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.

Today, shared revenue is essentially wealthy Republican lawmakers waging a culture war, demonizing a city, and stealing its resources to redistribute amongst their own constituents and ensure they are re-elected. Shared revenue is not a just redistribution of resources.

Public financing is complicated, in part because some people would rather not have any public financing at all. If it were as simple as Milwaukee collecting tax revenue then spending that  revenue on public infrastructure, the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) district might not be in the godawful mess it’s in –unfortunately, the reality is complicated and stupid, just like most bureaucracies.

This edition:

Democrats Do Defend Public Education

Democrats Don't Commit Fraud to Privatize Schools

While efforts to gather, hold each other safe, and defend our city are vital and encouraging, they don’t address the core problem: this should never have happened. We cannot let the people who put us at risk off the hook. The community response to the RNC needs to include holding the elected officials who invited the fascists here responsible for what goes down during their party in our city.