Refuse to be Left Out in the Cold

By Doug Margolis

On a frigid Friday lunch hour last week citizens braved the cold to hold signs and wave to drivers along main streets in River Falls, Eau Claire, and 14 other communities, demanding the Wisconsin Supreme Court end gerrymandering and give us fair district maps. 

People of Wisconsin—by overwhelming margins—have said, again and again, in polls, in county board resolutions, in county-wide referendums, in legislative hearings, and now by coming out in the middle of January’s arctic blasts that we want independent, nonpartisan maps.  Why? Because we want a level playing field for electing our representatives. 

The United States was founded on the principle of “no taxation without representation.”  Riots and revolutions happen when people have no voice.  Gerrymandering robs the people of our voice.

The Legislature has stopped listening to citizens because they no longer need to win voters with good ideas and smart policies.  Look at what the last ten years of gerrymandering has brought Wisconsin: one of the highest prison populations in the nation, teacher shortages, folks unable to see a doctor when they are sick.

Instead of investing in our communities, politicians use gerrymandering to amass power and wealth for themselves. The state and the people lose.

Especially while Democrats and Republicans push an ever-increasing partisan division of our society, we need fair maps. We need to refuse to let anybody be left out in the cold.