While the polls are claiming that Biden is leading by six points in the state of Wisconsin at the moment, the party seems to be fairly worried about what is taking place. They are certainly not acting like they expect to win. The ABC/Washington Post poll from yesterday notwithstanding, the state party seems to be searching for their excuses already.
Near as we can tell, the Wisconsin Democrats want to find their scapegoat and they want to find them as early as possible. Governor Tony Evers has already been set up as the fall guy. He’s been called a liability and he is accused of allowing the riots to dictate the tenor of his governance. Since the Kenosha riots have been raging on, he has done very little to put a stop to them.
Republicans dominate the state legislature and they are already planning a recall vote. This process is in the early stages but there is definite traction. He’s still doing well in the polls but his approval rating continues to slip. Politico’s latest report on the matter should give major pause to any Democrat who thought that the party would steamroll to an easy win in this state.
Interviews have been conducted with a wide range of activists, voters, local strategists and officials. They have serious concerns about Evers’ response to the riots. He’s not functioning as an ally to the Democrats or an attack dog to the Republicans. Instead, he is being limp and ineffectual. He’s diminishing any advantage that the party may have in the meantime.
“I don’t think that he has his pulse [on] what is going on in this state. He doesn’t have a forceful personality. He doesn’t have, in my view, the qualities of a great leader and that’s what we need now,” Terry Rose says. As a former county supervisor and Democratic Party chair in Kenosha County, he is well qualified to make this assertion.
“We need a Winston Churchill, not a Neville Chamberlain,” Rose continued. The list of complaints about Evers is growing by the day. Why would the Democrats be happy about a governor who allows the Republican legislature to walk all over them? They are responsible for the situation and they have no one to blame but themselves.
The Democrats are the ones who have turned the state into a form of trench warfare. Their attacks on Scott Walker have been numerous and they have reduced the political atmosphere to something that is less than satisfactory. He wants to rule by decree during this crisis but it has left him in the gooey center, as opposed to choosing a side and sticking with it.
Governors like Evers want to sit on the fence when they need to be making decisive choices. That’s their biggest problem and they cannot blame it on the Republicans at this point. No matter where you may stand when it comes to conservatives, there is no mistaking their stance on any given situation. Evers, on the other hand?
He is someone who wants to sit on the fence. He wants to allow the riots, without really condemning them. It’s not entirely fair to blame him for the riots. After all, the Democrats have been encouraging them from the very beginning. You can’t fan the flames of conflict and then put all of the blame on the most convenient scapegoat that you can find. Maybe Joe Biden is the one who needs to be blamed?
There’s also no ground game in this state. This is another issue that is going to plague the Democrats as election time rolls around. Biden is spending all of his time in his Delaware basement but Wisconsin should have expected that. We are not here to offer the Democrats any sort of advice but it seems like there is more than enough blame to go around at this moment in time.
