It’s a big day in Wisconsin, a day of uncertain outcome. Not our first big day, not our last, but important just the same. In six senatorial districts across the state, thousands of citizens will cast votes, and those votes will make a difference in our history.
No one’s required to vote; we would not be a free society if it were otherwise. Understandably, some are disabled, ill, or otherwise afflicted so greatly that voting is the last of their concerns today. Some may choose not to vote, as a statement all its own.
And yet — and yet — after these months of turmoil, of battles over collective bargaining, voter identification requirements, a state budget, and now legislation to bring Arizona-style immigration restrictions to Wisconsin, isn’t there something of importance to move those who can vote to do so? If these controversies aren’t enough, then what would be?
There are those who bemoan too much politics, too many ads, the supposedly wrong tone, too many contributions or too few contributors, and the acerbic nature of our politics. Hoping it will change will not be enough. Modern-day songwriter and philosopher Joan Armatrading was right: kind words and a real good heart are not enough to assure a better life.
There are simply times when one has to swing away, hitting for the bleachers, to make a difference. Those who bemoan our politics will not make it better through wishing it were so, or living well in the hope that our politics will magically become better. The demure and dainty are of no use to reform’s cause: their diffidence aids reform’s defeat.
The answer to polemical speech is more speech, more organizing, more voting, more demanding, and more frequent recourse to courts to secure basic rights. This will be true until our present controversies are settled among most Wisconsinites. We’ll have less controversy when one side relents, and it will happen only when that side sees indisputably that a political majority is not to be had.
The tone of Wisconsin’s politics will change only when one side achieves a decisive, lasting position. It won’t happen a moment sooner.
Waiting and hoping will accomplish nothing. Read, write, speak, contribute, vote: one will have to do many of these things, in concert with others, to settle our state’s course. No woman ever respected a milquetoast; no man ever admired a wallflower. America favors the bold; there’s a reason Molly Pitcher’s legend endures centuries later. We’ll have to follow examples of the straightforward, blunt, and bold, in our case through speech and politics.
Today may not settle these disputes, but they will one day be settled. That day will only come, and on the day it finally does, only because many poured out all they could.
We’ll only win a better politics if we swing away.
