Flyover Country Waves Back
Wisconsin has always been a mixed bag as a state. It gave the country Joe McCarthy, but it also gave the country Robert LaFollette, the father of progressive politics. When I was growing up in Milwaukee, we had one conservative Republican Senator and one liberal Democrat Senator, a moderate Republican governor, and a Socialist mayor. Currently, it has the rabid badger James "Tex" Sensenbrenner and the liberal knight for clean government, Russ Feingold. And that's why I wasn't terribly surprised by the news that on yesterday's local ballots in 32 communities there was a call to vote on whether the US should immediately withdraw its troops from Iraq. A brief summary of that referendum (which, by the way, is a tool brought to the nation with help from Robert La Follette, along with the recall and the initiative) is found in today's Washington Post.
Voters in the majority of 32 Wisconsin towns with local referendums on the Iraq war voted Tuesday to bring the troops home.
A call to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year passed overwhelmingly in the liberal Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, while in conservative Watertown, where the City Council had opposed having the referendum, it was voted down by 75 percent.
...Under a 1911 state law granting municipalities the right to "direct legislation," Wisconsin residents can place a referendum on a local ballot by collecting signatures equal to 15 percent of the number that voted for governor in the last election. Most of the referendums called for a withdrawal of troops immediately. In Evansville, there also was a referendum supporting President Bush. [Emphasis added]
That more than half the communities in which the referendum appeared on the ballot voted for immediate withdrawal was surprising to me. It should be shocking to those in Washington who believe that the most we should consider is a gradual withdrawal and then only when the Iraqis 'prove' they are ready for it. Those politicos can't blame heavy handed commercial polls for the result.
And that is the whole point for this kind of tool of direct democracy. It sends a message, a real one. I just wonder if anyone in Washington is smart enough to listen. November, after all, is just not that far away.
Voters in the majority of 32 Wisconsin towns with local referendums on the Iraq war voted Tuesday to bring the troops home.
A call to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year passed overwhelmingly in the liberal Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood, while in conservative Watertown, where the City Council had opposed having the referendum, it was voted down by 75 percent.
...Under a 1911 state law granting municipalities the right to "direct legislation," Wisconsin residents can place a referendum on a local ballot by collecting signatures equal to 15 percent of the number that voted for governor in the last election. Most of the referendums called for a withdrawal of troops immediately. In Evansville, there also was a referendum supporting President Bush. [Emphasis added]
That more than half the communities in which the referendum appeared on the ballot voted for immediate withdrawal was surprising to me. It should be shocking to those in Washington who believe that the most we should consider is a gradual withdrawal and then only when the Iraqis 'prove' they are ready for it. Those politicos can't blame heavy handed commercial polls for the result.
And that is the whole point for this kind of tool of direct democracy. It sends a message, a real one. I just wonder if anyone in Washington is smart enough to listen. November, after all, is just not that far away.
posted by Diane at 3:59 AM
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