April 17, 2020 at 11:59 a.m.
What reason is there?
I woke up Nov. 9, 2016 with an overwhelming sense of despair. Not because I hated Donald Trump or because I loved Hillary Clinton, but because we had more than sufficient evidence to tell us that Trump was unfit for the presidency. Many of us hoped beyond hope that a crisis could be avoided for the next four years. But here we are, in the biggest crisis of our lifetimes, with a president that is proving day after day after day that he is even more unfit than we could have imagined. I thought that this was as low as we could go in this country - but no, the Wisconsin Republican Legislature has eclipsed even that.
Many Wisconsinites are standing in lines on April 7, 2020 waiting to reach poll workers and cast a vote, and all are putting their lives at risk to do so. Even more are staying home even though absentee ballots never arrived. And none of that needed to happen. More than a dozen states delayed their primaries due to the coronavirus, taking action to protect both their citizens and the integrity of the election. In Wisconsin, however, the Republican dominated legislature lead by Speaker Vos and Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald, and supported by the Republican dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court, fought and won to run an in-person election at a time when social distancing is essential to protect the citizens and save lives.
I keep asking myself why they would do that. There are no issues in delaying the election that could not be solved. What in the world is more important than the safety of our family, our friends, our neighbors, shoot, even our opponents? There is no answer to that. The Republicans have admitted that when the turnout at elections is low, they tend to win. I can't wrap my mind around the prospect that winning an election is more important to them than the lives of the citizens they purport to serve. I can't wrap my mind around it, but neither can I in any possible scenario find any other reason. I am swept back to that overwhelming sense of despair.
Sincerely,
Beverly Pestel
Richland Center, WI
