Commentary
Wisconsin GOP chair wants to have it both ways on Trump
By now most political analysts have agreed that the midterms were, overall, a kick in the butt for Republicans. As outgoing U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) memorably put it in The Washington Post , after the 2022 midterms, “we have no choice but to heed voters when they say that ‘the grass is green, the […]
Wisconsin Examiner reporters lead the way
Examiner reporters have done a lot of great work over the last year. Among our most timely stories of 2022 was Deputy Editor Erik Gunn’s reporting on the fallout from the revival of Wisconsin’s Civil War-era abortion ban. The same week the ban went into effect, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, […]
How Wisconsin Supreme Court races became so partisan
Judicial races in Wisconsin are supposed to be nonpartisan. Technically, they still are. And ideally, that’s the way they should be. Our judges and justices should be above partisanship. They should be impartial arbiters of the law, not beholden to one party or another — or one ideology or another. But over the last 15 […]
Progressive issues are popular issues
When the latest Marquette Law School poll came out, everyone in the media was focusing on the gains that Ron DeSantis has been making versus Donald Trump in the Republican field. But far more interesting to me were the poll numbers on the issues that people rank as most important, nationwide. Here the startling thing […]
Vanity Fair’s ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’: A horror movie version of rural America
I first heard about the new “Wisconsin Death Trip” story from a friend in North Carolina. “After reading this Vanity Fair piece, not so sure I wanna come visit y’all,” she wrote. Wisconsin winters often scare away visitors from the South. But a Nov. 30 glossy magazine feature by journalist, best-selling author and Dartmouth professor […]
Farmers and workers vs. Big Food
During a Tuesday forum sponsored by a coalition of farmers, community leaders and sustainable agriculture experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dennis Olson, a researcher with the United Food & Commercial Workers union, laid out a vision for changes to our food system that would address the needs of farmers, workers and everyone concerned about […]
The war on democracy isn’t over
Let’s celebrate the good news: When the Republican chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission quietly certified the results of the 2022 election this week, the Big Lie fizzled, along with doomsday scenarios involving GOP candidates refusing to accept the results and armed militia members waging a campaign of intimidation — or worse — against voters. […]
Honoring our food – and those who grow it – this holiday season
For years I had heard from my friends familiar with agriculture in the U.S. about the many benefits of eating food grown locally or regionally, and about the importance of supporting the people growing and raising those products. As I listened to them and learned more about the local food movement, bit by bit what […]
Stability or disruption for Wisconsin schools?
Parent-teacher conferences just ended — a process akin to speed-dating, during which my husband and I met with our high school sophomore’s teachers in a flurry of quick, 10-minute Zoom sessions. As frenetic as the process was, it was reassuring to talk to the grownups who are teaching our daughter and to hear what she’s […]
Republicans served up ‘red wave’ Kool-Aid. Pundits drank it up.
The election was four weeks out. Every sign pointed to Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon careening toward an epic loss. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was, by all indications, running a smart campaign that connected with voters on kitchen-table issues, which does, as she often pointed out, include abortion rights. Her authentic bond with her running mate, […]
Wisconsin Republicans step back from Trump, but Trumpism is alive and well
Wisconsin Republicans are moving away from Trump. Who can blame them? Trump-endorsed candidates, among them GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, sustained heavy losses in the midterm elections. And Trump’s rambling, petulant speech announcing that he is running for president in 2024 was not exactly inspiring. “Two years ago, we were a great nation,” Trump declared, […]
What you don’t know about the UW System’s new charter schools should worry you
The UW System’s Office of Educational Opportunity (OEO), created by the Wisconsin Legislature in 2015, is well on its way to overseeing more K-12 schools than the superintendents of most of Wisconsin’s 423 school districts. Currently, the OEO, the UW System’s charter school authorizer, lists 10 independent charter schools it has authorized on its website. […]