Some More News - SMN: Is Democracy In Wisconsin In Peril?

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Hi. In today's episode, we look at how former Wisconsin state Governor Scott Walker and the GOP have hijacked the state's democracy through gerrymandering, and how the upcoming election for a Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice could have national ramifications. Boring, dire ramifications. Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JDgD3sJMSdG0pPM9vSLQMrY03bWPA_Qqv-8Jhm_oLvM/edit?usp=sharing Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews  Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949  SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh    Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews 

No! No, no, no! What are you doing over there? This part of the desk is Warmbo's desk now, Mr. Cody. This is my apartment. You don't get to take it over. Where did you get these flags? These are for like electrical lines and stuff. Warmbo is a blue collar contractor, Celico. Warmbo is not blue collar. Warmbo is a nightmare. You're wrong, Mr. Cody. Warmbo is a blue collar contractor, Celico. Wormbo is not blue collar. Wormbo is a nightmare. You're wrong, Mr. Cody. Wormbo is a blue collar construction worker

from Wisconsin and mother. That's always been true about Wormbo. A mother? Well, not the man, all right? Okay, no follow-up questions. Hi, everyone. Sorry, Wormbo's doing the sitcom thing where he's dividing the house.

Even though we're not roommates, it's been a bit of a problem. So wait, Wormbo, did you say you're from Wisconsin? That's why Warmbo's name starts with a W. Sure, man. I mean, it super makes sense, that's where you're from, but also, hey, funny coincidence. Sure looks like democracy in Wisconsin is in peril.

Here is some news. This whole ding dang video today is about Wisconsin, the state that I guess Warmbo is from. So we're doing all Wisconsin all the time. A big, long, uncut Wisconsin. Like, what's that big, long, uncut sexual organ I'm thinking of? Oh right, Wisconsin's Door Peninsula. That's the rock hard penut sexual organ I'm thinking of? Oh, right, Wisconsin's Door Peninsula.

That's the rock hard peninsula that I was thinking of. And it'll be fun, like a high speed nonstop roller coaster of information. If that roller coaster was also boring, but also not boring, but so both at once, I guess. Wisconsin is two things, sort of like a classic Wisconsin Del's Duck boat, which is a boat, but really an old bus,

but also a boat still. Wild and fun and boring stuff, but also here's some news. Wisconsin kinda, sorta ended democracy in their state forever possibly, probably, possibly. Probably? Possibly. That needs explaining, which is likely why I'm recording a video explaining it. Wisconsin didn't technically end democracy. That's what we in the biz call hyperbole.

I said it hyperbolically too, so you know it's over the top. Wisconsin is however, one of the most, if not the most, gerrymandered destinations in America. You see, historically speaking, Wisconsin is an extremely purple state. It voted for both Obama and Biden, but it also voted for Trump in 2016.

Outside of presidential elections, Wisconsin elected the first openly gay woman in the history of the US Senate. Basically, when it comes to the big votes, you know, the statewide stuff, Wisconsin goes both ways. They have one Democrat and one Republican Senator. It's the Thanos method, perfectly balanced, and very purple, like a bruise,

or the emoji everybody knows means Wisconsin's Door County Peninsula. So what's odd, however, is that despite being swollen and purple, since 2011, Republicans have managed to dominate both the Senate and House of that state. They even had the governor for a lot of that time as well. That's weird, right?

If there's such a throbbing purple state, how did their state races always generate Republican legislatures? Perhaps, and I'm just throwing this out there, over there, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that their then governor, a Mr. Scott Walker, redrew the district maps in 2011. And in fact, redrew the map

with only a single public hearing to vet the process. Hey now, that feels like cheating, don't you know? That's Wisconsin for fuck you, Scott Walker. We'll be talking about Scott a bit later, but you probably already see how this is going to be insidiously boring. Gerrymandering and court cases and maps. So boring.

Almost as boring as a Wisconsin Dells duck boat ride where you're kind of in water for part of the time and that's all that happens. It feels like a quick little blip, this one tiny change to their maps. And that's kind of the point. The GOP wants this stuff to be boring

because while some experts, synonym for dumb nerd, have argued that the natural geography of this state would tilt Republican anyway, there's no doubt that this redrawing was specifically designed to give the GOP a quote, "'Extreme electoral bias.'" For example, out of 99 races for the 2022 Wisconsin State Assembly,

all but eight of them were decided within a margin over 10 points. Almost every Wisconsin state assembly race is mapped and districted to be an automatic landslide. Also, even if some of that edge is because of the political geography of the state, maybe that's also a little bad. Maybe we should change the way we vote

if the mountains and rivers have such an impact on who gets elected. We shouldn't live in a country where building a dam might create an alternate Bif-Tannin universe because Wisconsin is, I can't stress this enough, purple as hell. Both parties are tied. So neither party should have any edge, but they super do.

Their state legislature got gerrymandered and republicanized, not just once, but twice. And we will talk about exactly how that happened. But first, I really wanna demonstrate what this all means. And to best do that, we should look at Wisconsin's 2018 state election results. In that election, Democrats won 205,000 more votes than Republicans.

Overall, they won 53% of the votes. And yet, amazingly, that majority victory resulted in only 36% of the seats. Again, 53%, over 200,000 more votes. And they somehow only swung one seat. Or to frame it the opposite way, mathematically speaking, Republicans lost that election and yet they still won almost a super majority.

That is, to be polite, bad. But it's also super normal if you live in Wisconsin, a state where all the elections are pee-wee wacky. And to be fair to these duck fuckers, they do know that it isn't normal. Since 2011, 56 of Wisconsin's 72 counties have either passed a county board resolution or ballot referendum endorsing nonpartisan maps.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered at a 2021 meeting about state legislature redistricting. So they're all out here bothering to care. They're begging for their votes to happen on a map where votes would actually matter because they have to beg for that. Voting no longer helps much in Wisconsin, at least not if you're a Democrat,

despite your party representing half of the state. The best they can do is reelect a governor whose entire job is ostensibly to try and block any legislation that might make the situation worse. So at this point, you might be wondering why any of this matters, to which I actually have an answer. Like a really specific and tangible answer

that makes this an extremely important episode. Not like my regular rambling dog shit episodes, am I right? You may have seen it on our era and on other Twin City stations in the past few days, new commercials and attack ads for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. The hard-hitting spots are targeting Western Wisconsin voters in a race that's getting some nationwide attention. So we called in Esme Murphy to join us with an explanation of what is going on. What is going on? And you've seen these ads probably, and it startled you because you're

not sure what they're for. Well, it is for the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. And none other than the New York Times is calling this race the most important election in the nation in 2023. Wow, even their news anchors are purple. What they're referring to there are the hard hitting multimedia pitches for conservative candidate Daniel Kelly and liberal candidate Janet Protasewicz, who we all know are the winners of the February 2023 primary election to fill a seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. We all know that.

The final election will be happening right after this episode comes out, like days after on April 4th. Did you get ads for the candidates? You could have. This special election for one state level judicial race absolutely has a humongous enough budget to fund big ads. Just at the primary level,

the six original candidates spent a combined $7.3 million on TV ads and Janet Protasewicz alone raised over $2.2 million. According to one political scientist, this race will likely cost tens of millions of dollars. That's more than some states election campaigns for governor. Why?

How? Where? Whems? To skip the nonsense last one and answer that second to last one first, the where is Wisconsin. It's weird you'd ask that, and in such a confusing way. As for the why and how, well, there are seven seats

on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Six of them are filled, and I bet you can guess what the ideological split is for those six seats. They're filled with three lefty loonies and three righty ragamuffins. So that makes this seventh seat an ideological swing vote. This election between a conservative and liberal will decide which way the courts will lean.

And considering everything we've already said about how broken their district maps are, you can imagine that this is pretty gosh darn important. It's scary out there in Wisconsin. Because of how often they redraw these maps and the consequences of doing so, it seems like every election is basically a vote on which party gets to stack the deck,

or specifically, a vote on whether or not the GOP gets to stack the deck even more. Even if you are a Republican, you should realize that you can't have a functioning democracy that way. You're just surviving. But thanks to the magic of a democratic governor and a single and suddenly flippable seat

on the state judiciary, there is a sliver of a chance that Wisconsin will be able to actually turn purple again. Or said another way, be a democracy. Because again, Wisconsin is a purple state, as purple as Grimace or Twilight Sparkle or Kilgrave. And just like those characters, the state should not be underestimated.

Twilight Sparkle might look cute, but that thing is still a horse, all right? And horses have no morality. They live by godless horse rules. Grimace kills just to feel something. I forget what Kilgrave does, but I'm sure it's also bad. And similarly, Wisconsin might feel innocuous, but it has a frightening influence

over the rest of the nation. Like some kind of purple character that controls minds? Yeah, I already mentioned Grimace. This is all to say that this one court decision in this very purple state is going to have countrywide effects. Redrawing the map alone will have a profound effect, but also since elections are so close,

they're often decided by the state Supreme Court. For example, when they narrowly tossed out Donald Trump's push to throw out mail-in votes. And so this one election, which for my Wisconsin half duck viewers, I can't stress enough is very soon, April 4th, could decide who the next president will be. But it also will have an enormous impact

within the state, of course. For example, thanks to a lawsuit concerning the state's 1849 ban on most abortions, women's reproductive rights in this state are going to come down to this same Supreme Court. On Tuesday, April 4th of this year, there is an election in Wisconsin that could decide everything.

So, you know, no pressure. But hey now, you know, this isn't actually a video about that. I mean, it's sort of about that, but it's also about the state of Wisconsin and the history of how this state got so very messed up. It's a Wiscoshinary tale about a place that you may or may not want to think about,

but don't really have a choice. You already clicked on the video. Here we are. It's just like how there's nothing I can do about Warmbo littering my house with loose hay and gravel, which he's currently doing for some reason. So let's cut to an ad while I look into that. Buddy, no!

Has this ever happened to you? Fuck, my soul is trash. Trash. Then you need to subscribe to the Some More News Patreon. That's patreon.com slash some more news. And you can get your miserable life together in no time. Thanks, Some More News. You really helped me, a random stranger, get my miserable life together

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Not to mention a bunch of different tiers you can subscribe to that will give you access to our scripts, a Discord server, and even virtual hangouts with Katie, Cody, and the Some More News team, whoever those people are. I've never heard of those people in my life. Don't ask us about those people. We have no information for you.

I'd rather go down in a blaze of violence than give up any names. Except for patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Patreon.com slash some more news. Hey, hey, put that down, put it down. It's not yours, it's mine, it's my couch.

And I do not like that you can just lift an entire couch by yourself. Oh, look who's still watching. It's you. Welcome back. If you recall, I have a problem with my home. My home is experiencing a long time drift toward more and more control being handed

to one creepy puppet, which is exactly like Wisconsin over the last decade or so. The only difference in terms of puppets is that my creepy puppet is a delusional centrist. Wisconsin's creepy puppet was the Koch brothers' first major experiment in buying stuff up. That purchase is most commonly known as a fellow named Scott Walker.

Scott was the governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019, and he's going to play a large role in the timeline I'm about to lay down before you. I mean, as I already mentioned, Scott would help redraw district lines only eight months after becoming governor. But I need to back up even earlier to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United VFEC

that rewrote campaign finance laws, allowing unlimited political donations from rich people and corporations. This directly benefited Walker, who along with his political allies, was given $9 million from the Koch brothers between 2010 and 2014. And wouldn't you know it, they got their money's worth.

Along with redrawing the maps, one of the other things Walker did in his first year was create a law that stripped public sector unions of their bargaining rights. This was heavily protested at the time and would go on to have terrible effects on these unions, which was, of course, the point. Unions are one of the biggest friends

of the Democratic Party and, you know, workers. And so to go after their power is to essentially go after a huge resource for the GOP's largest opponent. This pissed people off so much that Wisconsin actually held a recall resource for the GOP's largest opponent. This pissed people off so much that Wisconsin actually held a recall election for Scott, which he would go on to win in 2012. I guess he was just really popular, or perhaps it was because he fundraised $30.5 million

when his opponent had only raised $4 million. Thanks Supreme Court. Also thanks to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for upholding his anti-union law that everybody hated. Seem sus, these two courts of supreme seem. We'll get into that a little later. But right now, I really can't stress enough the extent to which Scott Walker was the doughy play thing

of rich people and specifically the Koch brothers. It's not even a secret. Like in early 2011, right after he became the governor, Scott Walker was pranked by a blogger who pretended to be David Koch over the phone. The blogger recorded a 20 minute conversation with Walker where the governor basically brainstormed ways to fuck over his own people,

including a plan to plant fake protesters to cause trouble during the ruckus over his anti-union law. Walker would go on to try and defend this recording by saying, quote, "'I take phone calls all the time, "'and I'm not going to allow one crank phone call "'to be a distraction.'" Hey, this is cool, man.

I don't think it's the phone part that people were concerned about, so much as you't think it's the phone part that people were concerned about. So much as you thinking you were on the phone with David Koch and treating him like he's your boss while you discuss technically legal ways to punish your opponents. Hi, it's Scott Walker. Scott, David Koch, how are you?

Hey David, I'm good, and yourself? I'm very well. A little disheartened by the situation there, but what's the latest? We're actually hanging pretty tough. Amazingly, there's a much smaller group of protesters, almost all of whom are in from other states today. The Senate chief clerk, it's a little procedural thing here, but can actually have your payroll stop from being automatically deducted into your checking account. And instead, you still get a check, but the check has to be personally picked up, and he's instructing them, which we just loved, to lock them in their desk on the floor of the state senate. What we were thinking about the crowds was planting some troublemakers.

You know, the only problem was, because we thought about that, the problem was, or my only reaction to that would be, right now, the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them. It's all just so weird and blatant. Like how Milwaukee's Mitchell Park domes clearly look like three robot boobs. Scott is the fourth boob, and clearly doesn't mind how many Wisconsin citizens

want him to eat up their turds. And yes, I've already dropped the boob metaphor. Because what are they going to do? Vote his party out? He redrew the map to make sure that wouldn't happen easily. And it would take until 2016 for someone to actually try and do something about those maps. But before then, there would be two more elections.

The first one was in 2012, where the Democrats would get only 39 of 99 assembly seats, despite winning 51% of the votes. And as if to make this cheating even more clear, in the 2014 election, Republicans would also win 51% of the votes and yet somehow get 63 seats. That's how profoundly dystopian and warped this is. That when the Democrats and Republicans

win the same percentage of votes, the district maps are designed to automatically give Republicans more seats for that same percentage. This is all to say that a panel of three federal judges ruled that the 2011 map was clearly bullshit. Hey, a victory, question mark, followed by the word no. Because the ruling was then challenged

and made its way up to the US Supreme Court in 2018. But instead of making a ruling, the right-leaning justices simply sent it back then challenged and made its way up to the US Supreme Court in 2018. But instead of making a ruling, the right-leaning justices simply sent it back to the lower courts. The reason, as explained by Justice Roberts, was that the plaintiffs hadn't made a case that they'd been personally harmed.

It was a technicality that conveniently kept the ball in the air. A year later, they would rule that the Supreme Court wouldn't decide any cases of partisan gerrymandering, effectively ending this legal battle and setting Wisconsin back to square one. It's almost as if this is a problem on a national level, but we will circle back to that.

After all, we're not done talking about all the ways Scott Walker continued to make it nearly impossible to win as a Democrat in his state. In fact, remember when I said that Trump won Wisconsin in 2016? Well, that's probably thanks to Scott Walker, a governor who passed a whopping 33 election changes while in office.

To give some perspective, the average is less than 33. In a 2016 lawsuit over the Wisconsin GOP's 2011 voter ID law, it would be revealed that they specifically were going after blue-leaning neighborhoods around areas like Milwaukee and college campuses. According to an aide, Republicans were so, quote, "'Giddy over the law' that they were openly discussing it

as a way to suppress Democrat votes. And as one study would eventually determine, these ID laws would later deter between 9,000 and 23,000 registered voters. And just so we're clear, Donald Trump won that state by less than 23,000 votes. So Scott Walker, ladies and gentlemen, everyone give him a big hand, a big closed fist hand.

So we're nearing 2019 here, which is when Scott Walker would lose his election to Democrat Tony Evers. Now that sounds like it could mean good things, except now I have to travel back in time to 2004. I apologize, but at least the Chronicles of Riddick is back in theaters. And along with a nation plagued with diesel fever,

a man named Robin Voss would join the Wisconsin State Assembly in this year of 2004. Robin, a Republican, would be a big supporter of Scott Walker's anti-union laws, and then go on to be elected as the Speaker of the Assembly in 2013. That is where he remains to this day. Now, Robin is smart, much like the bird,

I'm completely guessing. Are birds smart? Let's not get distracted. The point is, Robin the non-bird knew that Scott Walker wouldn't be governor forever. And so literally within 24 hours of Democrat Tony Evers winning, Robin swore to do everything in his power

to strip him of any power. And guess what? He absolutely did that. In his last managerial breath, Scott Walker would sign a law designed to restrict the governor position from creating any rules or implementing state laws, as well as repeal their ability to withdraw the state

from any lawsuits. In this case, Wisconsin's then current challenge to the Affordable Care Act. It was deemed a legislative coup because that's absolutely what it was and everyone knew it. Scott was publicly booed over it and he didn't care because screw the people, am I right? If they really wanted to make a difference,

they should have given millions in oil refinery money to Walker's campaign. Come on, get it together, you silly geese. This would go on to be challenged, but gee whiz, the right-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the shitty partisan law. See how the court keeps making a cameo in this? They're the Stan Lee of murdering democracy.

Excelsior indeed. Also, that law worked. Robin Voss became what's known as a shadow governor in that he and his party can and have shot down every effort that Tony Evers has made. Budget proposals, school funding, police reform, all unobtainable. When Evers delivered the annual State of the State speech,

Robin Voss delivered a second speech right after his while standing in the governor's spot. This is like, it's like worm tongue shit. And he would exert his power to take ridiculous control, most notably during the COVID pandemic. Voss and his GOP would push back against vaccinations and masks, obviously, of course, classics.

He even led by example by forcing an immunocompromised lawmaker to physically come into the office during the peak of the pandemic. And during the 2020 election, he refused to delay the primary or cancel any in-person voting, arguing that it was perfectly safe to vote in person. This led to an extremely funny video

where Voss volunteered to work at a poll to show off how super safe it was. Everybody is here safe. They have very minimal exposure. Actually, there's less exposure here than you would get if you went to the grocery store or you went to Walmart or you did any of the many things we have to do to live in the state of Wisconsin.

Ah, yes, so safe, says the man dripping in protective gear. You might also notice in that clip that Robin Voss isn't like a monster. He's not literally a Brad Dourif type. He speaks in a very gentle way and sounds extremely reasonable. I kind of even want to cuddle him, you know, have a rainy Sunday in his arms, watch some Buffy together.

But this soft-spokenness is probably why Voss and others were able to do so much without a national uproar. Scott Walker loves to tell people about how he eats the same lunch from a brown bag for the last 26 years, as if that folksy conservatism is leading by example. He can afford a cheap lunch, so surely schools can go without hundreds of millions

thanks to his budget cuts. Everyone has to pitch in, see, just some folksy frugal guys who on occasion take $800,000 worth of private flights, including several flights spanning only 20 to 30 miles. You heard that, right? Bag lunch walker took flights that would take most people a half hour to drive.

Anyway, we are now nearing the second bout of gerrymandering, which would happen right after Biden would win the office of president. That's weird. So they gerrymandered their maps after Obama, and then again after Biden's victory. It's almost as if they weren't happy with those results and wanted to make it harder for Democrats to win the state.

It should be noted that the soft spoken Robin Voss absolutely did a voting audit after Trump's loss, hiring an ex-cop to investigate that November election. In his defense, he claimed he wasn't trying to overturn Biden's win in his state, but also why do it then? And why would he refuse to turn in records around that investigation?

An investigation that would ultimately cost taxpayers $1.1 million and turn up, oh, exactly nothing. Good job, Voss, you folksy fiscal conservative, you. So now we're hitting 2021, the year in which Voss and the GOP would perform gerrymander part two, electric, even more gerrymandering. And if you think this would be at all different,

they would begin this process with the resolution to redraw these maps as closely to the 2011 map as possible. This would go on to be challenged, but thanks to the Republican run Wisconsin Supreme Court, they would be allowed to continue on despite all the lawsuits and studies pointing out how unfair that original map was.

The resulting map was even more of a mess than before. For example, another bird named Robin Vining was the first democratic state legislator to flip a seat under the 2011 maps. It was extremely close for her and boy, the GOP didn't seem to like that, which is probably why in this 2021 gerrymander, Robbins district went from looking like this to now this.

They actually had to slice an entire city into four different assembly districts to achieve that monstrosity. The result of which packed all the Democrats into a single one of those four new districts. They're just stealing, very publicly rigging their elections. And no one with power is trying to stop them

because they also have the courts. Meanwhile, the actual citizens of Wisconsin continue to speak up against it. During a nine hour public hearing on the matter, not one person was in favor of the new maps. Instead, they were fucking pissed as they should have been. When asked about how they are perhaps stealing democracy, Robin Voss would say, quote,

"'Democrats have a problem winning in much of Wisconsin "'because your agenda is clearly out of step "'with the reality for most of Wisconsin. "'The frustration of not being able to win elections "'shouldn't be blamed on maps.'" Robin, come on, like holy fucking asshole, Batman. You know they aren't literally blaming maps. They're blaming you and the others blatantly changing

the maps to tilt elections in their favor. So, wow, to quote Senator Padme Amidala, "'This is how liberty dies,' with a cartoonish soft-spoken dipshit proposing down-to-earth folksy fascism. Fun little afterbirth to this story, Tony Evers would go on to try and redraw part of the district map

to more fairly represent black voters and would actually get this approved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Basically, one of the conservative judges named Brian Hagedorn would break off from his party and side with the other liberal judges for this one ruling. This would of course be challenged and so it went all the way to the US Supreme Court.

If you recall, the last time this happened, the Supreme Court said they wouldn't get involved with any gerrymandering cases and didn't make a ruling. Do you remember that? Do you remember how they didn't wanna get involved when the ruling would have benefited Democrats? Well, it seems that this time, to everyone's complete shock,

the Supreme Court felt it necessary to overrule the Wisconsin court and throw out Tony Evers' proposed map. They did this as an emergency shadow docket, issuing an unsigned single sentence ruling and seemingly going against their previous position of being uninvolved. The Wisconsin Supreme Court would then fall in line

as the larger court specifically called out the one judge who dared to not go along with his party, it seems. So to recap, when the GOP has their district map challenged, the Supreme Court, they can't get involved. But when a Democrat from the same state does that, well, fire up that justice signal, quietly though, of course, secretly. Help me, Beth Ann.

Absolutely unreal stuff. And it doesn't help when most of the local news covering this stuff, many of which we've sourced for this video, is dying. Because here's some news. A bunch of Wisconsinites lack some news in their rural region of the state. Over the past decade, Wisconsin became one of a few states

that has lost the most newspapers per capita. Wisconsin's biggest paper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is struggling with a crushing behind the scenes corporate merger, driving away its longtime staff and risking its future. Meanwhile, statewide, a New York hedge fund spent 2021 trying to buy up and gut seven of the state's smaller local papers.

And that really sucks, if only because candidates like Donald Trump do better in areas with less access to the news. Because of course they do. Liars need their lies backed up with propaganda and local papers don't do that for them. And as I mentioned, Trump won the state by like 20,000 votes, which is like,

hold on, I gotta figure out the math on this one. Okay, gonna go bing, we're gonna bing it up, bing it up. Okay, how to do math. Okay, yeah, so it's a fraction of one percentage point. The good news is that there's at least a bipartisan effort to rebuild their local news, both in Wisconsin and in other areas of the country. But this is a great example of how capitalism

can pummel the concept of democracy, even when it's not trying to. Did someone say democracy? Yeah, and like a lot of other words, but sure. Wormbo loves democracy. Wormbo loves votes, votes for Democrats and for good Republicans. We need a strong Republican party, Mr. Cody,

like my cousin, Scott Walker. Wormbo, I swear to, do you say Scott Walker's your cousin? Scott Walker has the family chin. Don't you see it? Oh, yeah. Well, that explains something, not sure what. Walker is Wombo family, both W names you see.

Family values is important. Family values, is he breeding? You know what? I'm gonna do another Wombo check. So let's cut to the ads. Let's cut to the ads. We're gonna do the ads, do the ads, do the ads now. Okay, great. And Warmbo! Hey Cody. Yes, Katie. You know what would be neat? If we didn't have faces right now. That would be neat.

Just two gaping holes of darkness where our faces should be. Pure nothingness. That's my jam. Well, it turns out that there's a way to simulate our voices coming from the empty void, and that's because we have a podcast called Even More News. Podcast? Isn't that when a pod of whales do a casting call for a local theater run of Glen Gary Glen Ross? Not anymore. These days, it's when people record their voices, like they do in the radio, which is exactly what you and I tend to do every Friday. All someone has to do is look up Some More News wherever they get their podcasts and they can hear us talk about the latest news every week. We even post the audio of Some More News episodes

in that feed so you can get all your news without the trouble of seeing a face. I hate faces! They make me sick every time I see one. Same here, especially the eyes. I don't like being seen. It makes me feel guilty. Every pair of eyes is a reminder of my many sins. Which is why everyone should check out Even More News.

Even More News. And be sure to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Even More News. Because sometimes, faces are bad. Hey, neat, we're back. Wormbo's doing something in my bathroom. I think he might be laying eggs in my sink. He's laying something in there., I think he might be laying eggs in my sink. He's laying something in there,

and I'm not sure what. Turns out sinks are a bowl shape, like a nest, a nest for something moist, moist like him. I know you wouldn't think it, but he's incredibly moist. Anyway, we were talking about Wisconsin democracy, the folksiest kind of democracy, in the sense that folks are trying to kill the democracy. And in our timeline, you might have noticed

how often we mentioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court being a factor in deciding just how fast the GOP was able to attack voting rights with things like gerrymandering, which of course brings us back to April 4th, the day that Wisconsin gets to vote on a new Supreme Court justice. That race being between conservative Daniel Kelly

and liberal Janet Protasewicz. Now, we're not gonna focus on ol' Libby Janet. She seems fine, I guess, or maybe she sucks, I don't know. I hate to play team sides here, you know? And the Aaron Sorkin in me wants the voters to consider every candidate regardless of party affiliation and so on and what have you, sure. I mean, the Aaron Sorkin in me wants the voters to consider every candidate regardless of party affiliation and so on and what have you. Sure, I mean, the Aaron Sorkin in me also craves cocaine,

so I don't know if I should trust it. Because Daniel Kelly is, in this case, a very bad person to elect, at least if you like democracy. And it's not just because he's a conservative. In 2016, Kelly was actually appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So we know exactly what kind of judge he would be. And I sure, sure hope that he doesn't get the vote

just because he has prior experience, because that experience is bleak. For starters, his appointment by Scott Walker, remember him? Remember Scott Walker? It was kind of surprising as Kelly had until that point, just been some attorney who served on a conservative advisory board.

In fact, his biggest claim to fame at the time was comparing affirmative action to slavery, but don't worry, only morally. Yeah, that explains it. The exact quote, if you're wondering is, "'Affirmative action and slavery differ, obviously, "'in significant ways, but it's more a question of degree "'than principle, for they both spring

"'from the same taproot. "'Neither can exist without the foundational principle "'that it is acceptable to force someone "'into an unwanted economic relationship. "'Morally, and as a matter of law, they are the same. So cool and normal. Anyway, despite that fucking quote, Walker appointed him. And during his time, he accomplished a few notable things.

For one, he wrote the majority opinion for why Madison bus passengers had the right to carry guns, cool and normal. He also didn't recuse himself from a case where one of the sides was represented by a group that directly gave him campaign donations, also cool and also normal. Very normal and cool and not corrupt stuff.

But honestly and weirdly, this isn't what I'm concerned about. I mean, it's concerning, but it's not the specific reason that Daniel Kelly is a threat to Wisconsin and by extension, national democracy. In 2020, he would lose to a liberal judge and no longer be on the state Supreme Court.

And it's what he did during this time that would prove to be an issue. Specifically, Daniel Kelly, a man now rerunning to become a Supreme Court judge, was legal counsel to the RNC and Republican Party of Wisconsin during their attempt to overturn the presidential election by creating fake electors to call the race for Donald Trump.

That might take some explaining. Republicans in Wisconsin literally got 10 random fuckers, claimed they were official electors, and without any legal authority, made up a fake document declaring that Trump won the state. Had those random fuckers sign the document and then sent it to Congress as if it were real. You know, election fraud is what I believe that's called.

Actual fraud, not voter ID shit. Somehow this hasn't resulted in anyone getting in major trouble yet. And that includes Daniel Kelly, the legal counsel used during this fraud scheme who is now running to be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So if you're watching this from Wisconsin, you might wanna, I don't know,

take your ridiculous duck boat to the polling place and vote to make sure that doesn't happen. And thanks to gerrymandering, it's probably going to take way more votes than it should take because while old Kelly is trying to pitch himself as the boring and serious candidate, he absolutely is not that.

He is the extremist of the bunch. And his opponent, Janet Protasewicz, is not that. She has recognized the fact that the election maps in her state are rigged by the right wing because they objectively are. And right now, she is somehow Wisconsin's only fucking hope to get their democracy back. They are really, really counting on you not paying attention

to what they are doing. And honestly, it's hard to fight back from that because it turns out that Wisconsin is just one state out of like 600 or something. Hold on, there's 600 minus five, one, four. There's like over 10 states. And in a lot of those states, the GOP is doing exactly the same thing

that's happening in Wisconsin. Maybe they're not as good at it yet, but it's the same playbook. Restricting voter laws designed to give them an edge, packing the state courts to favor Republican lawmakers and pushing bizarrely fucked up measures to try and overrule federal laws. We've said it before, and here we are saying it again,

the Republican party doesn't have good ideas. When Robin whatever said people were mad at maps because their ideas are unpopular, he was lying, projecting even, secretly expressing that the maps exist that way because their ideas are unpopular. And I think some of them actually know this. In fact, one of the next presidential candidates

is even addressing this head on, or at least saying it out loud. In the last seven out of eight presidential elections, our cause is right, but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now. If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation. And if you want to win not just as a party, but as a country, then stand with me. I'm here to ask for your vote, but I want something else even more.

I want us to inspire our country again. Together we can summon our fellow citizens to look past the failed ideas and leaders from Washington and find the courage to be part of the solution. I truly believe we can make this vision real in our time, because that's what I've seen in my entire life. Eh, not a bad place to start if you want to revamp the GOP. Not that I like Nikki Haley, but of course neither does her own party, it seems. Because they don't actually want to revamp their party or convince people their ideas are good

or come up with new, actually good ideas that people actually agree with. They just want to win. And so when they are unable to win elections fairly, their only hope is to chip away at democracy in the hopes that they can game the system enough to stay in power. And I don't know, if perhaps the party you subscribe to

has resorted to attacking fair elections because they can't win based on the most people agreeing with them, you might want to question if that party is on the right side of history. And if there's anything we're taking away from this Wisconsin GOP, these soft-spoken polite lawmakers who are quietly

attempting to rule with an authoritarian fist, is that there really isn't such a thing as a good Republican anymore, at least not on the government level, as in actual politicians. Good Republicans! It's a lie because good Republicans. Good Republicans!

Could exist, some do exist at the human voter level, but there aren't any left at the higher tier, or if there are any, they will eventually be made to fall in line. So it's up to us as voters and human beings to rally overwhelming support for what we believe in. And it's sadly going to take more people than it should because they are making it harder and harder

for a majority to be actually counted as such. This really shouldn't be a partisan issue. Deep down, we all want our vote to count in a basic way, but there are a lot of people who are actively trying to stop that from happening. And slowly, that's becoming the entire Republican party. It's like they're multiplying, growing in numbers, a rising tide of authoritarian power grabbers,

taking over one of our major political parties who all self-describe as- Go Republican! Okay, so I... I gotta light my house on fire real quick. But you get the point I'm making. If you're in Wisconsin, please vote. And vote in general, I guess.

Even though voting is in peril. So vote or don't vote. Good plan! Okay, thanks for watching. God, there's so many of them. I gotta... I... gotta, I can't. Okay, I can't find a lighter. I'm hoping that maybe I can like, like, like, like lead them away with like a...

Go Republican! Follow me! It's working, it's working! Follow me! Go Republican! Yeah, yeah, we're gonna go to the dump. You love it there. Go Republican!

We're gonna go to a tire fire, huh? Go Republican! We'll shove you in. I mean, we're gonna have fun. Go Republican! Go Republican! Go Republican! You sorry?

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