Wednesday, April 5, 2023
In bed at 10:30, awake at 4:10, up at 4:20, thinking of election results. 52℉ and cloudy. Thunderstorms expected from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m, with windy conditions expected to start at 1 p.m. Temperature range from 36℉ to 64℉. Wind is SSW at 9 mph, ranging from 6 to 21 mph today, and gusts up to 39 mph. Sunrise 6:27, sunset 7:22, 12+55.
Election results: Janet Protasiewicz 1,021,326 (56%) - Dan Kelly 808,182 (44%) Eido Walny 1,282 (58.5%) Liz Levins 909 (41.5); Jody Habush Sinykin-Dan Knodel too close to call, looking like win for Knodel.
Bayside Village Trustees: Kelly Marrazza 1,334 (40%), Bob Rudman 1,115 (33%), Mark McCormick 897 (27%)
Supreme Court race percentages for Prostasiewicz; Dane 82%, Milwaukee 73%, Menominee 70%, LaCrosse 64.3%, Eau Claire 64%, Douglas 61.3%, Portage 58.6%, Winnebago 54.1%, Kenosha 54%, Brown 51.6%, Outagamie 51.5%, Racine 49.3%, Ozaukee 47.7%, Sheboygan 45.2%, Waukesha 41.9%, Washington 33.6%. Southwest and Northwest corners of the state are solidly blue.
I suspect that Prostasiewicz's 12 point win is largely due to the abortion issue rather than gerrymandering, the other main political issue she was outspoken about. I also suspect her win was in large measure attributable to the vote of women. I'm hoping this signals growing opposition to Republican dominance in Wisconsin politics and government but the Rs are solidly entrenched in the legislature and it will take more than a left-leaning 4-3 supreme court to change than reality.
Limousine Liberals. The term was originated by the Republican opponent of liberal Democratic mayor John Lindsay in NYC in 1969 to decribe wealthy Lefties, like me, who vote for social policies favoring Blacks and other minorities but who don't experience the negative effects of those policies because of their wealth and ability to self-segregate. Thomas Edsell has another of his long op-ed pieces in this morning's NY Times with the headline "Who’s Afraid of Integration? A Lot of People, Actually." The sociological studies he cites refer to the unwillingness of many or most Whites to endure the costs of integrating neighborhoods and schools, like reduced property values and declining educational outcomes (at least in terms of measureable data, like test scores, graduation rates, etc.) When I was a boy growing up in the Englewood district on the South Side of Chicago, rampant 'block-busting' was going on. Real estate agents profited by getting one White family on a residential block to sell to a Black buyer which caused panicked White flight by other White residents, including my family. Monsignor Malloy, our Catholic pastor, railed against selling to Blacks right from the altar at Sunday masses - "Keep the 'undesirables' out" - but the tide was relentless and we moved from 73rd and Emerald to 79th and Morgan to the susequently notorious Marquette Park neighborhood, where Martin Luther King, Jr. led a housing march in August, 1966, and was injured by a thrown rock. I was living in upscale Bucks County, PA, where I rarely saw a Black, in my last year of active duty in the Marines. In my 81+ year life, I have never lived in a truly racially integrated neighborhood. Even my 4 years of active duty in the Marine Corps were largely segregated, serving with only one Black officer, my friend Major Frank Peterson at NAS, Willow Grove, PA. The Marines and the Navy were the most resistent to complying with Harry Truman's 1948 order desegregating the armed forces. When I left my work at the House of Peace I wanted to get far away from inner city Milwaukee's poverty, guns, and crime and we moved to the lily-White, deep-red Town of Saukville in northern Ozaukee County. And now of course we are on County Line Road in upscale Bayside where we have a few Black neighbors but know none of them, and where the property to the west of us sold last year for more than $1,000,000 and the property to the east of us is assessed at just under $800,000. And where an opponent of the controversial One North develpment complained about its including apartments that would be occupied by "transient renters." What should I make of this history? I wish I could say there is no racism in me but that's not true for me. I suspect that tribleism, groupism is part of human nature and I certainly was affected by growing up on Chicago's South Side during the era of block busting. I certainly was affected by my family's and my neighbors' fear of living near Blacks. I certainly was affected by Msgr. Malloy's weekly admonitions from the pulpit to 'keep the undesireables out.' (to be continued)
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