Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Donald Trump has taken a wrecking ball to America. He has undermined our most cherished institutions, destroyed norms of decent behavior, made racism and misogyny acceptable, disregarded facts, lied with impunity and stoked nutty conspiracy theories. And I could go on. But he’s done something more subtle to liberals. In this case I don’t meanContinue reading “The Damage Trump Has Done to Liberals”

I’ve always been skeptical about the idea of throwing a bunch of money at a problem. Even as a liberal mayor I launched a handful of programs that attempted to measure actual progress on the ground for the dollars spent. But one general area where I do think we need to do a lot moreContinue reading “The GOP’s Childish Cut”

Earlier this week I wrote that Republicans’ rejection of a much needed UW Madison engineering building expansion said all you need to know about the state of that party. It’s no longer the party of business, jobs and the economy. It’s now the party of culture war pettiness. Yesterday, Gov. Tony Evers made an unintendedContinue reading “DEI Isn’t Worth the Fight”

The Joint Finance Committee is wrapping up its work on the two-year state budget. For the most part it looks like pretty good. There will be a lot more money for local governments and schools, and the process involved actual discussion and negotiation between the governor and legislative leaders. This is a big improvement fromContinue reading “A Better Idea on DEI”

Nothing demonstrates what’s happened to the Republican Party more then one vote in the Joint Finance Committee last week. Republicans on the committee voted down the long-anticipated and much-needed new engineering building on the UW Madison campus. Not so long ago that would have been a slam dunk Republican priority. Consider: So what accounts forContinue reading “Why Does GOP Hate Engineers?”

It wasn’t just Donald Trump who was indicted yesterday, it was the whole Republican Party. The 37 charges against Trump, including 31 alleged violations of the Espionage Act, tell us nothing new about this guy. He’s corrupt. He’s a bully. He’s an egomaniac. He’s so sleazy as to give sleazy a bad name. He’s anContinue reading “GOP Indicted”

Twice in two weeks Democratic and Republican leaders have been able to work out big budget deals. Last week Pres. Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy came to an agreement that avoided a damaging default on our nation’s debt and yesterday Gov. Tony Evers worked out a deal with Republican leaders that would provideContinue reading “What’s Up With Vos?”

Pretty soon we’re going to need longer flag polls. June seems to be the month of flags. Yesterday, Madison raised a transgender flag (I didn’t even know there was a transgender flag) on its Municipal Building flag pole. The mayor gave a speech. Earlier this month Gov. Tony Evers raised the rainbow flag over theContinue reading “Enough With the Flags Already”

Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and columnist for the Washington Post who frequently criticized Saudi Arabia’s leaders, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul one day to get papers for his upcoming wedding. While inside the consulate he was strangled by Saudi agents and then his body was dismembered. U.S. intelligence agencies believe that theContinue reading “The PGA Sells Out”

Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan had a provocative take on the future of the Republican Party in her piece last week. She suggested that, if Donald Trump wins a third nomination, the party will disintegrate. It won’t be the end of the Republican Party as we have known it,Continue reading “Will the GOP Just Fade Away?”