Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

If you live in Madison, on your April ballot you’ll find a series of questions about the makeup of the city council.  These are advisory questions only. Any changes would have to be approved by the council in separate action and some would require approval in another referendum, which would be binding. The questions springContinue reading “More Full-Time Pols? Really?”

Why is it okay to be openly hostile to old white guys? I’m on my neighborhood listserv here on the very liberal near west side of Madison. The vast majority of the traffic on the listerv is about somebody trying to get rid of something in their attic or looking for a recommendation on aContinue reading “Bigotry”

The moderate mind set is averse to drama. Moderates just want to work the problem. One of the things that’s wrong about our public debates these days is the tendency for both sides to declare everything a matter of fundamental principles or basic rights. That makes it virtually impossible to find common ground because everyContinue reading “Apocalypse Never”

We’re separating ourselves, even more than previously thought, by our political beliefs. This only deepens our divides. My neighborhood on the near west side of Madison is replete with yard signs. In the fall we had just about every variation of a Joe Biden sign you could imagine and many remain, now in the snow,Continue reading “The Wrong Kind of Social Distancing”

In the debate over transgender biological boys participating as girls in sports, just leave in place the sensible WIAA policies. Legislation at the federal or state level just plays to the culture wars. This dustup illustrates what’s wrong with a zealous ideological approach to any issue. So here’s the question and it’s an interesting one:Continue reading “Who Are You Callin’ a Girl?”

For a decade or more Democrats have been counting on a demographic tsunami to sweep them to a long-term majority. It might just sweep them out to sea instead. To understand what’s going on we can consider just one word: Latinx. This word was invented in academia to be a gender neutral alternative to LatinoContinue reading “The Tsunami Ebbs”

Baseball’s owners and players are screwing up the game. Our baseball commentator, Joe Grump, tells it like it is. It’s time for baseball! Now and then during the season we’ll be checking in with our in-house baseball analyst Joe Grump. Like you, Joe reads the sports pages and forms his opinions faster than Tinker toContinue reading “Around the Horn With Joe Grump”

The first time I heard the phrase “cancel culture” it came from Barack Obama. In an interview in late 2019, Obama said, “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. “The world is messy; there are ambiguities,” he continued. “PeopleContinue reading “Cancel Culture Is Real”

Too many people died, but when we step back and look at the broad sweep of history, there are reasons to be very hopeful. One of the most impactful books I’ve read in the last couple of years is “Enlightenment Now” by Harvard Professor Steven Pinker. In the book, Pinker makes a convincing case thatContinue reading “The Upside of Plague”

While there are good arguments on both sides of the debate, I would abolish the filibuster. But that’s not going to happen, so it would be better to double down on it instead. Getting rid of the filibuster has become something of a cause among hard left Democrats, but they should be careful what theyContinue reading “Stand and Deliver”