Threats to democracy
We get what we elect
Great editorial. It’s about time the Journal Sentinel took a stand (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus, Nov. 18”).
I normally lean toward Republican candidates, but that is quickly changing. The only thing Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) care about is legislation that protects their landlord interests.
Please keep up the pressure, and don’t forget about the problems distributing unemployment checks. I guess we get what we elect.
T. Collopy Brookfield
They’ve hung us out to dry
Thank you so much for your longoverdue editorial on the dangerous stonewalling by Republican leadership in the face of a rampant surge of coronavirus in our state (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus,” Nov. 18).
Like President Donald Trump, they seem willing to accept the collateral damage of the deaths and lingering effects of this disease on thousands people just to support their cause of “personal liberties.” Yet they offer no plan or solutions, hanging their constituency out to dry.
Will it take a personal loss of one of their loved ones for them to finally get it?
They need to go to one of the severely overburdened hospitals and see for themselves what is actually happening on those battlegrounds, what our exhausted frontline workers are dealing with daily. The pleas of those workers are falling on willfully deaf ears. How many bodies, how many refrigerated trucks will it take? Which of their family members are they willing to sacrifice in their quest for a Pyrrhic victory?
Enough! The widely touted phrase “We are in this together” needs to become a reality. This is not a partisan issue; it is a human issue. The GOP must choose to be part of the solution.
Susan M. Gambetta
Greenfield life. I was of the opinion that the Republicans represented the best interests of the people in our great state and would do whatever is necessary to serve its citizens. I am ashamed to say that Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and other Republicans are doing a disservice by ignoring the severity of the pandemic.
Common sense should tell them that politics have no place in a war or a storm — and that is what we are in with the COVID-19 virus. How can they idly stand by and not do whatever is humanly possible to lessen the suffering?
I don’t care who is president or who is governor, our elected officials should put partisan feelings aside and tackle this virus head on. If those who represent us cannot do that, then God help us, because obviously no one else is willing to.
If I survive this virus, no thanks to Fitzgerald and Vos, I will probably vote for Democrats in the next election.
R.C. Halverson
Board bears some responsibility
The Journal Sentinel’s editorial, “GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus,” (Nov. 18, 2020,) fittingly condemns the Republican Party for its failure to govern as COVID-19 ravages Wisconsin. The Republican-controlled legislature hasn’t even bothered to meet in over half a year.
But let’s remember who helped put these people in power in the first place.
Back in 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Editorial Board endorsed Scott Walker for governor as the Republican Party uncritically embraced the Koch brothers’ economic libertarian ideology that government is bad.
And in 2011, the Editorial Board effectively endorsed Act 10, a Republican dream measure that not only drastically cut the pay of Wisconsin state employees but also devastated unions. Not satisfied with that power grab, the Republicans drew up legislative maps so gerrymandered in their favor that they ensured Republican Party rule for the rest of the decade.
Now, the Republican Party refuses to take any measures to alleviate the death and suffering of Wisconsin citizens. The Journal Sentinel helped create this chokehold on state politics by a political party that doesn’t believe in government. The Editorial Board needs to take responsibility for helping to create this nightmare. crisis can be placed directly at the feet of the state’s Republican legislators. But Democrats are not innocent. Democratic legislators should have been shouting from the rooftops every day the state Senate and Assembly did not pass egislation. With the Wisconsin Legislature being among the least active full-time state legislative bodies the country, Democrats are complicit.
Republicans control both houses and therefore set the rules on when to convene, but why is that silencing Democratic voices from alerting the people of Wisconsin to this dereliction of duty and abandonment of oaths of office?
Republicans will point to committee meetings and say they are taking action. But where is the meaningful legislation to help all Wisconsinites? Where are the Republican plans to control the spread of the pandemic? Or is it enough to obfuscate, criticize and litigate any solutions recommended by the executive branch? The governor is issuing executive orders because the Legislature (both parties) refuses to accept its responsibility.
Since the entire Legislature has not performed its sworn duties for the majority of the year, as a taxpayer — and ultimately their employer — I want a refund.
Jack M. Heck
Milwaukee
We’re fed up with Legislature
Excellent editorial in the Nov. 18 paper (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus”).
Specifically, “Since when is it right to let the least informed, least responsible among us lead the way?”
The lack of action from the Republicans in our state Legislature should anger everyone, especially those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19. Gov. Tony Evers is trying to lead the state by offering policies to protect us but has been thwarted at every turn by Republicans through either lawsuits or a failure to legislate.
It seems Republicans do not care for the health and welfare of the people they were elected to represent. What a gross example of negligence. Call them to order, or throw them out in the next election. But by that time, we will have lost many more thousands to coronavirus.
Kathleen M. Klein have been devastated.
Then the legislators should get back to Madison and pledge to work with Gov. Tony Evers to draft bills that will address policing policies, fund new unemployment software to replace our antiquated system, develop consistent, statewide policies that will not only help diminish the spread of COVID-19 but also address the needs of our hospitals and health care systems, help stimulate economic equality and provide relief for the families most affected by the economic crisis.
The legislators have had seven months to think about it. Now they need to act.
Mary Weber
Hartland
The Nov. 18 editorial criticizing the Republican dominated Legislature for inaction in addressing Wisconsin’s pandemic was excellent and long overdue (“GOP leaders just watch as state is overrun by coronavirus”).
The driving force of preserving partisan political power has now usurped even the preservation of human life. State Republicans have had a role model in the despicable behavior of President Donald Trump and other national Republicans who have let the pandemic consume us as we became an international disgrace.
It is time for the news media to more frequently and forcefully address the failures of our do-nothing politicians. With the growth of far-right media outlets spewing all manner of untrue conspiracies, we see a public split between fact and truth and those believing these conspiracies. If there is no vigorous defense of fact and truth, our democracy cannot survive.
Without challenges to the dereliction of duty by officeholders, the situation will only get worse as gerrymandered districts give legislators the cover they need to continue to place politics over the well-being of citizens.
I know that many media have abandoned editorials for fear of criticism and the potential loss of readers. But the loss of democracy is a far greater toll than the loss of those who clearly do not have the best interest of society in mind.
We all need to choose between right, truth, fact and civic responsibility and the almost criminal behavior of selfserving political machines.
Cal Potter Sheboygan Falls