Politics of Wisconsin

Wisconsin's political history encompasses, on the one hand, Robert La Follette and the Progressive movement, and on the other, the Republican and anti-Communist Joe McCarthy. From the early 20th century, the Socialist Party of America had a base in Milwaukee. The phenomenon was referred to as "sewer socialism" because the elected officials were more concerned with public works and reform than with revolution (although revolutionary socialism existed in the city as well). Its influence faded in the late 1950s largely because of the red scare and racial tensions.[1] The first Socialist mayor of a large city in the United States was Emil Seidel, elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1910; another Socialist, Daniel Hoan, was mayor of Milwaukee from 1916 to 1940; and a third, Frank P. Zeidler, from 1948 to 1960. Succeeding Frank Zeidler, the last of Milwaukee's Socialist mayors, Henry Maier, a former Wisconsin State Senator and member of the Democratic Party was elected mayor of Milwaukee in 1960. Maier remained in office for 28 years, the longest-serving mayor in Milwaukee history. Socialist newspaper editor Victor Berger was repeatedly elected as a U.S. Representative, although he was prevented from serving for some time because of his opposition to the First World War.

During the Civil War, Wisconsin was a Republican state; in fact, it is the state that gave birth to the Republican Party, although ethno-religious issues in the late 19th century caused a brief split in the coalition. The Bennett Law campaign of 1890 dealt with foreign language teaching in schools. Many Germans switched to the Democratic Party because of the Republican Party's support of the law.[2]

Through the first half of the 20th century, Wisconsin's politics were dominated by Robert La Follette and his sons, originally of the Republican Party, but later of the revived Progressive Party. Since 1945, the state has maintained a close balance between Republicans and Democrats. Recent leading Republicans include former Governor Tommy Thompson and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner; prominent Democrats include Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001, and Congressman David Obey.[3]

Some have argued the state has experienced democratic backsliding since 2011.[4][5][6] Some political scientists classify Wisconsin as a hybrid regime;[4] the state's House of Representative and legislature elections are considered to be free but not fair, with districts undergoing "extreme partisan gerrymanders" to entrench Republicans "beyond electoral rotation".[4][5][7]

  1. ^ Smith, Kevin D. (Spring 2003). "From Socialism to Racism: The Politics of Class and Identity in Postwar Milwaukee". Michigan Historical Review. 29 (1): 71–95. doi:10.2307/20174004. JSTOR 20174004.
  2. ^ Kellogg, Louise Phelps (September 1918). "The Bennett Law in Wisconsin". Wisconsin Magazine of History. 2 (1): 3–25. JSTOR 4630124.
  3. ^ Conant, James K. (March 1, 2006). "1". Wisconsin Politics and Government: America's Laboratory of Democracy. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1548-1.
  4. ^ a b c Ginsburg, Tom; Huq, Aziz (2018). How to Save a Constitutional Democracy. University of Chicago Press. pp. 7–11, 13, 16, 22, 31. ISBN 9780226564388. Wisconsin's elections can be criticized along the third of these criteria, China's along all three. The result is a series of "blurred and imperfect" boundaries between democracy and its alternatives, in addition to myriad pathways away from democratic ordering toward one of a range of alternatives.
  5. ^ a b Grumbach, Jacob M. (December 1, 2022). "Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding". American Political Science Review. 117 (3): 967–984. doi:10.1017/S0003055422000934. ISSN 0003-0554. S2CID 234000893.
  6. ^ Levine, Sam (April 5, 2023). "Liberal judge's Wisconsin supreme court race win shows a shake-up in US politics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 6, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  7. ^ Tharoor, Ishaan (November 8, 2022). "U.S. democracy slides toward 'competitive authoritarianism'". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2023.