I was born in the great state of Wisconsin, I hafta tell you right off, and though I moved away from there many moons ago I still keep track of the goings on there because it kinda represents The Homeland for me, due to the lack of home being found anywhere else, like I wrote about earlier.
I'm going to say that I'm not being partisan here, I just wanna say that what is happening there with the outgoing governor is not how we Wisconsinites roll.
We're not yokels and hillbillies and uneducated and welfare dependent, like some in the media would portray us. We don't need the heavy hand of government telling us to get to work because just the fact that you were born in Wisconsin and have to deal with the long, cold winters already says that you're a special breed. You've got heartiness built in.
The Wisconsinites I knew were hardworking, stable folk. Midwestern nice. Oh sure, there were some bad apples out there, but our bad apples were rather tame compared to the bad apples in other places I've lived. We Wisconsinites were religious, but not evangelical religious, tryin' to spread The Word. We tried to keep up and be hip but we were geographically isolated so we did the best we could. Fact of life was that we were always ten years behind the times, compared to those living in LA or New York. I, like all Wisconsinites learn to do, fully owned that when I lived there and felt no shame about it.
So when I see what is going on there now, in that beautiful state capitol in Madison, I wonder just what has come about to make the governor so contentious. It ain't the Wisconsin way, I'll tell you that.
We got The Packers, man. America's favorite home town, publicly owned football team. No matter what harshness is going on in the rest of the world, you don't bring that sort of thing to Packerland. Vince Lombardi (Saint Vince, bless his soul) would not approve. Even though he said that "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" he wouldn't have stooped low to win. He wouldn't have played dirty pool.
Wisconsinites are chill, man. Do we produce famous people? Not many. We just don't have the ambition. How can you have ambition and a tavern at every four way stop?
Wisconsin has a good balance. Much of it is rural and woodsy, but there is also a lot of industry too. People make things there. It's not anything like New England, though. We're hardly poets or intellectuals, but there is a lot of wisdom around.
Wisconsinites are generational, with families that go way back. Ain't much of an edge to 'em, most people are just nice (maybe 'cuz lots of them are related).
They make fire trucks there.
Connor Betts- Unsplash.com
I guess all the factors that make up the Wisconsin outlook comes from the fact that the majority of them came from central Europe where they didn't have a chance. They came to the 'frozen tundra' (it's not really like that, it's only a few months out of the year) and carved out a living through hard work and learning how to get along with each other because they had to to survive. There's an understanding that threads through the populace that there is a proper way to get things done, the community way. This sort of life isn't for everybody, which is why the rebellious and independent fly off to places far away. For those that stay, the population stays fairly stable and struggling with the elements is what you end up doing a lot but they do that sort of thing in Minnesota and Michigan too, which to Wisconsinites, are different countries. Minnesota is populated by Swedes and Lutherans (think Garrison Keillor) while Michigan lies, for the most part, across from a great big lake. True Wisconsinites only know the upper part of Michigan, which they call 'The U.P'. (not the 'up', the 'u' 'p'. You say the letters separately). Ain't much up in the UP but woods.
So to over the last coupla years see this state of workaday folk portrayed as a 'decisive presidential battleground', was something I couldn't believe. Ditto the hard swing to the right. "Wha...?". Along with that came union busting the teachers union, as if those people were just a buncha benefits grubbing bums, and then came news that they were going to make the out of work pass through some pretty small hoops to get benefits, as if their being outta luck wasn't enough.....
.....I also heard that the Repubs had been gerrymandering districts, which struck me as their bringing more ‘not nice’ to bear. Hasn't this poor state had enough?! I'm sure the talk at all the Dennys restaurants that populate Wisconsin is about how 'not nice' the outgoing governor is, ramming through his 82 appointees in one day and all. Shocking! But if he thinks he's going to permanently lower the bar, and that by his actions he's going to establish a new not nice playing field, I'm aftaid he's sadly mistaken. It just won't take.
I know. I grew up there. Not nice people do not make it. The community will ostracize you. Oh, they won't do it in an in-your-face way, they're not that kind. Everybody will know that there’s a not nice person in the room, the word will get around. You won't be asked to leave, but nobody will talk to you anymore. Wisconsinites are like that.
Doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. Over the last few years some serious outliers to the underlying protocol have risen to power- but I can’t help but notice that they’re now on their way out!