Politics in Wisconsin

October 27th, 2005 | View Comments

Editorials like this one titled “Why Bother Voting?” kind of make me sad. The fact that the question even needs to be asked really represents a failure of civic education and political participation in this country.

I often find myself having to justify to other people why I care so much about civic involvement, why I can’t just accept that the system is corrupt, take a few deep breaths, and maybe go take a nice bubble bath instead of say, writing treatises about civic engagement on my web site. The general sentiment seems to be that I’m naive, or too idealistic, or at least have too much free time.

Well, I am kind of an idealist, but I’m not naive, and I definitely don’t have too much free time. I’m just from Wisconsin, a state with a uniquely civic-minded culture.

Now, before I get all sorts of emails, yes I recognize that there are flaws in the Wisconsin political system and also that it’s been on the decline, and I also recognize that not everyone who lives or used to live in Wisconsin cares about political engagement. But I still think there’s a strong argument that the political culture in Wisconsin has a strong influence on the people, and thus a strong influence on the type of government can win re-election.

“Party discipline,” Feingold says, “is not the pre-eminent value in Wisconsin political history.”

This is true of the representatives we send to Washington, and of the voters themselves. We do a lot of ticket-splitting in Wisconsin; it’s not about party, it’s about who can do the job best. This doesn’t so much reflect ideological fickleness - one could easily argue that since political party platforms are moving targets, party loyalty is also a measure of ideological fickleness - as it reflects an ideological commitment to good government above all else.

Throw in the fact that an above average amount of us do vote, and you generally wind up with some pretty good electoral races.

I remember when I was in high school my stand partner from youth orchestra, freshly turned 18, had never voted in an election in his life, up and put himself on the ballot for some city position, solely on the principle that in a democracy, no one should run unopposed. He lost, but if memory serves me correctly, he did succeed in engaging his opponent and the community as a whole in a real discussion of the issues at stake.

Looking back, I realize that civic education started early for me; whereas for some Americans, it never begins at all. I remember mentions of “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, pride of Wisconsin, as early as fifth grade.

Daily discussions of current events appeared as early as seventh grade; they offered an entire course on current affairs in high school. And finally, taking a course in American government was a high school graduation requirement.

Add to that five years attending one of the most activist universities in the country, where student-driven ideas actually inspired legislative proposals and made it to the ballot, and you get where I am today.