Wisconsin’s brutal winters can often be as polarizing as its politics; senate, gubernatorial and national elections often result in razor-thin margins, with liberal urban islands finding themselves at odds with a sea of the conservative rural masses. This trend was made apparent on election night 2024, where in a state of almost 6 million inhabitants, the race for president in the state was decided by a difference of 583 votes.
It is evident that party politics run supreme in Wisconsin. As commercials blair from Wisconsinites’ television sets, politicians often stick to the tight-knit scripts written by their respective parties, only catering to “their” half of the populus and isolating the other – so much so that former Republican governor Tommy Thompson stated, “[Wisconsin] has become so partisan, so divided, that I would have to say it’s almost two states.”
Political parties in Washington D.C., often engage in fierce battles over Wisconsin, not necessarily out of genuine concern for the state’s issues, but primarily due to its strategic importance as a swing state in national elections.
But, it wasn’t always like this. One hundred years ago, America’s Dairyland defied this precedent by backing Robert Lafollette; a third-party candidate in the 1924 presidential race.Wisconsin voters supported a man that exhibited great political courage, and transcended party boundaries.
Robert M. LaFollette, also known as “Fighting Bob”, was the poster child of the “Wisconsin Idea” , a self-defined belief that called out for the abolishment of corrupt monopolies, the bolstering of the unions and worker rights and an end to racial segregation.
LaFolletee donned his nickname during his time as Wisconsin’s governor from 1906-1911. Refusing to accept bribes from the powerful railroad industry, LaFollette weakened the railroad monopoly by regulating interstate railroads and enforcing taxation laws on the industry that avoided them – “[Lafollette] Saved more than $2,000,000 a year for the common man.” As stated in a Lafollette Govonor campagin poster from 1908.
LaFollette’s dramatic and eccentric personality would nearly cost him his political career. As a United States senator, LaFollette received nationwide vilification and efforts to oust him after opposing U.S. entry into World War I. Despite congressional consensus on joining the war effort, LaFollette stayed true to his commitment to anti-imperialism.
“I am opposed to the war because I believe that it is a war that is being fought for the benefit of a small group of men who have not only profited by the war, but who are using the war as a means of expanding their power,” LaFollete said
If such a speech was given in modern Wisconsin, especially at the congressional level, LaFollette’s actions would have been political suicide. However, this exhibition of self-reliance was so beloved by the Wisconsin populus that he remained in power.
Becoming increasingly demoralized by America’s shift to globalism from isolationism, Lafollette changed political affiliation to the Progressive Party in order to run for President in 1924, Wisconsin did not abandon him, but embraced him: voting in droves for a so-called “American Traitor”. LaFollete won an astounding 54% victory in the state of Wisconsin for an otherwise alienated and ostracised political figure.
In comparison to the recent Senate race between Eric Hovde and Tammy Baldwin last November, where Baldwin was only able to edge out her foe by ~30,000 votes, winning only 49.4 percent of the votes.
Even only 20 years ago during the quote on quote “Good ole’ days of Wisconsin politics” during Tommy Thompson’s tenure as governor from 1983-2001 when there was a Republican governor and Democratic legislature in power polarization was not as prevalent.
This isn’t the case anymore. From 2012 through 2016, Wisconsin Democrats enjoyed a stable 4-point advantage in party identification. After Trump’s election that changed. Now, Republicans outnumber Democrats by only one percentage point of the state’s total electorate. Driven not only by a 13-point shift among non-college educated Wisconsin men toward the Republicans Party but also through redrawing of voter districts in 2010 that exacerbated Republican control in the legislature. Known as gerrymandering, it works by diluting the influence of one party’s votes through a combination of strategies called “packing” and “cracking,” each of which assumes that you can guess how people will vote based on where they live.
This rational deliberation, this integrity, this political courage is what modern Wisconsin politics lacks. LaFollette represented a type of maverick-esque era in Wisconsin politics. An era where politicians didn’t fear crossing comfortable party lines, but maintained their integrity and fought for what they found to be in the best interest of their own state.
After all, the Wisconsin Idea, championed by Lafollette himself, was a political philosophy that endorsed individual research and critical thinking. This is a shift in thinking that modern Wisconsin needs in order to reach political cohesion and unity. Wisconsin voters are consistent in their inconsistency, and if history tells us anything, this ice-cold political landscape may easily turn out to be the realization of the “Wisconsin Idea”.
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