No surprise - Vos and Steineke don't really care about closing our racial gaps

Nice work by Up North News today, where the organization used some emails from last August to pin down the top 2 Assembly Republicans. In the process, it revealed just how empty the gestures from Jim Steineke and Robbin' Vos truly are when it comes to trying to deal with Wisconsin's horrendous racial disparities in criminal justice, and in everyday life.

The article from Jonathon Sadowski and Jessica Van Egeren captures an email exchange in late August between Vos and Steineke. It came one day after Governor Evers called for a special session of the Legislature after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, which lifted off large-scale protests and vandalism.

Despite expressing apprehension in the email about the potential “political loser” effect, Steineke volunteered to lead the task force, saying he did not feel like it would get in the way of his political goals.

“I don’t have any delusions of grandeur beyond this [Assembly] seat,” he said. “[County executive] maybe, but that’s it and whatever I do with this would have little impact either way. Anyone else that did it would have to be in a similar spot. And you’d have to trust them not to be too malleable or too intransigent. Tough needle to thread.“

Lot of high-value words for Shrimpy. I'm impressed. Now, the cyncism that Steineke has for what the task force might (not) do? Not so impressive.

Vos set up the task force around Labor Day, and had Steineke co-chair it. Steineke said at the time that the group should have a list of bills ready to go for the new Legislative session that started last month. Not surprisingly, that has not happened.

What the emails show is that Steineke and Vos viewed the task force as PR BS from the start, and they were planning to use it as a way to pretend that they cared about racial disparities, but without actually planning to DO anything about them.

...Steineke pitches his qualifications to lead the task force not by detailing to Vos how he would address any of these issues, but by stating the task force could be wielded to provide the illusion of Republicans being open to reforms while making Democrats look bad.

“My proposal is for us to sit down and figure out some guardrails. Things we could give on, things we wouldn’t,” Steineke said. “Then I’d sketch out a plan on how to proceed, making sure it takes some time but yet there will be enough activity to show progress.”

Steineke continued: “I truly think if we do this right we have an opportunity to show how Evers could get things done if his [administration] weren’t so damned political. We could also make some inroads with voters we don’t normally reach. Worse [sic] case scenario, we show a willingness to work on these issues and make the Democrats say no to things.”

ABS - Always Be Scheming

There isn't anything these guys do that goes beyond politics. How do you think they ended up leading the Assembly GOP? Shamelessness is what is rewarded in today's GOP, which explains why the scum rises to the top.

As Senator LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) pointed out, it's no surprise that Wisconsin has a racial climate that is near apartheid when you have guys like this in "leadership".

It is no wonder WI is ranked the worst place in America to raise a Black child, and why these disparities seem to have become permanent.

— LaTonya Johnson (@StateSenLaTonya) February 3, 2021

Likewise, none of this story was a surprise to me, and it shouldn't have been to you. But it does again illustrate why this state will continue to fall short of its potential as long as amoral WisGOPs continue to be in charge of our gerrymandered Legislature.

These guys don't care what they leave behind, and they don't do anything because it is right, or because it will help Wisconsinites. They only care about how it helps WisGOP and their puppetmasters. And how to try to handcuff and lay the blame on Governor Evers as WisGOP tries to get him out of power in November 2022. Which would allow them to rig things even more.