Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos
A safe place for moderates in a polarized world
Latest from the blog
See You in September
Last year I took the summer off to finish a book. It worked. Wisconsin Watershed: Tony Earl and the New Democratic Party will be published by Michigan State University Press later this year. I enjoyed that project so much that my plan is to try to finish a book every year for as long as…
Weird Politics
It could by 1978 all over again. The politics behind the failed bipartisan state surplus deal is starting to look much like what happened almost 50 years ago. A quick recap. A couple weeks ago, after lengthy negotiations. Democrat Tony Evers and the Republican leadership struck an agreement to spend just under $2 billion of…
Mod Dems May Slump Toward Defeat
When the field was set for the Wisconsin governors race late last year I thought I had it figured out. Republicans would nominate Tom Tiffany, who would be a weak candidate in November. The Democratic contest would come down to Sara Rodriguez, representing the moderate wing of the party, while Mandela Barnes would be the…
The Four Party Solution
Yesterday, I offered my own take on what an honest post mortem on the 2024 election would look like for the Democrats. I concluded that the best solution going forward would be to split the party into two sub parties — progressives and moderates — with each agreeing to come together behind one candidate after…
The YSDA ’24 Post Mortem Report
Poor Ken Martin doesn’t know which way to turn. First, the DNC Chair commissions a report from a Washington insider consultant (always a great idea!) to review why Democrats lost in 2024. Then, after he sees a draft and doesn’t like it, he announces nobody may see what he doesn’t like. Now last week for…
Police Monitor Covers For Pearson
Here’s what happened. As reported in a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, according to a criminal complaint against Brandi Grayson’s and Maia Pearson: Grayson was driving and Pearson was a passenger in a GMC Yukon that had parked at about 11 p.m. (in December, 2025) in the Majestic Theatre’s loading zone. When a security…
Barney Frank’s Final Contribution
Former Congressman Barney Frank died yesterday. He contributed a lot to his country and his party, but one of his most significant contributions was made in his final days. In the last few months Frank has been promoting his final book, The Hard Path to Unity: Why We Must Reform the Left to Rescue Democracy.…
Hong for Mayor?
It pays pretty well and the benefits are excellent — health care, pension, paid vacation. You get your own office and (bonus!) it comes with its own private bathroom. And the parking? We’re talking rock star quality. Covered, heated, and just steps away from an elevator that whisks you up to your desk on the…
A Conservative By September?
This summer I’m studying to be a conservative. At the end of this month I’m going to take a hiatus from YSDA, just as I did last year. Mostly, I want to focus on a new book project, but I’ve got other important goals on my list. Improve my golf swing and my fly cast,…
No Tears For Colbert
For me late night TV ended on May 20, 2015. That was the last Late Show hosted by David Letterman. I mostly gave up on late night because Letterman was the last host whose humor hit a sweet spot for me. But I also have to admit that I might have given it up anyway…
The Sun Goes Down on Watertown
Talking about a revolution can sometimes sound like a whisper. Other times it sounds like a brief orchestral piece without any words at all. In any event, revolution is in the air in Watertown, Wisconsin. When the local high school’s music director chose a piece for this year’s graduation ceremony called “A Mother of a…
Sorry, No Deal
What an interesting mess this has become. My guess is that if the surplus spending deal, cobbled together by Gov. Tony Evers, Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, had been introduced a year ago it would have easily passed. But last night it went down in the Senate and is, at least…
Is Lame Duck Deal Lame?
It’s hard to get a read on the reaction to the deal on the state surplus announced yesterday. After months of negotiations, Gov. Tony Evers, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu announced an agreement on how to spend most of the projected $2.4 billion in the bank. It would go to…
Upshot of the Gerrymander Wars
Your head might be spinning with all the action from states and courts over redrawing Congressional districts — frantically in order to get them in place for November’s elections. Here from a story in the New York Times on Saturday is the best bottom line analysis I’ve seen : At the end of April, the…
The Act Blue Blues
Any fellow Democrats out there have this experience? You hear a ding on your cell phone. You think it might be a friend. And it is, in fact, someone posing as a friend. “Hi, Dave. This is Ron Smith. I’m running for an obscure House seat in rural Oregon. A Democrat hasn’t won here in…
We Can Still Mess This Up
I’m still in mourning over the whole Graham Platner thing. Last week, Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the Democratic primary to take on the squishy, spineless Republican Sen. Susan Collins. That makes Platner the presumptive nominee in November. God help us. Collins is the annual winner of the Senate’s Talks a Good Game…
Indiana Still Wants Him
Yesterday was another tough one for American democracy. At least five of seven Indiana State Senators, who had the courage to defy Donald Trump over his demand that they gerrymander the state to his liking, lost their primaries to Trump yes men. This is bad on at least two levels, but possibly not so bad…
Voting Rights Ruling Could Help Dems
In support of last week’s Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act, I’m tempted to run the image below and just drop the mic. The red area above is Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District and the one that was struck down by the Court. It is the very definition of a gerrymander, which was a…
Who Leaked the Hong Memo?
Last week the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a fawning piece on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong. The big news in that glowing profile was that the paper had obtained a copy of a memo written by a consultant for presumptive Republican nominee Tom Tiffany. In that memo the consultants tell their client that Hong is…
Buy Stuff Today
The hard-left is demanding that we not work or spend money today. So, I’d work overtime if I had a job. As it is, I’m counting writing today’s blog as work, which it is unless you define work as gainful employment. And I’m going to spend my brains out. It won’t matter one way or…
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