We’re back, folks, and today we’ve got a result that’s giving me at least a little bit of hope. You might remember a couple of days ago when I said I’m happy the democratic socialist wing of the party is having its moment. I said it because I want America to decide what it really wants. I want us to finally ask ourselves if we want to go down the radical left path, or keep moving forward on the track that’s made this the best country in the world.
Well, we just got at least one answer, and it came out of Wisconsin in a big way. The race was for the Democratic nomination for governor, and the national spotlight was on State Representative Francesca Hong. She was the self-proclaimed democratic socialist. She had the energy, the social media presence, and the backing of the insurgent movement that folks like Bernie Sanders and AOC have built.
Every single poll leading up to the election had her winning. Every commentator expected her to waltz into the general election and give the progressive movement another massive victory. But the people of Wisconsin had other plans. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley beat her by less than a percentage point.
It was a narrow margin, but it was a stunning upset. Chris Cillizza, a political analyst I follow, called it one of the most stunning upsets in a swing state he’d seen in his 30 years of covering politics. Establishment Democrats were celebrating, because they knew that if Hong won the primary, she would have handed the Republican Party the keys to the governor’s mansion in November. Moderate voters in that purple state came out and said they weren’t having it.
So why did the frontrunner collapse? Because she went too far. She was asked rapid-fire about her positions, and she said “yes” to everything. Repeal Act 10?
Yes. Universal childcare? Yes. A workers’ bill of rights?
Yes. Free Palestine? Yes. She said “yes” to it all.
But the fatal moment, the one that really sunk her campaign further, was a resurfaced post from 2021. A post she had since deleted, where she said Americans should cancel Thanksgiving. When asked about that post on national television, in a debate, she didn’t apologize or explain it away. She launched into a story about how, as a chef, she once made a Thanksgiving meal when she was 16, and how bringing folks around the table is always a good thing.
The moderator pushed back hard. “No, that is not the answer to an old tweet calling on Thanksgiving to be canceled. ”
Instead of just saying, “I was young and I was stupid,” she spent two days trying to clean up the mess. She flip-flopped so much that she ended up telling a reporter that Thanksgiving was actually her favorite holiday.
Not only was she branded as the woman who wanted to cancel Thanksgiving, but now she looked inauthentic, like she was desperately trying to run away from every position she’d ever held. And it wasn’t just the Thanksgiving thing. Another interviewer pressed her on her far-left posts. “You want to abolish the Senate.
You want to defund the police. You’ve said it four times. You’ve said defunding the police is a first step towards abolishing the police. President Trump won Wisconsin twice.
Why shouldn’t people take you at your word? ”
She started talking about how people can evolve. She said she meets Trump voters from previous elections who now have her sign in their yard. The interviewer shot back, “So who needs to evolve, the voter or you?
” She fumbled through a response, saying the governor can’t defund the police, and she won’t, but then she launched into a list of other social programs she wanted to fund instead. To me, that’s the problem. It’s all platitudes and pandering. It’s telling people what they want to hear without a workable plan.
We all want people to make more money. We all want safe neighborhoods. We all want people to be able to take care of themselves. But all of that has to work within an economic model, and the socialists never give you the “how.
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So, Wisconsin, I want to tip my hat to you. You looked at the candidate who said she wanted to cancel Thanksgiving, who wanted to defund the police and abolish the Senate, and you chose the establishment. You chose the moderate. In my opinion, you chose correctly.
The battle isn’t won, folks. We still have a lot of work to do. The push and pull from this radical socialist movement will probably change America in some ways, maybe even some for the better. But I don’t think they’re going to get what they want.
Not if I have anything to do with it, and hopefully not if you do either.
