Response to Marcella Danti's "Non-Partisanship is no more" article

Dear Editor, 

Marcella Danti lamented in her article last week that after last year's State Supreme Court election (won overwhelmingly by the candidate Danti opposed) our state no longer has a non-partisan judiciary. She claims that prior to 2023 our state Supreme Court had always been a bastion of independence against political ideology. Sorry Ms. Danti, but our court has been the center of partisanship decades before Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the Court. Ms. Danti's definition of non-partisan must only apply to decisions by the Court to which she agrees. Anybody who thinks Dan Kelley, Dan Gablemen or the current extreme conservatives on the Court are non-partisan in their voting must live in the clouds.

Ms. Danti label's people like me ( I taught American Government and American History for 34 years) as "Lefties whining and moaning about the gerrymandered districts in Wisconsin". She then spends two paragraphs whining about the same issue. She concludes by saying, "WAKE UP ...we must defeat every Democrat if there is any hope of retaining constitutionally given rights and freedom". It was not "Lefties" who climbed the walls at our nation's capitol trying to prevent Congress from doing it's constitutional duty of certifying the 2020 election results.  It was not "Lefties" who clubbed the Capitol police for trying to do their job on January 6th, 2021. And it was not just Democrats the thugs were after, just ask Mike Pence. I agree that Republicans need to wake up. They need to realize who is the real threat to our Constitution. The real threat to our country rests with 150 Republicans sitting in Congress that voted to reject the will of the majority of Americans. Biden won by over 7 million votes.

Like Ms. Danti, I too fear for the future of our democracy. You can call me a "Leftie". But you know what... I have never paid a porn star $150,000 to keep quiet. I have never been married three times and been unfaithful to each one of my wives.  I have never talked about grabbing a woman's genitals. I am not facing 91  felony counts. I have not been ordered to pay $500 million in fines. I have not declared bankruptcy five times. And I would NEVER invite an authoritarian/dictator to have a "summit" or heap praise on Putin and encourage him to  "invade and do whatever the ***you want" to any of our European allies that Trump is upset with.

The Justice Department has charged 1200 people with federal crimes related to January 6th, 2021. About 730 have pled guilty while another 170 were convicted at trial. Trump said he will pardon every one of them if elected. I am going to do my part by working hard to  defeat one of the  insurrectionists currently in Congress, Republican Van Orden in the 3rd Congressional District. He was there on January 6th cheering on the thugs who were trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power...something else that is in our Constitution

Tom Osting

Platteville, WI