This just in- Republicans suck at democracy
Wisconsin GOP wants to impeach Liberal justice for heinous of...wait for it...Public Liberalness?? Oh, the humanity....
(There will be no 9/11 remembrance in this space this year. I’m tired of reliving my pain publicly. As a daily reminder, I have the name and face of the friend I lost tattooed on my left arm. Today, though, my reflections will be private. I don’t have it in me to relive it publicly anymore. I wish you a blessed day as you remember 9/11 and those we lost in your own way. - Jack)
The frustrating thing is to repeatedly tell people what the destructive consequences of their choices are going to be, only to eventually find these very people standing in the midst of the very destruction that was predicted screaming at the top of their lungs that everything is fine.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.
H.L. Mencken
It’s a sad, pathetic truth in today’s world, but two things are irrefutably true:
Republicans will lie, cheat, and steal their way to public office. Then, when in said office, they’ll tell you they won fair and square, and you need to get over yourself.
If you defeat a Republican, they’ll claim “foul play.” Then they’ll do everything they can to remove you from office…because you’ve obviously cheated to get there. (see The Former Guy, 2020)
This theorem's latest example- and proof- takes us to bucolic Madison, Wisconsin. Republicans have spent the last few years turning the Badger State into a reliably red stronghold (even though they had to play dirty to do it).
Then, Democrat Tony Evers won the Governor’s race, so the (heavily gerrymandered) Republican-majority legislature voted to neuter his office, robbing him of much of his power.
[I]n the last election Democrats won 54 percent of the vote, and yet Republicans won 63 of the 99 seats[.]
Then came the last straw for Republicans when Liberal Janet Protasiewicz handily defeated the Conservative incumbent to flip a 4-3 Conservative majority to a 4-3 LIBERAL majority.
Even as Democrats celebrated Protasiewicz’s victory, Republicans were convinced the sky was falling. Before the final ballots were counted, some schemed ways to impeach Protasiewicz. After all, she’d committed the unforgivable sin of expressing her opinions on issues that might (or might not) come before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Never mind that her opponent had almost certainly done much the same thing (and he’d worked for an anti-abortion group). Liberals must not be allowed to voice opinions! It might influence how they vote.
Double standard much??
The idea that judges have to run for election like politicians seems ridiculous and counter to the concept of impartial justice, especially where Republicans are involved. But that’s the way Wisconsin plays the game, and all Janet Protasiewicz was doing was playing the hand she was dealt.
Wisconsin Republicans have talked about impeaching Justice Janet Protasiewicz ever since she won April’s state supreme court election. Protasiewicz is a liberal who’ll probably make liberal rulings and Republicans just can’t have it. They are not very good at democracy.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has demanded that Protasiewicz recuse herself from all cases where she might’ve expressed a general opinion on the subject. This is obviously an absurd standard that conservative justices are not expected to uphold. Protasiewicz’s far-right opponent and former justice himself Daniel Kelly literally worked for an anti-abortion group, and we doubt Vos would’ve expected him to recuse from every abortion case that came before the court.
We repeat: These are overtly partisan elections, which Republicans normally love in states like North Carolina and, yes, Wisconsin because they can turn out the vote with typical partisan appeals. This isn’t a Senate confirmation where conservative nominees can just obfuscate and outright lie. Voters expect to hear what candidates believe about relevant issues.
Exactly. As with anyone running for office, people want to know something about who they’re being asked to vote for. Now Republicans are talking about impeaching the new Supreme Court justice for doing what candidates in elections are supposed to do.
She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. If only she weren’t a damned Liberal….
During an interview last month with WSAU Radio, Vos said it’s obvious that Protasiewicz can’t function as an impartial judge on certain issues. For instance, she’s referred to Wisconsin’s jacked-up electoral maps as “rigged,” which they are. Take the Wisconsin Assembly — please! — where in the last election Democrats won 54 percent of the vote, and yet Republicans won 63 of the 99 seats, nearly a supermajority.
“They do not reflect people in this state. I don’t think you could sell any reasonable person that the maps are fair,” Protasiewicz said at a January campaign forum. “I can't tell you what I would do on a particular case, but I can tell you my values, and the maps are wrong."
This is a reasonable position, as judges should rule on the law, not their personal opinions. It’s also silly to suggest that members of the supreme court, who can still vote in elections and even read the newspaper, don’t have opinions on political matters. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito won’t shut up about his political positions.
Nonetheless, Vos whined to conservative host Meg Ellefson, “If there’s any semblance of honor on the state supreme court left, you cannot have a person who runs for the court prejudging a case and being open about it, and then acting on the case as if you're an impartial observer.”
If there’s one thing true and beyond question, it’s that Wisconsin has been gerrymandered to within an inch of its life. The whole effort was engineered to ensure that Republicans have a permanent majority, regardless of the actual vote counts in an election. That’s how you end up with Republicans winning 54% of the vote while capturing 63 of 99 seats in the State Assembly.
Republicans are OK with cheating to get what they want, but THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY IF DEMOCRATS SO MUCH AS PUT A FOOT WRONG. Does integrity mean nothing to them?
Vos later conceded that “the idea that we're going to immediately start an impeachment process is probably too radical.” However … “I want to look and see, does she recuse herself on cases where she is prejudged? That to me is something that is at the oath of office and what she said she was going to do to uphold the constitution. That, to me, is a serious offense.”
But, remember this when Wisconsin Republicans begin bleating about Protasiewicz’s “prejudging”:
Protasiewicz’s far-right opponent and former justice himself Daniel Kelly literally worked for an anti-abortion group, and we doubt Vos would’ve expected him to recuse from every abortion case that came before the court.
Not that there’s a double standard at work here or anything….
No…it’s NOT a serious offense because her Conservative predecessor almost certainly expressed opinions on issues that were or were soon to come before the Supreme Court. And guess what? No one blew a gasket about that. This is just a cowardly political maneuver to intimidate Janet Protasiewicz into being less Liberal and falling into line with the Conservatives. That will happen when the National Hockey grants a franchise to Hell (hey, they gave one to Las Vegas….).
But this could also be part of a more significant and even more cynical maneuver to booger up the Wisconsin Supreme Court and ensure Liberals don’t get to enjoy their majority.
Under Wisconsin’s constitution, after the Assembly vote, the justice would be immediately suspended. “No judicial officer shall exercise his office, after he shall have been impeached, until his acquittal.”
But — and here’s the rub — the state’s senate GOP has no intention of holding any trial, or taking any vote on the impeachment. There will be no conviction. Or acquittal.
As a result, Protasiewicz would be in a sort of permanent limbo. The court, which is already thoroughly dysfunctional, would be deadlocked 3-3.
“This is actually a more potent tool to dismantle the liberal majority by having an impeachment vote in the Assembly, which is just a majority vote, and then having the Senate do nothing. She basically is removed from office and can’t rule on any cases,” said David Canon, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Of course, Conservatives won’t actually “win,” but neither will Liberals. This scenario would, at best, be a stalemate, thus ensuring the court will accomplish nothing. The real losers would be the people of Wisconsin, who might see substantive issues punted to 2024 or 2025 if the court is forced into a prolonged deadlock by Republican tomfoolery.
The problem with this scenario is that it highlights the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans. As competitive as Democrats are and as badly as we want to win, we’re generally willing to play by the rules. There are exceptions, as there are with any organization, but Democrats play by the rules.
Republicans respect rules only insofar as it benefits them. Once those benefits stop accruing, they’ll lie, cheat, and steal to achieve the desired result. Wisconsin is a perfect example, but one can also point to Texas, Floriduh, and other states where the same phenomenon has occurred and continues to.
Do Republicans hate democracy? Or do they hate losing more and are willing to sacrifice democracy to achieve victory? Judging by what’s happening these days, I think they’re astonishingly ambivalent about democracy. What they care about- ALL they care about- is power. If they have to lie, cheat, and/or steal their way into power, then that’s what they’ll do. And they see no problem with that.
Remember when impeachment used to be a tool of last resort? Now, it’s something Republicans threaten to use whenever they believe it will give them an advantage. It doesn’t matter if their target has committed impeachable offenses; it’s just a business decision.
And you wonder why I fear for the future of the Republic….
(All of my posts are now public. Any reader financial support will be considered pledges- support that’s greatly appreciated but not required to get to all of my work. I’ll leave it to my readers to determine if my work is worthy of their monetary support and at what level. To those who do offer their support, thank you. It means more than you know.)
(All of my posts are now public. Any reader financial support will be considered pledges- support that’s greatly appreciated but not required to get to all of my work. I’ll leave it to my readers to determine if my work is worthy of their monetary support and at what level. To those who do offer their support, thank you. It means more than you know.)