Q: What should the nation learn from Wisconsin's progressive past?
BARBARA LAWTON
Former lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, serving two terms from 2003 to 2011
Paeans to the progressive movement surge as we live through economic and social disruption not unlike that at the time the Wisconsin Idea took form as a progressive experiment.
The story is told how, when presented with a clear and strong progressive message from a passionate advocate, the people will respond enthusiastically. The deep wealth and political divisions at the onset of the twentieth century, like today, animated the DNA in our democracy, fueled the collective moral imagination for social and political reforms that changed lives and institutions, and charted, for a time, a brighter future to be more broadly shared. It seemed to be our moment to show the rest of the nation how to adapt democracy to the economic reality of the time.
But, if valuable lessons are to be learned, we must confront head-on the failings of our progressive past. Progressive leaders were sluggish on women’s suffrage, not wanting to alienate their male supporters. And then there is the devastating lesson found in the incalculable cost of perpetually not addressing the issue of race. Our “progressive” history is a study in racial quarantine, in what’s been called the worst state in the union to be Black.
People of color are still seen as misplaced newcomers. Without strong leadership to insist on anti-racist reforms at every level of government, there can be no enduring solutions to the inequality of our day.
NADA ELMIKASHFI
Madison activist and candidate for the Wisconsin state senate
While Wisconsin may have had a progressive past, it is clear that the definition of progress has not included everyone.
The Black Lives Matter movement offers us a chance to really reflect on how racism is deeply embedded within our society. We must come to terms with the fact that Wisconsin is the most segregated state in the country.
At six years old, I emigrated with my family from a small farming community in Sudan to forge our own American Dream. Madison offered us an opportunity, but we also struggled. Growing up, I witnessed how a lack of affordable housing, educational inequity, and our crumbling health care system burdened my family and my fellow Madisonians.
Having a progressive platform is not enough anymore. Wisconsin Democrats need to start challenging the white and neoliberal status quo. We must put forward candidates who fight for justice like their lives depend on it. Because for people in my communities, our lives do depend on it.
BEN WIKLER
Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin
Wisconsin is the birthplace of the original, radically anti-slavery Republican Party—which swept the nation by storm and elected Abraham Lincoln as President six years later.
That history illustrates how bold movements rooted in cross-racial solidarity can have transformative political power—a lesson today’s progressives should heed well, as they fight against a modern Republican Party that long ago switched to the other side in the fight for racial justice.