“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.” –Pledge of Allegiance
“A key part of Nazi ideology was to define the enemy and those who posed a threat to the so-called “Aryan” race. Nazi propaganda was essential in promoting the myth of the “national community” and IDENTIFYING WHO SHOULD BE EXCLUDED…” --- Holocaust Encyclopedia
Hi Folks,
The Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC has another week of discussions ahead of it until we can share with you what we’re doing and start enlisting your help to fight for Wisconsin’s public education system.
So this week I want to talk about the massive dichotomy that I’m seeing between our two political parties and how that dichotomy is playing itself out on my own company’s Facebook page and in the politics of bright red Northern Wisconsin.
If you only read one sentence of this post, read this one…
While progressives continue to fight for the American Ideal of LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL by combatting gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the attack on women’s reproductive rights--Republicans, still under the MAGA spell, are attacking the LGTBQ+ and immigrant communities, following the age-old fascist playbook that spells out how to gain power through demonizing those who can’t fight back.
Sounds a bit extreme, right?
That can’t be happening in Wisconsin, right?
Well, you be the judge.
A few weeks ago, I posted a video of our taproom’s oversized wall of inclusive slogans that has now become our little “Instagram corner” for tourists, and that video seemingly made its way to some MAGA social media sites. Within a week, this community posted over four thousand hateful comments that could largely be separated into two categories—Anti-transgender slurs and anti-immigrant slurs.
“But those trolls weren’t from Wisconsin, they must have been from the South, like where Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz come from, RIGHT?”
I can’t answer that question because I’m not going to spend any time trying to figure out where these trolls come from, but I did spend a little time looking at my own Republican Congressman’s Instagram page.
Yes, how can we forget about Tom Tiffany, the lone Wisconsin Congressman who sided with Texas against his own state to invalidate our votes in the last presidential election?
It was immediately apparent that he was using the same hateful language that these trolls were using on my Facebook page--anti-immigrant slurs like “illegals” and “aliens.” I also noticed a fringe bill he supported to “deport aliens who assault police officers…”
…as if that’s a real problem.
No, it’s largely a fictional problem that doesn’t need to be solved, but was created out of thin air to stoke the fears of imagined violence coming from people of color among a largely white, highly-manipulable, rural Republican base.
Yes, Tom Tiffany, who has all-but-announced that he’s running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, is actively promoting fascist propaganda in a predominantly white state with a minuscule immigration problem relative to our southern border states, because it's in the PLAYBOOK.
Tiffany, along with every Wisconsinite who has been paying attention, surely remembers how former Wisconsin Republican and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, blocked every immigration bill that could have helped solve our immigration problem since 2014 .
Our immigration problem didn’t start with Biden, nor did it start with Obama, but it has been exacerbated over the last decades by a Republican strategy that refuses to compromise for the greater good of our country and hopes to disgust the American people enough to destroy our belief in a functioning democracy.
No, Tom Tiffany and other Republican leaders haven’t forgotten that they’ve been the cog in the immigration-reform wheel AND the amplifier of a culture war that demonizes the LGTBQ+ community, but they're hoping you have.
And yes, they hope that the only thing you’ll remember come election time is the extreme and fascist politics of hate, exclusion, and fear that are alive and well in Wisconsin--not just in the South.
Attorney Ann Jacobs, commissioner on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, explaining how our elections were run fairly in 2020, but how we must remain vigilant against Republican rhetoric that undermines election integrity throughout the state.
Attorney Christine Bremer Muggli, advisor to both President Biden and Governor Evers on judicial appointments, discussing how we were one Supreme Court vote away from illegally handing Wisconsin's electoral votes to Trump in 2020, and how important it was to ensure that won't happen in 2024 by electing progressive judge Janet Protasiewicz.
While the MAGA-contingent has sidelined all sane conservatives from within their own party and has fully employed fascist propaganda to spread hate, we progressives have been…wait for it…
…winning elections.
Pictured above was the party we had last Friday to release our new beer called “Lady Justice: a Very Wise Weisse.” That beer celebrated Wisconsin’s most recent election that installed a progressive majority onto Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and shored up democracy and election integrity in our swing state for years to come.
And instead of scaring, angering, and dividing Wisconsinites, we’re rolling up our sleeves and figuring out ways bring back “Liberty and Justice FOR ALL” in Wisconsin.
Hopefully, as soon as Janet Protasiewitz is installed as our newest Supreme Court Justice in August, we can overturn Wisconsin’s 174-year-old barbaric abortion ban, end gerrymandering once and for all, and start fighting for public schools by increasing state funding and giving teachers the ability to collectively bargain so that they can finally get paid what they deserve.
Folks, it’s called “progress” for a reason. We’re moving forward, in spite of some of the most hateful headwinds we’ve seen since since World War 2.
I implore you to use history as your guide and reject the politics of hate and exclusion, like we rejected global fascism over 80 years ago.
We know we’re better than that, but to keep history from repeating itself, we have to remember that the fascist playbook is rearing its ugly head again within the GOP and call it out whenever we see it.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for standing firm against the politics of exclusion, hate, and fear, one beer at a time.
Kirk Bangstad,
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC