Sunday, June 7, 2020

On policing reform, GOP says Evers should give them a call. Har!

Wisconsin's Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has endorsed policing reform legislation that presciently predated the current national movement for change now underway.
Tony Evers (cropped).jpg 

Despite the obvious need, mounting video evidence and mountains of facts -
Black Americans 2.5X More Likely Than Whites to Be Killed By Police
- rest assured that GOP leaders Fitzgerald and Vos will extend their little dictators' gerrymandered behaviors, ignore or outright kill the measures.

How do we know this, beyond the GOP's one-dimensional devotion to a morally-bankrupt, dog-whistled law-and-order script?


* A leading WI GOP legislator has already attacked the plan, complete with the standard Republican name-calling buzzwords about liberal activists, blah blah micromanaging blah, though he generously thanked protesters for "bringing attention to racism."


'Bringing attention' is it, State Sen. Van Wanggaard, (R-Racine)? Could you dip a toe anymore gingerly into hundreds of years of history, sir?

And Van Wanggaard also made this sadly hilarious suggestion to Evers:
“If Governor Evers wants to have a productive conversation about the use of force, and preventing these horrific acts, he knows my number."
And about having Evers just give Republicans a call - let's remember with what reception some earlier Evers' suggestions were met:

* Evers sent the Legislature modest gun safety measures which enjoyed broad public support. Vos and Fitzgerald gaveled down the legislative sessions in seconds.

* You may remember more recently that after demanding the State Supreme Court quickly hear the GOP legislators' lawsuit against Evers' extending his Covid-19 'Safer-at-Home' order, GOP leaders then showed their true colors and chose not to have the negotiation they said they wanted with Evers or offer a new plan.

* You may also remember that when Evers invited legislators to a meeting to discuss bills to assist the homeless which the GOP leadership had bottled up, no Republican showed up.

* You may remember the WI GOP legislative leaders' instant rejection of Evers' proposed fair redistricting measure - and keep you eye on this matter because Republicans are not above rigging the process, and just began their familiar run to the State Supreme Court for partisan advantage, this time to retain their gerrymandered control when the 2020 census will require new legislative mapping.

* And, again, you may remember that Evers proposed expanding federally-funded Medicaid in Wisconsin, which, by the way, would have addressed some of the systemic racial and income-based disparities in medical services' availability provision and personal longevity. Vos called it a non-starter.

As I said, if Evers has a plan, the GOP's plan in response is to reject it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Senator Wanggaard thinks he's auditioning for Senate Leader?

Thanks for keeping a running chronology of this vain posturing. And for the "Har!" - a somewhat arcane and sadly underused expression of barking disbelief that is the perfect response to such blatant GOP hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

Republicans identify too closely with the perpetually psychotic Donald Trump. But you can't discuss what politicians think after wide-scale violence and looting and not say anything about Freedom Inc, Urban Triage and the Party for Socialism. They demand defund police, release of jailbirds and have "community policing."