Hey Milwaukee leadership, just say no to the Republican National Convention
Why would anybody who cares about Milwaukee support hosting the Republican National Convention?
The majority of Milwaukee’s citizens are Black and Latinx while the GOP has morphed into an extremist organization, home to violent racists, conspiracy mongers and insurrectionists.
President Donald Trump openly courted the white supremacist Proud Boys and the KKK chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville. A recent survey shows that 66% of Republicans believe in the racist “replacement theory” that fueled the Buffalo mass shooting while Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders refuse to acknowledge or condemn the mass-murderer’s white supremacist ideology.
In short, Republicans don’t even try to hide behind dog-whistle euphemisms any longer; rather, they give full voice to revolting and un-American neo-Nazi beliefs.
Republican-controlled states have used the twin lies of voter fraud and a stolen election to disenfranchise Black and brown voters by rewriting electoral rules, gerrymandering districts to ensure Republican control, and even rescinding voting rights. In their book, “How Democracies Die,” political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write that states under Republican control “are in danger of becoming laboratories of authoritarianism . ... ”
Wisconsin has become that laboratory on steroids for the Republican Party’s anti-democratic, authoritarian behaviors. After losing every statewide election in 2018, Republican leaders called a lame-duck legislative session to strip powers from the newly-elected governor and attorney general, powers they were just fine with when Republicans held those offices.
In addition, Republican gerrymandering is so extreme that in the 2018 election Wisconsin Democratic candidates received 54% of the votes in State Assembly elections, yet they ended up with only 37% of the seats.
In considering the RNC in Milwaukee, recall that Republican politicians and business leaders have waged a relentless war on Milwaukee’s citizens, public education system and election administration.
Republicans have slashed shared revenue that for more than a century functioned as a local rebate of state income taxes. Both our city and Milwaukee County relied on this revenue to provide necessary services like police and fire protection, street and park maintenance.
Not so long ago, shared revenue contributed almost 50% of the city’s budget. Today it’s only 28% This, of course, has forced local governments to do one of two things: either raise property taxes or cut services.
And they have systemically underfunded and attempted to dismantle the Milwaukee Public School system. The latest Republican assault was a plan to break up MPS into eight smaller districts while expanding vouchers. Passed by Republican legislators based on absolutely no research and lacking any detailed plan of implementation, it was appropriately vetoed by Governor Evers.
Is it worth our civic self-respect to invite these purveyors of racism and authoritarianism to party in our midst? Are we really that desperate?
Proponents of the RNC parrot the myth that hosting the convention will bring fame and fortune to our city; however, actual economic benefits to host cities have been negligible. Fortune magazine’s summary analysis is unambiguous: “Cities may vie to host political conventions, lured by promises of millions of visitor dollars and a chance to shine in the national spotlight, but seldom, if ever, do they reap much benefit.”
The most comprehensive study on the matter was conducted by Robert Bade, Robert Bauman, and Victor Matheson. They analyzed every city hosting Republican and Democratic national conventions between 1970 and 2004 and concluded that neither party’s presence had a discernable impact on employment, personal income, or personal income per capita in the cities where the events were held.
There are no “significant wage gains for local employees,” according to their report. The “economic gain from the event does not accrue to the host city but rather benefits the bottom line back at corporate headquarters.”
Obviously, many downtown hotels are headquartered in other states. And if the Republican Convention follows the Democratic party model in 2020, almost half the hotel rooms will be booked not in Milwaukee but in Illinois.
Moreover, the money spent by convention goers generally replaces or crowds out money that would have been spent by other visitors to Milwaukee or by hometown residents who stay away from downtown when large conventions arrive, according to the study.
Locally owned hotels, Airbnb owners, caterers, security forces and taxi drivers will, indeed, profit during the convention, but some businesses inside the high-security convention zone are likely to lose money because the Secret Service will require them to close for the week. Even parking revenue will take a hit since parking decks will be shut down as part of anti-terror measures.
The Bade, Bauman and Matheson study concludes, “People should view promises of economic windfalls from hosting national political conventions in the same way they should view the campaign promises of the candidates at these very conventions — with skepticism.”
Inviting a political party that caters to white supremacists like the Proud Boys, the Klan, and Oath Keepers will not benefit Milwaukee’s citizens. And what message does it send to our children that we are willing to sacrifice our civic values and self-respect to add largess to a few political consultants, national hotel chains, and Airbnb owners?
Milwaukee should just say no to the Republican National Convention. Authoritarians and white supremacists are not welcome here. It’s time to put the people of this city and our commitment to middle class jobs, equality and democracy first.