Let me give you a brief rundown of Wisconsin since 2010. Scott Walker was elected in 2010 running against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: 52.3% to 46.5%. The Legislature had a GOP majority, part of the midterm anti-Obama wave when the stimulus ran out.

Walker refused federal funding for rail expansion and a Madison-area Regional Transit Authority as his first act. Then introduced Act 10, "The Budget Repair Bill", stripping public sector unions of the right to bargain (and much more). The state was running a surplus at the time.

That led to the "Wisconsin Uprising" in February 2011 until the bill's passage a few months later amidst sustained protests. (That's a whole other story)

Democrats went in on electoral campaigns across the state. The first was the State Supreme Court: Kloppenburg (D) v Prosser (R). Kloppenburg won the race, but then a Waukesha county clerk "found" 14k ballots in the back of her car that weren't counted, giving the race to Prosser.

The "independent investigation" determined that the Waukesha clerk broke the law, but it was not "willful" and she was not prosecuted. The significance of this was that it maintained a Republican majority, who then consistently ruled against any challenges to Walker.

Of the 9 seats in the recall elections in 2011, only two were flipped, Republican to Democrat. $35 million spent on these campaigns, but Republicans maintained control of the Legislature.

In 2012, the gubernatorial recall election went through the same two candidates as 2010: Barrett (D) v Walker (R). Democrats said basically nothing about Act 10, and the results were identical to 2010: Barrett 46 to Walker 53.

Republicans, after beating the challenges and with the "trifecta" control of executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government proceeded to rewrite all the rules in their favor: Maps redistricted (2011), labor hit with right-to-work, municipalities stripped of power

In 2014, Democrats again said nothing about the interests of working people and ran Trek bicycle CEO Mary Burke (D) for governor against Walker. Surprise! Same margins: 46 - 52. (She then bought herself a seat on Madison school board.)

The gerrymandered maps were taken to federal court in 2016, who agreed that the maps had to be redone. WI Attorney general appealed to the US Supreme Court, who declined to take a position and kicked it back to the Federal Court.

In 2019 SCOTUS took up the case again and in a 5-4 ruling dismissed the case saying, "partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts". So the maps are here to stay.

Tony Evers squeaked past Scott Walker in 2018: 49.5% to 48.6%. The Legislature immediately passed legislation stripping the Governor's office of most of its powers. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

That essentially brings us to today. Republicans won 46% of the vote, but have 60% of the seats in the Legislature. While they've kept the Supreme Court, they've remade the state however they felt with impunity.

We're not gonna vote our way out of this one. Maps are drawn to suppress democracy; election fraud has become a regular feature in the state; the courts uphold decisions purely on partisan lines; and Democrats have no spines.

They've all gotta go.