Courting the women and children voters.

The president was downstate yesterday, campaigning amongst the government workers (currently = economic untouchables) and children (under 26, still attached financially to their parents). He pulled the finger-waving bit that always signals desperation, and even raised his voice with passion, and rolled up the sleeves. (Why you have to roll the sleeves to give a speech, as if it's hard physical work, I never will understand. And it's not like there are any blue-collar voters in Madison; I can count on my hands the numbers of men with handyman skills I met living there...)

Here's why I don't think that's a winning strategy this year:

Not to pull a Biden and plagarize from another candidate, but John Edwards might have spoken of Two Wisconsins. Not economically though, but geographically, and mentality-wise.

First, let's get this out of the way, Wisconsin, like many other northern states, is overwhelmingly "white". If you look at the ethnicities who settled the region, that's who came. The black migration that took southern blacks north to Chicago and Milwaukee, and in some cases Minneapolis and St. Paul, stopped in the big cities, where the jobs were, and upstate Wisconsin is more spread out. They're welcome of course, as is anyone who likes an independent outdoorsy lifestyle.

We are a state of smaller towns and cities, essentially, many a day's horseride away by geography. Where the big industry was logging, trapping and agriculture, our landscapes are still unpolluted and healthy. No rustbelts or toxic brownfields left over from the quick-grab of the industrial revolution.

You want to revisit 1800s America, how communities back then worked? With our rural, admittedly updated farms, you can catch a glimpse... We're small enough that one's own actions matter, not as just a cog in a wheel. Personally, it's one of the things I like about the state, after having grown up in Cook County, Illinois. (ie/ Good luck filing in small claims court there for justice.)

Here, there's an independence to the people, earned from doing things themselves. The small towns built hospitals, churches, schools, barns, homesteads, and they did it with the help of their neighbors. There's a Can-Do sense here that's missing in those cities and counties long overrun by bureacracy. There's a sense of responsibility and consequence learned early by rural people that is missing in the more protected suburban youth:

A lot of it is nature. Sure, you can eat lousy and underdress ... but here you'll feel it. You can insult your neighbor and work against him ... but when your time of need comes, you might just learn the dangers of standing alone.

Up north, there are families that hunt for food, and fish, and grow their own. Not to be showy or make a statement, but because it's good to understand where your food comes from, to see and smell it before processing.

Madison is a different part of the state. It's a place where top students go to attend the flagship university, sure, but plenty of other families choose educations at the smaller regional branches. Why?

There's the thought that Madison is for outsiders. The "coasties" -- students who can't get in to the East Coast names, whose parents are willing to pay the double "out of state" tuition for them to experience "independence" in a small, starter city like Madison, while getting a decent public education.

Our politicians and professors too, like neighboring Minnesota, are often opportunistic Easterners, seeing in Wisconsin the chance to make their fortunes, "enlightening" the rubes here. The big push for "diversity" leads to the university courting students from California and Texas, since we can't seem to accept that our whiteness is not caused by any type of discrimination, merely that darker skinned people haven't yet discovered the advantages of less dense living, and overcoming the weather and isolation in pursuit of bettering their own lives.

There is more and more suspicion of the downstate Madison and Milwaukee politicians -- the Republicans chosen by upstate voters lost in the primaries so now we're choosing between lifetime Milwaukee and Madison pols in November.

The only hope the Obama-Biden ticket has, is that enough of these women and children voters will turn out in Madison and Milwaukee voting booths (and those tricky "absentee ballots") to offset the overwhelming preference of others in the state. We've had enough of Madison's spendy ways, with the rest of us picking up the tab.

The health care reform is overwhelmingly rejected, because the people who will be paying want to have some choice in the matter. It's simply unAmerican for those liberals who continue advocating spending, (while living verrrry comfortably themselves), to reject what the American people are telling them: Stop getting the rest of us to pay for your poor policy choices.

Public housing. Public education. Public health.
Robert Taylor Homes. Chicago/Milwaukee public school system. And now, the quick fix they promise will change the way we access health care and remake us from an obese nation to a leaner, healthier one.

No thanks. We don't believe you can deliver what you're promising, and we'd prefer to make our own choices and live by them.

Hopefully, the pols will get the message soon.
----------------------------------


ADDED: The Morning After.
Lest we forget...

Goodbye Mr. Chips, indeed!

ALSO:
Another reason why I am suspicious of Madison liberals: while some played by the rules and waited in line, some always manage to jump the line. Whether it be citizenship, paying taxes, or just waiting to see the President speak, these kind of liberals always seem to have it in them to look out for themselves and their offspring first -- while others darker, less affluent, and less ... "initiated" need wait their turn and go through the usual citizenship processes, etc.

Something ain't right about this linejumping, especially when you otherwise advocate equality...

STILL MORE: "The race does not always go to the swiftest (or wisest, or most accountable, or ... best), but to the ... pushiest."

Which explains why this Baby Boom generation's insistence on grading on the curve -- essentially playing the numbers -- does not work in international competition. For too long, our best and brightest have contented themselves not with quality per se, but with the rewards and spoils that comes from ... just one-upping the next guy.

It's how students game the system: taking the easier profs, getting notes/tests from past classes, not retaining knowledge for its own sake, just regurgitating on the "test" and moving on confidently, having bested your peers temporarily.

But then, there are always accountings. Say what you will about the material possessions our Boomers have gained for themselves and their offspring -- being comfortably embraced into their parents' professions, in some cases workplaces too -- we are losing ground in the international game. This is what happens when you game the system as it is, and forget who our real competitors are...

Somebody who collected handsome bonuses and salaries helped contribute to the mess this country is in now. Short of blaming the undocumented workers, who will the Boom generation pin their failings on? GWB? Obama? The corporate millionaires who profited while bankrupting their firms? The prize-winning economists?

No really, I'm curious who will accept responsibility at least, for leaving future American generations holding the bag...


(Damn that Nancy O'Donnell! Dated a witch that one time, and didn't pay her outstandings for a diploma... Don't look now, but, I think we have a Public Enemy, folks.)