Dear editor,
The partisan gerrymander that Wisconsin has suffered under for the past 12 years threatens to spread one-party rule to another branch of state government. In 2011, when Republicans adopted the most extreme partisan gerrymander in the country, they took control of the state legislature away from the people of Wisconsin and bestowed it on their political organization. When the voters elected a Democratic governor, the hyper-partisan legislature stripped power away from the executive branch, power that the gerrymanderers had no problem with Republican Scott Walker exercising. The GOP legislature’s contempt for the voters was apparent. And a conservative Supreme Court majority backed them up. That Supreme Court even allowed the legislature to perpetuate its partisan gerrymander.
Earlier this year, the voters elected a progressive Supreme Court justice by a surprisingly wide margin. That election shifted the Supreme Court’s ideological majority. Aware that the voters favor nonpartisan redistricting, the GOP is willing to betray the will of the voters by threatening to impeach the popularly elected justice in order to protect their one-party control.
If the GOP is successful in defying the will of the voters, its partisan gerrymander will infect the Wisconsin Supreme Court. As a result of the partisan gerrymander, the Republicans in the legislature have the votes to impeach and convict a Supreme Court justice in order to perpetuate a conservative majority.
The voters’ ability to decide the direction of the state legislature has been gone since 2011. That partisan legislature is now threatening to co-opt the voters’ ability to decide the state Supreme Court’s direction. The court will be controlled by the gerrymandered legislature, ending our constitutional balance of power between three branches of government. The anti-democracy gerrymandering politicians could exercise a veto over any justice elected to the state supreme court who might disagree with them on any issue they feel threatens their power – like the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering.
Note that Republican leaders are not proposing a recall election. That is because the voters have already spoken, and Republican leaders fear the voters. This threat by a gerrymandered partisan legislature to impeach a popularly elected justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is the most blatant and dangerous attack on democracy that I have ever witnessed in this state. It must not be allowed.
Calvin Dexter of Wausau
Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.
