A New Progressive Era

. . . Victor and Meta Berger . . .

. . . . . Carl and Margarethe Schurz . . .

Wisconsin’s greatest progressives were political independents. They built independent parties -- the Progressives, the Socialists, the original, radical, Republicans, the Liberty Party -- in order to make principle, not party, the question of the day. For example, Carl Schurz -- the German liberal revolutionary, publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel, abolitionist, Civil War Brigadier General, Lincoln confidante, co-founder of the American Anti-Imperialist League -- in a July 4th speech on “The True Americanism” said:

The inscription on [our] banner is not "Opposition to the Democratic party for the sake of placing a new set of men into office"; for this battle-cry of speculators our hearts have no response. Nor is it "Restriction of slavery and restriction of the right of suffrage," for this, believe my words, I entreat you this would be the signal of deserved, inevitable and disgraceful defeat. But the inscription is "Liberty and equal rights, common to all as the air of Heaven — Liberty and equal rights, one and inseparable!"

Throughout Wisconsin’s history -- until recently -- allegiance to progressive policy, not partisanship, made our state a beacon for the nation. This was the state that -- more than any other -- ended slavery. This state brought the nation the direct election of U.S. Senators, attempted to abolish the Senate, and enacted the progressive income tax. This state stood alone against the madness of World War I. This state set the model for kindergarten programs, social security, child labor laws, and much more. Wisconsinites were leading contributors to America’s land ethic and our respect for and understanding of ecology.

In the 1990s, Wisconsin led the nation in establishing a moratorium on metallic sulfide mining. Leaders in that effort included Walter Bresette, the famous treaty rights activist and Green Party co-founder, Herb Buettner, a lifelong northwoods Republican Party activist, and Rep. Spencer Black, a progressive Democrat from the west side of Madison. Ben Manski was also active in those efforts -- he was Clean Wisconsin’s Mining Organizer, and organized civil disobedience against the mining companies, as well as public education and lobbying efforts.

The 1990s are long gone. It it well past time for Wisconsin to again light the way by:

• Taking responsibility for our National Guard men and women by passing Rep. Black’s “Safeguard the Guard Act,” a bill Ben Manski helped to draft that is designed to ensure that our guard members are only sent into harm’s way following a lawful authorization of Congress.
• Joining legislators in Hawai’i, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, and other states in initiating constitutional amendments protecting the right to vote and making clear, once and for all, that people, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights.
• Creating a grassroots, participatory process for all Wisconsinites to have a say in renewing of our state constitution. Jefferson was right that no generation should be compelled to live beneath “dead men’s laws.”
• Recognizing Wisconsin’s cooperative and community economic sectors for the incredible assets they are, and investing in cooperative development as an alternative to big government and big corporations, both.
• Restoring the separation of powers by ending the Tommy Thompson-era expansion and abuse of the partial veto power. Fred Wade is right when he says that, "Neither the framers of the 1930 Amendment that created the partial veto, nor the voters who ratified it, had any intention of giving governors a unilateral executive power to create laws that the Legislature did not approve."
• Strengthening the home rule powers of our cities and local governments to provide for the general welfare by enacting statutory reforms clarifying that state wage, labor, environmental, development, and other standards are intended to provide a floor, and not a ceiling to local innovation.