Wisconsin, Utah, & the Rise of Fascism in Republican Politics

Justice Janet Protasiewicz

We have gotten to the point with the electoral career of Janet Protasiewicz on this blog that I no longer need to worry about the spelling of her name-she's at the same juncture where she's like Rod Blagojevich or Arnold Schwarzenegger, me able to spell their cumbersome last name with confidence.  But despite a seemingly low-profile office (the lowest-ranking member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice is not usually making headlines), the Supreme Court Justice continues to be a national news story not because of anything that she's done in office, but out of fear what she might do-take away power that was gerrymandered to give more authority to the Wisconsin Republicans in the state legislature.

Let's take a step back in case you don't know the story.  Protasiewicz was elected earlier this year to replace outgoing Justice Patience Roggenstock, one of the four conservatives on the Court.  This was a huge deal because with Protasiewicz in office, the left-wing of the Court had officially cemented the majority for the first time in decades.  The Republicans in the state legislature (and in Congress) had used the state legislature to ensure unbreakable gerrymanders were in place to override the governor & guarantee Democrats had no ability to gain a trifecta in the state government-even the bluest of wave elections couldn't disrupt this power-hold.  With Protasiewicz in power, a court case is headed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, initially focusing on the two houses of the state legislature (but almost assuredly going to eventually involve the congressional gerrymander), which will likely pass with the new justice's vote, and as a result Wisconsin will have fair maps, which while they may not be able to win back the majority (it's still a swing state) they would have no ability to gain veto-proof majorities to override Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat.  Essentially, the Democrats went to the ballot box, and they took back the power.

But the Republicans are now threatening to impeach Protasiewicz before she has a chance to rule the gerrymanders unconstitutional.  The logic of their impeachment is specious, but is largely predicated on Protasiewicz saying partisan things and receiving partisan cash on the campaign trail earlier this year.  This is hardly unprecedented.  Her conservative colleagues Brian Hagedorn & Rebecca Bradley have both received considerable contributions from the state Republican Party, after all...they weren't impeached.  Neither were any of the other judges on the Court's liberal end (Jill Karofsky received over $1 million from the Democratic Party).  Hell, Protasiewicz's opponent in her election earlier this year got a 7-digit donation from the state GOP.  Going after Protasiewicz specifically is entirely about stopping her from enacting the will of the people, who wanted her to be in power and for her to override the state gerrymanders.

It is not entirely clear where this goes, primarily because the Democrats have the deck stacked against the Republicans in a way that would be the equivalent of trying to beat a royal flush in Poker.  If Protasiewicz is impeached, Gov. Evers will appoint another liberal to replace her (possibly even appoint Protasiewicz herself again), and the court case will continue, this time with a pissed-off progressive majority.  They can't go after Evers, because the only other two people in the gubernatorial line of succession (Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski) are both Democrats as well, and they would also appoint a liberal to replace Protasiewicz.  Technically they could impeach Protasiewicz but not remove her, meaning she's banned from taking on cases, but she could also just resign & have Evers replace her.  This isn't fair (she'd have to face voters again in 2024 after just winning earlier this year), but she won by 11-points, and in the process the Republicans would have an irate Democratic base & a Court who views them as a threat to democracy-they'd act accordingly, potentially even costing Donald Trump the state's ten electoral votes and instead of fair maps, getting a Democratic gerrymander as retaliation.

What the Republicans here are doing is unprecedented, a word that is bandied around a lot about them, but it's also something more-it's fascism.  Circumventing the will of the people when they choose to get rid of your hold on power is a move not out of the pages of Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln, but out of the playbook of Joseph Stalin or Vladimir Putin.  I've noticed a reluctance to call things like this what they are, but this is literally what fascism looks like.  The people of Wisconsin spoke, they overwhelmingly elected Protasiewicz to be their Supreme Court Justice, and they trust her interpretation of the law.  To remove her, particularly when the people well-knew she had taken money from the Democratic Party (it wasn't a secret heading into the election, just like it wasn't for any other judge), especially to hang onto power, is tantamount to a dictatorship.  At this point, anything short of a map redraw, with Protasiewicz getting to decide on the case, would amount to fascism.

This is not the only fascist actions happening across the country, especially when it comes to electoral politics.  In Utah, the state implemented an independent redistricting commission in 2018, one that recommended after the 2020 census that the state draw three red districts and one blue district around Salt Lake County.  Again, this is what the people said they wanted...and the state legislature overruled it.  Chief Justice John Roberts has been very reluctant to interfere with congressional gerrymanders, because (according to him) if the people don't like it, they will reject it.  In Wisconsin & Utah, the people did reject it, and the Republican Party's in those states refuse to submit to the will of the people.  The Utah redistricting case hasn't gotten to the Supreme Court yet, but if Utah doesn't get new maps aligned with what the people ask...how is it not a dictatorship?  How are those maps not illegal if you have to overturn the will of the people in order to secure power?

Calling this what it is is important, because we cannot Overton Window fascism.  I'm reminded of Senator McConnell's message on January 20th, 2021, when he tweeted "Today, before the entire world, the greatest nation in history carried out another peaceful transfer of power."  But that was not what happened.  Two weeks earlier, terrorists, bolstered by the incumbent president's refusal to give up an election that he had lost, had stormed the Capitol, looking to harm the Vice President & Speaker of the House, and were so violent that for the first time in our history, two American citizens (Ashli Babbitt & Brian Sicknick) died as a result of the attacks.  The Biden inauguration was the first time in American history where there was not a peaceful transfer of power, no matter how stiff and polite Mike & Karen Pence looked on Inauguration Day.  What happened that day was democracy perseveing despite the leader of the Republican Party & the deposed president refusing to give up power...there was nothing peaceful about it, just like there is nothing about what is happening in Utah & Wisconsin that isn't entirely fascistic.  Even if the people's voices prevail in those states, what happened in those states was open flirting with fascism.

I'll close with a story that illustrates what democracy is actually supposed to look like.  In 1972, then-freshman Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who was in the minority, was promised by a Democratic Committee Chair that he'd get a vote on his amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  Stevens waited for the amendment to be called, but it was never was-the committee chair had tricked him.  He went across the chamber and yelled "You SOB, you promised me a vote!" which was overheard by Democrat Mike Mansfield, then the Senate Majority Leader who sternly chastised the freshman senator "nobody swears in this Chamber."  When Stevens explained that the chair had pulled a fast one on him (and the chair confirmed), Mansfield took the Republican's amendment, put his name on it, and it passed into law.  Mansfield was not of the same party as Stevens nor of the same state...he didn't owe him anything.  But the people of Alaska had elected him as their senator, and to silence him was to dishonor the American democratic process that had selected Stevens as their voice...that was worth more than scoring a point on someone from the other side.  This is a lesson that democracy is supposed to be more important than winning or political power...and when you forget that, fascism emerges.