Youth programming, mental health resources, infrastructure projects, affordable housing, basic human needs keep taking a back seat to law enforcement funding in both city and county budgets. Those things are actual sources of public safety, but we cannot invest in them when we’re giving nearly half of our budgets to the illusion of safety provided by the police. 

African American Roundtable highlighted that police were bankrupting Milwaukee in our report in 2021, yet nothing has changed and no one has seemed to listen. Police are the only department where results or metrics don’t matter. If crime is up, we need more police; if crime is down, we need more police. This logic fails to keep us safe, and this narrative fails to acknowledge what residents need and deserve.

Mayor Johnson is making a cynical calculus that is unfortunately typical with liberals: that tacking to the right’s benefits outweigh the political costs. He’s doing what the Milwaukee Police Association and Republican legislators want, maybe gaining him a bit of credibility with Wisconsin’s power structure –but losing only a few principled, abolitionist voters/elected officials/organizations/etc in the process.

The local manifestation of the 2020 rebellion painted defund the police in ten foot letters on the street outside city hall. Many might dismiss this demand as just local people jumping on a national trend, but it wasn't. It was a mass mobilization behind authentic community demands that existed prior to 2020, and persist to this day.

While almost any Democrat would be better than electing Republican Moses back to office in District 92, Democrat Plouff seems to have the kind of credentials we admire which makes him someone to actually be excited about electing to office. We hope that his election will be able to help us in turning the Assembly blue and prying it from the weird and dangerous Republicans.

Another faultline has recently opened up in the maybe too big, big tent Democratic Party (imagine the fault line is opening up under a circus –this metaphor is actually really good, shut up.) On the one hand, you have reasonable, empathetic people who understand that the unhoused and housing insecure among us deserve dignified treatment, kindless –and housing, if it’s wanted.

This edition:

Democrats Do Spend Public Money on Actual Public Services

Democrats Don’t Imprison People for Mental Illness

Democracy in America is dying because it is a system that relies on the participation of the electorate. If the electorate is too vocal and active however, then liberals may have to pass laws that decrease their comfort and wealth, they may have to enact policies that could even cost them their donors, cushy do-nothing jobs, and friendships with republicans.

From stopping webinars and keeping kids from having free bikes, to banning abortion, and attacking trans folks; the Republicans running for Assembly are as weird and fascist as ever. We must keep these weirdos out and turn the Assembly blue!

Sometimes all you need to do with a bad law is ignore it –pretend it doesn’t exist, and its power might just go away. Often this is as simple as jaywalking across a badly designed street, but it can also be done with something as seemingly toothy as a commandment from the state legislature and Governor Tony Evers.

This edition:

Democrats Do Refuse to Follow Fascist Laws

Democrats Don’t Commit Fraud (Again!) for Charter Schools