New Mexico Bans Armed Agents from Polling Places While Evers Eats Popcorn
New Mexico Bans Armed Agents from Polling Places While Wisconsin's Governor Eats Popcorn
The lack of seriousness surrounding election protection among Wisconsin's retiring Governor and our Attorney General is astounding.
Hi folks,
Kirk Bangstad here from the Minocqua Brewing Company.
Last week, I saw two headlines on my Facebook feed back-to-back that made me shake my head.
The first revealed a picture of Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers eating popcorn while talking about luring film producers to our state with tax credits. The other showed New Mexico’s Governor Lujan Grisham signing a bill to make it a state felony to deploy federal agents to polling places.
After googling for about 5 seconds, I discovered that 6 other blue states were also considering similar legislation to protect their elections from armed federal agents: California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.
Given that our state has two very flippable congressional seats—CD3 and CD1—there is no doubt that if ICE is deployed to stop Democrats from winning a majority in the House of Representatives, they’ll most certainly be sent to blue cities within these two districts—Eau Claire, Stevens Point, La Crosse in CD3; Kenosha, Racine, Janesville, Beloit in CD1.
Madison and Milwaukee will almost certainly be targeted as well given that the Republican Party has signaled that they don’t plan to win the Governor’s race fairly. They’ve put forth only one candidate for an open primary that, in normal times, would be crowded with ambitious Republican millionaires hungry for power and prestige. Not only that, but their candidate, Tom Tiffany, is an extremely light-weight, grade “A” Trump ass-kisser. Nobody likes this guy, not even Republicans. It’s pretty easy to see that a) they’ve simply given up due to Trump’s terrible polling numbers, or b) they’ve cleared the field for a puppet who will follow orders if elected, and the only way he’ll ever get elected is if voter turnout in Madison and Milwaukee “magically” disappears.
So yes, now would be the time for our Democratic leaders, Governor Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, to be sounding the alarm to protect our elections. Instead, we see headlines of Evers eating popcorn.
Our governor is simply not serious anymore after he announced his retirement prior to the most tumultuous election year we’ll ever face in our lifetimes. If I were Evers and wanted to saunter off pleasantly into the sunset, as he deserves to do after decades of political service, I’d actually resign now and hand the reigns over to Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez. While she’s probably too much of a corporate Democrat to get my vote in a general election, she’d at least have some skin in the game to work proactively to protect our elections.
As for the Wisconsin legislature, the Democrats currently in the minority proposed a “Keep Families Together” package of bills to protect Wisconsinites from ICE thugs back in August, but those bills have no chance of getting passed by the Republican majority. No legislator has yet introduced a bill similar to the one that New Mexico just passed.
Since I’m not a huge fan of any of Wisconsin’s gubernatorial candidates currently running, I’ll make this promise here and today: If either Kelda Roys or Francesca Hong, the two legislators running for Governor, introduce an election protection bill similar to the one passed by New Mexico, one or the other will get the endorsement of the Minocqua Brewing Company—for whatever that’s worth. Similarly, if another candidate that’s not in the legislature introduces a plan on what to do if Trump attempts to steal our elections, and that plan includes making it a felony for armed federal agents to interfere with our elections (unpardonable by Trump), then that person will get our endorsement.
And lastly, we will support any reasonable progressive who primaries Attorney General Josh Kaul. His fecklessness knows no bounds, and we simply must find a stronger candidate willing to take bold action against the Trump regime.
As I wrote last week, Kaul should be proactively prosecuting Cleta Mitchell and Wisconsin’s Bradley Foundation for their ongoing efforts to subvert our elections this fall. And while he’s signed onto over 35 lawsuits filed by multiple states to slow Trump down, none of this is leadership. It’s doing the bare minimum.
Folks, Wisconsin needs leadership now more than ever, and its not coming from our Governor nor our Attorney General. It’s coming from a few Democratic legislators like my friend Senator Chris Larson, who “gets” that our Democracy is in danger; and a multitude of non-profits and activists on the ground who actively protest ICE, are organizing to protect our elections, and who are building power to strike if those elections are stolen from us. THESE folks are the “resistance” in Wisconsin.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with the Minocqua Brewing Company. Together, we must “badger” our Democratic leaders to be proactive in protecting our elections from Trump, one beer at a time.
Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company/ Minocqua Marketplace Publisher, Minocqua Brewing Company Times Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC
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Discussion about this post
Come on Evers, and all elected officials, you have to prepare. A lot of democrats are just useless
https://minocquabrewingcompanytimes.substack.com/p/new-mexico-bans-armed-agents-from
Greetings from Albuquerque, NM. I've long enjoyed your principled stance. I'm delighted that you are recognizing New Mexico for being a progressive, forward-minded state. We have an all Blue delegation to the US Congress, and an incredibly sensible Democratic governor who not only signed this law regarding ICE agents at polling places, but she's also passed into law no income tax on Social Security benefits AND free childcare for working families in our state.
Addendum: I wish you were located closer to the Amtrak rail line, as I'd love to come and visit. The SouthWest Chief travels between Albuquerque and Chicago, but I can find no rail connections much closer. Your governor sounds like a right tit, as the Brits would say. And yes, I love rail travel. I suffer fewer drunken "Karens" that way.
I'm hoping to find items on your marketplace that speak to me as necessities or even frivolous delights. Keep up the great work!