Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

The Wisconsin Supreme Court may be headed for its own constitutional crisis. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler is refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of a new governing committee set up by the Court’s new liberal majority and she says she will advertise nationally for a new courts administrator, despite the fact that the liberals have alreadyContinue reading “Court Spirals Down”

Today is the 60th anniversary of the march on Washington during which Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. It was a march that worked. That’s a rare thing. As a political strategy I’m not a big fan of marches and street protests. As a rule, I think these thingsContinue reading “Why Did MLK’s Dream March Succeed?”

Let’s face it. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is a hot mess.  Let’s review.  For over a decade Republicans, and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in particular, took aim at the court, while liberals and Democrats pretty much slept in. It started in 2008 when the eminently qualified — and first Black — Justice Louis Butler wasContinue reading “Court Jesters”

How committed am I to you, loyal YSDA readers? Well, I watched the whole damn Republican debate tonight. The whole damn thing. And I did it without a cocktail. That’s how much. Ok, so let’s make this quick. Four take-aways. Vivek Ramaswamy won. He didn’t win with me, understand. I thought he came off likeContinue reading “Ramaswamy Won”

I got a fundraising email from Rebecca Cooke yesterday. I usually don’t pay much attention to these mass emails, but something about this one caught my attention. It contained this picture. Cooke explains that as she runs for Congress in southwest Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, she’s also waiting tables at a restaurant. She writes, “TheContinue reading “Is It Rebecca Cooke’s Time?”

I used to think it would be a good thing if we got big money out of politics. I still think that, but now I’m not so sure if small money isn’t even worse. It’s like pulling weeds. Every week or so I get a breathless text message from my good friends Chuck or NancyContinue reading “Small Donors Contribute to Polarization”

I’m one of a tiny number of Americans who believe that we should still have a presence — military and otherwise — in Afghanistan. In fact, the only other commentator I can find who agrees with me (publicly) is long-time Philadelphia Inquirer foreign policy columnist Trudy Rubin. And even she hasn’t touched the subject in overContinue reading “We Should Still Be In Afghanistan”

Why is college so expensive?  When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Pres. Joe Biden’s college loan forgiveness plan earlier this summer, I agreed with them. I have 12 reasons for believing that this was a horrible idea.  But the main one I want to explore today is a concern about Biden’s plan that evenContinue reading “Audit the UW”

Today I’m going to complain about government. Or, as my hero (for today) Ronald Reagan would have said, “gov-ment.” One of the great things about having a blog is that when something relatively minor sticks in your craw you can unstick it by sharing. I suppose that’s true of social media in general, but IContinue reading “Why is the Government So Bad?”

For a group that represents less than one percent of Americans there sure is a lot of churn over transgender people. It’s literally true that you cannot get through a single day of NPR news programs without hearing a transgender story and exclusively from the point of view of transgender activists. Anyone who raises soContinue reading “Trans-formation”