Thread by @benwikler

July 4th symbolizes the aspirations of America: life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.

In 1776, today, & in between, rights have not been equal. Especially those related to power—such as voting.

Today, let’s commit to fighting for inalienable rights for all.

Thread 🧵

This thread won’t cover most of the last 244 years.

But let’s talk about the battle of the last decade, in the state that could determine the winner of 2020’s presidential election.

Let’s talk about what Scott Walker & co did to Wisconsin.

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans ushered in what I call three horsemen of the democalypse:

1) Gerrymandering
2) Voter suppression
3) Union busting

In 2010, the tea party wave and a flood of dark money swept Scott Walker and the GOP into trifecta power in Wisconsin—a state that was, at that time, a blue trifecta.

(The Republican Party of Wisconsin chair at that time? Guy named Reince Priebus.)

January 2011. Republicans get sworn in. Weeks later, in February, Scott Walker introduces Act 10, supposedly a “budget repair bill,” to gut public sector unions in the state that first invented them. He’d breathed not a word about this during the campaign.
wpr.org/study-public-s…

Wisconsin erupted in protest. In the dead of winter, more than 100,000 people gathered to oppose Act 10 outside the Capitol. Some camped out for weeks inside the Capitol building. Solidarity reigned—per the motto, “an injury to one is an injury to all.”

reuters.com/article/us-wis…

Wisconsinites streamed in to Madison from across the state and (if they were living elsewhere, as in my case) from across the country.

Dems in the state legislature kept the Capitol open 24 hours a day by taking continuous testimony from the public.

14 Dem State Senators left WI & went into hiding in order to deny the GOP a quorum, which was required for bills with financial significance. After weeks of failing to get Dems to return, Walker & GOP stripped financial measures from the “budget repair bill”—& rammed it through.

While all this was going on, Wisconsin Republicans were busy enacting a second prong of their attack on democracy: redrawing legislative maps to give them unfair majorities in the State Senate and Assembly.

More on that in this thread:

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1277686228113133570

And, simultaneously, they were going after voting rights.

Throughout the Act 10 fight, Walker and the GOP were speeding ahead with Act 23, which slashed voting rights even as they were drawing gerrymandered voting maps and taking a hammer to unions.

docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/related/a…

Act 23
- imposed voter ID rules a political scientist called “the most restrictive in the United States”
- slashed early voting & made absentee voting harder
- tightened residency rules to discourage college students from voting
Voter suppression trifecta.
wpr.org/voting-begins-…

As soon as Act 23 became law, everyone sued. Courts upheld many of the voter ID requirements, but litigation stretched on. A 2015 lawsuit by @onewisconsinnow led to some of the worst provisions being struck down just months before the 2016 election.

Scholars examining the impact of what remained of Act 23 indicate it may have swung Wisconsin for Trump in 2016, when he won by 22,748 votes.

But even that wasn’t enough for the GOP. In 2017, Walker's elections commission appealed to the 7th Circuit.

nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/…

Walker’s appeal pulled a panel of three staunchly conservative Republican-appointed judges:

Judges Easterbrook and Kanne were appointed by Reagan.

Diane Sykes was plucked from WI’s Supreme Court and appointed by George W. Bush.

The conservative judges held oral arguments on Act 23 in February of 2017. And then, very weirdly… nothing.

No decision in 2017.
No decision in 2018.
No decision in 2019.

No explanation for the delay. In Wisconsin, much bewilderment.

And then, last week, 127 days from an election in which Wisconsin may play the decisive role in the electoral college, these three Republican-appointed judges suddenly issued their ruling—giving the GOP nearly all of its wish list.

npr.org/2020/06/29/885…

The judges’ decision slashed early voting to two weeks, down from 4-6 weeks in cities like Milwaukee in previous elections.

They required 28 days of residency instead of 10, which hits students returning from quarantine especially hard. And so on.

Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s only majority-minority major city, nearly 40% African-American. Early voting is a tradition there—and this ruling hurts there the most.

But the judges ruled that, despite Act 23’s racially disparate impact, it’s fine.

census.gov/quickfacts/mil…

The judges’ theory in this case has ugly implications for other laws that disproportionately harm African-American voters:

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1277768504813457413

And they literally said “early voting is not a fundamental right”—even after seeing how, in the April 7 election in WI, the lack of early voting options and polling places on election day led to huge lines & infected voters in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/1277767790808760326

So—this is the new legal terrain on which Wisconsin’s electoral college votes will be contested.

And it’s an illustration of the never-ending fight for full enfranchisement, which is a necessary precursor to realizing the American dream of equal rights for all.

Democrats and voting rights advocates in Wisconsin are committed to fighting this terrible decision.

We are currently weighing our legal options, but - ultimately - we know there’s only one way to overcome voter suppression: organizing.

Organizing is the act of building 1:1 relationships, at scale. Organizing is having countless conversations, understanding what voters are going through, and working with them to sketch out solutions and build the power necessary to enact those solutions.

Organizing is how we’ll overcome voter suppression and stop Republicans from winning supermajorities in the State Senate and Assembly.

If we stop that, then we’ll be able to draw fair voting maps after this year’s Census.

And with fair maps, Democrats will be able to win majorities in Wisconsin—and roll back Scott Walker’s attacks on workers, and legislate for voting rights instead of against them.

Fair maps, voting rights, and unions.

All three are at the heart of our democracy. All three are under attack by Wisconsin Republicans.

This November is our opportunity to fight on all three fronts. Nothing less than our democracy is at stake.

So this 4th of July, I want to ask you to commit to the aspirations of American democracy and act to make them a reality for all.

Get involved by volunteering with our state party: wisdems.org/get-involved/v…

Or join our voter protection team: wisdems.org/voter-protecti…

Or do both!

Joining together is the only way we’ll achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Be safe. Wear a mask.

And if you don’t already have one, pick one up at our online store: store.wisdems.org/vote-black-mas…