Author Archives: maplesdave

Republicans are trying to make the case that Pres. Joe Biden has some how become a socialist. Good luck with that. Part of being moderate is to live in the real political world and Biden is nothing if not a realist. He is a moderate, but he is not an independent. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool DemocratContinue reading “Joe Biden is Still a Moderate”

Should Democrats try to exploit resentments over race or resentments over class? Here’s an idea. What if we dropped appeals to resentment altogether? Every Wednesday, Thomas B. Edsall writes a new Guest Essay (no longer to be referred to as “opeds”) in the New York Times. Edsall is unerringly thoughtful and even-handed, if from aContinue reading “The Problem With Populism”

Like Frankenstein’s Monster, it has escaped the laboratory to wreak havoc. White privilege, the patriarchy, intersectionality, toxic masculinity, systemic racism, unconscious bias, erasure. These are words used in academia to describe, in most cases, real phenomena. But when they escaped the ivory towers and entered the broader culture and the world of politics they wereContinue reading “The Disastrous Language of the Hard-Left”

We need to be able to make distinctions between murder, mistakes and the appropriate use of force, or we’ll never find justice. When I first saw the video of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for what turned out to be nine minutes and twenty-one seconds I was appalled and outraged. It seemed toContinue reading “It’s Not All the Same”

Hey, folks, it’s Sunday. So, let’s lay off the serious stuff for a day and think about beer. Well, it’s Wisconsin, so maybe this is serious stuff. Anyway, I was inspired this morning to think about my favorite beers by a column by the Wisconsin State Journal’s “Beer Baron,” Chris Drosner. Drosner’s been writing hisContinue reading “My Ten Favorite Beers”

The other day one of my favorite columnists, David Brooks, wrote a depressing piece about the state of the Republican Party, of which he used to be a member. His premise was that the party is spiraling downward, becoming ever more obsessed with the grievances of its disgruntled base. “The level of Republican pessimism isContinue reading “It’s a Big, Beautiful Dangerous World”

Do you like Wall Street? Then you’ll love Alex Lasry. Earlier this week, Urban Milwaukee Editor Bruce Murphy wrote a perceptive piece on the race for the Democratic nomination to take on Sen. Ron Johnson, should he decide to go for a third term. (I found it perceptive because he mostly agreed with my ownContinue reading “The Wall Street Candidate”

From the start it was clear to anyone who knew Foxconn’s record that former Gov. Scott Walker’s $4 billion taxpayer give away to the company was, well, a con. Now, after four years of broken promises, false starts and a lot of just plain bizarreness, Gov. Tony Evers’ administration has crafted a much more sensibleContinue reading “Foxconn Still a Con”

Much of America breathed a sigh of relief when the jury delivered guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial. As I wrote yesterday, the opposite verdict would have further eroded Americans’ confidence in their own institutions. But there’s a special meaning in it for Madison. Interviewed on this morning’s Today Show, George Floyd’s brother, Philonise,Continue reading “Verdict More Evidence For Cop Cams”

It may be only a matter of hours, at most days, before the jury in the Derek Chauvin trial delivers a verdict. Whatever it is, I’ll accept it. When we demand justice in a given case we cannot possibly be saying that we demand a conviction. If that were true, then why bother with theContinue reading “Accept the Verdict”