Twelve Reasons We Can't Let Leah Vukmir Be Elected

With Leah Vukmir's endorsement at last week's Republican State Convention, she will likely be the party's nominee for US Senate. Who is Vukmir and what does she stand for?  An examination of her websites, editorials, talk-radio interviews, and speeches makes it clear that she is a far-right ideologue. It is clear that she does not represent Wisconsin values. Let's look at a few examples.

Vukmir has no shame. Vukmir's campaign hit a disgusting low when they photo-shopped a picture of Sen. Tammy Baldwin next to Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, the mastermind of 9/11. The picture was captioned "Team Terrorist". On talk radio last week, Vukmir refused to apologize, simply saying, "If I'm politically incorrect, I'm politically incorrect."

Vukmir will waste your money on the stupid Wall. On April 26, she tweeted "There can be no discussion in immigration reform until we build the wall. " At her WI GOP Convention speech she boasted, "I am ready to stand with President Donald Trump and build that wall!"

Vukmir is anti-choice. We need a Senator who will push back on the national efforts to end reproductive rights. Instead, Vukmir consistently votes to squash reproductive freedom. On May 14, she tweeted,"Abortion is murder. Period. Linking healthcare for women and abortion is shameful and you should know better." On the same day, she tweeted, "As your U.S. Senator, I will do everything in my power to stop abortion and defund this devastating industry."

Vukmir is for dirty government. Wisconsin's non-partisan Government Accountability Board was a shining example of clean and ethical state government. Vukmir led the charge to destroy our GAB, replacing it with a toothless board of political hacks.

Vukmir buys into crazy conspiracy theories. The extreme right has convinced themselves that there is a War on Christmas. Vukmir chimed-in on this paranoid fantasy, submitting a December 2017 editorial to White Wisconsin on the subject. She wrote, "No one is offended when wished a Merry Christmas, except for liberals hoping to check their victim box for the day."

Vukmir is anti-worker. She is proud of the state legislature's success in busting unions and suppressing wages. A January 1 tweet boasted, "Wisconsin's been a leader for conservative reforms: 1. Act 10  2. Right to Work  3. Prevailing Wage Repeal  4. PLA Fairness." Vukmir sponsored the legislation to end prevailing wage laws. Her GOP caucus has consistently sidelined efforts to increase the state minimum wage.

Vukmir will not resist Trump's dictatorial tendencies. As a Senator, Vukmir would be one of Trump's biggest enablers. In January, she tweeted, "Before tonight's State of the Union address, I want to remind President Trump that we still stand with him, we have his back, and we can't wait to see what 2018 has to bring. Join me!" After Trump's SOTU, Vukmir was giddy, tweeting, "That was an amazing speech, Mr. President! USA! USA! USA! "

Vukmir supports using your tax money to pay for religious indoctrination. She has been a consistent supporter of the ever-expanding Milwaukee, Racine, and statewide school voucher programs. Almost every school in the programs teaches religion, subsidized by the taxpayer.

Vukmir makes pledges to Washington lobbyists. On January 30, Vukmir signed the anti-tax pledge to DC lobbyist Grover Norquist. In return, the fiscally irresponsible lobbyist (the clown who dreams of drowning government in a bathtub) tweeted "Senator Leah Vukmir is one of the most conservative state legislators in the nation and is a hero to taxpayers."

Vukmir will not defend your Social Security and Medicare. During her speech to the state GOP Convention last week, she ominously stated that she is ready to "take-on entitlement reform." We all know what that means.

Vukmir is against a clean natural environment. Vukmir has been a consistent vote in the GOP drive to wreck Wisconsin's air and water quality. For each of the last three legislative sessions, she  earned a 0% score from the Sierra Club. In a January op-ed, she wrote "I am continually amazed that you (Tammy Baldwin) support government intervention to end global warming or climate change or whatever Al Gore’s buzzword is these days..."

Vukmir is against healthcare for Wisconsinites. She has been a consistent supporter of Walker's fiscally-foolish rejection of Medicaid expansion. In an editorial, she called upon "...leadership in the U.S. Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare with a free-market solution..." In her 2018 GOP Convention speech she shouted, "We will repeal and replace Obamacare!"

With the state Republican Party formally endorsing Leah Vukmir at their convention, she will likely be the their candidate emerging from the primary. On issue after issue, Vukmir has made her extreme ideology all too clear. She does not reflect the views of Wisconsin citizens. She does not represent Wisconsin values. We must make it our mission to see that she is defeated in November. 

Didn't Think It Could Get Any Worse?

By any objective standards, the Trump presidency has been a Grade-A clusterf**ck. The Administration's swamp full of "the best people" proves to be more corrupt every day. The number of uninsured Americans is rapidly ballooning. We have surrendered our leadership of the Free World. Dictators have a friend in the White House. The US has gone into deep hock in order to give billionaires a huge tax break. It couldn't get any worse, could it?

Well, maybe. A new Ebola outbreak has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There have already been 34 confirmed or suspected cases. WHO has sent an experimental vaccine to the area. Volunteer medical personnel are trying to contain the emergency.

So far, the outbreak is nowhere nearly as large as the 2014-2016 epidemic in west Africa. In that tragic episode, which hit Guinea, Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Nigeria, 28,000 people were infected and 11,000 died of the disease. With massive financial help from the rest of the world and the efforts of thousands of brave medical workers, the epidemic was finally stopped.

The American response to this earlier epidemic was admirable. Over 3,000 US DOD and health workers were sent to the affected counties to provide training to local healthcare workers, construct fifteen Ebola treatment units, help track transmission routes, and distribute tons of medical and relief supplies. The US donated more than $2.4 billion in Ebola response activities.

Strong leadership from then-President Obama and quick action from Congress to provide emergency funds helped to make a potentially horrible scenario a lot less tragic. These actions show us how a great country responds to an international medical emergency.

At a time that today's new Ebola crisis cries-out for American leadership, we have the worst possible person occupying the White House. Given Trump's past statements, we can hardly expect that America will lead international efforts to stop the new epidemic.

As part of an effort to renege on a passed and signed spending bill, the Trump administration announced last week that they want to claw-back $252 million in money earmarked for combating Ebola outbreaks.

But cutting funding for fighting Ebola isn't all. During the 2014-16 epidemic, Trump clearly showed us how he feels about US leadership in fighting these outbreaks. In a series of 100 tweets, Trump showed us that he would have no intention of sending US troops to lead international relief efforts. He would abandon the heroic US doctors and nurses who risk their lives to help others. He would close the borders, cowering behind his little wall while the rest of the world is consumed by a global pandemic. Here are just a few examples of Trump's thoughts on how to deal with an Ebola crisis:

The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2014

If this doctor, who so recklessly flew into New York from West Africa,has Ebola,then Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2014

Can you believe that the U.S. will be sending 3000 troops to Africa to help with Ebola.They will come home infected? We have enough problems

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2014

Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days - now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2014

Tropical African countries are at the epicenter of the deadly Ebola outbreaks. These countries are poor and need resources to fight the Ebola scourge. The US can and should provide massive aid and personnel to help extinguish the outbreaks. Stopping the disease as soon as it appears is much preferred to waiting until it goes global.

However, we have a President who is attempting to cut monies allocated to battle Ebola. We have a President who dismisses the afflicted countries as "shit-holes". We have a cowardly President who thinks that we should abandon the brave healthcare workers who travel to help others. At a time that the world needs strong American leadership on this crisis, we have the paranoid, "America First" Trump. This is not normal. This is not right.

Why So Many Old People?

2017 WI State Democratic Convention

Go anywhere that progressive activists congregate- the state Democratic Convention, Fighting BobFest, local Dem Meetings, or Congressional Town Halls. Who do you see there? Lots of old people!

Why are there so many senior activists compared to younger folks? It is primarily for the same reason that we find the majority of volunteers in any organization to be older. Seniors simply have more time. We are mostly finished raising our families. We no longer spend every waking hour helping with homework and housework. We no longer spend our entire weekend shuttling kids from soccer to music lessons to slumber parties.

Most seniors are not working a full time job. We now have time to give back to society. We have more time to keep current with political events. We have more time to influence the direction of our country through the political process. We have more time to be involved.

While working, many of us kept our political opinions to ourselves. After all, if our boss was a right-winger, it would be better not to express our progressive politics too vociferously. (I certainly did not write a lefty blog while working!) Older people are no longer restrained by career considerations. With retirement comes a new-found freedom to express our opinions and to take positive political action.

Seniors are more financially involved in politics, too. Many of us have more disposable income now that we paid-off the mortgage or have downsized our home. We have traded expensive work clothes for comfortable jeans. Once on Medicare, our medical expenses go down. We have more money that we can donate to progressive causes. We become a large source of campaign funding for liberal candidates.

The fact that seniors are more politically active than the young makes us a critical demographic group. We vote in numbers way out of proportion to our share of the population. In the 2016 presidential election, 70.9% of citizens over 65 voted, compared to only 46.1 % of those 18-29. While we need to get the sorry voter participation rates up for younger people, we must continue to address the concerns of seniors. We need to cultivate the huge reservoir of already-steady older voters.

Many older progressive activists fought the Culture Wars and other political battles during our youth. We do not want conservatives to undo all of the progress that America has made in the last 50 years. Environmental protections, civil rights, women's rights, privacy rights, workers' rights, and diplomacy vs warfare are all under attack from today's right. Many seniors feel a need to stay involved to protect the gains that we made so long ago.

Seniors are especially vulnerable to recent Republican efforts to undo the social safety net and cut earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare. Many retirees under 65, including me, depend on the Affordable Care Act for access to health insurance. These are life-and-death issues. It is no wonder that so many seniors take an active role in progressive organizations to defend these important programs.

I frequently attend political meetings where someone, usually pretty old themself, laments the fact that there are few young people involved. I always think, "So what?" I don't feel bad that the burden of progressive activism falls on the shoulders of older people. That's how it should be. Seniors have fewer family responsibilities and career restraints. They have time to devote to political causes. They realize what is at stake for our country. Let's stop worrying about all of the gray hair and take advantage of this powerful source of senior grassroots energy !