How America's Best State Fell Apart
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2024
- Wisconsin - that most American of all U.S. states - was once a land where socialists won elected office and where “the Wisconsin Idea” represented a nation where government could be a force for good. But in the last few decades, Wisconsin - and the rest of America - has changed. The story of Wisconsin is a story of much more: it’s the story of the betrayal of America’s poor and working class. Philip Rocco, associate professor of political science at Marquette University, explains.
Citations: shorturl.at/mtHK3
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0:00 Introduction
0:41 The Old Wisconsin
2:08 Fall
3:27 Betrayal
4:53 The Collapse
7:56 After the Fall
9:51 Credits
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@@robertwinslade3104 my guess is that they will never give an answer.
The fact that you dangerously dishonest ideologues can look at yourselves in the mirror and carry on with your lives is proof that we don't have words that convey enough shame in the English Language.
@The Gravel Institute As someone who lives in Madison, what can I actually do to make things better here? My area votes about 95% blue, so outside of the Govorner's race, senate, and Presidential elections, my vote doesn't mean anything. It just sucks that I feel like there is no way for anything good to happen.
I would. But I voted blue, no matter who and then they did everything they could to keep me from getting my minimum wage increased so I can only pay bills. If only they had passed that I would not be reminded every paycheck that they are monsters.
@@IWLDELJ Way to perpetuate another Wisconsin tradition: McCarthyism. You've been brainwashed into believing that society is just a contest, not for the benefit of all of its members. You carry water for the winners, the corporations and the wealthy, consigning yourself to a lesser existence. Sad.
This feels applicable for a lot of the Midwest
I hope they do one on Nebraska. We were ground zero of the Progressive Party... a long time ago.
Read What's The Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank. Encapsulates what happened to mid western states very well.
The Republican economic model is collapsing on itself. Low taxes for the elites, slashing government, dismantling democracy is failing them even as we speak.
You can't find a Republican state that's doing well. Kansas, turned Brownback out; Indiana, would have gotten rid of Pence if he hadn't jumped in with Trump. And Texas...hoo boy. Texas under Abbott took a real hit when their privately owned, independent power grid failed and left people in the cold and in the dark last winter. Everywhere there's a Republican, there's a failed state.
There's a reason why Biden won and why Bernie Sanders is popular; the people love what they're proposing. The only people who hate it are the elites and the corporate shareholders.
Sanders and Biden are echoing what Mike Gravel was advocating 25 years ago. And back then, when the corporate, for profit media was the only outlet, thanks to Ronald Reagan, they successfully marginalized him and other progressives like John Anderson, Dennis Kucinich and Paul Wellstone, who unfortunately died prematurely. But now we have a new weapon; the internet. Along with other social media outlets any one of us can be propagandist and communicator with something as simple as a smart phone and a laptop. This is the democratization of communication at it's finest.
We can organize, communicate and agitate faster and wider than the corporate for profit media can. And it scares the s*it out of the elites. Why do you think the ChiComs have a tight leash on the internet, especially in Hong Kong? And I'm saying this AS as a Socialist. I don't care if you're an Anarchist, Trotskyite, Democratic Socialist, moderate Democrat, whatever. We can have our arguments later. Right now, we're facing down the barrel of a Fascistic threat to our democracy.
Whatever the Republican Party was in the past, it isn't anymore. This isn't the "party of Lincoln" anymore. Whatever it is, is an existential threat to all of us. And we have to not only see it defeated but destroyed totally. There is no alternative.
Same in Oklahoma. During the depression era we had big socialist movements. One of the poster child's of the movement was Woody Guthrie. His guitar had a sticker that said this machine kills fascists
@@dangelo1369 we have to go after the mass corruption of the neo liberal party too. Its just the oligarchs, big businessmen, ruling elite that are our true enemy
I have only lived in Wisconsin for a little over a decade and I have felt the continued regression. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for people who have lived here all their lives and have known Wisconsin at its finest to see the sorry state it is in today.
Great video.
I am from Alabama and it is frustrating just how little the place has changed over the years.
i too used to live in wisconsin in the late 70s...but then i moved cause my frizzy haired neighbor and his inexplicably out of his league blonde wives kept annoying me...
@@ShortFuseFighting Is your name Frank Murphy by any chance?
@@AxmedGurey_Al-Ghazi I was making a that 70s show reference
Its not frustrating since they vote republican.jits those old people who keep it this way.
As a Wisconsinite this is horribly depressing. I had relatives who worked at the unionized GM plant in Janesville, and were paid enough so they could buy a nice house in the suburbs, send their kids to college, and had pensions that would allow them to be financially stable enough to retire. Now all those old factories are rotting in ghettos because a few greedy elites decided to stab the working class in the back and send those jobs to Mexico.
Everything wrong with capitalism. So sad :(
we say the same thing north of your border. it was good but our rich got permission with nafta to ship our jobs to usa.
Janesville, Portage, Racine, Kenosha, Stephen's Point. So many run down factory towns. It's really sad to see.
Here's a pretty dark reality: to some extent, factories would have been shut down regardless. Automation removes the need for workers...to some extent. This is why entrepreneurship should be encouraged.
@@bobfg3130 I don't think any amount of entrepreneurship will help people out of a post industrial depression like the one that most of the U.S. is in. The promise of automation was never that everyone would be without a job while a few people make all the money. The promise of automation was for people to not have to work anymore. The solution to removing the jobs that people rely on is to pay them regardless.
The gerrymandering part was really eye opening. It baffles me how blatantly gerrymandered the districts are with the majority of votes going to democrats, but 2/3 of seats going to republicans. What can even be done about this?
Guillotines
as long as the people just let it happen, nothing can be done.
It's the major downside of democracy. Because it means that the people decide. But it doens't work that well when the people decide to do nothing when they are under attack.
There is an election for governor this November, and an EXTREMELY important election for state Supreme Court in April 2023.
Extreme partisan gerrymandering is against the Wisconsin constitution, so the Court can strike down these maps with 1 more progressive vote in 2023. As long as Evers is re-elected this year, the Republicans cannot repeal the fair map the Supreme Court draws.
@@Robbedem No, the people decided to do something in 2018 when the Democrats won 8% more of the vote. Nothing happened because democracy in Wisconsin is non-functional.
Democracy isn’t the problem. More democracy is the solution.
@@ryananderson5901 the system is not a democracy, so participating in its farce elections is only legitimizing the authoritarian system, when parties were asked before to participate in obviously rigged elections to legitimize other fascist regimes, boycotting is an option, it results in short term increases in their opponents power but is often the only way to bring it to a head
revolution or capitulation
Shocked to learn that America's best state isn't "chaos."
🤣
Denial
WHY DOES THE WORTLD HATE AMERICA SO MUCH!!
@@hermeslein6614 Cuz merica is run by big money
@@hermeslein6614 well bombing civilians and entire countries into the stone age isnt a good message, along with constant CIA sabotage on third world countries
Someone should pay to put this across all advertising platforms in Wisconsin... and America.
I think I know of a certain strange british man with way too much spare time that could have this forwarded to him.
@@severdislike4222
If it's the one I'm thinking of, he's a U.S. citizen now.
What was he thinking???
@@grmpEqweer Oh he is. Generally think he's here to watch another empire dissolve around him while popcorn and snark are given.
They done took all our capital mate we can't
@@tinyhotopicbitch Yes you can
I live in Wisconsin and because of my name I have to explain that I’m both literally and ideologically not Scott Walker about twice a week lol
@@walkerscott5716 Haaa!
Also not an American singer living in England in the 70s?
As a Wisconsinite it’s really frustrating to see workers rights being gutted and the regression this state is experiencing
What is even more frustrating for you is that small towns and rural areas in Wisconsin keep blindly voting red republican and against their own interests.
@@r.pres.4121 I think we've discovered in recent years that corporate Democrats are no better.
1/3 of labor unions voted for this, I can't imagine being that dumb to vote against my own interests because "Scott Walker" felt good.
@@mE-zx7pt Both sides are blinded. It’s all about party now and not the collective good
@@xalpacazeu1332 they're like two royal houses battling for power & the rest of us are just collateral damage.
Wisconsin literally legalized Child Labor, & Republicans are currently passing a Bill allowing Kids to carry guns in school. There's something seriously wrong with that state at the moment. 😒
Child labor is a RIGHT. If you think that it's a solution to anything to make fewer people able to work, you are a dangerously foolish person.
@@IWLDELJ the fuck is not, a child should not be anywhere close to getting their development broken so early. You hustle culture bros are disgusting if you think a child should work
@@IWLDELJ what's wrong with you? Serious question
@@IWLDELJ We don't have a shortage of willing and able laborers. We have a shortage of employers and powerful people who believe in giving them even remotely fair pay, benefits, and social programs with the tax money they generate. Giving them more reason to exploit inexperienced, "unskilled" labor is the opposite of a solution.
@@alonsoarana5307 You are a dangerously stupid person if you think that labor breaks someone's development. You realize that child labor isn't just something that isn't any of your business, but for the overwhelming majority of human history was NECESSARY to get society where it is today?
It's depressing that democracies are disintegrating.
IKR?
My own thought is this:
When rich people get rich enough, they compromise the government, one way or another.
So huge accumulations of wealth are actually corrosive to democracy.
@Account NumberEight It's true that American life in terms of standard-of-living was better on average but America always sucked considering we still had segregation and imperialism 50 years ago.
That's cause we aren't fighting for them. The tree of liberty isn't being watered. And the only water it takes is the blood of tyrants and comrades.
@@JakeBrancatellaClips The trajectory we were on in the 60s was good though, we were becoming BETTER! Expanding civil rights while ending segregation, the taxation was fair, wages kept up with productivity. Then the greedy powers that be assassinated 4 of our great leaders (MLK Jr, Malcolm X, JFK, RFK) and took control of everything and it was the beginning of the end for our country. We were robbed, and I really don't think that has sunk in with people, especially now that they are so heavily brainwashed to think exacy how and what those powers want.
@@Iconoclast1919 yeah, this country functions like India or Nigeria. The only law is the money and guns for the right price. Kids, gladiator fights, the most dangerous game, all organized by the police if you lay enough.
Missed a huge chance to talk about how bad the second red scare was in Wisconsin, especially with McCarthy being from Wisconsin and all. Wisconsinite speaking, my entire family still has that beaten into them hard. Retired or former John Deere union workers to a tee
Gosh that's horrible.
The Red Scare in the USA is insane. It's almost like Pavlov dogs. Utter even a slightly leftish idea, read normal in Europe, and someone will reply: "Communism never worked" almost automatically. If not: You commie, CCP hack. To some even Biden is a Marxist. I'd say that level of propagandized delusion is terrifying.
@@KootFloris ots true tho and you see it today soclism has killed millions and we should never let it get in our government and you will have war with alot of us if you do
The Red Scare was so bad Mike McCarthy's street had to have his whole name on a street sign instead of just his last name
@@thewildcardperson thanks for helping prove his point. As well as showing just how dangerous propaganda is.
You’re willing, even eager to threaten war against some invisible enemy that’s been constructed for you by politicians that fear losing power over the masses of people. In case you missed it, you are part of “the masses of people”. You have no power in this system, you’re just another human, just like the rest of us. If you truly think that taking up arms against your fellow countrymen is a a good thing, then that simply shows just how confused you are, and shows just how effective propaganda is… you’ve fallen victim to the politicians that are afraid of you and me, they are turning you into a foot soldier for the elites, the 1% can only fight the masses if they can recruit enough zealots to fight for them. They are clowns in suits, they aren’t interested in helping you or anyone else, they certainly don’t care about America, or “traditional American values” and they don’t even know right from wrong, they only know power, wealth and manipulation.
Make sure you know your enemy, why they’re you’re enemy and consider how they might be defeated.
No one has enough ammo to defeat an idea but we are certainly divided enough to destroy fabric of our society.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I heard my dad (a former republican) complain about Tommy Thompson and the Wisconsin and I told him he made them sound like organized crime. My dad said, “don’t be ridiculous, they’re not organized.”
The only real comfort is this:
When something obviously cannot be sustained, it won't be.
The truest explanation of the current state of capitalism
lol sorry, I tried taking comfort in what you are saying but the idea how many millions will be crushed when this system reaches its breaking point. A sane species would try to divert course but we all seem to be suicidal monkeys pushing ourselves of a cliff so.....I want to laugh but only cause we are such a tragic species.
I feel like weve been saying "thus isnt sustainable" for decades but it keeps on going simply becuase we convince ourselves we have to settle for less and less.
What is the breaking point?
@@stratecaster547 For people who haven't lived that long, it's hard to imagine the sheer scale of how much we had. It took a century to create and they've been plundering it for half that time. Reagan wiped out the farmers and the unions, but those groups had accumulated enough to withstand the onslaught while dividing up people concentrated the worst effects.
For people my age (X) and the early millennials, we went to college and stayed afloat with jobs that payed roughly the same as what our parents made, while the costs of that education were deferred. The Financialization of everything allowed people to eat up the equity they had built up in their homes, frequently over the course of generations.
It isn't sustainable and we are very near the end of the road. As Frank Zappa put it forty years ago, "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
Danny is a commmie
Goes to show this is class warfare. Its not us the people who should fight one another. We should unite and fight the oligarchs, big businessmen, ruling elite.
Try convincing a racist and science denying moron that. The rest of us have been aware of this fact for a long time.
@@retroboomer3197 well there are a lot of Republicans that were for Bernie Sanders. Half of Republicans support M4A. There is ground to be made
@@grapentine739 Yes, but they still vote for politicians who don't want those things. Both political parties, and especially the republicans, have become a cancer on the US.
The oligarchs and ruling elite ARENT SPECIFIC TO A POLITICAL PARTY.
They support whoever they can, whenever it benefits them.
The oil companies in America secretly funded protests against the keystone XL pipeline in canada, and private funneled money into progressive minded activists to shut down the pipeline. Meanwhile, those same oil companies support republicans and conservatives, and manipulate them easily, as normally conservative provinces and states need jobs.
Republican voters worship the rich and despise the poor and middle class.
Being born and raised in South Carolina, to moving to Wisconsin a year ago… it’s a different world lol I will say… a lot of the “Wisconsin idea” is still applicable to a decent size of the population. I’ve noticed that there is a pretty big progressive mentality among a lot of citizens. It’s just that (as this video stated) they’re disenfranchised.
You're comparing to SC tho, everything will look progressive in comparison
@@truedarklander With the possible exception of MS, that's true. SC native here, now living in NC. When I was growing up the joke in SC was "Thank Goodness for MS" because we were always 49th in everything with MS 50th. I left SC over 20 years ago to get away from its "Plantation Mentality" but only to realize in a few years that the entire country was becoming like SC.
Well now Alabama is worse than Mississippi so South Carolina has been bumped up to third worst place.
You've actually hit the most important word *DISENFRANCHISED.*
I'm Australian but went to college U. Illinois on an athletic scholarship (late 80s) so I competed against the Badgers quite a lot. I did a couple of road trips to Wisconsin which were great - good memories. I'm incredibly sad that so many Americans are disenfranchised. *BUT* we are now going down a similar path in Australia. A huge part of our population is totally fed up with our political establishment *both left and right.* They dumped our car industry too and threw 1000s of families into the gutter. Our farms have been under pressure for years. In the 80s we had over 22,000 dairy farmers we now have less than 9,000 as the mega corps have swallowed them.
We just hate our politicians these days. No matter how any election goes the same shit keeps being dumped on us (sound familiar)
When I look at Europe its the same there. I was in Canada for work a couple of years ago and they were the same. While I was there they had 2 scandals. One over a government labor contract and the Paradise Papers for tax evasion via Bermuda. We've had the same types of scandals here. Corrupt government business deals and the Panama Papers for tax evasion through Panama and the British Virgin Islands. We have another tax evasion scheme via Singapore right now.
Its the same everywhere across the Western World and its ripping our countries apart. The top 1% either directly by membership or indirectly via money or through media ownership control all of the major political parties - EVERYWHERE. The only differences between countries are how far the division has been driven. Either way the top 1% get everything they want and the rest of us get shafted.
I had a couple of really great times in Wisconsin.
@@tonywilson4713 It's happening South Africa too. Sadly, the country is very anti-communist:(
Fitting - here’s an old Turkish proverb that goes something like this. The trees keep voting for the axe even thou they can see the forest is disappearing because the axe always uses it’s handle to convince the trees that it’s one of them.
ACAB
Oh shit, that's good!
WI was the heart of American labor movements. And they were systemically punished by capital for it ever since.
well, it's partly the unions fault.
They let themselves get complacant (probably corruption too), which eventually allowed a governer to enact laws and the unions by that time had already lost to much power to do anything against it.
A law like that in my country would be immediate national strike. And the unions can do that for months here if needed. So no political party would even consider such an idea because it's political suicide.
@@Robbedem yea we certainly had an aristocracy of labor
@@howenator Now we just have an autocracy of Capital
@@Robbedem Unions were effectively neutered during the Truman administration.
@@August-Willich Don't know about that. They seemed to still be pretty powerful in the 1950s, 60s and going into the 70s.
The amount of grassroots organizing to undo this kind of stuff is incredibly time consuming and the people we need most engaged are the ones most enslaved to wages with almost no time and energy to dedicate to bettering things. Vicious cycle.
Neoliberalism has been very bad for regular people in the 'West'
For a country founded partially on “no taxation without representation” most Americans seem to have stopped giving any fucks about real representation.
They literally murder community organizers, politicians etc. And with their new algorithms they can identify community leaders before they realize they're community leaders, and then they send out field operatives to encourage damaging behavior.
it was founded on saying that, but not meaning that, and only intending that to apply to white land-owning males. we're keeping with the tradition.
They also rebelled because Crown forbid them settled beyond Appalachia
The American Revolution wasn't about freedom at all.
It was about rich people not paying their taxes.
I'm glad you're making a video like this for my Homestate that I'm still residing in and I wish more Channels like yours did the same and I feel like bringing the whole Midwest whenever it comes to discussing Wisconsin, deflects and muds the water to the point where it's own independent issues get lost and overshadowed despite how much of it is shared with the rest of States in the Midwest especially near the Great Lakes.
Hey, Myles. How do y'all accept such an unfair election system? I had a hard time understanding how gerrymandering is a thing but seeing it in practice at its worst, I can't comprehend how the people allows it. Is everyone aware of it?
Don't get me wrong, it's honest curiosity. We are not any better down here in Argentina.
@@sebastianbardon391 By the time anyone realizes, they've already been elected, and it's far too late.
@@notme8232 How is it that the local media doesn't cover it? I would be really pissed off and go on a protest... it's an assault on democracy. Democrats should be screaming about it too!
@@sebastianbardon391 Provided the new maps they draw don't *obviously* disadvantage people based on race/age/gender/etc, it's fine. Even if it obviously disadvantages the opposition. The maps only ever get any news attention when the maps get sent back to be redrawn because it seemed like they were screwing over minorities. Then by the time you realize you're in a different voting district than before, you're already in an election and they won't fix it until afterwards. Maybe.
@@neferacronia6798 The system is broken, if you already know that it happens, there has to be legislation to stop it! Are the responsible ever prosecuted? It's enfuriating
It’s so sad to see how my home state has fallen apart.
Along with Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio they have all fallen apart thanks to the right wing lies and propaganda of the GOP. Will Illinois and Minnesota remain blue democratic states or will they both eventually fall the same way.
As somebody who grew in Wisconsin, learned about this history, and saw this all play out during Walker's terms, this video simultaneously broke my heart and made me relive a bunch of events.
I didn't understand how bad politicians were there until I tried talking to Vukmir about allowing cannabis bills to go forward to be voted on. Tried to change things...couldn't...so I left. I don't miss it, especially with the recent temperatures. Brr!
🕊️
Same
Did it make you relive the part where Affinity made an insurance bid for teachers' medical insurance that was HALF of what the captive teachers' union insurance company was charging? You don't remember how the government unions were raking taxpayers across the coals?
did you get arrested for growing in wisconsin or were you one of the lucky few who never got caught. im prettysure its still illegal to this very day.
@@dorksplorer “allowing cannabis bills to go forward to be voted on. Tried to change things, couldn’t and left”, good riddance, the fewer people who’s minds are poisoned with that drug the better, glad to know some politicians still care
The sign I carried during the protests a decade ago said WISCONSIN IS THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE.
As a zoomer Wisconsinite, the idea that we were ever the "best state" is pretty funny to me.
I agree with this. It feels like ever since I was in elementary school things have been getting worse and worse.
wisconsin was known for clean government and split tickets. Most people believed that government controlled by a single party always leads to corruption.
Elder Millennial Wisconsinite here. Things seemed decent enough in the early 00's, but the shift after Walker's election cannot be overstated. Like going from a slide to a straight terminal velocity freefall. Between Act 10, ALEC and Foxconn, there aren't a lot of people who've done more to damage to us.
It's true though. Wisconsin's Iron Brigade, resistance to Fugitive Slave Act, and freeing of Joshua Glover all point to a more anti racist state in the 1800s than 2000s, where it's now the worst state for Black people. In the early 20th century Milwaukee was the cleanest and healthiest city - when it was heavily unionized and run by socialists.
Buster generation Wisconsinite here and I was proud to say so till Walker
Shocking and terribly depressing. Thank you, Gravel Institute, for these deeply insightful and extremely well-produced tutorials. We citizens need a strategy to reverse this descent into autocracy, and I'm not seeing it in either establishment party, both of which are captured by the ruling class forces described in this video.
Honestly, the only solution I can think of is a violent uprising.
@@t3chkn1ght Sad to say, I'm leaning toward the same conclusion. #DefundTheEmpire
This is not insightful in the least. Did he tell you why the factories closed? No. It was because unions (the UAW in particular) raised the cost of building automobiles in the US far above that elsewhere. Did he mention also that the government imposed regulations in the 1970's sucked up the entire R&D budgets of the US automakers? No, he misleadingly doesn't say that.
This crap video doesn't investigate any of the reasons why Wisconsin has changed as it has. Worse, it advocates for government unions, whose only function is to extract more money from the productive portions of society.
@@christianlibertarian5488 Without unions the workers have no say at all!
@@christianlibertarian5488 you literally cannot be a Libertarian and a disciple of Christ, they are philosophies which are totally incompatible
Most of this applies to the entire country, not just Wisconsin.
lol. he said that in the beginning
most of this is disinformantion. No one in Wisconsin is having trouble voting. That's a far left myth.
As someone who moved there during Russ Feingold's tenure & left when Scott Walker was governor, this vid - **and the fact in general** - hits hard. 😖
Yup! I remember now that my dad talked about how Scott walker cut teachers wages (he was a teacher at the time), he was referring to Act 10.
It's honestly shocking what Mike, Jay, and Rich Evans did to this great state
I'm just glad they all were able to take Rich's name following their polygamous gay marriage :)
@@dielfonelletab8711 We're so fortunate that they're still here, despite the years of crippling depression and AAAAAAAIIIDDDSSS
I'm glad someone made the connection xD
They are keeping Mom and Pop VCR shops open. The state should thank them for keeping small businesses open.
ACAB
The government should be a tool to better the lives of ordinary people.
That's not called the Wisconsin idea, that's called common sense.
If government were not a tool to better the lives of the people it governs, it would have no purpose whatsoever.
The owners of Capital who have taken unilateral control over all major institutions of power call your suggestion spooky communism
@@GANONdork123 Considering the state of the US...
In my opinion Government will always be corrupt because stuck-up elitists will always try and consolidate as much power as they can while the rest of us suffer. That's why I'm an anarchist/socialist✊🏼
@@JakeBrancatellaClips Anarchy will always leave a power vacuum that some government will take a hold of and fill, whether by peaceful means or by force.
Both of my parents are public sector union members in Wisconsin, and them attending the 2010 and 2011 labor protests against Walker's union busting was probably one of my first introductions to politics. The guy was sort of a supervillain to me as a kid, and the older I've gotten, my opinion on him has only gotten worse. It's good to see that the Gravel Institute is bringing attention to a political development that, given its sheer effectiveness and impact on other reactionary movements throughout the US in the 2010s and 2020s alone, is certainly worth introducing to a wider audience.
I left Wisconsin in '99 because I was watching the state decay right before my eyes, and now I see the whole country rotting the exact same way. My family still living there constantly vote red even as those votes crush them. It's absolutely painful to go home now, even for a visit, because it just gets worse and worse every time. Living there ages you prematurely, too.
I guess I was living in Wisconsin at the time. There was this guy who called Scotty Walker on the phone pretending to be one of the Koch brothers. Scotty and he got along real well. Over time, it's been sort of an eye opener to me. It's not the people of the country who run the country, Nope. We live in a sort of what they call an Oligarchy. I guess this is nothing you don't know already. Thanks for the video.
A plutocracy, if you want to be more specific.
@@leandro2873 I'll grant you that. Do they still sell pitch forks in Wisconsin? I can think of a pretty good use for them at the current time. My grandma used to have some good rusty ones at her dairy farm. You can give tetanus with those.
That was such a great prank, Ian Murphy was an absolute American hero
Amusingly, Murphy's 'sting' was a total bust. All he managed to prove is that Scott Walker is polite.
(although it's a little amusing that a party that's wholly owned by Buffet, Soros, and a couple filthy rich unions are still obsessed with the Koch Brothers)
@@kenabbott8585 Only 8 percent of the people in the United States are unionized. This is much less than in other Western nations It is also much less than in past years. It is a fallacy to believe unions are "filthy rich." Working men and women are what make up unions and not the oligarchy who owns the media that has been feeding the public this BS. It is true that the Democratic party is largely controlled by the rich folks in this country just like the Republicans. However, Democrats do sometimes spout rhetoric that they are on the side of the people. Republicans give other messages. Just like the folks in Russia who are told what Putin wants them to hear. The rich folks who own the media tell us what they want us to hear and all too many swallow the message hook, line and sinker.
I work with a guy that lived in Milwaukee. Before that he lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia in the 80s and 90s. And according to him, Milwaukee is the hellhole.
I can't disagree with this assessment of life in Wisconsin. Fifty years ago, the state was a brighter, more prosperous, more optimistic place than it is, today.
The rust belt used to be where unions kept working people above water. That was before Reagan.
and people willingly flocked to him then re-elected him.
@@STScott-qo4pw
czcams.com/video/8kWjJPQXCyc/video.html
Reagan was a great bullshit artist who manipulated most Americans to buy his garbage.
@@STScott-qo4pw Barely half of the country voted in 1980 and 1984, and of that, Reagan got around half of the popular vote. Don't believe the hype.
@@August-Willich But he still got re-elected and republicans, and some democrats, still cite him as a great president. He was the serious beginning of the end for the US and all the presidents since have willingly degraded the US further and further.
Host says "England" but the UK is highlighted.
The UK: I can't believe you've done this.
Raven Software just moved to form a union in Wisconsin, and I hope that they can be the change that both the state and the games industry needs. Solidarity with them forever. ✊
Lmao. I’m 2 minutes away from them. Emailed one of my tenants that I back the union.
This is one the very few channels on CZcams where I can honestly say that "this channel needs more subscribers". We the people all have an obligation to become educated at what forces are currently at work in the political and economic landscapes in this country and how to lessen their stranglehold on this dying Democracy.
Gotta love telling people I'm from Wisconsin and them going "oh man, really?"
ACAB
The last twist of the knife was when Phillip said Marquette University. It was just that last little bit of personal connection to the state that really caps this video well
BOOOOO Marquette, he could at least be at UW-Madison
Explain
@@teteteteta2548 Marquette is in Michigan
@@morganboutwell8231 its actually a university in Milwaukee
@@AaronParks ah thanks for the info. My bad
This is just sad. The people were happy. But the greedy were and are not ever satisfied. So they ruined it for everyone else
This shit is never going away until that horrible Citizens United decision is overturned.
Having lived in Wisconsin for the last 30 years I can confirm all of this.
You know, I was taught growing up that this is the greatest country in the world...nowadays, I have no reason to believe that.
The dream of Wisconsin is still alive somewhat in Minnesota. We've expanded our state's unemployment, Medicaid, haven't weakened unions, fought back and won against strip mining in the Boundary Waters, and still have one of the most robust economies in the country.
Yet you have a police state that murders black people. Nick Cruse from the Fred Hampton leftists is right, Derek Chauvin did what he did in a blue state
@@harrychristofi6725 What you describe isn't exclusive to Minnesota, it's everywhere. So attacking an otherwise positive trend in Minnesota for one specific issue which isn't specific to Minnesota is incredibly counterproductive. You can always count on Democrats and progressives to be manipulated to go after each other instead of going after what would make a true difference.
@@harrychristofi6725 We're also the state that gave so much of a shit that we started a worldwide movement to counteract it.
@@lougiacobbi725 yet bringing failures to light can unify public opinion in the direction of the desired outcome.
@@girlwithaguitar24 Sorry Zoey but that doesn’t change the fact that most people in your state voted for Jim Crow Joe and not howie Hawkins. I care about your actions not your words.
I live in Wisconsin and Right To Work is an absolute menace. I remember very well the first time I got fired for no reason, with no warning, just before the holiday season. No explanation given, no preparation to find a new job. I just showed up to work and was told I didn’t work there anymore. And there was literally nothing I could do about it. It sucks.
Had the exact same experience in my first job at Subway, fuck that management.
Dude it doesn't matter what state you work in or company you work for unless it's union they can fire anyone at anytime
@@misterbuddyboy They need a legal reason.
@@bobbychild8529 they can just say you're to slow, to many mistakes, they can make anything up as long as they don't use race, even if it is race you can't prove it
Lies. Right to work means you can choose to be in a union or not, and you cant be coerced. Unions hate it because they cant force people to be a slave to the union against their will. In any job you can quit any time you want, without reason. Its called at will employment. On the other hand, employer can let you go at any time. Its a two way street. There is no such thing as lifetime employment.
I live in MN, Wisconsin's neighbor. The first time I was politically aware was reading about how Gov. Walker and the Repub's in charge were trying to cut Wisconsin's school budgets, or something similiar. The Dems left the state senate, in attempt to stop the cut from going through, because they didn't have enough to make quorum and the school-cutting was part of a state budget package. The Repubs then went "so since we can't pass the state budget (and with it the school-cutting), fuck it, let's go cut the schools in a separate package, because fuck you libs." A lot of people were pissed furious. That's when I started to discover Rep's are shitstains.
As someone who went through Wisconsins public school very recently they're funded fine
@@trent6319 depends on the area.
@@xalpacazeu1332 that's fair a 40% percent of the funding state wide comes from local property taxes so some areas may have different funding
i also live in mn
What Scott did was shameful and does not reflect the Republican Party as a whole. This is why Republicans are moving away from establishmentarians like Walker and towards America First candidates, outsiders and people who genuinely care about Americans.
I blame Aaron Rodgers
Giannis shall redeem the entire state.
This is my biggest critique of social democracy, it is subject to rollbacks which almost always happens. There was a reason why Karl Marx vehemently disagreed with Lasalle on the strategy of social democrats, you can't convince the capitalist class to permanently give up power (aka capital). If you create social programs within the framework of a capitalist system, the capitalist system will always roll them back. You have to abolish and replace the entire system, you cannot incrementally reform it.
@@AustinRohrHoward Nice try, but we know what it takes to make socialism "fail", and it has nothing to do with socialism itself. It takes NATO bombing runs, it takes sanctions and trade wars and sabotage of state assets. It takes corrupting the system from within by infiltrating color revolutionaries.
You can play pretend that socialism always fails, but the truth is that capitalism failed 50 years ago. What we have now is a global command economy that directly subsidizes and protects the interests of the global elite. There is no free market, there is no fair trade, you're either bullied into submission by the IMF gang, or you're assaulted by the alphabet gang.
I live in Sweden which is a Social democracy and I see this problem first hand. The social democratic party in Sweden used to be a lot more left leaning but in recent time it has formed coalitions with center right and liberal parties in order to stay in power. This have led to the Social democrats compromising on a lot of left positions and views the Swedish Left party as radical even tough it's not.
@@jebubbiespubbies9762 Literally, nothing you stated has anything the fuck to do with what Austin wrote. And Austin is correct. Far more often than not, revolutions result in a loss of freedom and a loss of government provisions with an increase in authoritarianism. Every fucking asshole wants to talk about revolution why not knowing a fucking thing about what comes after that.
by collaborating with the us gov to crush communist and third world liberation movements,
western labor and social democrats signed their own death warrant, in both the us and western Europe, with plenit western puppets installed, us corporations could more their manufacturing to sweatshops and slave plantations policed by death squads in the third world, as soon as the capitalists had crushed the ussr and its allies, outside of a few enclaves like Cuba and Vietnam, the us gov turned towards its internal enemies and castrated the unions and implemented mass incarceration and militarized police domestically removing all real forces of opposition, starting with Reagan crushing the unions
with us union membership at all time low (with those remaining forced to fight a desperate rear guard actions for things we had a hundred years ago, and to keep child labor from being re-implemented ) solidarity and internationalism and antiimperliams are the only hope for the western left
@@AustinRohrHoward no, not even a little bit, the only holdouts against western neo-liberal hegemony are revolutionary countries like Cuba and Vietnam
So depressing how recent and how quickly this unfolded and how long it would take to restore workers political power.
and ppl are so amnesiac they forget such recent events as though they had never occurred
ACAB
Green Bay Packers are owned by a cooperative. Community ownership at its best and a story of success!
I love that even without oil money you guys are better than prageru. Like, you guys have music which instantly makes you better, great information with sources, great animation, and great narration. Keep it up!
This channel only started like a year ago and already has 300,000+ subs. People actually care about this kind of thing
All the funding gets eaten by Dennis “I like to kill people for fun” Prager
PragerU pulls shit out of their arse like "freedom and personal responsibility" rather than providing solutions to actual problems
Even the most inspiring and functional experiments in justice and equality can be totally kneecapped with enough evil money thrown against them.
Scott 'Rat Face' Walker was 1 of the worst things to happen to this state since Tony Mandrich.
Its all over the midwest. Loss of hope, fear of the future. Widespread decay both physical and emotional. Capitalism has eaten all there is and now it feeds upon our very souls.
I fear for the future of my home.
Capitalism is what made that all happen to begin with. Global corporatism ruined it all. We have bigger corporations, less competition, bigger government, and less freedom.
Ah, capitalism.
Crapitalism.
Literally the root source of all problems according to leftists and im saying this as a leftist. Like I'm not even saying capitalism has done anything good but even I acknowledge how we blame capitalism is the problem with everything.
@@bt3743 no, this is literally a flaw of capitalism, it can only be changed through violence, which means any kind of reform through a capitalist democracy is meaningless.
@@bt3743 it pretty much is, but okay 'leftist'.
@@bt3743 because it pretty much is? capitalism is a global hegemonic system post cold war, its run rampent everywhere
The children living in poverty stat is unforgivable, especially in the richest nation in history.
The amount of homelessness hunger and poverty in a country which can afford to wage several wars in the other side of the world is disgusting
The US houseless population rate is criminal.
yes, the "line go up world gooder" nonsense of those court neoliberal economist hackjobs only focus on indicators that have jack shit to do with actual peoples welfare, or is even negatively correlated with it
In poor, underdeveloped red republican states like Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas those troubling statistics are much higher.
@@r.pres.4121 the us, as a whole is a failed state, this isn't just a dem-republican issue, they're both capitalist parties
I have been in the US for 7 years and I leave for Norway in less than 2 months. I have shared the contract I signed with colleagues here in the US, and each one of them could hardly believe it when they read it. I am not gonna go in details regarding paid vacation/insurance/work hours/etc... but let's say that my employer emphasizes at least two times that it is recommended to join a labor union, and even informs me which ones are active in the company, along with the yearly union membership fee that could deduct directly from my salary (which is higher than the one of a similar position in the US).
I truly feel sad for most Americans, especially the ones that are victims to the neoliberal propaganda. People need to see themselves how much of a bad deal they are getting by living in the "greatest freedom-loving country in the world". As it happened in the past, a single social-democratic president with enough determination can turn the board upside down. We can only hope...
we do not care foreigner
Good for you. If I was single I'd move to either Norway or Finland. Good luck on the rest of your life. You're making a good decision.
@@Engineer_Heathen I hope the best for you guys. Hopefully Nina Turner (or another equally determined candidate) will get to DC soon. I know that people, even with family and well connected in the US, have also taken the step to move to Finland or Norway. Granted, there are some logistics with such decisions... Not a step for everyone, but all of them and their families think it was the best decision they have ever made.
@@ethanhall6750 You care enough to respond though... :)
Doesn't matter... denial is the first step to grief. Hopefully this and other similar sources will channel your power in more productive ways than simply digging your head in the sand deeper.
@@ethanhall6750 Yes we do, trailer trash
I love it when Gravel talks about America's progressive and socialist past, since I always try to tell people that progressivism is way more 'american' then people think. I hope yall talk about the Progressive Party, Huey Long, and Henry Wallace
Don’t forget Debs 😉
Every man a king
Henry Wallace makes me proud of Iowa, even if we've regressed as well
stop appropriating political terms.
Labor unions are NOT socialist; they are ANTI-socialist.
Socialism is about central government ownership and control of business.
Labor unions are about WORKER ownership and control of business.
@@montithered4741 no
America has already fallen, it's all downhill, been going downhill for a while now.
This channel rules . Keep fighting the good fight
As someone from Wisconsin I'll admit to being encouraged to work early in life. Growing up there shaped who I am and I wouldn't have it any other way, but there are flaws with the place. Large farms operate almost like southern plantations except now with undocumented workers. There is a meat processing plant called Abbyland where I've witnessed the cycle the owner abuses, hires undocumented peoples, they try to get better compensation, ICE shows up and deports people, a new group of undocumented people are hired. The normal people there love their family to a fault, any claim that their lives will change frightens them. I'm glad that I left, though I do miss the simple beauty of a deeply connected society. Don't know too much about the cities, as I was leaving the town where I grew up was being ravaged by meth. It wasn't drug smugglers it was desperate people trying to make a living by cooking and selling poison to people they loved.
As an Ohioan (specifically from the Mid Ohio Valley), I support my cheese loving brothers in Wisconsin. Please stay strong over there. I also understand your pains about gerrymandering, as I live in the most hilariously biased district in Ohio.
hard to see my home state fall apart. thanks for this video! this knowledge is vital.
I remember my dlc union president said that if you want to see how workers rights is being done with aggressive union busting, look at Wisconsin. Just insane of what Scott Walker and the GOP did but also seeing the Democratic Party of Wisconsin at fault as well. We need to restore the egalitarian Wisconsin implemented and make our union more perfect.
The fact that unionists think "You are no longer forced to join a union" is "union-busting" says everything about them that needs to be said.
@@kenabbott8585 when I stated "make our union more perfect" I am referring to our country of being more equitable and make the American Dream more attainable and accessible for all. Unions build the middle class. Plutocracy and neoliberalism ideals caused undue harm. Nice try though
@@adamr55
"I am referring to our country of being more equitable and make the American Dream.more attainable and accessible for all."
Which is exactly the opposite of what unions do.
"Unions build the middle class.
LOL bullshit.
"Plutocracy and neoliberalism ideals caused undue harm."
Only if you think "stop extorting money" is harmful.
"Nice try though"
I'd say the same, but your attempt was pretty pitiful.
@@kenabbott8585 thanks for proving a point that reprobates such as yourself who refuses to acknowledge they could be wrong or not willing to admit it. You have no intellectual humility and I truly pity you
Thats the whole Midwest. Having lived in multiple parts. I'd say Wisconsin was second least affected by these changes. Least effected being Minnesota. Most effected being Ohio, followed by Michigan.
Minnesota and Illinois are the last states not to fall to the republican red. How long can they hold out?
@@r.pres.4121 The only reason Illinois hasn't fallen to the Republicans is because of Chicago. Had it not been for them, the state would have had the same fate as Wisconsin.
I’ve lived in SE Wisconsin all my life.
My favorite thing Walker did was put a law in place that you couldn’t do a recount if an election was too close. And he lost because of it.
RIP Wisconsin 😔
I swear Wisconsin grew a full on Hellmouth in the last 30 years. Why else would such villainous fiends like Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Ron Johnson, & Reince Priebus have risen up?
Why else? Billionaires like Diane Hendricks; the ABC Supply heiress and member of the Trump ownership group. Super-PACs and candidates floated on a river of her cash.
As a fellow Wisconsin citizen, yep.
Is it just me, or has GI's subscriber count plateaud? It would not surprise me if youtube is suppressing their content. Anyways, a great and informative video.
CZcams has been favoring corporate media for awhile now. Many independent channels are being suppressed.
The algorithm tends to favours daily or biweekly, 10-20 minute videos
LOL. CZcams is supposedly suppressing Leftists now?
It’s not just these vids? Whether your neutral, right or left wing, CZcams silences it
It sorta feels like what's happening in Missouri as well. When we passed a non-partisan redistricting act, the state legislature quickly took control of the measure and forced another vote for it. In the second vote, they pumped a bunch of money into shooing down the measure, and got the result they were looking for. Now they're redrawing district lines in order to ensure they will always have a republican majority, which they've used in the past few years to prevent medical marijuana (even though we voted for it), to stop the expansion of medicare (even though we voted for it, though thankfully we sued and got it anyway), and to even stop Kansas City and St. Louis from raising minimum wage (which they voted for). The GOP and conservative voters are a fucking cancer eating away at this nation and they're going to get us all killed if they're not stopped.
It's both parties bro. Took me a long time to realize it
Exactly, these milquetoast moderate democrats are all corporatists just like the republicans.
@@AaronParks Neither party is great, but simply dismissing it as "both parties" completely misses the magnitude of which the GOP disproportionately acts in an anti-democratic way. For instance, Missouri democrats (who I tend to think are too centrist for my taste) have NEVER denied people their democratic vote. Don't lose focus on the problem.
@@enhydralutra nope, the republicans are the fake gun to our heads, held up by the democrats so they never have to give us things like universal healthcare or education/housing/yadayada reform. Instead I fear it is you who misses the magnitude of the problem..
I've lived in Wisconsin for basically my entire life, and this video hurt to watch. Great video and analysis of my state.
What ConAgra did to Omaha in the 1990's -- the destruction of it's historic 19th century downtown, bulldozing it into a business park and eventual development into a neoliberal hellscape of real estate speculation -- is literally the work of the devil.
It's enlightening to see the primitive accumulation that gave birth to that corporate monster.
Yeah and that corporate monster got bought out and that hideous inefficient corporate campus is now up for lease. Omaha should have it demolished.
I was in school for both of Scott Walker's terms. Many of our course books were 20-30 years old. Lots of programs were slowly getting cut (such as language classes and the arts). It didn't help that many of my fellow students could barely afford school lunches and the parents were forced to pay or the children only got a limited lunch (when I say limited, I mean they got a biscuit and a fruit cup. so nothing very nutritional and necessary for a developing brain and body). When I slowly learned more and more about politics it wasn't until a few years later in high school that we were being completely screwed over by Scott Walker and his goons. That school district has slowly been losing more and more students to a semi-private school because they can actually make money and afford things that ours could not. It's a shame that our state is going through all of these things when it could all potentially be mended so (relatively) easily.
On average, Wisconsin public schools are paid more than $14,700 per student, per year.
If a school can't make it on that, you should ask how private schools manage to do a much better job with half that.
@@kenabbott8585 If you actually lived in Wisconsin and had ever been to an average rural school you would know that just isnt true. A lot of the large schools in the cities are very well off and its clear where all of the money goes. Statistics and averages arent always that useful. There are extreme cases on both ends which skew data one way or the other.
Nothing I love more than a CZcams channel that only makes me sad when i watch it. Gotta love the news
Maybe I missed it but what are we supposed to do about it? Democracy feels like a buzzword these days.
I hear guillotines worked pretty well for the french
revolution, direct labor organizing, see how a few scattered strikes this past year has gotten more for the working class then dems have in the last 40 years?
its the only option
@@chriss780 you're not wrong there. Without effective unions the only option left is direct mobilization of the workforce. Though I imagine it's difficult to get these kinds of things started and these individuals are taking on a good deal of risk to both their livelihoods and sometimes even their safety. Good luck to all of those fighting the good fight.
@@bigmike4133
yes, but workers were always this bad off when taking the risk
@@LoveOreos1441 that'd be funny cause the families from the french revolution are ruining the USA today. Lafayette family are the kings of democracy, not the public.
While it's disheartening learning this about Wisconsin, especially having recently moved here. It's also reassuring to see that the world of politics involves more than just the federal government I have little to no influence in. Seeing the same issues in our nation's government play out at a state level really helps put things into perspective and makes the potential to make a difference more possible. It's come around to almost being reassuring. Thank you for this video.
subscriber here. What I love about this channel is the eloquence. You get information quickly, you can think about it yourself, but you feel you have actually learned something in a brief video. No posturing and pontificating and I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. Thanks Gravel! Please keep up the work!
Read about this in the book "The Fall of Wisconsin" by Dan Kaufman. Really recommend!
Again and again, the workers have been betrayed.
I protested for my public school teacher mother in 2010 in Madison. If I ever see Scott Walker in person, he's getting a punch in the jaw
I live in Madison, but when I meet people from outside Madison, I lie to avoid the humiliation of association with all the degens that make up the population. Riddled by gunfire and filled with perverse people, acting as moralists. What a ridiculous city that continues to regress with it's "progressive" people. I can't wait to leave.
Characters like Paul Ryan brought the venom of selfishness and cruelty.
GravelI is great
Comment for the algorithm!
I second this
yesss
Good point!
As election season rolls around, this video is a grave reminder of America's future lest we all collectively pull our pants up and take it to the power-hungry elites. I shudder to imagine how vigorously the Founding Fathers roll in their graves.
Just what history has taught us over and over again. Invest in people, and people will thrive. Slash social programs, and people suffer.
Pretty fucking obvious when you think about it.
Do your job Algorithm
Engagement to help
@@drawingdraws618 Engagement intensifies
Yeah what a shame for Wisconsin. Now it gets overlooked and everyone with any sense would rather live in Minnesota.
I would not live in Minnesota. I like Wisconsin
unions are extremely powerful, not only in negotiating but they also promote ideas of workers self-organisation, collective decision making and taking what you deserve from your employer
no wonder the right is so afraid of them
I worked for Manitowoc Cranes. We went on strike because the management insisted we open up the closed shop union. After a month and a half strike the company said accept our final offer or we will fire every striking worker and hire replacement workers. This strike included scabs and misinformation told to the news media by the company. A few years later they pulled up stakes and moved to Shady Grove Pennsylvania where they went non-union. Greedy bastages who were enabled by Scott Walker a menace to all but the 1 percent of Wisconsinites. The republicans should have changed the state motto from Forward to Backwards.
Yeah what happened to Wisconsin is disgusting
Such a critically important topic
Utah also had a thriving socialist movement up until the 1940’s. Over 100 members of the socialist party were elected into office and several cities like Murray had socialist majorities.
It's gotten really bad when, in 2019, Green Bay, Wisconsin lost ShopKo, one of their biggest employers, a discount store chain found in the Midwest, Mountain and Pacific Northwest states, similar to the Caldor, Zayre, Bradlees and Ames stores once found in the Atlantic regions, or the Zellers stores once found throughout Canada. At least the ShopKo name lives on in ShopKo Optical, a chain of eyecare centers similar to LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and America's Best, after their discount store/pharmacy business went bankrupt and the optical centers were sold in a separate sale...
Makes me proud and sad to be a wisconsinite. We have a strong past of unionism and social improvement, but so much to fix right now.
Wow what a story.
ACAB
I've lived in Wisconsin for a bit under a decade and am taking college elsewhere in an actual state. It's honestly a depressing state tbh, it feels like there's just nothing to do besides driving to and from work, working, or sitting at home because I didn't make any friends that lasted at school or the few activities I went to. I'm currently unemployed and working with disability services, I can't say how good the services are yet, and I have no motivation to leave my house for anything but the occassional bit of fast food or the necessary drives to the grocery store or health center for checkups. I don't know of any public spaces to enjoy, I don't have any reason to explore around and look for anything, the last time I went on a walk it was on the street looking behind my back every so often to see if there was a car I need to move off the road for. There wasn't any sidewalks. The closest bikelane is gods know where. The only thing in the suburb that's not a private house is a private lakefront area. You have to drive up to the lakefront to experience it. There's no other options for enjoying the lake assuming you don't own a house on it. It's not an awful life but it's a very specific, very quiet misery that makes every day spent in it and not in some somewhat vibrant city with some decent public transport a slog. I'd call it torture but it stopped feeling like that after the first month back or so. Now it's just waiting for something to change. Over, and over, and over.
i certainly love seeing my home state called the best. There is something so inherently and quintessentially "American" about Wisconsin. Its a shame the several times this state has been kicked down the ladder while trying to climb up.