Wall St Capitali$m has killed Brokaw WI, it threatens WI’s general election blueness

Last edited Sat Apr 4, 2015, 09:34 PM - Edit history (3)

Most of this story is about a small village, population ~250. But its lesson is about why WI is the way it is and why a tradition of being solid blue in general elections for over 3 decades is endangered.

Sitting on the banks of the Wisconsin River, supported by a paper mill providing a stable source of jobs for nearly a century it's a place only a dedicated democratic canvasser would know. In a time before corporations were recognized as citizens the paper mill was an important member of the community.

Now, that paper mill, like most paper mills had a demanding relationship with water. And the small community being interested in the jobs provided by a good neighbor did a pretty big thing. It undertook building a water utility that supported the plant. As you can imagine, this looked like a win-win. Plant gets water, the village gets a water utility with a single customer that pays more than everyone else combined.

The great recession struck the paper industry pretty hard. Brokaws mill was still profitable but within it’s parent company, Wausau Paper, it was a weaker performer. As all DUers learned from Mitt Romney, a profitable company with a few weak divisions is exactly what predatory capitalism depends upon. And sure enough, a hedge fund named Starboard Value LP, headquartered in NYC gained control of the company and went to work maximizing profits. Under pressure from dividend hungry investors nowhere near Brokaw WI...the once pillar of the community and good neighbor, Wausau Paper, closed the Brokaw mill.

This left Brokaw with a huge wet elephant. A water utility so big its operation couldn’t be paid for by little Brokaw’s hundred families. Not so slowly, Brokaw has gone broke. Yes, that’s what you get with capitalism, no guarantees and a lot of risk management by the executives. If it was you or me, and we weren’t dealing with student loans, we’d be running for a bankruptcy lawyer. And so would Brokaw…if bankruptcy for a village was legal in WI. But it isn’t. You see, WI was structured by solid Midwestern people who act like adults and in public affairs who never anticipated being raided by people from Gotham who have no sense of community at all.

Brokaw is now a zombie, it’s among the walking dead and begging to be put out of its misery. The leaders up there are begging folks to contact the legislature to pass a new law that allows the bankruptcy it needs. But the rest of the state is not so sure. Not only is there a Midwestern tradition to uphold, most of the WI legislature believes in the principle of me-first. And creating municipal bankruptcy creates a risk for investors that doesn’t exist. Risk protection costs money in higher costs for borrowing. So a new law that would rescue Brokaw will affect every jurisdiction in the state when they go borrow money.

So what you say. This has happened to factories, mills and foundaries all over the rust-belt millions of jobs have gone-south or gone overseas...

Well the lesson in this story is for the 'adults' in DC who make decisions for us little people here.

And it's to say…up-state WI is a central player in the way WI voters lean. One might say it’s what puts the swing in our perception as a 2016 swing state. Yes, common knowledge in DU is WI hasn’t gone red in a national general election since Reagan.

Say what you will about WI and its "stupid" Walker electing voters, but they’re living in the state which has the steepest decline of the middleclass in the nation…

no place feels more fear of the middleclass death spiral than here.

People need jobs, production jobs, and the people here are really beyond worried about a national government run by people who want to cozy up to Wall St financiers.

So, I give this advice freely to ANY and EVERY person who would be courageous enough to come here campaigning for the presidency, or a US senate seat or advise someone willing to do those things.

Beware listening to voices of the establishment. People who assume that what once worked here will continue to do so... by people like that I mean Mike Tate, John Tester and the staff and PR folks at the DSCC.

WI isn’t a shoe in. One of the longest runs of blue in the party is in danger of ending.

DON’T COME HERE TALKING WALL STREET, DON’T COME HERE TALKING ABOUT SOCIAL ISSUES INSTEAD OF DOMESTIC ECONOMICS, DON’T TALK IMBALANCE OF TRADE AGREEMENTS.

No doubt Wisconsin’s tradition of being blue rests upon a foundation of 4 traditionally blue zones. No doubt, moving left to social issues in those places is the standard election strategy for WI.

But, I'm being as honest and earnest as I can be when I warn all you democratic leaders who happen upon this...you aren’t going to get a vote total high enough to win and take it all in WI, if you don’t talk real economics that looks like salvation to the million once middle class voters desperate for help.

And the winning margin you want is probably more likely to be found in places like tiny Brokaw/and well worn Wausau than it is on University campuses and neighborhoods in Dane Co and the 4th Congressional District