I have always learned the most throughout my life when things did not go well. On the other side of the disappointment or defeat, there are inevitably new insights, greater skill and strengthened resilience to deal with the next round of setbacks. Last week things did not go well.
Susan Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane County who calls voter ID “draconian,” will be seated on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Jill Underly, a liberal who has presided over the failure of Wisconsin’s public schools to produce graduates who can read and do basic math and who deceitfully lowered standards to mask the failure, will retain her position as Superintendent of Public Instruction. Those whose good judgment leads them to believe that voters who voted overwhelmingly to enshrine voter ID requirements into the state Constitution would not have cast a vote for Crawford have no recourse. Wisconsin’s elections are unverifiable and state legislators have ignored the demands of their constituents to fix the problems for a long time.
Moving forward must begin with an honest appraisal of where we are. It starts with why Donald Trump is now in his second term as President of the United States despite the extreme efforts to destroy him including betrayals by his own party throughout his first term (including Wisconsin’s own Paul Ryan), obstruction of his agenda every step of the way, impeachment, felony convictions and assassination attempts. The American people want serious, disruptive change and they have concluded that Trump is one of a kind. It will take a man of his skill, insight, commitment and courage to do what the country needs to be done. Government spending is unsustainable, and the bloated government bureaucracy is out of control. Corruption permeates the political parties, the media and government agencies. The American people across the country are with Trump and therein lies the problem for the political parties and politicians.
It is often said that Trump has reshaped the Republican Party and the Republican Party is now the Party of Trump. While that may be true, the Party was not interested in being reshaped or becoming the Party of Trump. The Party is controlled by career politicians who have been enriched by the status quo. It was conservative, freedom-loving Americans across the country who wanted the party dismantled and rebuilt. Make no mistake. Those who want to see Trump fail span both parties and run deep into their infrastructures. There are those who are the overt haters and equally, if not more dangerous, those who are the covert haters. These are the pretenders who are hamstrung by their constituents’ love of Trump. If they want to be reelected, they have to pretend to stand with him while secretly hoping for his demise. This group is teeming with people who call themselves Republicans
Trump did not waste any time before aggressively pursuing the promises he made to the voters. Plans to secure borders, achieve energy dominance, eliminate regulatory obstacles, ensure fair trade, spark a manufacturing resurgence, regain military superiority, cut taxes, and return to a society unencumbered by the woke agenda are all in full swing in this country under the direction of the President who can multitask like no other. There is perhaps no more important initiative, nor one greater feared by the defenders of the status quo, than rooting out the waste, fraud and abuse in government led by Elon Musk.
Musk is now targeted for destruction by those who are desperate to keep him from disclosing and dismantling the corruption that exists throughout government and its immense cost to our country and the American taxpayers. It is a safe bet that when the dust settles politicians from across both parties are going to be brought down for their lack of oversight at the very least and, for many, criminal fraud at worst.
The Democrats and the media are consumed with telling lies about Musk and his team. They vilify the individuals involved and stoke fear in the public with lies about losing Social Security, health care or other essentials they rely on. The truth is easily accessible. An interview conducted by Bret Baier with Musk and key members of his team is available online and should be viewed by every voter. Their daily findings and savings are also posted on the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) website. Team leaders working with Musk include the founder of Airbnb, an oil executive, a Morgan Stanly financial executive, a rocket scientist, and the CEO of Cloud Software Group among others. This is an impressive, accomplished group of people who have signed on to this work because they love the country and want to save it from financial ruin. In their two hour long interview they provided details about hundreds of wasteful contracts that have been canceled, redundancies that are being eliminated, a federal employee retirement process that is all paper with documents stored in a mine in Pennsylvania and an Interior Department with literally no oversight whatsoever that is now undergoing review of every contract and grant in its domain. The CEO of Cloud Software who is working with the Treasury Department said they are “applying public company standards to the Federal government and it’s alarming how the financial operation and financial management is set up today.”
In just one example posted last Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs was paying $380,000 a month for website maintenance. The contract was canceled and the work is now being done by an internal tech who is spending just 10 hours a week to maintain the system. Musk says they will find $1 trillion in waste and fraud. I believe him.
In last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election, the Democrats pivoted from a focus on abortion to making the election about Elon Musk buying a Supreme Court seat through his support of conservative candidate Brad Schimel. They were counting on turning the electorate against Schimel by capitalizing on the fear and hatred being fomented toward Musk. Despite Chair of the State Republican Party Brian Schimming’s post-election declaration that “our candidates, campaigns, the state party and outside groups gave this everything we had”, the state party did nothing to aggressively counter the lies being told with the facts that are readily available. Party leaders and self-proclaimed conservative talk show hosts were quick to throw Schimel under the bus. Brad Schimel and Brittany Kinser were not the problem. They were solid candidates who gave their campaigns maximum effort.
On Thursday after the election, Dan O’Donnell, one of the self-proclaimed conservative talk show hosts, declared in his officious style that the sole purpose of the political parties is to raise money. This kind of thinking is destroying our country. Political parties should be centers for the spirited debate of ideas and expressing the will of the people about how to govern a free society. We are miles from this ideal. The truth is, groups who claim to speak for conservatives, including the state, district and county parties, are littered with pretenders and part of our work going forward will be to identify them and root them out.
My week ended by attending my first 5th District Republican Party Caucus on Friday night. Grappling with how to best contribute to the ongoing fight for our freedom, I joined the Republican Party of Waukesha County this year. My disdain for the corruption and hypocrisy in both political parties kept me staunchly an “independent conservative” until now when I decided to try pushing from the inside and the outside at the same time. I have a great deal to learn about the inner workings of the Republican Party but this much is clear. The opportunities are endless. I was particularly anticipating the vote on the resolutions that passed the Waukesha County caucus weeks earlier calling on the state legislators to require the Registered Voter List to contain only the names of currently eligible voters and requiring all driver’s licenses issued lawfully to non-citizens to be clearly marked “not for voting”. Though the District resolutions process involves significant editing and merging resolutions that have been approved by the counties, the critical language in these resolutions survived and passed the District vote. The resolutions now move on to the Republican Party of Wisconsin state convention in May where they will be considered and voted on. The fight to make Wisconsin’s elections verifiable lives on. In the most significant event of the evening, the candidates for Chair and Vice Chair of the 5th District proposed by the Nominations Committee were rejected in favor of nominations made from the floor. Chris Slinker and Brett Galaszewski, newly elected Chair and Vice Chair, understand the work that lies ahead and will be working to oversee a party that reflects the will of the people. I am optimistic and confident they will not go along to get along. This is an important step in the right direction.
Last week things did not go well. There will always be setbacks in the fight for freedom. New insights, expanded skills and strengthened resolve will follow. Our mission is unchanged. We are taking our country back and we are just getting started.
