Liberals, Please Come to Wisconsin!
Is it a Republican strategy to try to force liberals to leave Purple states? Perhaps this was their game all along?
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This week the leak from the Supreme Court proved what liberals have been saying for years: that the Republicans have been trying to pack the court to overturn Roe and make abortion rights law into a State Legislature issue. In my own state of Wisconsin, there is an old law making abortion a crime that will become law again the minute Roe falls. I can imagine this change might trigger a sort of micro-exodus from Wisconsin, to Illinois, Minnesota, and maybe California. In a Purple state that went for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020, even a micro-exodus might be enough to tip the state Red in 2024. Is this one of the real reasons Republicans have been laser-focused on overturning Roe? Have they been slowly trying to make liberals leave Purple states?
Because of the gerrymandering done after the 2010 elections, the Wisconsin legislatures are solidly Republican, even in a state that went for Biden and has a Democrat as a governor. If the Red Team could cause even just a few of us liberals to leave, they might win back the governorship and make Wisconsin even more unfriendly to liberals, which could make Wisconsin as solid Red as Iowa or Indiana. This all started happening in 2011 when Scott Walker won the governor’s race. He instantly made the state less friendly to unions and more friendly to corporations. He cut money for public education and he refused Medicare expansion money. He cut high-speed rail and he implemented restrictive Voter-ID laws. He allowed hunting in state parks and he added a wolf hunt for trophy hunters. He pushed through an “open carry” gun law and he added a yearly tax on hybrid and electric vehicles, out of spite. In a few short years, he transformed the state, making it much less friendly to liberals. That could happen again, and the next Red Team governor would finish the job.
It would not take many liberals moving away to turn Wisconsin from Purple to Red. I assume the same “if you don’t like it, leave!” policies are happening in Florida and Texas — both of which were previously thought to be potential swing states. We can probably add Michigan, Virginia, Arizona, and Missouri to the list of…
