Forming the Message

One of the lessons from last year’s election is Democrats had difficulty connecting with voters. It’s one of the reasons I’m doing Open Mike. And it’s the main reason it took me several days, some heated conversations with colleagues and confidants, and several drafts to figure out what I wanted to say this week about a bill that involves immigration, sheriffs, and law enforcement funding.

If we elected Democrats don’t figure out how can we best connect with voters and challenge each other to do it, then we're doomed to repeat the mistake.

This week I took to the Wisconsin State Assembly floor with mic (speaking of connecting with the audience, the name of this Substack is much better delivered verbally) in hand to talk about Assembly Bill 24, which says to our counties and our sheriffs: if you don’t participate in Trump’s inhumane mass deportation efforts, you lose 15% of your funding.

The bill passed on party lines, with Republicans in favor, Democrats against.

I was in disbelief about that bill because of what it says to our communities, and because I know from my days on the Dane County Board that our County already struggles to fund our Sheriff Department.

You don’t have to take my word for it. The Badger State Sheriffs Association submitted an info paper to the Ethics Commission on this bill, which thoughtfully acknowledged problems with this bill, including:

“Many county law enforcement agencies are already operating with limited resources, and additional mandates could place further strain on their staffing and budgets. […] [W]e are concerned about the financial implications of the shared revenue penalty provisions, which could have unintended consequences for county budgets and, ultimately, local public safety efforts.”

The Sheriffs also point out in their position paper “each Sheriff is an independent, duly elected constitutional officer whose authority derives from Article VI, Section 4 of the Wisconsin Constitution.” I suppose that section of the Wisconsin Constitution doesn’t neatly fit with Trump’s inhumane mass deportation goals, so the Republican majority is ignoring it just like Trump ignores the U.S. Constitution when it doesn’t neatly fit the inhumane mass deportation goals.

We’re in a scary moment learning those documents are only as good as the people swearing an oath to uphold them.

Why would Republicans play games with law enforcement funding and public safety?

The answer is politics. As usual. This was one of those gotcha votes. Republicans were trying to get vulnerable Democrats to vote against Trump’s inhumane mass deportation efforts. No Democrat voted for this.

Remember for a moment who this bill is proposing our sheriffs partner with: Donald Trump and his harmful un-American immigration policies. He’s the one who separated families. He’s the one who put those children in cages.

But I decided to pivot off that topic in my remarks.

Here’s the closing excerpt of my remarks:

“Republicans want you to believe that mass deportation will ease your economic pain and make our communities safer—but has it? No. Since Donald Trump supposedly ramped up deportations, have our grocery bills gone down? Are our schools more secure?

Wisconsinites aren’t losing out because of the people next door, or foreign countries. Our economy is built on the backs of immigrant labor, on the backs of those workers. The real problem is the wealthy elites who bought Congress, bought this body, bought the President, standing in the way of our success and our economic prosperity.

Republicans want you to believe mass deportation is the thing that will ease some economic pain somehow, but will it? Has it? I don’t think so.

Democrats in the Legislature and Governor Evers have been the ones who have been allies to our local communities—fighting for their funding, fighting for what they need. Fighting for what they’ve been asking for.

We’re not scapegoating our neighbors. We’re not pointing any fingers. We’re just asking for our local governments to get what they need to be successful. We’re here to fight for them and invest in those communities.

We’ve pushed for real solutions. We want to lower prescription drug costs, lower housing costs, lower childcare costs, grocery costs. We want to make school meals available.

Republicans here refuse to even consider those bills, refuse to have that conversation. Democrats are the ones here serious about wanting to fight for our communities and our neighbors. Not fight WITH our neighbors. Fight FOR our neighbors.

Republicans are here are pitting struggling people against each other for political gain, emulating and enabling Donald Trump, trying to make our communities less safe, trying to take funding away from law enforcement. Doesn’t make sense. The vote is red.”

It took me quite a while to figure out how to talk about this bill. The sheriffs provided a useful external validator. I associated the Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature with the worst of Trump’s immigration policies. And I tried to shift the audience’s attention to the contrast in values on display.

BUT… did it connect? Let me know.