Better Than the Worst is Not Nearly Good Enough
The important lessons of last week’s Republican primary elections are straightforward. Donald Trump is leading the movement to return the Government to the people. Millions of voters are determined to take our country back from the corrupt political parties and corrupt career politicians at the heart of our decay. To underestimate the amount of resistance that will be encountered and the amount of disruption that will be required would be perilous. The media and the Democrats, who understand nothing about effective leadership, claim that Trump is on a “retribution campaign.” They are wrong. Trump understands the urgency of the agenda and the importance of systematically moving obstructionists out of the way. He will do whatever is necessary to deliver on his promises to the American people.
Last week’s primaries were a show of leadership strength, unmasking pretenders, and the unwavering conservative support for the Trump agenda. Thirty-seven Trump backed candidates won or advanced, but it is the resounding defeats of long-term politicians who Trump wanted replaced that are most significant. Bill Cassidy is a career politician from Louisiana who held elected office for nearly 20 years, most recently 11 years as a Senator. He voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot in 2021 and is a physician who worked against important elements of the Trump administration’s health agenda. Tom Massie is a career politician who held the office of Congressman from Kentucky for 14 years. He chose to make the Epstein files a centerpiece of his recent work and bucked Trump on some of his key initiatives including the Big Beautiful Bill and foreign policy. Trump concluded these men were not going to provide the help he needs to advance his agenda and supported primary challengers in their races last week. Being better than the worst was not enough to save them.
Cassidy finished last in a 3-way race in which the top 2 vote getters will advance to a runoff. He is out. Massie lost his race by nearly 10 points and is out. Both men had been going through the motions of appearing to support the Trump agenda as much as they thought was required to keep their seats. It didn’t take long for them to reveal that, rather than respect the wishes of their voters, they will now more openly defy Trump with each gasp of their dying political breath. Cassidy immediately returned to Washington and joined the Democrats in casting the deciding vote for a war powers resolution he previously voted against seven times to hinder Trump’s ability to continue the conflict with Iran. Massie defiantly promised in his concession speech to continue focusing on exposing powerful people associated with the Epstein files for his remaining seven months. Expect both men to actively obstruct Trump now that they have nothing to lose.
The voters of Louisiana and Massie’s Kentucky district sent a clear and decisive message last week. When forced to choose between men they have previously found worthy of reelection multiple times and Trump, they stand firmly with Trump. His success is their priority; they trust him; and they will give him what he says he needs.
John Cornyn has been a Senator from Texas for 23 years. He is locked in a primary battle with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. They face a primary runoff on May 26 and last week Trump endorsed Paxton as early voting got underway. Trump called Cornyn a good man but too lukewarm in his support of Trump’s agenda. The winner of the runoff will face the Democratic candidate in November. Many Trump supporters consider the purging of political careerists just the beginning of the disruption that will be required to make America great again. There are many more who need to go.
Applying the lessons of last week’s primaries to Wisconsin would be an excellent step forward in the fight to reclaim our state. The Legislature is a dismal failure from the perspective of conservative voters, occupied by Republican members who are outright bad actors and others who are skating by; expecting our continued support because they are better than the worst. It’s time to clarify expectations.
On March 23, Governor Evers signed Wisconsin Act 116 into law. It was co-authored by Republicans Clint Moses and Chris Kapenga and was touted by Republican Legislators as a great achievement. The bill prohibits purchasing candy and soft drinks with FoodShare benefits, (called SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the rest of the country), to align with new Federal requirements. It allocates more than $3 million to implement an electronic system to identify SNAP eligible products (much as local pharmacies have products eligible for “over the counter” health insurance benefits programmed into their checkout systems). It allocates an additional $72 million for program administration including hiring 70 new positions for “quality control”.
The bill does nothing to address why 700,000 Wisconsin residents, 12% of the state’s population, are dependent on FoodShare benefits and why 234,000 (about a third of the total) reside in Milwaukee County (an astounding 25% of the County’s total population). The Legislature did nothing to address Governor Evers’ refusal to cooperate with the Trump administration’s request to review Wisconsin’s FoodShare data despite the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that the Federal Government lost between $233 and $521 billion annually in fraud from 2018 – 2022. These estimates are supported by the various findings of fraud in multiple states in recent months and Evers’ explanation for his refusal: the FoodShare data are analyzed every year and “we feel confident in it. The program is working just fine” is unacceptable. The bill does nothing to address the ridiculously low FoodShare work requirements that have no chance of moving recipients to self-sufficiency.
Senator Chris Kapenga was recently asked in a conservative forum why he would co-author a bill that does nothing to advance the conservative value of self-sufficiency and perpetuates the liberal concept of dependence on the Government. He defended his leadership on the bill as the best that can be done with the existing Legislature. The complete reform of the welfare system he favors and has promoted in the past is of no interest to the Legislators. Better than the worst is not nearly good enough.
On Monday, May 11, Governor Evers announced that he, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, and Majority Leader of the Senate Devin LeMahieu had reached a deal to spend $1.8 billion of the anticipated $2.5 billion budget surplus. The plan was to end tax on cash tips and overtime, give another $600 million to K-12 schools (half in general aid and half for special education), $350 million in funding for property tax relief, and rebates of $300 or $600 for single and married filing jointly taxpayers, respectively. On Wednesday, the bill passed in the Assembly with a 61-32 vote and failed to pass in the Senate with a 15-18 vote. Three Senate Republicans – Rob Hutton, Chris Kapenga, and Steve Nass – voted against the bill. The bill is dead. The Legislature is adjourned. The State will keep our money.
In her weekly email to constituents, Cindi Duchow, my Assemblywoman who enthusiastically voted in favor, said, “I am extremely disappointed that politics got in the way of good policy.” Taxpayers are outraged that our legislators are collecting billions more in revenue than is needed to fund the government and the entire surplus, which should not have been collected at all, should have been returned to the people who paid it.
Chris Kapenga, my Senator, talked about the deal in a conservative forum on the morning of vote. He correctly described the back room dealing as a problem and adding recurring spending with a one-time anticipated surplus as unacceptable. In anticipation of Kapenga’s no vote, his constituents received a mailer from the realty industry urging them to lobby him to vote yes. Legislators complained bitterly that Evers, Vos, and LeMahieu kept them out of negotiating the deal, but clearly the special interests were invited in. Kapenga, Hutton, and Nass voted no, but being better than the worst is not nearly good enough.
A Call to Action
The time has come to tighten the screws on every Republican Legislator who was elected to champion conservative interests. Their loyalty must be to the people, and it is their responsibility to be leaders in the revolution to achieve good government.
To every elected official claiming to be a conservative: The changes we need from you can be summarized in two words: Go public. Insider information about the people and things that are working against the will of the people must be exposed. You should be shouting from the roof tops, convening press conferences, issuing press releases. sending newsletters, hosting Town Halls and attending Patriot Group meetings. Take it to the people in every way imaginable. Voters understand you cannot singlehandedly transform the deeply entrenched dysfunction and corruption within the government, but they expect you to aggressively broadcast the truth. The truth will ignite the wrath of the people and mobilize them in the fight to reclaim the State.
Start here: Publicly demand the removal of the names of ineligible voters from our voter rolls; the designation of non-citizen driver’s licenses as “not for voting;” welfare reform to support self-sufficiency; a coherent and understandable system to fund public schools; and returning the money acquired through over taxation to the people.
Publicly welcome the Department of Justice to Wisconsin to evaluate compliance with Federal requirements for voter roll maintenance and to evaluate FoodShare and other welfare programs for compliance and fraud. You should be hammering Tony Evers for expecting the people of Wisconsin to take his word for it that the $13 billion Wisconsin spends on public welfare each year is free of fraud. Show us.
Take a page from Trump’s play book. Expose by name the “conservative” obstructionists who are not on board with the people’s agenda. The voters will take it from there to the ballot box. The perverse norms that demand unearned respect for members of the Legislature who are not serving the people must be be smashed.
Freedom is under assault. Extreme liberal orthodoxy has a growing stranglehold on the Democratic Party and will destroy our way of life if we allow it. Democratic Socialist, Francesca Hong, has emerged as a frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin Governor. She and the other extremists vying to be Governor reject the values and principles that are the foundation of our country and must be defeated.
Those who want to represent the conservative voters of Wisconsin need to step up and show authentic leadership now or be replaced. When the best we have are merely better than the worst, it is not nearly good enough.