Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

The other day a close friend who is an occasional YSDA reader and a certified Madison liberal offered this pithy, sarcastic analysis of our work: “Yeah, liberals are dumb. We get it, already.” That got me to thinking. Well, no, I don’t think my fellow liberals are dumb, exactly. I think too many of themContinue reading “Liberals Are Not Dumb”

When liberals talk about diversity what they mean is diversity of race and gender. Well, they don’t actually mean quite that either. For example, the Madison school board has been touted by liberals as the most diverse in history, yet six of the seven members are women and there are no white men on theContinue reading “Judge Childs For Supreme Court”

You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.  That’s how Madisonians might feel if they wake up one morning and discover that their morning daily newspaper has been bought up and hollowed out by a “vulture capital” group.  Alden Global Capital is making a hostile takeover attempt to acquire a controlling interest in LeeContinue reading “Let’s Not Have to Mourn Our Morning Paper”

Good Sunday morning. Today we’re going to hear from Christopher Caldwell. Caldwell is a contributing editor at The Claremont Review of Books. He is the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West” and “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties.” This piece appeared on January 25th in the NewContinue reading “Dems See an America Most Americans Don’t Recognize”

I’ve got guests and we’re out there on the cross country ski trails of the U.P., and so I’m not sitting around in my nice warm chair writing blogs. What I’m saying is that it’ll be a cut-and-paste weekend. Today we’re going to hear from Larry Diamond. He is a senior fellow at the HooverContinue reading “Electoral Count Act is the Thing Now”

Mandela Barnes is running as if he’s already got his party’s nomination sewn up. I’m not so sure that kind of cautious approach is going to win the day. Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy story about the top Democrats looking to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, BucksContinue reading “Mandela Runs Conservative Race”

Let’s just cut to the chase. It comes down to this: which Black woman jurist will be acceptable to Sen. Joe Manchin? That’s really all that matters now that Justice Stephen Breyer has announced his retirement. Pres. Joe Biden has locked himself into selecting a Black woman, but he still needs all 50 Democrats, includingContinue reading “Manchin’s Justice”

One thing the party in the majority can do, if not actually pass legislation, is to control the agenda, begin the conversation. For the last several months Democrats have been talking about topics that aren’t top of mind for most voters. The two topics Democrats want to talk about are voting rights and their BuildContinue reading “Dems Keep Missing the Point”

Democrats are pursuing a redistricting strategy that could result in an absolute bloodbath this fall, but better news for them over the coming decade. That’s my takeaway from this interesting analysis by the Associated Press. Democrats will start out with two big disadvantages in the mid-terms. The first is just history. On average, the partyContinue reading “Redistricting: Short-term Pain for Long-term Gain”

Here’s how bad it is. If, with two minutes remaining in Saturday evening’s Packers-Niners game, the devil had appeared in my Fritos bag to offer me a bargain — Packers win for Trump victory in 2024 — I would have… had to say I’d get back to him. Of course, of course, I’d do theContinue reading “Stay the Course in Green Bay”