wisdems need change
There are at least two ways to think about politics. On one hand, there is politics as in political beliefs, policy positions, party affiliation, etc. On the other, there’s office politics, you know: who is brown-nosing, or snitching, or flirting? Where did my stapler go? Most importantly: who will get the promotion? In our coverage of the race for WISDEMS chair, we noticed it is starting to look like office politics.
On May 20, outgoing chair Ben Wikler endorsed Devin Remiker. He’d said he would remain neutral, but flip-flopped, surprising Joe Zepeki, the other party insider candidate, who released a video response. The next day, Dan Schafer had Wikler on the Recombobulation Area radio show. There, Wikler explained himself, saying (at 21:09) “It just struck me that I know Devin would be- will be- a great chair. I have worked hand in glove with him...” He then went on to list Remiker’s various projects and tasks as his executive director. The subtext here is: “Devin deserves this.”
Wikler is not saying “Devin has the best ideas” or “Devin has the best sense of how Democrats can recover from their miserable position”. He is saying that Devin worked hard and is entitled to a promotion. This sounds a lot like the worst decisions Democrats have made over the last 20 years. It is the same logic by which Hillary Clinton “deserved” the nomination for president in 2016 after losing the 2008 primary, or that Joe Biden “deserved” the nomination in 2020 after letting Clinton have “her turn” in 2016, and then he “deserved” to run again in 2024 because he’s worked so hard for so long. This is the logic by which Justices (Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, Steven Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor) overstay their time on the Supreme Court, or that Speaker Nancy Pelosi stalled Medicare for All because she didn’t want her legacy of passing the Affordable Care Act overshadowed.
A good portion of the Democrats’ popularity crisis comes from the party putting these kinds of office politics over ideas and values.
A Party in Crisis
Later in the interview, Schafer asked Wikler directly why he didn’t remain neutral, and he said (at 24:35) “when I said that at the outset, there were a whole bunch of candidates.. I didn’t know where it was going to land… I didn’t know how I was going to feel…” Again, we have to read the subtext of his carefully chosen words, but it sounds a lot like Wikler got scared that a change candidate might win. Schafer shifted to that topic next, and Wikler’s response is revealing: “if you think the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is so fundamentally broken that it needs to be burned down, Devin is probably not your candidate. If you think this is a party that has broken records and done extraordinary things, then, I’d argue [for] Devin.” Wikler is creating a false binary choice here. None of the candidates for WISDEMS chair want to burn it down and start from scratch, and none of Wikler and Remiker’s achievements are really all that impressive.
In reality, Democrats here, like Democrats across the country, have been, at best, narrowly winning tight races against alarmingly corrupt, incredibly unpopular, and you-would-think unelectable Republicans. As we’ve argued before: Donald Trump did not win in 2024, Kamala Haris and Joe Biden lost. At the same time, here in Wisconsin, Democrats failed to take the Assembly. Despite Wisconsin Republicans being weird and terrible, despite them fighting each other even more bitterly than national Republicans, despite new maps, and the people’s exhaustion with minority rule, Wikler’s WISDEMS couldn’t gain enough seats to matter. Its gotten so bad that even most parts of Milwaukee, which should be a Democratic stronghold shifted red in 2024. If we don’t win people back before the midterms and assembly races in 2026, the Republicans’ fascist grip on power will tighten.
Milquetoast centrist Democrats like Harris, Biden, and Tony Evers are largely responsible for this failure, but so is WISDEMS leadership. Wikler and Remiker’s biggest achievement is massive fundraising hauls from rich donors that inundated our state with ubiquitous 30 second ads, avalanches of junk mail, and nonstop door knocking; all things that annoy, rather than inspire voters. Their biggest innovation is year round campaigning. They have rank and file members and left leaning people constantly volunteering and donating for fear that we will lose the next “most important in our lifetime” election. We are literally running scared door to door and picking up the slack for uninspiring politicians who deliver crumbs and focus on office politics rather than ideas, values, and delivering improvements for the majority of working people.
After the thrashing in 2024, there sure are many people who do want to burn the party down, but they’re going to join or form third parties, not vote for chair of the Wisconsin Democrats. We want improvement, not a clean slate. That’s why we’re backing William Garcia. He’s surely not as exacting or fierce as us Beagles, or many of our readers, but we will definitely take a teacher, union member, and activist over Remiker the status quo executive or Zepecki the campaign consultant. Garcia’s focus is on building strong county parties with robust, active membership. That plan will shift power from the donor class to the people. Last month, we encouraged our readers to join the Democratic Party and register as delegates (many did!). This was possible because the Milwaukee County party is so inactive and unattractive that there are not enough members to fill all our delegate slots. Friends in other counties report the same. There will likely be hundreds of vacant delegate seats at the convention in Wisconsin Dells. William Garcia is running to change that.
What change could bring
Even Remiker knows these are good ideas, because he is trying to steal them. He claims he too will build up the county parties. He claims that, because he knows the party best, he also knows its dysfunctions best. Well, one thing Remiker surely knows well is the party’s rolodex of rich donors, many of whom are likely backing his run. WISDEMS doesn’t make chair candidates disclose financial information, so, we won’t really know their donors, unless they respond to our request for financial data. Regardless, Wikler and Remiker’s established practice depends on money from elites, and those elites aren’t going to share well with empowered working people demanding economic reforms and reduced inequality. If you want change you don’t vote for the status quo candidate who promises to be all things for all people. If you want change, you need to vote for the change candidate.
Republicans are incredibly beatable. Conservative ideology is gross and weird. When Susan Crawford and Janet Protasiewicz had a little distance from the toxic Democrat brand–when they ran as liberals, on ideas and values–they won by ten or more percentage points. A people powered party could have seen this kind of outcome in every close assembly district. If we had, right now we’d be seeing budget debates between the Evers centrists and the Assembly Socialist Caucus rather than waiting for Robin Vos to whip another big tax break out of our flaccid simpering Governor. If Democrats shifted away from their identity as the establishment, the status quo, if they shifted away from office politics and dependency on the donations and limitations of wealthy elites, so much could be possible.
If you have signed up to be a delegate and are able to get to the convention, go cast a ballot for William Garcia! We’ll be there. Drop us a line at MilwaukeeBeagle@gmail.com. We’ll meet up, sniff butts, chase squirrels, whatever, it’ll be fun!
If you aren’t going, or didn’t register as a delegate, but care about putting the politics of ideas and values over insider party office games, you can donate to Garcia, help him build up his outreach, and win.
