the bottle is almost impossible to contain. Just look at the Bush/Cheney/Obama/Clinton debacles in the Middle East and North Africa.

MADISON - I’m all about celebrating our victories, whenever they occur.

And one just occurred yesterday when the Department of Health Services shelved its plan to let private insurance companies run the programs for the elderly and the disabled in Wisconsin. You can read all about it here:

A win for disability rights activists!

While I’m on the subject of people with disabilities, a report came out this week that noted some difficulties that they, too, were having with Voter ID:

Voters with disabilities in Wisconsin faced problems

This week we also reported on the Koch Brothers throwing their weight around down ticket in our state:

Koch group targets two Wisconsin State Senate seats

And Congressman Mark Pocan is focusing his sights on the dark money group that calls itself Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, though “reform” is the last thing this group is about. It ran nasty ads against Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg and Russ Feingold, and it was founded by the person who led the campaign to ban gay marriage in Wisconsin. Pocan has put donors to this group on notice:

Pocan warns donors to dark money group

I’m headed out for a brief vacation next week, so I’ll get back to you in a couple.

Meantime, please send us a tax-deductible gift by clicking here or by mailing it in the old-fashioned way to 203 S. Paterson St. Suite 100, Madison WI 53703.

We really appreciate your support.

ALTOONA, WI - American politics is in system failure. In a democratic republic, the definition of system failure is when a clear public consensus emerges that we the people are being ruled, not represented. Current conditions fit that definition.

The latest polling by The Associated Press shows nearly all Americans now believe that neither major political party represents the views of your average voter. A mere 14% say the Democratic Party is responsive to the voters while just 8% say the same about the Republicans.

An overwhelming majority of voters told AP in no uncertain terms that neither party is receptive to fresh perspectives. Only 17% of the public say the Democratic Party is open to new ideas for dealing with the country’s problems, and a meager 10% say that about the Republican Party.

A whopping 90% of voters lack confidence in the country’s political system while upwards of half go so far as to say that the two-party structure is “seriously broken.” Seventy percent of voters, including equal proportions of Democrats and Republicans, admit to feeling frustrated about the 2016 presidential election and 55% say they feel “helpless.”

The AP is hardly alone in finding evidence of boiling public discontent with the major parties and ruling class. Pew Research Center found most Americans believe elected officials from both parties don’t care what we think, are out of touch, bought off, and put their own interests ahead of the country’s. Princeton University researchers provided a jolting explanation for why everyday Americans have good reason for feeling this way, with a study showing that public opinion has “near-zero” impact on what Congress does.

Pew has been surveying American public opinion for three-quarters of a century and has never before found such alienation from the two major parties as its polls are detecting right now. And according to Gallup polling, close to 60% of Americans want a new major party to emerge because they feel the Republican and Democratic parties do such a poor job of representing them.

All of these findings are akin to tremors that foreshadow a coming earthquake. Seismic events have been rare in American politics. Never in our lifetimes has a major party splintered and disintegrated. Never in living memory has a new major party taken shape and seriously threatened the ruling parties. But it has happened before. On multiple occasions, as a matter of fact. The birth of the Republican Party coincided with the death of the Whig Party as the country wrestled with the evil institution of slavery. The Progressive movement produced major political upheaval in the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th Century, causing massive fractures within the major parties at the time and ultimately transforming both of them.

For the first time in a very long time, the signs are again unmistakable. You can feel the tremors. America is on the brink of the political equivalent of an earthquake. The landscape is going to be dramatically altered. No one has a crystal ball capable of showing us exactly when the quake will hit or where the largest chasms will open. But what is clear is that the conditions are ripe for the emergence of a new major party. Chances are the majority of Americans will get their wish soon enough.

— Mike McCabe

The Legislative Audit Bureau’s recently released audit of the DNR Wastewater Permitting and Enforcement efforts should raise concern about how well that agency is protecting water quality in Wisconsin. The problems identified by the nonpartisan auditors could be remedied with adequate staff and close adherence to policies established in partnership with the federal Environmental Protection Agency to assure compliance with the Clean Water Act.

KEWAUNEE, WI - We all drink water. We expect the water to be clean when it comes out of the facet. We also expect that someone is looking over the safety of our water.

Residents in Kewaunee County wonder more than most if the water they drink is really safe. Well water tested in a random sample last November found a third of Kewaunee wells were contaminated with bacteria or unsafe levels of nitrates.

The likely culprits of well contamination are large livestock farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Kewaunee County has more CAFOs permitted by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) than any other county except Brown.

The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Committee (LAB) recently reviewed the DNR’s work related to our state’s pollution discharge elimination system. The DNR staff is charged with watching over about 1,250 industrial and municipality-owned wastewater treatment plants and the discharge of over 250 large farms – mostly large dairies.

This system is a partnership between the state and the federal government to make sure Wisconsin meets its goals for clean water. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relies on Wisconsin’s DNR to assure compliance with the Clean Water Act.

State law sets Wisconsin’s policy, “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of its waters to protect public health, safeguard fish and aquatic life and scenic and ecological values, and to enhance the domestic, municipal, recreational, industrial, agricultural, and other uses of water.”

Inspections and a permit system exist to make sure those who discharge into our environment do so following the rules.

But auditors found serious problems.

For example, the DNR issued a notice of violation in only 33 of 558 instances (5.9%) for which such a notice should have been issued based on DNR policies. A notice of violation is part of the required enforcement system. The official letter may include steps required by the permittee to come into compliance with the law.

Wisconsin has experienced significant growth in CAFOs. From 2005 to 2014, there was an 80% increase of CAFO permits.

Farmers are required to send in annual reports including any manure spills and required testing. Auditors found that the DNR electronically records as received only a fraction of these reports. DNR staff told auditors they do not record report submissions because they are too busy with other duties. Staff also indicated they did not have time to thoroughly review the reports.

Inspections provide the oversight to enforce the law. The DNR strategy is to inspect CAFOs at least twice in a five-year period. Auditors found that while the number of CAFO inspections increased, the percentage of CAFOs inspected twice within a five-year period never exceeded 48%.

With the DNR inspecting less than half of CAFOs twice within a five-year period, you might think the DNR Secretary would be calling for more staff and more inspections.

Instead, Secretary Stepp, in her written response to the audit, changed the rules. She wrote the Department would commit to only one inspection of each CAFO during a five-year period.

In what sport, or business, does a team who cannot make a goal move the goalpost?

The Secretary did acknowledge the number of staff conducting review and inspections was below what was needed, but she never made a request to increase staff. In the most recent budget, the Department actually eliminated 66 positions, although none were inspectors.

The Secretary also wrote that almost 30% of the Bureau of Water Quality staff retired in 2010-11. One effect of lack of staff is a backlog in reviewing permits. Auditors found in the 11-year study period the DNR never met its goal of having no more than a 10% backlog for industrial permits. Only in 4 of 11 years reviewed did DNR meet this goal for municipal permits.

In July 2011, the federal EPA notified the state of 75 issues requiring DNR action. LAB auditors pointed out details yet to be resolved related to the EPA notice.

Wisconsin had a tradition of clean water. The DNR has both a legal and a moral responsibility to protect our water. Auditors uncovered details that should concern us all. We need to call on DNR leaders to take steps necessary to protect our water.

MADISON - Our “Influence Peddler of the Month” is none other than John Menard Jr., owner of the hardware store chain and the richest man in Wisconsin. He’s not shy about throwing his money around in the Wisconsin political arena, as you’ll see in the following post:

Influence peddler of the month - John Menard, Jr.

And here’s an item that might interest you in a week when it was confirmed that Prince died of an opioid overdose: One group of Wisconsin chiropractors is lobbying the legislature to allow them to prescribe painkillers. Interestingly, another group of chiropractors opposes this. You can read about the split here:

Chiropractors split on proposal to let them prescribe painkillers

I’m still buzzing about last week’s federal court case on the rigging of our electoral maps. Final arguments took place late last Friday, and the plaintiffs’ lawyer did a masterful job, as I explain in this posting:

Why GOP map in Wisconsin may get shot down

By the way, if you’re going to the Farmers’ Market in Madison tomorrow, stop by our table across from the Inn on the Park. I’ll be there from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., so please say hi.

And in any event, I hope you enjoy the weekend!

P.S. Hey, if you liked that John Menard piece and if you appreciate the other work we do to expose the role of money in politics and to champion democracy, please send us a tax-deductible gift today by clicking here. Or mail it in the old-fashioned way to: 203 S. Paterson St., Suite 100, Madison, WI 53703. We really appreciate it!