Time to Confront Crackpots by Charles J

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WI April 2013 Wisconsin Interest

Time to Confront Crackpots by Charles J. Sykes

The Left’s Last Hurrah by richard esenberg Mining Success BY Mike Nichols Latino Conundrum BY Aaron Rodriguez Editor > Charles J. Sykes

Smart can win WI Wisconsin Interest In the wake of November’s election, conservatives face to win over Hispanic national Republicans conducted an voters. Rick Esenberg looks back on Publisher: autopsylike review of their failures. As April’s victory for conservative Supreme Wisconsin Policy Research Wisconsin’s own Reince Priebus noted, Court Justice Patience Roggensack, while Institute, Inc. there was “no one reason we lost. Our Christian Schneider, in explaining why Editor: Charles J. Sykes message was weak; our ground game the judiciary matters so much here in Managing Editor: was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; Wisconsin, examines how activist Dane Marc Eisen we were behind in both data and digital; County judges have upended the rules of Art Direction: our primary and debate process needed lawmaking. Stephan & Brady, Inc. improvement.” We also include a timely account Contributors: Richard Esenberg Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was by Mike Nichols of how Wisconsin’s Mike Nichols the play? booming frac sand industry is lighting up Aaron Rodriguez Christian Schneider Our cover story suggests one place the economy and may even help reduce Sunny Schubert Charles J. Sykes that conservatives might start: by global warming. As Nichols notes: “The Board of Directors: acknowledging and confronting the emergence of an entire frac sand industry Chairman: problem of crackpots. As I write: “Smart has been both astonishingly rapid and a James Klauser can win. Weird almost always loses.” testament to local decision-making.” David Baumgarten Ave Bie This edition also includes a detailed And in spring, hope is always a good Catherine C. Dellin look by Aaron Rodriguez at the challenge thing. Jon Hammes Thomas J. Howatt Michael T. Jones David J. Lubar Job Announcement Maureen Oster Timothy Sheehy WPRI President Gerald Whitburn Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) seeks a seasoned executive to lead this independent, Edward Zore non-partisan research institute. The president must be skilled in board relations, fundraising and George Lightbourn (President) knowledgeable of Wisconsin public policy. The successful candidate will oversee the Institute’s research from thesis development to publication and will oversee the production of Wisconsin Contact Information: Interest magazine. In addition, the president is expected to have the necessary skills to manage address: the budget and operation of the Institute. Given its focus, the president must possess a solid understanding of Wisconsin politics and policy. Finally, the president must have the written and P.O. Box 382 speaking skills to effectively communicate with the general public, endowment and foundation Hartland, WI boards, the press and elected leaders. 53029 Phone: A successful candidate must be an innovative, creative thinker. 262.367.9940 Compensation is competitive. Position reports to the Board Chairman Email: Please submit a confidential letter of interest, a resume and two writing samples to WPRI Search [email protected] Committee chair, Maureen J. Oster at [email protected] or mail to: website: WPRI www.wpri.org P.O. Box 382 Hartland, WI 53029

Pg. 28 Filmmaker Editor’s Note Dan Hayes The GOP autopsy. BY Charles j. Sykes . . . . . Inside Cover

Dispatches Scott Walker’s springtime roll. By Charles j. Sykes ...... 2 The Dane County Veto An activist judge upends the rules of lawmaking. BY christian Schneider ...... 4 Frontline Report A young filmmaker memorializes the Greatest Generation in “Honor Flight.” By Sunny Schubert ...... 28 The Closer Walker vs. Ryan: the early line on 2016. BY christian Schneider ...... 40

Mexican Fiesta at the Summerfest grounds

CONTENTS > features Cover illustration by Nathan Gold

The Left’s Last Hurrah Latino Conundrum

The election means conservatives Why can’t the GOP attract this seemingly still dominate the state Supreme natural constituency? Court. BY AAron rodriguez ...... 20 By Richard Esenberg ...... 10 Time To Confront Mining Success Crackpots Wisconsin’s booming frac Smart sometimes wins. Weird always sand industry is lighting up the loses. economy. BY Charles J. Sykes ��32 by Mike Nichols ...... 12 Dispatches > charles J. sykes Walker’s spring roll conservative hopes brighten with the new season “You can cut all the fl owers,” observed Pablo Neruda, “but Fear the nuggets you cannot keep spring from coming.” Spring brings us many The great Sequester Freak Out failed to freak out the gifts this year, including a relatively lengthy hiatus from our public, but Rep. Gwen Moore certainly did her part to stir endless round of elections. April’s election was by our standards up fear over the modest budget cuts. In February, Moore a tepid affair, with the left more or less going through the motions warned that “when you’re a mom putting chicken nuggets in its attempts to fl ip control of the state Supreme Court. It on the table you wouldn’t be able to be sure they were lost. Again. But liberals were able salvage some solace from the inspected by FDA agents.” re-election of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony It would be nitpicking to point out that the Food and Evers, yet another cautionary tale of the price of running fl aky Drug Administration does not inspect nuggets, but we candidates on the right. were still puzzled why the good congresswoman was willing to embrace a food that is undoubtedly under the breaking their hearts interdict of our nanny-in-chief, the fi rst lady. The year is yet young, but Gov. Scott Walker appears to be on something of a roll. The endless John Doe yeah, it’s still the law investigation ended with a whimper, breaking liberal hearts Let’s see if we can provide a bit of clarifi cation here. across our fair state. Even though a Dane County judge has ruled that Act 10 “It’s hard for most people to imagine just how much is unconstitutional, the collective bargaining law is still in the left in this state had invested in this John Doe force for the rest of the state. After an appeals court denied investigation,” wrote columnist James Wigderson. “To a motion to stay that ruling, Atty. Gen. J.B. Van Hollen said Wisconsin left-wingers, this was Watergate and the Dreyfus that “it also was very clear that Judge Colas’ order does affair all rolled into one. They counted on the investigation not have statewide application and does not apply to any to defeat Walker in two elections, and they were hoping nonparties.” that the investigation would make a third election unnecessary. Now all they have left is praying to St. Russ to wisconsin’s choice come and rescue them in 2014.” Walker has a major fi ght on his hands over his proposal Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski was so to expand school choice. The idea is opposed by the usual distraught that he tweeted comparisons of Walker to mass suspects, of course. But Walker also faces opposition from murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, which turned out to be a smear some fellow Republicans. too far. Although he remained on the payroll, Zielinski was The Wall Street Journal noted that state Sen. Mike Ellis stripped of his role as spokesperson and banned from social has promised to block the expansion of choice: media. “‘This is phase one of a wide-open school voucher Meanwhile, Walker announced that he’s writing a book, program for the state,’ Mr. Ellis moans. Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge, “But what would be wrong with that? According to which served to further juice up the presidential buzz. the School Choice Demonstration Project, 94 percent Given the profi le of his recall campaign, there is probably of students who have received vouchers in Milwaukee no big-dollar GOP donor in the country who is not familiar graduate from high school, compared to 75 percent from with and/or a supporter of Walker’s campaign. But, of the Milwaukee public schools. They’re also more likely to course, he has to win re-election next year fi rst. go to college.”

2 Wisconsin Interest Dispatches

Meanwhile, a Marquette University Law School Poll Walker’s plan will add 82,000 to Medicaid who don’t found that a majority of Wisconsinites favor a major qualify now? expansion of choice. Since his plan limits Medicaid to people who are below the poverty line, this suggests that there were A majority of 82,000 poor people who were denied Medicaid… by whom? Wisconsinites favor As it turns out, Jim Doyle. The former governor a major expansion of tried to expand the state’s medical assistance programs. school choice. But Doyle imposed enrollment caps on the Badger Care Core Plan because he didn’t have enough money Moocher update to meet faster-than-expected enrollment. Walker’s plan eliminates those caps, allowing We heard a lot about “makers vs. takers” last year. So how’s thousands of poor individuals who had been blocked that working out for us? by the Doyle caps to receive health coverage under Over the last five years, the number of nonworkers in the Medicaid. U.S. economy has risen by 14.3 million, while the number Our Google search engine is apparently not powerful of duly employed workers has fallen by 5.3 million. This enough to find any prominent liberals suggesting that means that about 142 million workers somehow have to Doyle’s artificial cap would result in any deaths. But support about 102 million nonworkers. This doesn’t imply we’ll keep looking. that all of those not in the labor force are moochers, but it does give a quick snapshot of the ratio of those employed Speaking of boondoggles versus those supported by the efforts of others. A new study by the Wisconsin Policy Research As analyst Tim Wallace notes, the demographic numbers Institute found that the state law requiring more are sobering: “In the year 2000, there were 1.78 workers for renewable energy like wind and solar will cost every nonworker. Now there are only 1.39 workers for every Wisconsinites $788 million between now and 2017. nonworker. Meanwhile, food stamp usage is up from 17.2 “Legislators might want to pause and consider million to 46.6 million, and medical costs are soaring.” the economic impact the RPS [Renewable Portfolio Free money Standard] is already having on homeowners and businesses before moving any further down the road,” For the second time in his tenure, Walker defied said WPRI President George Lightbourn. “Renewables conventional political wisdom by turning down “free” significantly increase electricity costs, and that has a real federal money. In 2010, Walker rejected cash for the high- impact on individual Wisconsinites’ pocketbooks and speed train boondoggle; this year he turned down “free” the overall economy.” Medicaid money. Reactions were predictable. Left-wing activists warned that people would die because of Walker’s Unexpectedly move. The editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Finally, a national group of actuaries issued a report opined: in March suggesting that Obamacare could cause “The governor’s plan would force about 87,000 adults health care insurance claims to jump by 80 percent in now in the Medicaid program onto the new federal Wisconsin by 2017. insurance exchanges. That will make way for about 82,000 As surely as June follows our wet, chilly spring, additional people to receive Medicaid who do not now we can look forward to a steady flow of similar qualify. Walker claims his plan will allow 224,600 more consequences from the health care reform law. And, of people to receive coverage.…” course, all of them will be “unexpected.” n Wait.

The always-busy Charles J. Sykes is editor of this magazine, author of A Nation of Moochers: America’s Addiction to Getting Something for Nothing (St. Martin’s Griffin), talk show host on AM-620 WTMJ in Milwaukee, and founder of the Right Wisconsin web site. 3 4 Wisconsin Interest How a bill does not become BYE! a law By ChrIsTIaN sChNeIDer An activist Dane County court has brashly upended the rules of lawmaking

Every two years, the Wisconsin Assembly issues an celebration upon being signed by the governor would activity book for schoolchildren. The book includes be a bit premature. Having lost control of the Legislature a cartoon called “How a Bill Becomes a Law,” which and the governorship, Wisconsin Democrats have details the happy life of an ebullient piece of legislation added another step: To become law, Bill must fi rst pay a named Bill. visit to the Dane County Circuit Court. Bill leads a simple life — all he wants to do is one day Dane County has the distinction of not only being earn the governor’s signature on his belly and become the home of state government; it is also indisputably law. The cartoon follows his traditional journey, from one of the most politically liberal counties in America. hearings held on his merits, to committees voting him And despite being only one of Wisconsin’s 69 state out, to both houses of the Legislature passing him circuit courts, it has essentially become a second before sending him to the governor to become law. legislature. Such has been the legislative process since Our friend Bill may have earned the imprimatur Wisconsin’s inception in 1848. Yet in recent years, Bill’s of legislators elected from all over the state and the

5 The Dane County Veto

signature of a governor elected by a majority of it a popular vacation spot for lawyers. Wisconsin voters, but a single Dane County judge Of course, picking a friendly federal appeals court can derail Bill’s attempt to fi nd a cozy home within the is tricky, given that you have to predict what the pages of the state’s statute books. lower courts are going to do. But those looking for This is a problem not just for poor Bill, but also anti-business outcomes are generally served well by for the unfortunate citizens around Wisconsin who fi ling cases in the jurisdiction of the notoriously liberal elect Republicans to the state Assembly, Senate and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine governorship. The ballots of millions are counteracted western states. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court either by the vote of one robed master elected by a strongly reversed or vacated 19 of the 26 cases it reviewed from progressive electorate, whose elevated position is not the 9th Circuit; two years earlier, the supremes shot earned by any specifi c down 94 percent of its legal skill or expertise, but cases. instead his or her proximity The ballots of millions are The Dane County to State Street. In fact, until Circuit Court has proven recently, any lawsuit against counteracted by the vote of itself another great the state of Wisconsin had haven for liberal venue to be fi led in Dane County, one robed master elected by a shoppers. In March giving its Circuit Court an strongly progressive electorate. 2011, it found itself in elevated importance over the middle of a national any other local court in the controversy when Dane state. County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne fi led a lawsuit And thus, the Dane County Circuit Court has attempting to block implementation of Gov. Scott become a legal ATM for the state’s progressives: Insert a Walker’s new law restricting public sector collective court challenge, and out comes a favorable opinion that bargaining. Unable to prevail legislatively, Democrats will cost your opponents buckets of cash to appeal. attempted to sink the bill in the courts. And they found a very sympathetic ear in Dane County Circuit Judge So-called “venue shopping” like this isn’t all that Maryann Sumi. new. For instance, the federal It was important that court in Marshall, Texas, has Democrats get a lawsuit moving been traditionally known to be quickly; on April 5, Supreme friendly to those seeking money Court Justice David Prosser for patent infringements, and was up for election in a race that large companies from around would decide the high court’s the nation typically end up in this ideological balance. Having a small Texas town. Quick trials case pending in a state court and plaintiﬀ -friendly juries are would bolster the impression that the norm in Marshall (as is its the Prosser election was really an annual Fire Ant Festival), making election about whether Walker’s

6 Wisconsin Interest The Dane County Veto

broadside to the public unions would stand. Within months, the state Supreme Court assumed On March 16, seven days after the Wisconsin its role as the state’s legal janitor and cleaned up Senate passed the collective bargaining bill, Ozanne the mess Sumi had made. (She ruled that the state fi led a lawsuit seeking not to overturn the law, but Senate violated the open-meetings law, but failed to to prevent it from being published in the fi rst place. acknowledge the pertinent exemption for legislative Two days later, Sumi actions.) In a contentious heard one day’s worth decision that led to of testimony, issued a accusations of justices temporary restraining choking each other, order stopping Prosser excoriated Sumi, publication of the law writing, “In turbulent and quickly left town times, courts are expected on a weeklong family to act with fairness and vacation. objectivity. They should On his blog, serve as the impartial Marquette University arbiters of legitimate law professor Rick legal issues. They should Esenberg said he not insert themselves was “astonished” at into controversies or Sumi’s ruling, noting exacerbate existing that in 1943, the state tensions.” Supreme Court held While the Supreme that judges may not Court vacated Sumi’s enjoin the publication decision, the pro-union of a law on the basis litigants were not done. that it is or might be On Sept. 14, Dane County unconstitutional. “A Circuit Judge Juan Colas bill, in the court’s view, once again struck down is not enacted until it The state Supreme Court overturned Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi’s Walker’s law, this time pro-union ruling. is published such that based on a challenge publication is part of the legislative process with which from Madison schoolteachers and Milwaukee city courts may not interfere,” noted Esenberg. employees. The ruling blocked the law from being On April 5, Prosser narrowly defeated his liberal applied to school and local government workers, but challenger, JoAnne Kloppenburg. On May 25, it remains in eﬀ ect for state workers and employees of attorneys at the state Department of Justice sent Sumi the University of Wisconsin System. The case is being a letter indicating that they might seek her recusal. The appealed. very next day, Sumi issued her opinion striking down Yet another case of “Walker nullifi cation” took place the law in its entirety. when Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan,

7 The Dane County Veto

who had signed the recall petition against Walker, Democrats in Dane County have become uniquely struck down a Walker-approved law requiring photo problematic, given that Dane is a “company town.” identifi cation to vote. Inexplicably, Flanagan did not “You have exceptionally politically charged cases disclose that he had signed the petition being brought in a county which has this sort of While the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar voter- this toxic combination of being both politically identifi cation law in Indiana, Flanagan ruled that his homogeneous and politically aroused,” said Esenberg. opinion should eﬀ ectively trump the Supreme Court “You had these pieces of legislation coming before because the Indiana law elected judges in a allows a voter 10 days county where people after casting a provisional were marching in the ballot to produce streets, pretty much all in identifi cation, while the opposition to these things, Wisconsin law allows only which raises questions three days. about the political pressures that may be The fact that Dane brought to bear on a judge County always got the who fi nds himself or herself fi rst crack at adjudicating in that situation.” lawsuits against the And while the ability state clearly irritated of circuit courts to strike Republicans, who in 2011 down state laws is not new, passed a law allowing the recent hyper-partisan plaintiﬀ s suing the state way in which the courts are to pick venues other being asked to function will than Dane County. have long-lasting impacts Legislative Republicans on Wisconsin law. Scott took advantage of this Walker and the GOP new law during the Legislature may only be Walker recall process, with Wisconsin for the when they sued the Courts should act with “fairness and objectivity,” Supreme Court Justice span of a few years; the David Prosser wrote. state Government precedent of litigating Accountability Board in Waukesha County, which they everything as a political weapon may be with the state considered a friendlier venue. forever. This new law, however, does nothing to stop liberal groups from fi ling suits in Dane County. Esenberg Those ideological pressures placed on circuit noted that constitutional challenges to enacted courts will likely boil up again now that the Legislature legislation are “nothing new,” and that challenges aren’t has passed a much-discussed bill to allow an iron ore always illegitimate. But he notes that cases fi led by mine in northern Wisconsin. Environmental groups are

Photography by James Mueller 8 Wisconsin Interest The Dane County Veto

expected to fi le suit at some point to block the mine. invalidated, but also because politics are cyclical, and And that move for an injunction will almost certainly one day Republicans will need lower courts to block be fi led in Dane County. the actions of a Democratic governor. Some judicial observers have argued that it doesn’t Esenberg proposed a potential remedy for over- matter where cases like this begin, as long as the politicization of the courts: If a circuit court wants Supreme Court is there to serve as a backstop to to issue an injunction to block a state statute, the Dane County. For conservatives, this reasoning is party opposing the injunction has 10 days to appeal. problematic. According to Esenberg’s proposal, if the ruling isn’t First, while the makeup of the court currently leans appealed in 10 days, the stay is lifted and the injunction conservative, the court is usually only one April is eﬀ ective. If the ruling is appealed, the stay would election away from switching ideologies. Liberals need remain in place, and the appeals court would have to but a single seat, in other words, to turn the court from lift it. If both the appeals court and circuit court agree a stop sign to a green light for Dane County opinions. on the injunction, then it stays in place. One thing is certain But regardless of — the more the lower what reforms might courts are seen as mere Some conservatives have grown pass, Republicans will political arms, the worse not be able to legislate it is for the reputation frustrated that the Supreme Dane County out of of the Supreme Court. Court hasn’t yanked jurisdiction existence. Challengers Some conservatives have to Scott Walker’s agenda grown frustrated that the away from the appellate courts. will continue to look Supreme Court hasn’t to the Dane County yanked jurisdiction away courts to block the will from the appellate courts and struck down Flanagan’s of the people. And liberal judges will continue to photo identifi cation ruling, for example. garner awards like Sumi’s for being the State Bar of But as one justice told me, that’s not at all how the Wisconsin’s “2011 Judge of the Year.” Supreme Court should work. The court, instead, And this will be bad news for our good friend Bill, should almost always let the process work itself out. who will have to routinely pack his bags for Dane Setting a precedent of clutching politically expedient County. Maybe the state can get him some Badger cases away from appellate courts could be terrible football tickets to make his frequent stays more for the right, especially if liberals regain control of the pleasant. n Supreme Court. In the wake of the recent Dane County decisions, the Republican Legislature has also proposed changes to how cases are handled. One proposal, for instance, would have prevented circuit courts from blocking Madison freelance writer Christian Schneider recently wrote on duly enacted laws. Esenberg believes this would be Michigan’s economic travails for City Journal. He is co-authoring a a mistake, not only given that some laws should be book on campaign managers to be published in spring 2014.

9 The left’s last hurrah

Ed Fallone’s failed Supreme Court challenge will mean continued conservative dominance by richard esenberg

So what are we to make of the 2013 race for the narratives need a whiff of plausibility. This one was Wisconsin Supreme Court? That Justice Patience inert. Roggensack easily defeated challenger Ed Fallone is unsurprising. In the history of Wisconsin, a justice who Nevertheless, I wrote an article for National has been elected to the court (as opposed to merely Review Online entitled “The Left’s Last Hurrah in appointed) has failed to win re-election only twice. Wisconsin” and, at least as it pertains to opposition In 1855, Samuel Crawford was defeated by to the collective bargaining reform, I think this is Orasmus Cole. Crawford’s mistake was to follow the case. It is not that there will continue to be a then-regnant U.S. Supreme Court precedent and vote “conservative” majority on the court inclined to to uphold the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave “Republican” rulings. It is that there will not be Act. We didn’t like slavery. In 1967, Chief Justice George Currie was defeated by Milwaukee County Judge Robert Hansen. Currie’s sin was to vote with a Not all problems have 4–3 majority to lift an injunction against the Milwaukee Braves’ move to Atlanta. We like baseball. a constitutional solution. This suggests that the bar to re-election is not high, It is not for judges to and we ought to be careful about making too much of the fact that something that almost never happens right every wrong. did not happen again. Circumspection is further warranted by the curious theme of the Fallone campaign, which was to blame Roggensack for a majority of “progressive” judges who regard discord on the court without explaining why she was the law not as a fairly circumscribed set of rules responsible or why his election would end it. to be interpreted and applied, but as a source of To be successful, even fundamentally unfair political amorphous values to be identifi ed and developed.

Photo by Narayan Mahon 10 Wisconsin Interest Culture Con

In our time, the legal left is largely given over So what does this have to do with Act 10? to a post-modern view of the law. The text and By precedent and traditional canons of legal history of constitutional provisions and statutes interpretation, there is no right to collective is thought to be vague and “undetermined.” bargaining. It is a privilege conferred by the Because the law is seen to be highly malleable, its Legislature, and it may be eliminated — or meaning is not fi xed and is not, as judges like to modifi ed — as it sees fi t. To say, as one Dane say, “found.” Rather, interpreting the law is not County judge did, that collective bargaining is readily distinguished from “making” it. restricted in a way that individual bargaining is In the progressive view, judging is less an effort not is only to restate the received view. Only by to apply standards that have been chosen by adopting nontraditional — and somewhat novel others than it is to discern — views of equal protection or “community values” and other constitutional guarantees, fi gure out what standards will can one conclude that Act serve them. Thus, liberal 10’s restriction of collective judges and academics speak bargaining is unconstitutional. less of the First Amendment Even with a change in the (“Congress shall make no law composition of the court, it was abridging the freedom of unlikely that a majority of the speech…”) and more of “First justices would adopt such a Amendment values,” i.e., why view. Now it is almost certain is speech good and what that they won’t. forms of speech serve those Following the court’s 2005-’06 good purposes. term, there was a widespread The approach was outcry — among the public and unwittingly demonstrated by within the legal community U.S. Supreme Court Justice — regarding the then-liberal Anthony Kennedy in recent majority’s seeming abandonment oral arguments regarding Blaming Justice Roggensack for the court’s discord of traditional tools of judicial was both curious and unsuccessful. same-sex marriage. He restraint in favor of more wondered “what the court should say” to children progressive modes of interpretation. of gay and lesbian couples who might want their In the fi ve elections since then, the conservative parents to be married. candidate has won four times, and no member of For conservatives, this is the wrong question. the conservative majority will stand for election Unless the text and original public understanding until 2017. At least for now, this was also the left’s of relevant constitutional provisions can be found last hurrah on the court. to confer a constitutional right to same-sex This spring’s election might have been a forgone marriage, it is not for the courts to “say” anything conclusion made more inevitable by a stillborn to particular constituencies desiring a particular challenge, but it was no less signifi cant for that. n policy. Not all problems have a constitutional solution, and it is not for judges to right every wrong (if you believe the traditional view of Richard Esenberg is president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and an adjunct professor of law at Marquette University. He blogs at marriage is wrong). sharkandshepherd.blogspot.com

11 Mining

success

Josh and Greg Clements grew up in Bloomer atop the seemingly bottomless troves of sand that everyone knew were underfoot but never gave a second thought. “Played in it my whole life,” says 38-year-old Greg, sitting in a conference room beside the brand new, $50-million Superior Silica Sands processing plant he manages just outside Barron in northwestern Wisconsin. For as long as anyone can remember, it was just plain old sand, the same stuff kids shoveled into buckets in their sandboxes and farmers used as bedding for their cows.

“Anywhere up here, where there is a hill, there is “coalescing beaches” and offshore sandbars sand in it,” says Josh, Greg’s 32-year-old brother deposited on an uneven sea floor long, long ago, and the manager of an only slightly older Superior according to a 1971 paper by then-associate Silica Sands plant in New Auburn, about 25 miles state geologist Meredith Ostrom. Often buried away. beneath a thin veneer of what the excavators call It’s always been easy to take for granted. “overburden” — topsoil or subsoil composed of Little rounded beads of unusually hard quartz, silt, loam or clay — it is easily reached. And, it Wisconsin silica sand is literally older than the turns out, it is perfect for use in hydrofracking hills. University of Wisconsin geologists surmise — the process of pumping silica sand, water that, starting about 500 million years ago, and small amounts of chemicals under extreme gargantuan mounds of it were pushed and shaped pressure into fissures in the earth, and propping by ancient seas that once covered the entire state. the fissures open to help release so-called “tight” Silica sandstone formations are really just deposits of oil and natural gas.

Night photo of a sand mine in western Wisconsin. 13 Mining Success

People like Josh and Greg Clements have come astonishingly rapid and a testament to local to realize that the stuff they tromped around in as decision-making. kids is now worth as much as $200 a ton in places So many frac sand mines and processing plants like Ohio, North Dakota and Texas. Suddenly, are suddenly operating in western Wisconsin that the primordial bounty left by long-ago tides has even the state Department of Natural Resources metamorphosed into thousands of Wisconsin jobs, has a hard time keeping track of the exact number. hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and There are at least 40 active plants and 75 mines more than a billion dollars in state income in 2012 that have DNR permits, according to Thomas alone. Woletz, a senior manager in the DNR’s Water While Wisconsin remains mired in a long fight Division. But an unknown number of older over an iron mine that could create 700 jobs, the industrial sand-mining operations, which have sand industry has already directly produced three long unearthed silica sand for mortar, concrete times that number — and with what proponents and glass, have also quietly started selling to the convincingly argue is relatively minimal frac sand market. All told, there may be more than environmental cost. Indeed, while critics raise concerns about The emergence of the the impact of the frac sand industry on the air and water, and even raise the specter of frac sand industry cancer, proponents have repeatedly convinced local boards such fears are either overstated has been both or downright false — and more than a little myopic. As old “ghost towns” slowly come back astonishingly rapid to life alongside rebuilt rails, there is increasing and a testament to local evidence that the sands — or, more accurately, the revolutionary hydrofracking they make possible — decision-making. aren’t just helping the economy. Hydrofracking may be helping the global 100 mines supplying frac sand to much of North environment as well. America. “To put the growth in perspective,” wrote Woletz Wisconsin silica sand has been used for in an e-mail to Wisconsin Interest, “two and a half hydrofracking for more than 40 years. However, it years ago we had five frac sand mines and five wasn’t until recently that technological advances processing plants.” in horizontal drilling and seismic imaging made The economic impact of hydrofracking is it feasible to use the process to extract previously impressive. By 2012, the so-called unconventional unreachable reserves of natural gas and oil. oil and gas industry produced 19,760 jobs in Nowhere else in the world is frac sand both so Wisconsin — a number that will grow to more abundant and so accessible as it is in Wisconsin. than 33,000 jobs by 2020, according to an IHS The state once known as America’s toolbox is now Global Insight study supported partly by the recognized as its sandbox. And considering how petroleum and natural gas industry. long the Legislature debated even the possibility About 2,000 of the existing jobs are in the of approving a new iron mine, the emergence frac sand business, according to Mohsen of an entire frac sand industry has been both Bonakdarpour, an official with IHS. Other jobs are

14 Wisconsin Interest Mining Success

in the supply chain for the hydrofracking industry group named Hills Angels. or are so-called “expenditure-induced” jobs made Weise concedes an essential argument in favor possible by the spending of people with new of letting the miners buy up property from farmers and others who need the money or just want to live a better life. “The people who are for [the mines] say, ‘People own their own land, and they can do whatever they want with their land,’” says Weise. But, she adds, “I don’t think there is enough evidence to show the mines are safe for surrounding families. I think the impact of silica dust could be very much like asbestos.” There is, to be sure, a need for oversight. Fifteen companies have been issued notices of violation of regulations, according to the DNR. Most appear to be relatively minor violations regarding storm water permits, although at least two have been referred to the Department of Justice. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism recently reported that “nearly a fi fth”

Credit: Kate Prengaman/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting of 70 active mines were cited for environmental violations in 2012, including a handful that incomes. The increase in Wisconsin income hit resulted in fi nes and nine that did not involve $1.2 billion in 2012, according to IHS. In turn, fi nes because the violations “were largely either the new wealth generated signifi cant amounts of paperwork problems or other easily corrected new government revenue: approximately $590 issues” The WCIJ story also noted that Gov. Scott million in added personal and corporate taxes. Walker proposed adding two new DNR positions Though not without signifi cant opposition. in the budget to help monitor the sand industry. Allen Ferber, who lives up a long driveway no one can deny that the sand mines have an across Highway 8 from the Town of Clinton impact on the Wisconsin landscape beyond the processing plant, has his own concerns. Ferber appearance of the processing plants that dry and has lived in his home for decades and is upset sift the sand. with both Superior Silica and the local Town “I have lived in the area for 37 years and moved Board. He says the Town Board was supposed here specifi cally because we love the hills,” says to have a moratorium in place, like some other Nancy Weise, a resident of the Barron County communities do. He worries about air quality and Township of Dallas, where a mine was briefl y the environment, and he complains that trains considered. “So when we fi nd out our neighbor is carrying the sand run late into the night. going to mine 160 acres away, it breaks our heart. “They lied through their teeth about so many It is essentially like strip mining.” things they don’t know which one they told fi rst,” The mine Weise feared never came to fruition, he says of the company and town offi cials. but it prompted her to help found an opposition Others see it quite differently.

15 Mining Success

Mining and processing plants, to be sure, bring But, they argue, those regulations and safeguards train whistles and noisy trucks to long-quiet are in place partly because of the admonitions of country roads, and more than one view of the members of local government boards who want bucolic countryside has been lost at least until the to make sure their own families and neighbors are mines are closed and the land is restored to what safe and protected. might be a somewhat fl atter tableau. But those The facility is essentially a wide-open, 500-foot- same quiet roads have also long been a way out for long warehouse of sorts with huge piles of sand at rural and small-town Wisconsinites who can’t fi nd one end, an enormous “drier” in the middle and jobs. myriad sifting machines at the other. In addition, it “All these little towns are almost ghost towns,” has a computerized operations room and a quality says Larry Peterson, a Town of Clinton supervisor. control lab. “People need jobs,” and the ones in the sand Among the safeguards for air quality: a 12-by- industry are good jobs that often pay more than 25-by-35-foot steel “bag house” with 784 air fi lters $17 an hour plus benefi ts. connected to the drier that heats and dries the When Superior Silica held a job fair at Barron sand, and another similar bag house connected to High School last summer, a local newspaper the plant’s dust collection system. Superior Silica reported that more than 700 people showed up. employees stress that the air is tested and monitored The Superior Silica Sands processing plant has regularly, just like groundwater near the mines already created 27 jobs and is expected to add a themselves that the DNR keeps a close eye on. lot more — and that’s just in the plant. Canadian Perhaps the most formidable critic of the facility National, which now prefers to be called CN, just was Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), sunk $35 million into rebuilding a local rail line which is based in Madison. In a fi ve-page critique, that hadn’t seen a train for years. Local gas stations and restaurants are benefi tting as well, and pretty soon, hopes Peterson, some of those well-paid Superior Sands workers might just start buying land and building houses. Yes, there was talk of a mining moratorium at one point, says Peterson, but that was before the Town Board did its research and wrung economic concessions out of the company — including a promise to pay local homeowners for any loss in value that they might suffer over the next fi ve years. the environmental group criticized everything from Even the staunchest proponents concede — plans for monitoring or containment of emissions given the amount of sand being processed — a to potential impacts on health and quality of life. need for stringent safeguards and monitoring. MEA argued that the DNR should have conducted After all, the cavernous, 500-foot-long Superior either an environmental assessment or impact Silica Sands plant that opened last fall outside statement — both are lengthy, potentially costly Barron is capable of drying, sifting and shipping analyses — to evaluate the impact of both the more than 2 million tons of sand per year all by Town of Clinton facility and “cumulative impacts itself. from other frac sand mines in the area.”

Photography by Mike Nichols 16 Wisconsin Interest Mining Success

In essence, they and other critics complain conveniently overlooks the good-paying jobs that there needs to be more regulation, more created for local people like Josh Clements. He deliberation and more assessment of negative was an electrician who helped build one of the impacts. Superior plants before he was hired to run it. And The DNR — an agency that lots of folks in rural the outsiders-are-profiting argument also ignores Wisconsin say already stands for “Damn Near the creation of local businesses like Midwest Frac, Russia” for its sometimes big-brotherish oversight — demurs in this case. The economic impact The agency has concluded that it is not necessary to regulate silica as a hazardous air pollutant, of hydrofracking is and that “very little conclusive information exists regarding sources, controls or levels of silica impressive. By 2012, the present in ambient air.” In its response to the environmental group regarding the Superior Silica industry produced 19,760 plant, the agency also said that Superior Silica jobs in Wisconsin. Sands is meeting all monitoring and emissions requirements and, under Wisconsin law, there a mining company that processes its sand through is no need for an environmental assessment or the Superior Silica Sands plant in Barron. impact statement, a response that in no way Matt Torgerson, owner of Midwest Frac, employs placates MEA. up to 40 people in the Town of Arland. He cites The group’s attorney, Sarah Williams, said in an the economic boost that mining provides other e-mail long after the processing plant opened that Barron County businesses, from electrical firms “many of our concerns still remain” and noted to sand-blasting companies. “You look at their that there are at least 12 other frac sand mines or sales ... and it has just been amazing,” he told the processing facilities in Barron County, “all of which Barron County Board last November. Pointing to contribute to air pollution.” the county’s growing tax base, he said, “There are Superior Silica managers simply disagree. only positives that we see moving forward.” “There is no danger,” says Duane Wilke, Superior For their part, local government leaders see the Silica Sands’ environmental health and safety sand — and the rebuilt railroad — connecting manager. Emissions “are well below the EPA them to the promise of a broader world. That standards. Nobody is going to get silicosis from closed rail line that CN bought from Wisconsin these processing plants. I just can’t say enough Central in 2001 now connects Barron County with about how safe it is.” the CN network leading to ports in New Orleans Critics, says Wilke, “are just not going to listen.” in the south, Vancouver to the west and Nova Scotia to the east — and, from there, to the rest of To be sure, there is a committed opposition that the globe. will never be placated, and some hearken back to Economic impacts of the larger hydrofracking an age-old complaint that the people who profit industry, of course, extend well beyond most aren’t Wisconsinites; they’re outsiders like the Wisconsin, and the politicians have already Texas private equity company that owns Superior positioned themselves to take credit. President Silica. Obama has promised to help create 600,000 But that is a simplistic argument that natural-gas-related jobs in the next decade. Some

17 Mining Success

commentators saw this as the president’s embrace that the United States needs to be vigilant about of the industry as an economic driver as well as environmental impacts of fracking. But “if best his acceptance of the argument that fracking can practices are used, then fracking looks very safe,” be done responsibly. the graduate of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote in an e-mail. He The benefi ts of dramatically cheaper natural added that “questions surrounding methane gas, in fact, aren’t just economic. They’re also leakage still need careful monitoring.” environmental. Victor’s bottom line: Natural gas can be a bridge The Environmental Protection Agency reported to a future with lower carbon emissions. in February that emissions of greenhouse gases Such statements lend credence to the arguments of fracking proponents that the relatively low Canadian National just risks are worth taking given the potential rewards of energy self-suffi ciency, economic growth and sunk $35 million into even cleaner air. rebuilding a local rail line that hadn’t seen a train for years. from U.S. power plants decreased 4.6 percent from 2010 to 2011. And U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the fi rst quarter of 2012 — during the high-demand winter months — were the lowest since 1992, a time when there were nearly 60 million fewer Americans using energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The reduction is due at least partly to the abundance of relatively clean natural gas and to utilities consequently burning far less coal. David Victor, a professor at the University of California-San Diego and author of Global Warming Gridlock, estimates that the shift from coal to natural gas has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 400 to 500 megatons per year — a “As the [Obama] administration and EPA has “ballpark estimate” that he confi rmed toWisconsin made clear, natural gas has a central role to play Interest is twice the total reductions of the Kyoto in our energy future, and this important domestic Protocol throughout the rest of the world. fuel source has extensive economic, energy Victor believes that the jury is still out on security and environmental benefi ts,” the EPA whether the reduction in carbon emissions is said in December. enough to slow climate change, and he cautions Even some environmentalists, acknowledging

Photography by Mike Nichols 18 Wisconsin Interest Mining Success

the benefits of natural gas, have come out sand issue in April, with mixed results. In Sumner, in support of fracking. In September, Mark for instance, a town chair who voted against a Brownstein, the Environmental Defense Funds’ mine proposal was re-elected — but so were chief counsel, explained the group’s support for incumbents on the other side. In Dallas, Weise fracking of natural gas, when properly regulated, herself ran and, like other mine opponents in the as a way to help America wean itself from coal. county in the past, lost. “Natural gas production can never be made entirely safe; like any intensive industrial activity, it Even the staunchest involves risks,” he wrote. “But having studied the issue closely, we are convinced that if tough rules, proponents concede — oversight and penalties for noncompliance are put in place, these risks become manageable.” given the amount of sand

Local governing boards have largely welcomed being processed — a need the new industry. Not only did the Town of for stringent safeguards Clinton Board give Superior Silica Sands the green light, the Barron County Board voted and monitoring. overwhelmingly to approve the zoning change that made the plant possible as well. Support for mining on the Barron County Board In the end, they’ve decided that farmers have itself, meanwhile, remains almost unanimous. And a right to get rich by selling their land, and the overall, there remains strong sentiment at the local younger generation should at least have a shot at level that the area needs to do what it can to be sticking around and getting a job — especially part of an industry of the future. since health concerns are overstated. Some warn that the natural gas boom has already This is sand, after all. Not nuclear waste. played itself out. But there is substantial evidence “When your children were young, did you go to the contrary. There are enough recoverable get an old tire and fill it with sand for a sandbox? natural gas resources in the continental United There’s no difference,” says Peterson. “Sand is States and Canada to supply current rates of sand.” consumption for another 100 years, according to Sure, there are concerns about the risks that IHS, and plenty of reasons to use them. come with any big life-changing endeavor. But the “This plant will be here for 100 years, as long as critics, who bicker over minutia or don’t like the they keep fracking,” says Josh Clements. look of a processing facility or the sound of a train And after fracking runs its course? Maybe, some passing by at night, fail to see a larger picture, at think, the engineers and scientists will discover least in the minds of the folks who sit on the all- another use for the common old silica sand that important local boards. people around here still see as a cheap way to In the end, the local boards are the ones with make their kids happy — now and down the albeit the power — so much so that people like Weise slightly noisier road. n have come to realize the importance of who sits on them. Local races in the towns of Vance Creek, Sumner Mike Nichols is a freelance writer and a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy and Dallas, where she lives, all focused on the frac Research Institute.

19 Latino conundrum

St. Anthony’s in Milwaukee is solid testament to the Hispanic demand for school choice. BY AARON RODRIGUEZ Shortly after November’s presidential election, Take Rudy Garay, an El Salvadorian immigrant America’s pundit class was fl ush with theories about and self-described independent voter who lives in how President Obama could win every battleground Milwaukee. This past summer, he played in a fi ve- state but one, despite presiding over four long years on-fi ve soccer tournament where he and his family of an anemic economic recovery. Exit polls provided enjoyed free skirt steak and beverages, compliments more evidence of what many conservative Latinos of the Obama 2012 campaign. He didn’t think much had feared for years: The GOP can’t fi nd genuine about it at the time, but remarked that he couldn’t and tangible ways to connect with Latino voters, and imagine Republicans running such an event. “They’re the party may fade into irrelevance as a result. just not around,” he said with a shrug.

20 Wisconsin Interest The GOP can’t attract this seemingly natural constituency. What can be done?

I asked Garay for his fi rst more opportunities for impressions of the word immigrants,” Garay told me. “GOP.” He said, “I see a He hit on one of the party grounded in religious [family] values, but they keystones absent in the GOP Hispanic outreach come oﬀ anti-immigrant and anti-student.” Asked to plan — the party’s actual outreach. There is none. It’s elaborate, Garay said that Republicans claim they’re refl ected in GOP policies and embedded in GOP about families, but promote enforcement policies language. Even in areas where Republican policy is that tear them apart. What can the party do to make overwhelmingly popular in the Hispanic community things right? “They should be thinking about creating — school choice, for instance — Republicans don’t

21 Latino Conundrum

even know how to promote it to minorities. support of any Republican presidential candidate on If you’re explaining to low-income Latinos that record. In 2008, that number dropped like a brick to the greatness of school choice comes from its “free 31 percent. In 2012, Republicans fell even farther, to 27 market” principles like “competition” and how they percent. The downward spiral had prompted the Wall need to escape “big government education,” you Street Journal to ask, “How many other nonwhite might as well be Charlie Brown’s teacher. They won’t groups can the GOP lose and still consider itself a understand it, let alone give Republicans credit for national party?” pushing it. Hispanics don’t care about a free market Although immigration isn’t the only issue that cost education; they care about having parental rights GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney Hispanic in their children’s education. They want a say in votes, it would be naive to think that the notion curricula. They want a safe school environment. of “self deportation” wasn’t repellant to Hispanic This leads to the second support. For context, let’s review keystone of how the GOP can how Ronald Reagan’s 1980 rebrand itself to the Hispanic convention platform addressed community. If you want to immigration. It reads: change the Hispanic perception “Republicans are proud that of the GOP as just a bunch our people have opened their of white guys promoting arms and hearts to strangers the interests of wealthy from abroad, and we favor an businessmen, then you need immigration and refugee policy to do something about what which are consistent with this Hispanic children are taught in tradition. We believe that to school. The foundational blocks the fullest extent possible those of education need to be depoliticized so children can immigrants should be admitted who will make a learn the non-empirical sciences such as history and positive contribution to America and who are willing literature in an unbiased environment. to accept the fundamental American values and way Republicans have their work cut out for them, but of life. there is a path to securing Hispanic votes. “At the same time, United States immigration and refugee policy must refl ect the interests As far back as the 1960s, Democrats have of our national security and economic well- enjoyed high voter turnout ranging from 56 percent being. Immigration into this country must not be to 85 percent among Hispanics in presidential determined solely by foreign governments or even elections. These results have persistently puzzled a by the millions of people around the world who Republican Party that still fi rmly believes what Ronald wish to come to America. The federal government Reagan said long ago: “Latinos are Republican; they has a duty to adopt immigration laws and follow just don’t know it yet.” enforcement procedures which will fairly and In 2004, President George W. Bush received 44 eﬀ ectively implement the immigration policy desired percent of the Hispanic vote, the highest level of by the American people.”

22 Wisconsin Interest Latino Conundrum

The talk of open arms and open hearts in Reagan’s Working on immigration is great, but Latinos need convention platform is reminiscent of the glory days to see Republicans in the community doing good when Reagan conservatives recognized the historic things. Conservative nonprofits — particularly those contributions of immigration as a source of strength with deep pockets — should invest in conservative and stability for our great nation. Hispanic groups willing to do the legwork in the Contrast this with the words of Kris Kobach, community: keeping neighborhoods safe and an immigration advisor for Romney’s presidential helping parents get their children into choice campaign, who said, “We schools. Yes, school choice recognize that if you is an indispensable part of really want to create a job making gains among the next tomorrow, you can remove School generation of Hispanic voters. an illegal alien today.” choice is an While immigration reform Shortly after November’s needs to be a starting indispensable election, National Review point for the GOP, history Online writer Heather Mac has shown that granting part of the Donald wrote a piece entitled, amnesty is unlikely to win “Why Hispanics don’t vote Republicans a majority of GOP making for Republicans.” Although Hispanic voters any more gains among she provided no definitive than it helped Reagan’s conclusion, her message was successor. As columnist Hispanic clear: Latinos vote Democratic Peggy Noonan wrote in the because they’re on the dole. Wall Street Journal: voters. “Hispanics are for big “In fact, solving government because they’re immigration is important politically to the GOP hooked on government help,” as she put it. Mac because it would remove an impediment to Donald didn’t think much of the emerging thinking reconciliation. But immigration reform itself probably on immigration reform either: “If only Republicans won’t result in any electoral windfall for Republicans. relented on their Neanderthal views regarding the Mexican-Americans strike me as like the Irish who immigration rule of law, the message will run, they came to America in the great wave from 1880 would release the inner Republican waiting to emerge to 1920. They saw the Republicans as snobs and in the Hispanic population.” establishment types, saw the Democrats as scrappy She is both right and wrong. Transforming and for the little guy, and cleaved to the latter party Hispanics into Republicans isn’t as simple as a tweak for a good long while.” in government policy. But it’s misleading to say Noonan is right. The GOP needs to look at the Hispanics are for big government because they’re immigration quandary as a gateway issue, not an hooked on government help. endgame. It alone will not stop the bleeding, but at Consider a study by the Pew Research Center least it opens the door to connect with an increasingly showing that the preference for big government important voter bloc. declines with each generation of Hispanics. The

23 Latino Conundrum

report states, “Support for a larger government any given presidential election. Although there have is greatest among immigrant Latinos. More than been notable shifts in Hispanic voting patterns for eight in 10 (81 percent) say they would rather have a Republicans, the general range rarely breached the bigger government with more services than a smaller 25 percent to 40 percent range. In the last election, government with fewer services. The share that Romney shot for 38 percent of the Hispanic vote but wants a bigger government falls to 72 percent among was lucky to get 27 percent. second-generation Hispanics and 58 percent among Hispanics tend to support individuals who “get third-generation Hispanics.” them.” My grandmother, a Texan of Mexican- The aim of welfare liberalism — what conservatives American descent, was a longtime Democrat commonly identify until George W. Bush as liberalism — is came along. He was a to use government fellow Texan who could to emancipate Latinos need to speak Spanish and held people from the traditional Christian fear of hunger, see Republicans values. For her, that unemployment, ill in the community connection was enough. health and a failure to For the first time ever, flourish in an industrial doing good things. Lucia Rodriguez cast a age, according to ballot for a Republican. the Companion Conservative Not every Republican to Contemporary candidate can be from Political Philosophy. If nonprofits Texas or speak Spanish, this view of modern particularly but Hispanics need a point liberalism were truly of connection. adopted by the those with deep As to my second Hispanic community, and more important we wouldn’t see a pockets need observation, the GOP growing preference to step up. can no longer be satisfied for smaller with a modest goal of 38 government with percent of the Hispanic each subsequent generation. vote. The question must be asked: What are the I would suggest to all the Mac Donalds out there GOP’s long-term plans to grow the Hispanic vote? that it’s important to know whom you’re reaching out To begin with, the GOP needs to know its to if you want to change their voting behavior. opponents. I looked at five decades of voting trends in presidential elections for clues. First, fluctuations in Consider Voces de la Frontera, a Latino worker Hispanic voting patterns correspond to a candidate’s rights group active in Wisconsin politics. Voces has personal appeal. Second, Republicans have never filed two substantial lawsuits against the state — one reached more than 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in against statewide redistricting and the other against

24 Wisconsin Interest Latino Conundrum

requiring voter identifi cation. Legal prowess aside, of the teachers union is shaping student opinion. Voces’ ground game is nothing short of impressive: The group has one leg planted in Milwaukee and To attract Hispanic voters, conservatives need to the other in Racine. These are two areas with dense couple community visibility with education reform. Hispanic populations. Traditionally, school choice has been sold on the merits With the help of the teachers union, Voces has of fostering competition and leading to academic considerable infl uence in the Racine Unifi ed School gains. A study by economist Caroline Hoxby, then District and has an active youth arm called YES (Youth with Harvard University, now with Stanford, found Empowered in a Struggle). In January, YES caught that voucher schools helped improve the educational media attention in Racine for productivity of public schools. advancing a student “bill of rights” In her 2003 book, The seeking, among other things, Economics of School Choice, to establish a right to protect Hoxby said, “Overall, an their schools from privatization evaluation of Milwaukee (school choice), to “equal power suggests that public schools have dynamics in the classroom,” “a a strong, positive productivity school environment where all response to competition from teachers and staﬀ have the right vouchers. The schools that faced to collectively bargain,” and the most potential competition the right to resolve issues “by from vouchers had the best mediation” instead of using the productivity response. In fact, the police — a right they describe schools that were most treated as the “restorative justice to competition had dramatic model.” Sounds like some pretty productivity improvements.” Mexican Fiesta features Hispanics in the military. advanced stuﬀ for a group of high The improvements have not school students, right? gone unnoticed. The Milwaukee Parental Choice Unfortunately, student activism hasn’t translated Program has become an indispensable resource for into student academic achievement in the Racine the Hispanic community in Milwaukee. St. Anthony’s district. The high schools where YES are most active School in Milwaukee, a partner in the school choice (Horlick, Case and Park) are classifi ed by the state program, grew from 400 to 1,400 students in just Department of Public Instruction as failing to meet seven years. The school enrollment is almost entirely expectations — the lowest of the fi ve categories in Latino, and it is now the largest choice school in the assessing academic achievement. Horlick, Case and country. Of the 1,650 current students, 99 percent Park scored lower than 27 other Racine schools, but enroll via the school choice program. St. Anthony’s the consolation — if the School Board allows it — is striking enrollment growth is not happenstance; it’s that they get to use a restorative justice model to a solid testament to the market demand for school resolve school fi ghts. choice in the Hispanic community. Just as revealing is YES’ support of collective Polling conducted by the American Federation for bargaining for teachers. It suggests that the lobbying Children, a national school-choice advocacy group,

25 Latino Conundrum

showed that 91 percent of Latinos in Arizona, Florida, protest in Madison because the governor wanted New Mexico, New Jersey and Nevada support to cut her pay. Surely, the reader is wondering why vouchers or scholarship programs for their children. a foreign language teacher is conducting a political Wisconsin Republicans should take note. survey of second graders. One might also think Choice schools are vitally important to the Latino that 7-year-olds are a bit young to understand the community. intricacies of collective bargaining. According to OpenSecrets.org, the National I contacted Victory School for comment. The Education Association — the largest teachers union school would not put me in contact with the teacher, in the country — spent but sent me a copy of 91 percent of its 2008 school policy that states: political contributions “Political advertising/ on the Democratic advocacy shall not occur Party, which strongly in school buildings or opposes school choice. upon school premises In the same year, the during work hours in the American Federation presence of students.” of Teachers — the The notion that second largest teachers unions infl uence how union in the country — teachers practice their spent 99 percent of its craft appears to be a political contributions on very well-kept secret. I’ve Democratic candidates. consulted “philosophy Here is my question: Can parents reasonably of education” essays produced by the world’s best expect their children to learn about American history academic minds. They endlessly scrutinize the and American government without hearing the philosophical problem of how a single public school political biases of dues-paying members of these system can address multiculturalism borne of a labor unions? pluralistic society (for instance, Robert Fullinwider, I think not. Public Education in a Multicultural Society), but appear entirely unaware that the ideological leanings Consider the collective bargaining battle in Madison of labor unions could shape classroom instruction. last year. I spoke with a parent whose child was Consider Mexican-American studies taught attending Victory School for the Gifted and Talented in Tucson, Arizona. At the request of a student, in Milwaukee. The parent said that on two occasions Superintendent of Public Instruction John her child came home asking about Gov. Scott Walker. Huppenthal sat in on an ethnic diversity class in A second-grade foreign language teacher at Arizona and witnessed a teacher talk about the Victory reportedly asked her second grade class for oppression of people of color by “Caucasian power a show of hands to see whose parents had planned structures.” to vote for Walker in the recall. On another occasion, According to Huppenthal, the teacher distilled the teacher reportedly told the class she would America’s history as a confl ict between civilizations

26 Wisconsin Interest Latino Conundrum

where race became an overarching theme. What had Generally, the areas of controversy tend to lie less not gone unnoticed was a poster of Che Guevera with the empirical areas of learning like math and on the classroom wall, which, to Huppenthal, science and more with the interpretive fields like romanticized the well-documented violent history of history, the social sciences and the humanities. Cuban Communism. Whether liberalism seeps into government curricula Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, meanwhile, has is certainly subject to debate, but labor unions have a talked of his schoolteacher vested interest in this fight. wife banned from the The GOP can try to curtail teachers lounge. Her crime? the influence of teachers unions Being married to him. Such Polls show across the country, but there’s experiences don’t exactly no guarantee that such reforms scream coexist. that the will make government schools I interviewed Kenosha preference for a more politically neutral high school teacher Kristi environment for learning. In a Lacroix, who became big government society as pluralistic as ours, it an overnight sensation makes sense that Americans after appearing in a pro- declines should have the parental liberty Walker ad describing the to choose their own schools Democratic-driven recall with each using their own taxpayer dollars. as “sour grapes.” For being generation of The Hispanic community on the “wrong” side of the needs that choice. In the words union issue, she says she Hispanics of the great economist Milton was regularly humiliated, Friedman, “We believe, and harassed and intimidated by with good reason, that parents her union colleagues. have more interest in their children than anyone else In a phone interview, she gave me at least 15 and can be relied on to protect them and to assure examples of repercussions characterized as disinvites their development into responsible adults.” by colleagues, a double standard in the application Let Hispanic parents choose their children’s of school rules, intimidation and shunning. She said schools, and the GOP will see a change in how the tactics sent a clear message to colleagues that Latino voters view the Republican Party. Reversing joining her in civil dissent would translate into similar the downward trend in the Hispanic vote may just be treatment. that simple. n I asked Lacroix if she thought liberalism was actively taught in the classroom. Her retort, “They don’t need Aaron Rodriguez contributes to El Conquistador, a Milwaukee Latino to. It’s embedded in the curricula.” She said it showed newspaper, and blogs at http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/purple-wisconsin/ up even in math word problems where kids were the-red-fox.html asked to solve problems involving the redistribution of wealth. Admittedly, it is easy to second-guess any curricula.

27 On the frontlines of reform with writer Sunny Schubert

A Wisconsin filmmaker who Worthy chronicled WWII vets takes their life of honor lessons to heart The day that changed his life started out badly for filmmaker Dan Hayes.

He woke up from a troubled sleep after breaking up with his girlfriend the day before.

And then his father, Stephen Hayes of Wauwatosa, called him in Washington, D.C., to say a bunch of old veterans from Wisconsin were in D.C. visiting war memorials and that Dan should go talk to them.

The younger Hayes remembers rolling his eyes at his father’s suggestion. But, because he had nothing better to do, he picked up a video camera and headed over to the World War II Memorial. It was November 2009.

28 Wisconsin Interest Frontlines

29 Frontlines

The first vet he found was Theodore Gurzynski, and named Joe Demler. He was captured by the Nazis Hayes remembers asking him a softball question like during the Battle of the Bulge and sent to a prison “Hey, how’s it going?” camp. By the time he was rescued, he weighed less Gurzynski looked at Hayes, blinked back tears, and than 75 pounds. Life magazine published his picture said “I could die a happy man now that I’ve made this and called him “the human skeleton.” trip.” Hayes says the film is about “freedom, but it’s about And Hayes was hooked. perspective, too. How a lot of the things we worry As the veterans prepared to leave the monument about and care about are nothing compared to what on a chartered bus, one of them suggested Hayes join these guys lived through.” them. He did. “I shot seven-and-a-half hours of film that day — Hayes, 30, grew up in Wauwatosa, graduating the best, most inspiring stuff I’ve ever shot,” he says. from that city’s East High School in 2001. He then “It completely changed my earned a degree in mass life.” Hayes says the film is about communications at Miami The film Hayes shot that day University in Oxford, Ohio. After would eventually become part ‘freedom, but it’s about graduation, he made a film of the movie “Honor Flight,” perspective, too. How a lot of about the university glee club which premiered in Milwaukee and sent it to Reason TV, which last summer before the the things we worry about produces libertarian films. They largest movie audience ever are nothing compared to what offered him a job in Washington assembled: 28,442 people making short documentaries. jammed into Miller Park. these guys lived through.’ Hayes says politically And it’s a pretty good bet he’s more libertarian than that there were few dry eyes in the house when the conservative. “One summer in high school I discovered film ended and the credits rolled. Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, and that pretty much settled it,” he says. Hayes’ film tells the story of Wisconsin’s Honor No doubt he absorbed some conservative ideology Flight program, which takes World War II veterans to just sitting around the kitchen table: His older brother Washington, D.C., to visit the memorial that opened is Stephen Hayes, a columnist for the conservative in 2004 in their honor. It recounts the stories of the Weekly Standard and the author of a biography of volunteers who organize and finance the flights and Dick Cheney. those who accompany the vets on their trip. All are The younger Hayes edited those first few hours of mindful that time is running out because 900 WWII film about the Honor Flight into a five-minute video, vets die every day. (Similar honor programs operate in which he posted on Reason TV’s website. It got 35,000 almost every other state.) views and generated more e-mail than he’d ever But more importantly, “Honor Flight” chronicles the received before. stories of the vets themselves: the 16 million young But the Honor Flight story wasn’t done with him yet. Americans who went to war when their country asked He couldn’t stop thinking about the veterans, about them to, and how, in the words of the film, “they how impossibly young most of them were when they saved the whole world.” And how they came home marched off to war. “We knew we had something and went to work and seldom told anyone about what cool,” he says. they’d seen and suffered through. Eventually, Hayes told his friend Clay Broga: “I gotta One such Wisconsin vet is a Port Washington man quit my job and make this movie.” Broga agreed to do

30 Wisconsin Interest Frontlines

the same. surprising, given the accusations that Hollywood shuns They formed a new company, called Freethink patriotic themes after “Zero Dark Thirty” director Media, along with a third friend, Kmele Foster. They Kathryn Bigelow was snubbed by the Academy in the shot more fi lm over the course of two years and Best Director category. combed through World War II archives looking for old The fi ve documentaries that received nominations pictures. They found sponsors to pay the bills while the He couldn’t stop thinking fi lm was in production. They didn’t ask the Honor Flight organization for money, believing it was more about how impossibly young important for that group to focus on its mission of most of the veterans were getting vets to Washington before time runs out. The fi lm’s theatrical release took place on Dec. 7, when they marched off to war. 2012 — not coincidentally, the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Washington, are pretty predictable: two fi lms critical of Israel’s D.C., audience that night contained many members of treatment of the Palestinians, one critical of the U.S. the Wisconsin congressional delegation. military’s handling of sexual assaults, one about AIDS It is still playing in theaters around the country, activism and one about an American folksinger few usually for just a night or two, but audiences keep Americans have ever heard of. growing. Critical reviews of “Honor Flight” have been mixed. To learn when it will be in a theater near you, go The New York Times was particularly brutal, calling to www.honorfl ightthemovie and click on “see the the fi lm “a barrage of weepy sentiment” and pretty movie.” You can also sign up to host a viewing of the much saying that World War II vets had been honored fi lm through tugg.com. enough already. But moviegoers don’t seem to share the Times’ weary disdain for an oft-told tale and often applaud as the credits roll, appearing to agree more with the Los Angeles Times, which called the movie “enormously moving.” Hayes says the experience of making the fi lm is still teaching him things, particularly about the privilege of living in a free country. “The ‘freedom’ theme is in the movie, but it’s embedded,” he says. “It’s not gonna hit you over the head.” These days, in addition to promoting the fi lm, Hayes and his co-workers are casting about for their next Hayes says the fi lm will soon be available for home project. Talk shows? Comedy? Anything’s possible, he viewing through various video-on-demand sites such says. as Netfl ix and Hulu. Oh, and he’s back with his girlfriend. Life is good. Different — but good. n The fi lmmakers submitted the fi lm for consideration in the Best Documentary category of the Academy Sunny Schubert is a Monona freelance writer and blogger and a former Awards, but it didn’t make the cut. That’s perhaps not editorial writer for the Wisconsin State Journal.

31 32 Wisconsin Interest Crackpots Time to Confront

CrackpotsBy Charles J. Sykes

Fringe causes are undermining conservatism’s broad appeal

It was the otherwise estimable John Stuart Declared Jindal: Mill who observed that “Conservatives are not “We have to stop being the stupid party; it’s time necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are for a new Republican party that talks like adults. It’s conservatives,” and the taunt has stuck. However time for us to articulate our plans and our visions wrong-headed and unfair, the slur has been a for America in real terms. It’s no secret we’ve had a source of comfort to the left and annoyance to the number of Republicans damage our brand this year right for generations. with bizarre and offensive comments. I’m here to say So when Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently we’ve had enough of that.” invoked the old libel, his comment was designed Unfortunately, this was too obvious to be to get under the skin of conservatives. controversial. The GOP had squandered

Illustration by Nathan Gold 33 Buckley understood that conservatism would never be viable if it was associated in the public mind with crackpotism.

opportunities to win Senate seats in Indiana and disqualifying for the general electorate. When Missouri after candidates made inept comments crackpots venture out of the bubble, their notions about rape (and in the case of Missouri’s Todd are often exposed as eccentric and daft. Akin, refused to pull out of the race). Just two Worst of all: They make it harder for the years earlier, two other Senate seats and their substantive and thoughtful conservative critiques six-year terms were sacrificed on the altar of of these issues to break through the media ideological purity: in clutter. Of course the Delaware, where Christine left has its own cadre O’Donnell declared, “I of oddities, but the am not a witch,” and in playing field is not a Nevada, where Sharron level one. Because the Angle lost an almost stupidity and extremism unlosable race against of the right remains its the doddering incumbent operating assumption, Harry Reid after she the mainstream media took too many trips to are more than eager to let Crazytown. the wacky displace and But Jindal was wrong. overshadow the sensible. The problem that dogs Unfortunately, this is conservatives is not compounded by an stupidity; it is crackpotism. understandable tendency amongst battered and Inside the bubble William F. Buckley, founder and editor of National Review magazine besieged conservatives Crackpotism is not to launch embarrassing incompatible with intelligence and it is not a defenses of inappropriate candidates. matter of ideology alone. Crackpots, whose views So perhaps the time has come to review the are fiercely held as a matter of conviction, may history of excommunication in the conservative be educated and credentialed. As they will often movement. earnestly point out, their views are supported and reinforced by unique research and logic — the Buckley’s purge sort that flourish in the hothouse environment of In the early 1960s, conservatives faced a daunting the Internet. challenge. Liberalism was the regnant ideology, Within their own bubble, the crackpots’ ideas and the GOP establishment was ideologically can seem plausible and insightful. Supporters tepid and lifeless. But even as conservative ideas praise one another for daring to embrace began to gain traction at the grass roots level, overlooked truths. the right faced a problem on its fringes. At the But ideas that win plaudits and huzzahs within time, William F. Buckley, the founder and editor the ideological bubble often turn out to be of National Review magazine, was the intellectual

Photography by the Associated Press 34 Wisconsin Interest Crackpots

leader of the right in exile. Birchers directly. Perhaps only Buckley, with It fell to Buckley to deal with the rise of the his impeccable conservative, anti-communist John Birch Society. The anti-communist group credentials, could have gotten away with it. was growing, and its profile and influence In February 1962, National Review published a posed a challenge to the right. The head of the lengthy dissection of Welch’s bizarre theories and group was one Robert Welch, who claimed that concluded, “his distortions disqualified him from former president Dwight effective services as an D. Eisenhower was a anti-communist leader.” “dedicated, conscious “The fact of the matter agent of the communist is [our long analysis conspiracy,” and that concluded] that Mr. the government of the Welch, by what Russell United States was “under Kirk has called ‘an excess operational control of the of zeal, intemperance and Communist Party.” imprudence,’ promotes a Welch’s “influence was split in the conservative near-hypnotic, and his movement — by asking ideas wild,” Buckley later for the tacit support of wrote. The conservative men who cannot in good editor regarded Welch’s conscience give it, who, claims as “paranoid moreover, feel that to and unpatriotic drivel.” give it is to damage our Conservative icon Russell Former head of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch chances of success. ‘Cry Kirk was even blunter. wolf often enough,’ Mr. He thought Welch was “loony and should be put Kirk wrote to Mr. Welch, ‘and everyone takes away.” you for an imbecile or a knave, when after all But the Birchers were a force to be reckoned there are wolves in this world.’ If we are to win with and posed a real problem for soon-to-be the war against communism, we have no less presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, whose a task before us than to change national policy. uphill battle against the GOP establishment Nothing is clearer than that Mr. Welch is not would be hindered by any lingering associations succeeding in doing anything of the sort. Mr. with the Birchers. Welch, for all his good intentions, threatens to Kirk saw a broader problem for conservatives. divert militant conservative action to irrelevance By making outlandish claims that Eisenhower and ineffectuality.” had been a secret agent of the communists, Welch The story of Buckley’s excommunication of the “was a great weight on the back of responsible Birchers has been resurrected in recent months conservative political thinking.” and misused by critics on the left, who suggest So the decision was made to take on the that the GOP should similarly purge the Tea

35 Last year’s lost Senate seats are a cautionary tale about the high price of candidate zaniness.

Party. But this misses the point almost altogether. His point: the purge of the Birchers paved Buckley’s excommunication of the Birchers was the way for the robust anti-communism of not a repudiation of anti-communism, nor was Ronald Reagan. it an attempt to bolster the GOP establishment or make the GOP a less conservative party. (At Shut up about rape the time it was Goldwater who was the “anti- But an obvious question nags. If Buckley had establishment gadfl y.”) launched his excommunication in the current In fact it was precisely the opposite: Buckley political environment, would he have been labeled understood that conservatism would never be an ACINO (anti-communist in name only)? viable as long as it was associated in the public There are now far more outlets for the voluble mind with crackpotism. defense of crackpotism Goldwater, who grasped and denunciations of their the larger challenge to critics. Talk radio — and the movement, took the this pains me to admit it opportunity to distance — too often succumbs to himself from Welch. “We the temptation to defend cannot allow the emblem candidates who are in the of irresponsibility to process of immolating attach to the conservative themselves. banner,” Goldwater wrote. This was, unfortunately, Ultimately this was illustrated in the Senate not enough to save races of Christine Goldwater, who later O’Donnell, Sharron declared: “Extremism in Angle, Todd Akin and the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation Richard Mourdock. Akin’s bizarre notions about in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The line “legitimate rape” provided unnecessary fuel to the won cheers in the convention hall, but cemented left’s claim that the GOP was waging a “war on the public’s suspicion that he was embracing women.” Mourdock’s comment that pregnancy or at least fl irting with the kind of “extremism” from rape was “something that God intended” practiced by the Birchers. It was a suspicion simply made things worse. enthusiastically fed by much of the political Both Akin and Mourdock were widely criticized media. by other Republicans, but both had enough But as Buckley later observed, “The wound support to remain in the race and go down to we… delivered to the John Birch Society proved defeat. In 2012, the GOP ended up losing Senate fatal over time. Barry Goldwater did not win seats in an election in which it was expected to the presidency, but he clarifi ed the proper place gain several seats and perhaps even take control of anti-communism on the right, with bright of the upper chamber. prospects to follow.”

36 Wisconsin Interest Crackpots

Two years earlier, Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell charged with sexual assault if they use invasive became a punch line, and Nevada’s Sharron Angle ‘pat-down procedures.’” squandered a chance to unseat the eminently That is not, unfortunately a misprint or even beatable Harry Reid. As unfair as much of the a misunderstanding. The legislators also went criticism was — and much of it was quite unfair 19th century by embracing the principle of — Angle made it easy to characterize her as “nullification,” an idea that has enjoyed pretty ridiculous with her position on the fluoridation of much complete obscurity since the Civil War. water and support for Church of Scientology-run (The idea, repeatedly rejected by the courts, is Criminon drug treatment programs. that states can nullify federal laws they deem Then there was Michele Bachmann, who unconstitutional.) briefly led the pack of GOP The problem here, presidential contenders until The John Birch Society of course, is that it is she shared her Internet- considered Eisenhower one thing to oppose gleaned wisdom about the to be a secret agent of the the implementation of dangers of a vaccine for Obamacare state exchanges human papillomavirus Communist Party. and quite another thing to (HPV). Her unsubstantiated claim that the vaccine begin channeling your inner John C. Calhoun was linked to mental retardation reinforced the and embrace the rhetoric of the 1830s. Frankly, narrative that Republicans were hostile to science. it is hard to imagine a less effective way to make the case for opposition to an overweening federal Wisconsin’s own government than to adopt positions that fit every By and large, Wisconsin conservatives have been caricature of the retrograde right that the left/ free of such temptations and blunders. But earlier media could ever imagine. As if this were not this year, we learned that nine members of the bad enough, there was also some buzz about Legislature had told a fringe Tea Party group that secession, despite the fact that we fought a war they supported legislation that would allow police over that, which, as you might recall, ended badly to arrest federal officials who tried to implement for the advocates. Obamacare in Wisconsin. Conservatives need to be aware of the optics. Reported the Journal Sentinel: “Rep. Chris And here, they could hardly have been worse. Kapenga (R-Delafield) is one of the nine from Unfortunately for the cause of educational Wisconsin who told the Campaign for Liberty reform, Don Pridemore, who would go on to be he would back legislation to declare Obamacare the only conservative challenger to incumbent illegal and allow police to arrest federal officials Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers who take steps to implement it in Wisconsin.” in this spring’s election, was one of the nine Suffice it to say that his position is, to quote our legislators to embrace the eccentric agenda. Not own Bob Uecker, “juuuust a bit outside....” surprisingly, he lost that election. Many of the same conservatives also endorsed My sense is that the vast majority of principled “legislation that would allow TSA agents to be conservatives share the dismay over the parade

37 Principled conservatives share the dismay over the parade of bizarre effusions, but many are reluctant to speak out for fear they will be ﬂ amed.

of bizarre effusions that have sunk so many The road ahead opportunities, but that many are reluctant to speak So what must be done? First we have to defi ne out or are cowed by the fear that they will be fl amed what the problem is and what it is not. by the defenders. For example, after I pointed Conservatism does not have a problem of out on Facebook the unwisdom of talking about intelligence. Compare any passing remarks of secession, one commenter Paul Ryan’s on the country’s fl amed back: The right’s critique fi scal crisis to Nancy Pelosi’s “You call yourself a deepest thought; weigh the conservative, Charlie Sykes? of social democratic intellectual heft of Charles It’s ‘conservatives’ like policies is not strengthened Krauthammer against the left’s yourself who have allowed by calling Obama a Ed Schultz on any given day. this country to grow to the communist or questioning Nor is the problem the Tea extreme sizes that it is and his birth certiﬁ cate. Party. allowed government to run The failures of O’Donnell, amok. We are just trying to Angle, et al., need to be clean up your mess. juxtaposed with the successes of candidates like “Your brand of conservatism is the crackpotism Florida’s Marco Rubio, Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, and extremism.” New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte, Utah’s Mike Lee, So genuine conservatism now means embracing Texas’ Ted Cruz, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley and the Confederacy? Whatever. newly minted senator Tim Scott, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson. Smart can win. Weird almost always loses. And that brings us back to crackpotism and the challenge that William F. Buckley faced in the 1960s. Last year’s fl ame-outs are a cautionary tale about the high price of zaniness and a reminder that conservatives have a special obligation to be prudent or at least careful in their use of language. As Buckley recognized in deciding to speak out against the fringes, the credibility of the right sometimes depends on the right’s willingness to engage in quality control. That’s still a good lesson. The right’s critique of social democratic policies is not strengthened by calling Obama a communist or questioning his birth certifi cate; nor does it help the fi ght against the regulatory over-reach of the government to indulge

38 Wisconsin Interest Crackpots

in conspiracy theories about black helicopters. Invoking “prudence,” of course is not without Going forward, the problems are both risk for Ryan. It’s is hardly a leg-tingling clarion substantive and tactical. call to rally the conservative ranks for the On substance, conservatives win when they fight ahead. Many activists are understandably sound like the party of common sense. They lose skeptical of the term, because prudence can easily when they get trapped in their own ideological morph into timidity and even the surrender of bubbles. Some of the loudest principle. voices on the right seem to Conservatives can be And it is easily mocked: think that only the most anti-elitist without being Recall Dana Carvey’s classic strident and consciously spoof of the first President offensive formulations anti-intellectual or worse, Bush: “Not gonna do it. should be regarded as anti-intelligent. Wouldn’t be prudent.” “genuine conservatism.” So what did Ryan mean? But conservatives can be anti-elitist without He defined prudence as “good judgment in the being anti-intellectual or worse, anti-intelligent. art of governing,” quoting Lincoln who called it On tactics, conservatives need to know that “one of the cardinal virtues.” they won’t win by being reckless. Victory is “We have to find the good in every situation — seldom achieved by impaling oneself on the and choose the best means to achieve it. We have spears of a superior enemy. In fact, the enemy to make decisions anchored in reality — and take actually likes it. When your opponent has a larger responsibility for the consequences.” army and bigger guns and controls the high Ryan argued that conservatives need to be both ground, direct frontal assault is probably not the intelligent and modest in their goals. They could smartest strategy. Gallipoli and Pickett’s Charge mitigate the worst of Obamaism and advance are not, after all, considered models of military good alternatives when possible. But they could brilliance. not expect to sweep their opponents before them This was the burden of Paul Ryan’s speech at or win historic victories. the National Review summit over the winter, when The mandate for conservatives then is this: he laid out the case for “prudence” in the age Limit the damage. Isolate the crackpots. Articulate of the Obama ascendancy. Ryan told his fellow your principles forcefully, but be smart about conservatives they couldn’t allow themselves to it. Do no harm. Win when you can, wait when get “rattled.” you have to. And no more talk about rape, “We won’t play the villain in his morality plays. nullification, birth certificates, Kwanzaa or “If we play into [Obama’s] hands, we will betray secession. Ever. n the voters who supported us — and the country we mean to serve,” Ryan said. “We can’t let that Charles J. Sykes is the editor of Wisconsin Interest. He is the author happen. We have to be smart. We have to show of seven books and hosts a daily radio show on AM-620 WTMJ in Milwaukee. His new project is RightWisconsin.com, a distribution prudence.” channel for conservative ideas and discussion.

39 most certainly didn’t harm his status with the party faithful, who The now know Ryan can stand up to the pressures of a nationwide campaign. Closer Yet with congressional Republicans faring so poorly nationwide, many party faithful think it is time to look for a governor like BY Christian Schneider Walker. He’s taken his licks and won a recall election by a larger margin than he won his first gubernatorial contest; his toughness Walker or Ryan? is appealing to a party that currently lacks it. Here’s the early line on their chances in the 2016 Of the two, Ryan is the better public speaker. His 14 years in presidential race Congress have honed his skills; he can speak knowledgeably and

Every now and then, two major talents emerge in close extemporaneously, no matter how arcane the topic. Walker has proximity. In 2011, Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder of the improved as a speaker, but he is cautious and more reserved than Milwaukee Brewers finished first and third, respectively, in the Ryan. His appeal is immense with Republicans, but he still makes National League’s Most Valuable Player voting. Twelve times, progressives scream at their televisions. two actors (including, in one case, three) from the same movie have been nominated for Oscars for Best Actor. (The most recent The governor appears was 1984, when F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce were both nominated for “Amadeus.” Abraham won.) to be the more ambitious In politics, Wisconsin is experiencing such an embarrassment of the two. of talent. Virtually every other part of the country is honored to have one elected official with the chops to be considered Walker has history on his side. The only president elected directly presidential material. Yet in the Dairy State, the only debate is from the House to the presidency was James Garfield in 1880 — over which of its two top Republican stars would make a better a singular event that solidified Garfield’s status as either the best commander in chief. campaigner or worst president of all time, depending on one’s So who has the better chance? Gov. Scott Walker or perspective. Governors, on the other hand, routinely ascend to Congressman Paul Ryan? the presidency, as voters appear to see their executive experience Walker and Ryan grew up within a car drive of one another. on the state level as a plausible dry run. Ryan lived in Janesville, while Walker was raised 20 miles away Of the two, Walker also appears to be the more ambitious. in Delavan. Each considers Ronald Reagan a key figure in his Following the November election, Walker went on an aggressive political development. And both dominated national news in speaking tour around the country and has coyly avoided ruling 2012 on their way to becoming national GOP stars. out a run in 2016 (assuming he is re-elected in 2014). Ryan, of course, had his taste of a presidential run, having Conversely, despite being a key player in the “fiscal cliff” served as Mitt Romney’s capable vice presidential sidekick. While negotiations, Ryan has disappeared from the public eye and has the party faithful initially worried about how Ryan’s aggressive uniformly downplayed his desire for higher office. He genuinely plans to scale back Medicare and Social Security would play seems to enjoy policy over politics. with voters, it appears that Ryan may have been a net boost to For Wisconsin Republicans, it is an impossible choice. the Romney campaign. While Romney lost the election by a Eventually, it may be up to the other 49 states to decide n wide margin of electoral votes, his slim margins of defeat in key for them. states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida show those states ended up Christian Schneider writes for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, being closer than the polls indicated before the Ryan pick. He National Review and other national outlets.

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