Progressive Thinking

One veteran's reaction to the new 'American Sniper' movie.

STOUGHTON - All the senseless deaths, grievous injuries and destruction in war.  Maybe we will "never learn."  Across the world many are fighting back against these death machines we call governments.  This is a fight we can never stop.

American Sniper is just one item in this world that shows how much we have lost our way.  The supposed moral leaders of our nation are for the most part silent on America's never ending wars - called the War on Terror.

For each successful sniper shot, somewhere in the world there is a knock on the door - the messenger of death has arrived.

It reminds me of some of the worst days of my life.  I was a lieutenant stationed at Fort Bragg, NC.  I was informed that I was to serve as a survival assistance officer.  I soon found out what that meant.

I had to go tell a family that their young son was missing in action.  The soldier killed was a young Black man about 18, drafted, in Vietnam just a week or two.

The Mother and Father were divorced or separated.  The Army demanded I go and tell the Father first.  I had to go to the Mother's town to ask were the Father was, then go tell him in another town where he was working and then drive back to the Mother's town and tell her.  The agony for the Mother and his sisters was probably terrible.  When people saw my military car and driver I am sure the phones started ringing and they all dreaded for those we were going to see.

A few days later the Fort received a telegram that the young man had been killed in action in a "firefight."

I told the colonel I should go tell the Mother first and then tell the Father after I found out where he was working that day.  But he said you will tell the father.

So I found the Father an older man in a large field near a pile of lumber.  By the time I walked across the field to him he was just standing there in the hot sun, shoulders slumped all alone with his hands at his side.  I reached him and he says I know what you're going to tell me.  And I said yes.  He says sit down.  So we sit on the pile of lumber and I tell him his son has been killed.  We talk a bit and he explains how much he appreciates me coming and telling him.  I thank him and we shake hands.  As I walk across that field back to my waiting driver I think I tell him his only son is dead and he is very kind to me and thanks me for coming all the way to tell him in person.

An hour or two later I am back at the Mother's home.  Of course they all know by now.  From the very bright sunlight his sister leads me to her Mom's bedroom.  She is in bed in the dark with just small low light lamp at the side of the bed and a chair.  She says he's gone isn't he.  I say yes and she wants me to sit down.  I open the telegram and tell her that her son has been killed in a firefight.  Then I hear a gasp in the room and I look up.  There are about 5 men and women standing around the bed that I had not seen in the dark...They had all been waiting with her.

The Mother then asked was he in much pain.  I said what?  With the fire and all.  Then I realized she thought I was telling her her son had burned to death.  And I thought to myself God we can't even get it straight how to tell loved ones their son is dead.

So I explain that her son was a gun battle which the Army calls a firefight.  She felt better that he son had not burned to death.

A week later I went back to escort his body to the funeral home and prepare everything for the funeral.  Fortunately a sergeant escorted the man's casket from the East Coast.  That sergeant taught me and the detail of soldiers sent to help with the funeral what to do.

The family wanted to have the casket unlocked - my orders were the military said the casket was to be kept locked.  I said to the funeral director and the sergeant I think the casket needs to be kept closed.  But I knew what they wanted to do.  By that time in Vietnam, there were some unusual things going on with bodies and some of course were badly destroyed.  So I left to do something else.  When I returned the sergeant and funeral director showed me the young man's body and we were all thankful everything was ok.

I will never forget giving his Mother, a very small slender woman, the American flag after we removed it from his casket at the funeral.

The chairs for the family were very close to the grave.  At the proper time, I knelt in front of her with the folded flag and said on behalf our nation and the president of the United States of America I present this flag in honor of your son's sacrifice to our nation.

Just as I finished this the rifles went off with a very loud crack a couple feet away from the foot of the grave.  People screamed and jumped up.  I was so startled I jumped up, the Mother jumped up, I started falling backward into the open grave toward the casket.  She reached out and grabbed me.  There we were holding on to each other with the flag wedged between us.  I then sat her back down, saluted, went to the back and the minister took over to conduct the ceremony.

I have blocked that young solder's name and that wonderful family's name from my memory.  I think my brain just does not want to revisit those times.

So much senseless death going on and on century after century.

Now our government has tricked us again.  The all-volunteer military has turned into a mercenary army.  Our young men and women are again being brain washed into fighting battles for the 1%ers -- the lying, cheating, conniving men and women with kill lists who would never lower themselves to serve their county in the military.  When will we ever learn?

MADISON - The Governor’s speech last night was long on campaign-speak and light on details.

What specifics we learned mean a tough road ahead for local schools, the UW and our children who will inherit increased state debt.

Taking the cap off private schools getting state dollars means less money for our public schools. Property taxes will go up in many parts of the state as schools hobble from referendum to referendum.

The twin actions of cutting UW funds and cutting the UW loose will mean fewer opportunities and higher tuition for students.

Professors who leave the system take their grant money with them- leaving fewer resources for student research and fewer professors mean students don’t have courses they need to graduate in four years.

Once a big part of state government - like the UW - is cut loose, strong constituencies will fight to keep it private. We are at risk of losing the central focus of our ‘public’ universities – to serve the public.

In this budget the Governor learned you can’t give money away and then have that money to pay bills. The election year ‘surplus’ quickly turned into red ink. Now, Wisconsin doesn’t have money to pay important bills - like the UW system and local schools.

This week Senator Kathleen Vinehout writes about the Governor’s proposed cuts to the University of Wisconsin. These cuts, if passed by the Legislature, will have a significant negative impact on staff, faculty and ultimately students.

MADISON - “I love college, Mom,” my son told me. “There is nowhere else I can hear a conversation in a different language every day.”

My son got me thinking about the challenges our students face – competing in a global marketplace, changes in the economy, changes in technology. College has never been so important. Keeping colleges up-to-date costs money.

Getting one’s children through college is harder. Finding the right mix of rigor and value is a real challenge for families.

Wisconsin universities stand out for value. Over and over again UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse rank as two of the best values in the Midwest.

UW-Madison is a world-class research institution. The UW comprehensive campuses statewide are the cultural heart of communities large and small; where would River Falls or Menomonie be without the UW at the center of the city?

A new proposal from the Governor would make deep cuts to the UW, dropping state support – in actual dollars - to below 1997-98 funding levels. The Governor also proposed loosening public control over the UW. The twin actions of cutting funds & cutting the university loose from the state are a recipe for disaster.

The last foray into cutting loose a part of state government – the Department of Commerce – didn’t work well for the Governor. Once a big part of state government is cut loose, its central focus is not on serving the public interest.

The constituency for keeping the university system apart from the state will be so strong it will not be possible to bring the system back. And those constituencies fighting to keep the system separate have private not public goals. Say “good-bye” to the Wisconsin Idea.

The rationale for cutting UW support is to make the system more efficient. Sure, efficiencies are important. But the reduction proposed by the Governor - $300 million over two years – will cut one quarter of current state spending.

And this year’s state funding for the UW is already lower than six years ago.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Wisconsin is one of only six states that continued to cut higher education funding per student by more than 2% following the Great Recession (adjusted for inflation and using data from Fiscal Year (FY) 2013-14).

Over the last decade and a half, state support for the UW has been modest at best. For example, FY 2012 funding fell below FY 2001. Increasing education costs were shifted to steady increases in tuition. Reacting to parents’ concerns, the Governor and Legislative Leaders froze tuition. Other states froze tuition - but many also increased state funding. Not so for Wisconsin.

“Teach more classes,” the Governor said. But teaching more classes and “becoming more efficient” won’t absorb the proposed cuts. Cutting one out of every four state dollars is cutting too deep. As a consequence professors will leave Wisconsin.

The best and brightest on our campuses are not tied to Wisconsin. They are tied to their discipline – be it mathematics or biology. A local businessman once told me, “All jobs are mobile.” Professors are definitely mobile.

Once the best and brightest begin to leave (I’ve been told this is already happening) morale plummets. As more professors find new academic homes they take with them not only their expertise and international reputation - they take their federal grants.

Without federal grants UW loses another big source of funds. (Federal money, including student loans now account for more than a quarter of the UW budget.)

The Governor’s proposed actions place the UW in a downward spiral: less state money, a lock on rising tuition, loss of top faculty, declining federal money, loss of the world-class reputation. The consequences of disinvestment will take generations to recover.

Public universities are just that – “public”. Public universities are supported by the people and serve the people. Wisconsin has steadily eroded state support for the UW. We should be doing just the opposite.

Our public universities are a catalyst for the creative culture that builds the great places in which we all want to live, work, play and start a new business. They are well worth our investment.

GREEN BAY - Mike McCabe, author of Blue Jeans in High Places, asks the readers of his debut book in a sartorial call to action, to grab their boots and blue jeans, roll up their shirtsleeves, and take back our democracy. I can’t argue with the ends to which McCabe is striving, but I do have a few critical observations about the path he recommends. The passion he expresses for the cause of reform is admirable, and his knowledge of Wisconsin’s recent and more distant political history is impressive, but with a flawed political diagnosis, faulty strategic suggestions for improving our democracy, and hyperbolic condemnations of nearly all public servants, he undercuts the strength of his analysis.

Full disclosure: I’m a politician. Yes, a public servant or public official as we are euphemistically called (see above), but also a politician. I practice politics, and I’m honored to do it. I’ve been elected twice to the state Assembly. I’ve knocked on thousands of doors, shaken thousands of hands, and raised (only) thousands of dollars. Maybe this makes me an irredeemably biased participant-observer in our democratic process, but I wholeheartedly agree with McCabe that our system of choosing elected officials is badly flawed. Dark money has flooded into elections at the federal, state, and even local levels. Our legislative and congressional districts have been gerrymandered. And our politics is often lacking the substance that our citizens are worthy of. With these observations, McCabe and I are in total agreement, but how do we improve our lot. There’s the rub, and that’s where we have some room for debate.

McCabe begins his story in Clark County. Clark is a rural county in central Wisconsin that at one time sent Democrats to Madison and is now reliably red. He bemoans the Republican bent of a county that is the among the poorest in the state and then jumps to the conclusion that the Democratic Party fails to appeal to poor, rural voters. Believe me, I wish the voters of Clark County were still sending a progressive champion like Frank Nikolay (the late great-uncle to my wife) to the state Assembly, but times have changed, demographics have changed, and politics has changed. In Clark County, longtime residents have seen an influx of Hispanic residents in recent years, which has impacted the economic, cultural, and political landscape. The immigrant population has provided workers for the agriculture industry and diversified main streets across the county in a very positive way, but they also serve as scapegoats for right-wing politicians. As a result, Clark County’s electorate now seems polarized on ethnic grounds. If McCabe has a solution to that problem, I’d love to hear it.

Setting that aside, I agree that the Democratic Party is in desperate need of a revamped agenda that speaks to the needs of working people in rural and small-town Wisconsin. Unlike McCabe, however, I’m idealistic enough to believe that a thorough-going reinvigoration of the Democratic Party is possible, and I’m not naive enough to think, as he does, that any inroads can be made into the GOP.

Incidentally, this Pollyannish belief in the ability to rediscover the progressive wing of the Republican Party is the weakest part of McCabe’s analysis, in my view. Without citing the precedent, he suggests a strategy that was successfully employed by North Dakota progressives in the early 20th Century under the auspices of the Nonpartisan League. The league implemented the novel approach of running candidates on a shared platform in the primaries of both major parties. The effort was successful, at least for a short time, but I can’t imagine a scenario in which a similar strategy would meet with any degree of success in a Republican primary for any state or federal office any time soon. If you’ve studied the last half-century of American politics, you shouldn’t be able to fathom the possibility either. The “Blue Jean” agenda might make sense to the average voter, but the average voter is not the one who votes in Republican primaries, which are dominated by the monied interests that are undermining our democracy, the ones McCabe so rightly criticizes.

Finally, McCabe persists throughout many parts of the book to treat politicians, regardless of party or ideology, with disdain and then goes on to bemoan the sorry state of our civil discourse. I’m not sure how to wrap my head around that contradiction, but his well-worn “pox on both their houses” routine obscures the real and growing gap that exists between the positions expressed by our two major parties and makes it less likely that young, idealistic progressives might enter public life to fight for the values that McCabe and I likely share.

Regardless of these differences, however, I enjoyed the book. McCabe’s breezy style and firm handle on the history of Wisconsin politics makes for a quick and stimulating read. We might not agree on everything, but I welcome Mike, with his ideas and his blue jeans, to participate in the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 2015 state convention. We’ll have a big tent, cold beer, and a casual dress code.

Gov. Walker's headless decision to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in enhanced federal Medicaid funds on the table is a disaster not only for health care but also for higher education.

STATEWIDE - In response to the news that Wisconsin is now the only Great Lakes state not accepting enhanced federal Medicaid funds, Governor Scott Walker announced to the media Wednesday that he is unmoved by the actions of Republican Governors in surrounding states, and will again leave hundreds of millions of dollars on the table in the state budget that will be released next week.

This headless decision is a disaster not only for health care but also for higher education. The cost to the state budget of Walker’s refusal to take the BadgerCare dollars may be greater than the $300 million that the Governor proposes to slash from the University of Wisconsin System. According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, using number provided by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the refusal to take enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare will cost Wisconsin up to $315 million in the next state budget.

“Not only is Governor Walker’s irresponsible decision to reject federal dollars for BadgerCare forcing thousands to go without vital health coverage, it also causing unprecedented collateral damage to Wisconsin’s world class university system,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “The cost of Walker’s political obsession with undermining health care reform, no matter what the consequences, is now rippling beyond health care and into other vital investments that Wisconsin needs to thrive and prosper.”