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Madison, Wis. skyline
There was a period just a couple of decades ago when the Wisconsin State Legislature was, in addition to being its usual political self, also civil and functioned with a sense of fair play. I distinctly remember in my first term in the Assembly, I made a procedural error with one of my bills that would have knocked it off course, at least for a few days and maybe for the rest of the term since there were only a couple of days left of floor debate.
This was a time when Tom Loftus was Democratic Assembly Speaker who eventually went on to be Ambassador to Norway and David Prosser who was Republican minority leader and who went on to be a State Supreme Court Justice. They were both very talented and successful in the political world. They also loved and respected the institutions of state government. So, when my error became clear, the proceedings stopped and there was a unanimous consent resolution which allowed the speaker to walk back the procedures on my bill and make the correct procedural move where I messed up. The bill got back on track, and it eventually passed. A majority of the Republicans voted against my bill, but they were gracious toward a first term legislator of the other party and allowed my bill to move forward to a final vote.
It’s More Than the Constitution and the Laws
American democracies at all levels abide by their constitutions and laws, but there are also many unwritten customs and traditions that are necessary for democracies to flourish. The United Kingdom, for example, does not have a written constitution. They function very successfully with a combination of some laws and many unwritten customs and traditions. Healthy democracies flourish with a certain level of trust and belief in the bigger vision of protecting the wellbeing of the citizenry, providing for the everyone’s safety, and promoting a robust economy with an albeit imperfect system, representative democracy.
Unfortunately, those days are over in Wisconsin. Since the 2010 redistricting left Wisconsin with what a three-judge Federal Judicial Panel labeled “unconstitutionally gerrymandered legislative districts,” the Republican leadership set aside any sense of decorum and fair play and made everything into a bare-knuckle fight. Unwritten customs and traditions that helped make Wisconsin’s legislature one of the top three in the country were tossed aside. It is now do whatever you can to win every issue in a scorched earth approach and not care how much it damages our democracy. The graciousness of the Republican leadership toward me and my mistake would not happen today.
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At the end of a football game, the quarterbacks will often embrace, they might complement one another for a particular good play, and the losing team accepts the loss. That’s part of the custom and tradition in sports. We need some of that civility back in our political life.
How Does this Affect our Everyday Political Activity?
In Wisconsin, the lack of fair play has been manifesting itself in many different areas. For example, when it comes to many executive positions such as cabinet secretaries, the Governor appoints, and the state senate is supposed to vet the candidates through background research and direct questioning and then either confirm the nomination or not. It should also be done in a timely manner so the positions are filled by a secretary or commissioner and not by an acting secretary or acting commissioner so the work of the state can robustly proceed.
If someone is an acting secretary, then they are not totally working for the administration and supporting the governor’s agenda because they have to be careful not to offend the majority leader of the state senate who can schedule a vote on the acting secretary’s confirmation and force the candidate out of their job. That happened a couple of years ago with Gov. Ever’s first Department of Agriculture selection. Months into his position as Acting Secretary of Agriculture Brad Pfaff, a qualified and well-respected public servant, was lobbying for monies for mental health services for farmers who were seeing a spike in suicides. The senate majority leader didn’t like that and made it clear that Pfaff would not be confirmed so the governor pulled the appointment.
Was it illegal, no, but it was not what the framers intended? Does it violate the constitution’s separation of powers? Probably. What there is no question about is that it violates one of the many unwritten rules that make the institutions function. There are many other examples like the chair of the Department of Natural Resources, a Walker appointee, who wouldn’t leave his position after his term expired. A 1964 State Supreme Court ruling said that a board member can stay in their position until their replacement is confirmed. Using this ruling not as the court intended, the Republican controlled state senate would not confirm any new appointees. Is it legal? Probably. Is it the way a democracy is intended to function? Absolutely not.
Why is this So Important?
These are just a couple of examples of efforts to undermine democracy which are small in comparison to the big lie where the clear loser in the presidential election won’t accept the vote count or participate in the peaceful transition of power even after over 60 court rulings made it clear that he lost. Now the Trump operatives are encouraging their followers to disrupt every unit of government especially school boards and even condo boards in their efforts to discredit democracy. This may sound trivial but when a few thousand of them are happening across the country, they begin to cause the average person to question whether democracy can still work.
In Germany and Italy in the 1930s, there were hundreds of examples of these type of aggressions against German and Italian democracy and its customs and traditions. In the how to be an autocrat handbook, all these efforts begin to set the stage for a system where the losers in upcoming elections can just refuse to accept the vote count and call the whole process rigged. So, when you read about these various actions by our state legislature, it’s more serious than it may look.
