Wisconsin: The First Shall Be Last

Wisconsin once had a reputation - - deserved - - as the public policy laboratory, where progressive ideas were born, took hold and exported to the country.

And now:

We struggle to become the last state to regulate so-called payday loans, with usurious rates that trap the poor and make organized crime envious.

And with the exception of a few circumstances, Wisconsin is still the only state in the country to treat first-offense drunken driving as a mere civil ticket.

Our education achievement by minority children is a national disgrace, with poor performance so low that schools in the Jim crow south now surpass Wisconsin averages.

And a public commitment to transit: The Governor and legislative leaders, Democrats all, managed through a veto, then inaction, to send Milwaukee County's bus system i- - the state's largest and once a national leader - - nto an unfunded death spiral.

During Earth Week.

You hear the Tea Partiers demanding their country back.

How about we start with our own state, and reclaim a progressive and healthy mantle that we had claimed, and earned, but have sacrificed through bi-partisan disinterest and policy sloth.