Wisconsin's Democrat establishment coalesced against Hong
Notes from Connecticut
Lindsey one-upped Mitch, Trump dissolved the EAC, and Wisconsin's Democrat establishment coalesced against Hong all while I was visiting friends in New England
Hi Folks,
Kirk Bangstad here from the Minocqua Brewing Company.
I’m visiting friends in Connecticut this weekend for some much needed R&R, but who knew Lindsey Graham would be summoned to the 9th Circle of Hell while I was en route to the airport to come back home to Wisconsin? Here are my thoughts on Lindsay Graham and a few other topics from last week.
Lindsey Graham’s death gives us a little more hope that Graham Platner’s exit from Maine’s Senate race won’t lead to a Democratic loss to Susan Collins and a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate.
To take control of the U.S. Senate, which is critical to saving American Democracy, Democrats need to win a net of four seats while defending two in Georgia and Michigan. The most realistic way for this to happen would be to win in Maine, North Carolina, and Alaska against Republican incumbents, and win with independent candidate Dan Osborn in Nebraska. Without Maine, a viable path for Democrats to retake the Senate is much more difficult because we’d have to win in red states Texas or Ohio. Graham’s death opens up another seat in deeply red South Carolina, which could be a long-shot opportunity for Democrats given the the current anti-Trump fervor gripping America.
Before moving on from Platner’s story, I want to add my two cents on his exit. Here’s a quote from a Substack writer Benjamin Stuart Reed that resonated with me.
“I served alongside some of the most reprehensible men I have ever met in Ukraine, because the fight mattered more than their edgelord Waffen-SS patches and the histories they would not talk about. I served in a foreign legion. This [Trump’s Regime] is the domestic one, and the war is here. We cannot afford to care this much about allegations, which are not convictions, if we actually mean to change the system. Platner may have raped that woman. Somewhere in this country tonight a woman is being raped in a state where she will not be able to end the pregnancy when she finds out. Shift us any further right and Americans will be driving to Canada for an abortion, in the same car as the cheaper insulin.”
I don’t have enough time today to comment further—and this topic unfortunately warrants a lot more nuance—but given that the Republican Party forgives the most heinous allegations of sexual abuse against women and children within their tribe as a means to hold onto power—which furthers the subjugation of women in American society—its pains me to lose a powerful weapon in our fight against fascism. That weapon, while deeply flawed, was Graham Platner. While I understand that Democrats should hold our nominees to a much higher moral standard than the non-existent bar Republicans set for their own candidates, I worry that we may have missed the forest for the trees in banishing Platner so close to the midterms.
Trump just dissolved the Election Assistance Commission, which will surely have negative ramifications on the integrity of our midterm elections.
Trump’s slow-rolling coup gets more devious by the day. Unfortunately, it’s very hard for average Americans to understand how each attack on our electoral system could result in stolen elections, because we’ve never seen this happen before.
What can we do? I’ve been saying for a year that blue state governors must work together to game out every possible way Trump might steal our elections this fall and coordinate a plan to stop him. Then, they need to be very transparent about their plans to protect our elections so we’ll already know what to do when Trump unleashes electoral chaos this November. Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers has effectively retired and would rather take photo ops filling potholes than ensure a smooth transition of power in our state. Wisconsinites will have to take take cues from other blue state governors, or hopefully the winner of Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, on how to best brace ourselves for electoral chaos and violence.
We’re being being misled about Mitch McConnell’s health by corporate media, and Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear should immediately call for a special election to fill his seat.
Under Kentucky’s Senate succession law that was passed SPECIFICALLY to protect Republicans if something happened to Mitch, any vacancy occurring before August 3rd triggers a special election.
The Epstein Class DEFINITELY doesn’t want a special election, because the popular Republican who has vowed to hold Trump’s pedophile ring accountable, Thomas Massie, could jump into that race.
If the vacancy occurs on or after August 3, there’s not enough time to hold a special election under state law, and the seat would simply remain vacant until the newly elected Senator (most likely Trump-loyalist Andy Barr because he won the Republican primary) is sworn in the following January.
If I were Governor Beshear, I would set a deadline for McConnell’s staff to prove that he’s lucid and able to represent his constituents. If that deadline passes, he should call for a special election regardless of whether we know the truth about McConnell. Sure, he’ll get sued by Republicans, but it’s time to play offense instead of defense.
Milwaukee Executive David Crowley’s exit from Wisconsin’s Gubernatorial race and his call to coalesce behind corporate Democrat Sarah Rodriguez reeks of the establishment doing whatever they can to prevent Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong from becoming our Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee
Crowley’s exit leaves corporate Democrats Mandela Barnes and Joel Brennan in the race. Brennan’s and progressive Kelda Roys’s candidacies are polling near Lindsey Graham’s waiting room in hell, meaning that the race is essentially between Rodriguez, Barnes, and Hong. Crowley’s call for Democrats to coalesce behind Rodriguez is a veiled message that he doesn’t believe a Democratic Socialist can win in a general election. He wants Barnes to drop out so that the corporate Democratic vote isn’t split between him and Rodriguez, because he believes that the stakes are too high for a Democratic Socialist to lose to rubber-stamping Trump marionette Tom Tiffany.
It angers me to no end that establishment Democrats refuse to acknowledge and support the unbelievable energy coming from Democratic Socialists across the country. When I was in this race myself, I made the case that Hong didn’t have the leadership experience necessary to become governor, and that I should be Wisconsin’s progressive flag-bearer. The vitriol I received from progressives as a result showed me that regardless of her experience, the enthusiasm for her candidacy was unmatched in Wisconsin.
The corporate Democratic brand has been destroyed by weak leadership coming from Schumer/Jeffries/Baldwin in DC and from Governor Evers here at home. Absolutely no rank and file Democrats want carbon copies of this “do-nothing” mentality that rolls over and plays dead every time Trump picks a fight. It’s obvious that Wisconsinites, along with the rest of the country, want fighters who refuse to do the bidding of the donor class and promise to make revolutionary change to help the working class. It’s as obvious now as it was back in 2016 when Bernie Sanders beat Hilary Clinton in 71 out of 72 Wisconsin counties.
The fact that Crowley has fallen in-line with this out-of-touch thinking shows me that he too has chosen to serve those that write big checks instead of those who can’t afford healthcare.
That’s all I got for today because my flight is going to land in about 20 minutes.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with the Minocqua Brewing Company.
Together, let’s embrace the energy coming from the Democratic Socialists and wrest power back from the establishment who refuse to stand up to Trump, one beer at a time.
Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company/Minocqua Marketplace
Publisher, Minocqua Brewing Company Times.
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Discussion about this post
https://minocquabrewingcompanytimes.substack.com/p/notes-from-connecticut
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BTW, FLG!
If there is a hell, he's already there.
I'm having a "warm up beer" today, anticipating the main event soon.