GOPper-ganda will try to sneak and smear through 2018

The Capital Times’ Dave Zwiefel had a great article over the weekend where he noted that the Wisconsin GOP and Donald Trump aren’t much different when it comes to smearing and screeching about their opponents in unrelenting fashion.

Zwiefel notes that the Republican Party of Wisconsin is constantly resorts to name-calling whenever they try to knock down one of the Democratic candidates for governor, often with little evidence for why they’re branding the Dem with that moniker.

No sooner had longtime campaign finance reform advocate Mike McCabe announced he was taking out papers to run for the Democratic nomination for governor than state GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman quickly branded him as "Phony Mike McCabe."

A few days earlier when Milwaukee-area businessman Andy Gronick announced his intention to do the same, Zimmerman quickly peppered him as an "out-of-touch con artist."

Why take the time to outline why Republicans believe the candidates aren't qualified to lead Wisconsin government when it's so much easier to just call them names?

Such is the state of our political discourse in 2017, and it promises to continue getting worse in the months and years ahead.

On a related note, here’s WisGOP today saying that they will put out a digital advertising campaign against “liberal trial attorney Dana Wachs”, now that Wachs is officially a candidate to run against Scott Walker for governor in 2018.

In fairness to WisGOP, negativity and empty promises is really all they have, because they can’t run on job growth (we badly lag the country and our Midwestern neighbors), good choices on the budget (our schools are underfunded and roads are falling apart) or general competence (the budget is 5 ½ weeks late despite complete GOP control of the state). But the snottiness reiterates my belief that few people have less soul or self-respect than GOP campaign operatives.



In addition to being obnoxious, the WisGOP slime jobs are also exceedingly lame. They’re like a Mad Libs scripts where they fill in the blank of “liberal (Democratic politician) is a (smear phrase) that will (raise taxes/support (generic RW boogeyman)/not follow through on what he/she claims).”

Along with their smear attacks, the lowlifes at WisGOP Communications and the Walker campaign put out a regular series called “What They’re Saying” to try to make Walker and other WisGOPs sound innovative (or they use it to also attack Dem candidates). If you click on these documents, you find out that “they” are other WisGOP hacks and/or writers who are on some form of the Bradley/Koch/ALEC payroll. Not an honest bone among any of these people giving ‘analysis,” which is exactly the way they like it in WisGOP World.

WisGOP also is fond of having their own candidates show up at photo ops of campaign donors local businesses where they try to put a BS image of “hearing concerns” and “job growth from RW reforms” (see Scott Walker’s “listening tour” with campaign donors and Paul Ryan’s recent, non-public “tax reform discussions.”).


You know this is bullshit, right?

This act would be completely pathetic if the average dope didn’t fall for it. The Wisconsin media won’t dare remove their access to powerful GOP men, so GOP lies and deceptions can become “reality” to far too many low-info voters. This is especially true because Wisconsin Dems have for far too long laid back to allow this GOPper-ganda to float out unchallenged. Dems should be connecting these photo ops and BS “analyses” to the campaign donors and oligarchs that produce them, and call out the GOP as a bunch of fakes and frauds.

Dems in Wisconsin need to break the Bubble of BS that Republicans manufacture every day through these media methods, and the lies that are spread by GOPper-ganda radio stations like AM 620 and 1130 in Milwaukee, AM 1360 in Green Bay, and AM 550 in Wausau. Campaign operatives going door-to-door for 3 months before an election isn’t going to break through to the average dope who has these negative GOP messages drummed into his/her head every day. It is well past time for Dems to counter GOPper-ganda with a similarly loud and obtrusive media strategy, including gonzo ads on billboards in rural Wisconsin, and Dems doing their own media photo ops and rallies.

It amazes me that this hasn’t sunk in to DPW operatives and decision-makers, and a lot of us on the outside are sick of seeing this GOPper-ganda BS continue unchecked (the Fox-Con is merely the latest example). If it stays that way, GOPs might slip by again in 2018, despite all the harm that their regressive policies and mentality have inflicted on the state, because the average dope won’t know any better.