Necropolitics in Wisconsin

The global COVID-19 pandemic has come home to roost, bringing to the forefront one massive question:

Why do we tolerate our corrupt society?

We live in a world where American-style predatory capitalism continuously runs wild, where oppression and exploitation are celebrated and rewarded while humanitarianism is denigrated. It is a world where those who serve the society honorably - nurses, hospital workers, police and firemen, grocery store workers - are the lowest paid in greenbacks but expected to willingly give their lives to keep the economy grinding forward.

In a blatant display of inhumanity, to cite but one example, the United States Supreme Court refused to extend by a week the deadline by which an absentee ballot could be postmarked, forcing Wisconsin voters, during the raging COVID-19 pandemic, to go to "... one of the few available polling stations – in Milwaukee only five of 180 designated polling stations were open – and risk exposure to Covid-19, or follow the state’s stay-at-home order."

"Residents had to choose between voting or protecting their health – proving Wisconsin has turned into a vanguard of the Republican assault on democracy."

Why?
"Yes, there was the Democratic primary, but that was of little concern to the Republican lawmakers. Of great concern, however, was Tuesday’s vote in a state supreme court contest. This vote pitted the sitting state supreme court justice Daniel Kelly, a strong conservative voice on the bench, against Jill Karofsky, a lower court judge supported by progressives."

How?
"All this is as shocking as it is unsurprising. Wisconsin, once a thriving crucible of progressive politics, has turned into a vanguard of the Republican assault on democracy. Remember that the commanding Republican advantage in the state assembly is itself a creature of grotesque gerrymandering: despite winning only 46% of the state vote in 2018, state Republicans succeeded in capturing 66 of the 99 seats in the state assembly. Recall, too, that no sooner had Tony Evers secured the governorship in 2018, then this same gerrymandered body raced to strip the newly elected Democrat of powers long enjoyed by the state’s chief executive."

In pursuit of political control to preserve its catbird seat for pulling off unrestrained graft and corruption, the Republican Party has for decades openly trounced upon democracy at every chance, sucking the life blood from the common people of the United States.

In its putrid, biowarfare-like attack, the Republican Party has throttled our civil rights, torn apart our government and destroyed our meager, but hard-won social safety net - social security, Medicare, unemployment insurance. Only a cursory glance at the record reveals a ceaseless, and to-date sadly successful, psychopathic campaign to eliminate and/or underfund environmental protection, health care, clean water, public education, safe workplaces, pensions, and programs to care for the elderly and disadvantaged.

By using the COVID-19 pandemic to force Necropolitics in Wisconsin, that is dictate, which "people may live and how some must die", the Republican Party has also literally murdered our hard-won democratic republic.

Here's the story...

Yes, Wisconsin Republicans used the pandemic to stop people from voting, Lawrence Douglas, the guardian.com, 9 Apr 2020.

Should I vote or should I protect my health? That was the stark choice that Wisconsin voters faced on Tuesday – thanks to their elected state representatives. Like much of the rest of the nation, Wisconsin is under a statewide stay-at-home order. The order is designed to slow the spread of a disease that has already sickened nearly half a million Americans and taken the lives of 13,000.

Given the gravity of the threat, the mayors of Wisconsin’s 10 largest cities urged the state to delay the Tuesday election – lest the state put “hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk by requiring them to vote at the polls while this ugly pandemic spreads”. Nearly a dozen other states had already chosen to postpone their primaries given the national state of emergency. Invoking his emergency powers, the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, likewise sought to delay the election until early June.

But Wisconsin said no. In a decision staggering in its cynicism and recklessness, the Republican-controlled state legislature flatly refused to delay the election. What did they hope to gain?

Yes, there was the Democratic primary, but that was of little concern to the Republican lawmakers. Of great concern, however, was Tuesday’s vote in a state supreme court contest. This vote pitted the sitting state supreme court justice Daniel Kelly, a strong conservative voice on the bench, against Jill Karofsky, a lower court judge supported by progressives.

Please, go here for the whole story.

Republicans Admit They Lose When Elections are Fair and Free


8 Apr 2020

Bill Moyers guest this week is the journalist David Daley, whose reporting and advocacy on gerrymandering and voting rights have fired up a generation of activists fighting for free and fair elections.

Please go here for transcript.