The Democratic Party has wisely postponed its national nominating convention in Milwaukee from July to August out of an abundance of caution because of the coronavirus in Wisconsin.
The viral pandemic may diminish in four more months, and some version of a convention could be held, albeit correctly cautiously via Zoom-style electronic and remote gatherings rather than in the multiplicity of traditional meetings, programs, caucuses and public events which would pack in 50,000 visitors to a glitzy once-every-four-years blowout.
But the GOP-run Wisconsin Legislature, with an established history of undermining Gov. Evers through lame duck legislating and other machinations - -
- - also holds election-scheduling powers and believes it has some kind of inside-straight to hold an ultra-conservative's key State Supreme Court seat - - so has refused to postpone the statewide election set for Tuesday, April 7 even though the coronavirus is accelerating towards a probable April peak and has already hit more than 1,700 people statewide and killed 41, testing and other data show,
Bruce Murphy at Urban Milwaukee put it this way in a Wednesday column:
Heckuva of a poll tax, having to risk your life voting in person, or working at the polls with an invisible pandemic get more deadly each day.
Yes, Wisconsin has divided government right now.
I just never thought the division would pit those who hope to protect lives and public health against others putting a higher priority on preserving their own personal position and partisan power.
The viral pandemic may diminish in four more months, and some version of a convention could be held, albeit correctly cautiously via Zoom-style electronic and remote gatherings rather than in the multiplicity of traditional meetings, programs, caucuses and public events which would pack in 50,000 visitors to a glitzy once-every-four-years blowout.
But the GOP-run Wisconsin Legislature, with an established history of undermining Gov. Evers through lame duck legislating and other machinations - -
- - also holds election-scheduling powers and believes it has some kind of inside-straight to hold an ultra-conservative's key State Supreme Court seat - - so has refused to postpone the statewide election set for Tuesday, April 7 even though the coronavirus is accelerating towards a probable April peak and has already hit more than 1,700 people statewide and killed 41, testing and other data show,
Bruce Murphy at Urban Milwaukee put it this way in a Wednesday column:
MURPHY’S LAW
Republicans Risk Public Health With Election
Refusal of Vos and Fitzgerald to postpone election could cause more disease, deaths.
Evers has said he believes the governor lacks the power under the state Constitution to move back the election...And that leaves it up to Vos and Fitzgerald, who rule a gerrymandered Legislature that fell well short of a majority of the state-wide vote in the last election.
And Vos and Fitzgerald refuse to postpone the election or discuss any alternatives....
“They have cynically calculated that lower turnout will help the conservative candidate,” Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, told the Washington Post. "That's what you call playing with the lives of voter and poll workers out of an abundance of incaution.
Heckuva of a poll tax, having to risk your life voting in person, or working at the polls with an invisible pandemic get more deadly each day.
Yes, Wisconsin has divided government right now.
I just never thought the division would pit those who hope to protect lives and public health against others putting a higher priority on preserving their own personal position and partisan power.