When I first described the idea of Reach Out Wisconsin to friends, they sometimes asked, “Do you think you’ll be able to get enough conservatives to come to the table for these dialogues? I can imagine liberals showing up, but it seems like conservatives are more closed-minded and wouldn’t want to talk to us.”
Well, it’s been a couple months now—and so far, my experience has been precisely the opposite.
It’s been challenging to recruit liberals to attend the forums. It’s also been nearly impossible to find speakers from liberal perspectives.
Even worse, to my shock, the Democratic Party of Dane County has bluntly denounced our mission of fostering respect and understanding in Wisconsin politics.
I do have many liberal friends who came to our first forum or will attend future ones. And those who showed up that first time did seem quite interested in listening. However, there were more conservatives than liberals in attendance.
That forum was on concealed carry of firearms. Ron was unable to find a speaker from an organized group against concealed carry, so our friends Adam and Ashleigh had graciously offered to step up as “concerned citizens.” Meanwhile, Scott and Carol had had no trouble recruiting a pro-concealed carry speaker. Their side was represented by a former law enforcement officer and current NRA instructor.
Ron had contacted approximately a dozen potential liberal speakers, all of whom had declined or were unavailable.
It’s been even more discouraging for Ron to try to find a speaker for the second forum in a couple of weeks, which will be on abortion. Carol, on the pro-life side, easily recruited a speaker from Pro-Life Wisconsin to represent that perspective. But despite the fact that there are multiple local pro-choice agencies, and despite Ron’s again contacting over a dozen people, he has so far come up empty-handed.
He’s tapped Planned Parenthood, who have so far declined on the grounds that speaking at a nonpartisan forum to a bipartisan group seems “too political.” (I can slightly understand this, given PP’s tenuous political situation.) He’s contacted other pro-choice nonprofits, with no luck. One person, a religious leader with a pro-choice organization, declined because Pro-Life Wisconsin is “not interested in honest dialogue.”
If Pro-Life Wisconsin is not interested in honest dialogue, then why are they the only ones who will show up at our dialogue forum?!
Then there’s the local Democratic Party.
A couple weeks ago, I emailed them soliciting their advice about recruiting Democrats to attend our forums. Many attendees at the first forum were Republican Party members, whereas our liberal attendees were mainly just Ron’s and my friends—people who aren’t very active in the Democratic Party. I was hoping to balance that out.
The chair of the Democratic Party of Dane County wrote me back in a withering tone. “Thank you for your email inviting us to get involved in your group. We must decline.”
He then talked about the tens of thousands of Dane County residents who are suffering under Republican legislation, and added:
As an organized entity the Democratic Party of Dane County is not interested in bilateral discussions with organized republicans or “understanding” them. We fully understand what they believe and in who’s interest they, wittingly or not, are working. I don’t mean the small stuff like concealed carry, but fundamental economic and structural issues in America. The resources we have, the energy we bring to bear, needs to be used to defeat them.
We were welcome to show up and make announcements at party meetings, he said. But otherwise, “Good luck in your endeavors.”
His response shocked me. My party, the Democratic Party, officially uninterested in bilateral discussions or understanding?
We liberals hold to what is apparently a myth: that we’re the open-minded ones, that our leaders are the ones who want to reach across the aisle. In reality, I’ve run into a brick wall.
And in contrast, we’ve been received with open arms by the Republican Party of Dane County. They invited us to their annual picnic, announced our first forum there and at their monthly social gatherings, and were enthusiastic about dialogue from their very first email responses to us.
I’ve never felt any pressure from them to change my views or my votes. They seem genuinely interested in the idea of getting along with me, despite our many disagreements.
Ron and I discussed whether to post all of this here. It obviously makes Democrats—and liberals in general—look terrible. What if this post is somehow used by conservatives to undermine our credibility, and thus the credibility of our agenda?
But I believe that policies and tactics are two separate things. I’m all for most of the “liberal agenda”—for increased funding to public schools and services, for more universal health care, more inclusive marriage laws, reduced military spending, increased regulation to protect the environment, etc.
It’s the tactics that are bothering me, at least locally. I want my agenda represented with integrity. I believe dialogue is essential to healthy democracy. If my own leaders aren’t interested in dialogue, then it’s my job to demand change from them. That’s why I’m posting this here.
Below is my email response to Wayne Bigelow, the chair of the Democratic Party of Dane County. If you’re a Democrat who feels as shocked and disturbed as I do, I urge you to send him your own email at waynedcdp@yahoo.com.
And if you’d like to help put this state and country on a path to better dialogue, I urge you to show up at a Reach Out Wisconsin forum—with an open mind.
Wayne,
Thank you for your willingness to allow us to promote Reach Out Wisconsin at Democratic Party meetings; that is the kind of support we’re looking for. Perhaps you misunderstood my request—I understand that as an organized entity, the DPDC must be careful in its alliances. When I said that the Republican Party of Dane County has been supportive, I meant in the same way that you describe. They’ve supported us by helping us to connect with their membership and by announcing our events at their meetings.
I share your passion about the issues you mentioned: worker’s rights, small business, and the plight of the poor; I share your bitterness over the turn this state has taken in the last year, and your determination to put us back on the right track. As I mentioned, I was very active in the protest; I myself am a state worker who will be drastically affected by the changes; and I helped with the recall efforts for both Luther Olsen and Alberta Darling. And I’m very grateful for the ongoing efforts of the Democratic Party to champion my values.
However, I also believe it is vitally important for us liberals to understand conservative perspectives, and vice versa. This is true at the grassroots level of Reach Out Wisconsin, at the level of leadership that you are in, and at the highest levels of governance. That’s why I must say that I am deeply disappointed at your disinterest in trying to “understand” Republicans (not sure why you found the quotes to be necessary). I am especially disappointed at the contrast between your response and the response of the Republican Party, which was warm and enthusiastic about Reach Out’s mission. I once assumed that my fellow Democrats were more open-minded than Republicans, but your response is evidence to the contrary. Nowadays, I feel that this kind of closed-mindedness is one of the failings of my party, something that may even cost us votes. I will feel embarrassed to relay your email to the conservative co-leaders of Reach Out Wisconsin.
Perhaps your comments were meant only for the organizational level of politics: that the DPDC has no wish to engage in bilateral conversation with the RPDC. (If that’s the case, I wholeheartedly disagree with such a policy.) But I sense from your tone that this is more than an organizational statement—that it’s also a personal sentiment of yours that may extend to all Republicans. You say that you already fully understand organized Republicans, but what do you mean by “organized”? The Republican Party represents close to half of the citizenry of America. Most of the Republicans I’ve spoken with are good, intelligent people, not the sheep that so many Democrats imagine them to be. Some in their leadership may have corporate interests in mind, but it’s ignorant to dismiss all Republicans on those grounds. Surely you can agree that the voices of all Americans—whether in the majority or the minority—deserve to be listened to. (If Scott Walker had been more willing to listen to his opposition, he might be on steadier ground now.)
Even if we defeat the Republicans in the next few years, the pendulum will inevitably swing back in their direction at some point. The current state of the country is unsustainable, with each party scrambling to push through its agenda during 2-year periods of power. Rather than shortsightedly wanting to “defeat” the Republicans, I believe that an additional goal should be to change the tone of the national conversation. Liberals and conservatives today are like a husband and wife in a crumbling marriage. We are different, and we are unlikely to change, but we both bring good ideas to the table. We must learn to work better together.
And so, I urge you to attend a Reach Out Wisconsin event. Not as the leader of the DPDC, but as a citizen. Our goal isn’t to create a harmonious world where everyone agrees; it’s simply to help us all to have more productive conversations. These conversations have helped me to better articulate what I believe; to discard some of the ignorant prejudices I used to harbor against Republicans; to discover common ground that could be a starting place for compromise; and to build trust with conservative friends so that we can actually listen to each other. Anyone would benefit from such conversations.
Regards,
Katie
