Welcome To Tony Palmeri's Media Rants! I am a professor of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. I use this blog to try to promote critical thinking about mainstream media, establishment politics, and popular culture.
Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974. Legendary announcer Vin Scully's real time call of Aaron's record breaking home run has itself become iconic, as Scully recognized the significance of "a Black man getting a standing ovation in the deep south." Millions of Americans wanted to believe that Aaron's achievement represented some kind of transformational moment for the United States. Just a few weeks later I personally experienced a transformational moment related to Hank Aaron, though it was not the kind of transformation Scully and others would have hoped for.
In mid-June of 1974 I was living in Brooklyn, NY and was just a few weeks short of my 13th birthday. Some of my friends discovered that the Atlanta Braves were coming into town to play the Mets, so we got on a train to Queens and went to Shea Stadium. There were probably 3 or 4 of us. As was typical, we purchased the cheapest nosebleed seats and then snuck down to better ones.
Old Shea was an "open air" stadium, meaning that you always felt a cool breeze. I remember that particular day the stadium being really cold even though it was later in June. Given that the Mets had made the World Series the year before, and given the fact that Hammerin' Hank was coming to town, the stadium seemed close to sold out. In fact it was so crowded that the seats we snuck down to were still kind of nosebleedish.
I don't remember if Hank Aaron came up in the first or the second inning, but I will never forget what did happen when he finally approached the batter's box. Remember, he had just broken Babe Ruth's record in April. Hank was celebrated in every city the Braves visited that year. When the public address announcer said Hank's name, almost everyone stood up and started yelling:
LET'S GO HANK!
LET'S GO HANK!
LET'S GO HANK!
As Hank got into the batter's box, the chanting started to subside, but about 30 yards from us there were three men sitting with very angry looks. They looked to be about 50-60 years old. One of them, with a tone of absolute rage and a look that would intimidate Satan, yelled, "Let's Go Hank. Fuck You N_ _ _ _R!"
Then the three of them all chimed in at once, as loud as they could: "Let's Go Hank. Fuck You N_ _ _ _R!"
Not one person confronted these characters. In fact most people seemed to treat it as a joke. There were a few African-American people in the vicinity, but they either treated it as if they could not hear it, or thought better of getting into a scuffle with a few angry, racist douchebags.
Over the years as a college teacher, some students have told me that they appreciate my approach to racial justice issues, and the fact that I try--as best as I can--to make sure that the examples I use in my classes represent the human family in its entirety. When I've reflected over the years on how I got to be that way as a teacher, that Shea Stadium experience in June of 1974 keeps coming back to me.
That experience taught me that racism and hate exist as they do in large part because they go unchallenged. As a 12-year-old on that cold day in June of 1974, I suppose I get a pass for not confronting the haters. There were people there much older than me who could have and should have intervened, but did not.
That day was my introduction to the maxim, "silence is consent."
Have I always confronted racism and hate as an adult? No. But I would like to think that I have tried to make choices in my life that help make my community, state, nation, and world live up to their promise of justice for all. Perhaps if we were all simply more mindful of the need to make those kinds of choices, we would be in a better place today as a species.
Hank Aaron is no longer with us, but on this 50th anniversary of his greatest sports achievement I would like to apologize to him for being silent all those years ago. None of us can go back and erase terrible moments from the past, but we CAN pledge to be better TODAY.
There were a number of disappointing results in this past Tuesday's elections in Wisconsin. In Winnebago County, LaKeisha Haase's loss in the Circuit Court Judge race was deeply disappointing. As she noted in a Facebook post, "The Uihlein funded out-of-state PAC, Fair Courts America, spent tens of thousands of dollars inundating the members of our community with divisive, targeted, and racist mailers and text messages in support of my opponent to prevent me from returning to the bench." The local and state media need to do a much better job of calling out such advertising when it appears.
Another disappointment was the passage of two bogus referendums on "election integrity," both designed to appease Donald Trump's fantasies about the 2020 elections. This too was another media failure: the establishment press needed to do much more to explain to voters the politics behind these referendum questions.
Wausau, WI Mayor Katie Rosenberg lost her reelection bid in a close race. Attack ads funded my dark money from MAGA interests contributed to the results.
For me the biggest disappointment was the defeat of the great Mayor Katie Rosenberg in Wausau, WI. When Lori Palmeri was Mayor of Oshkosh, I called Katie my "second most favorite Mayor in Wisconsin," and I meant it. There are lots of elected officials who claim to be "progressive" who do not actually have the courage of their convictions. Mayor Rosenberg, an inspiring young leader, actually governed as a principled progressive. Some things I personally admired about her term in office:
She insisted that Wausau be a welcoming community for ALL people. As such, she did not tolerate attacks on marginalized populations. Everyone targeted for attacks based on their race, or who they choose to love, or their identity, knew that they had a friend in City Hall in Mayor Rosenberg.
She was, is, and will continue to be a leader in environmental clean up and sustainability. Her leadership in tackling the PFAS issue has been exemplary, and should be a role model for mayors across the state and nation.
She was an outspoken advocate for public transit and affordable housing, which she understands as key to economic development in the 21st century. During her term Wausau's unemployment rate was 2.3% and the region became known as one of the up and coming places to do business in Wisconsin.
For her efforts, Mayor Rosenberg was attacked nonstop her entire term by far right wing elements. She even suffered anti-Semitic attacks from ignoramuses who saw "Rosenberg" and assumed she was Jewish. Her reelection bid was hurt by the introduction of dark money into the race from MAGA entities.
It's too early after the election for Katie Rosenberg to announce any future plans. I for one would like to see her run for Congress, US Senate, or Governor. Wisconsin needs young, bold leadership that is progressive in DEEDS and not just words.
Thank you Katie Rosenberg for the courageous leadership you showed during your mayoral term. History will show that your term represented a transformational moment for Wausau, WI.
Below is a conversation that Matt King and I had with Katie in 2021:
In what has now become an annual tradition here at Media Rants, I will spend two posts celebrating the 50th birthday of albums released during the 1970s. Prior posts in this series:
My motives for these posts are part personal, part professional, and part political. At the personal level, it's fun to go back and listen to music that was--in some cases--highly instrumental (pun intended) in my development as a human being. Even without social media feeds, musical artists of that time period somehow seemed to be communicating directly to their listeners, as if what they had to say might actually MATTER in someone's life. Imagine that.
At the professional level, I still teach "The Rhetoric of Rock Music" and preparing these posts helps me to do the research that I probably should be doing anyway. It's always fun to rediscover some gems that I had forgotten about--and that might be of interest to today's younger generations.
Politically, the music of the time period in question reflects that moment in history--especially in the United States--when issues of personal identity and self-expression start to provoke the "culture war" that we are still saddled with and not close to resolving. Later in the 1970s, when disco, hip-hop, punk, and British New Wave enter the scene, the culture wars will start to become nastier and more divisive.
Without any further ado, let's get to the music! This post will feature 25 albums of 1974, and later this year another post will feature 25 more.
#50. Queen: Sheer Heart Attack. The band's third album, and the one that firmly established the sound that would define their huge commercial success later in the decade. The song "Killer Queen" became an international hit and still gets featured on classic rock radio playlists. Other tunes on the album (especially "Brighton Rock," "In the Lap of the Gods," "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Now I'm Here") became fixtures in Queen's live shows and/or influenced generations of future bands with their clever lyrics, Freddy Mercury's theatricality, and Brian May's soaring guitars.
#49. Bad Company: Bad Company. The first album by what was essentially a "super group" featuring four artists who had success with previous bands. The album absolutely dominated FM rock radio in 1974, I think in large part because it reminded DJs of the kind of garage rock sound that the Rolling Stones brought to the States in the mid-1960s. If you're looking for deep meaning in music, you won't find it in this album. However, Mick Ralph's gritty guitar and Paul Rodgers' soulful vocals are still worth the price of admission all these years later. The intro guitar on "Rock Steady" has always been one of my favorite pieces of music.
#48. Minnie Riperton: Perfect Angel. If you ARE looking for deep meaning in music, the late Minnie Riperton's classic "Perfect Angel" is kind of like a celebration of love and life put to music. Cancer took Minnie Riperton from the world much too early in 1979 (she was only 31), but she left behind a body of work that puts her in the category of one of the all time great soul singers. The song "Lovin' You" became the mega-hit off the album, in part because of Riperton's unique whistle-register in her vocals and the chirping of birds. Every time I hear the song I immediately think of Minnie's daughter (the actress Maya Rudolph), whose name is chanted several times at the end.
#47. Rufus & Chaka Khan: Rags to Rufus. Let's stay on the soul/funk theme for a minute. Chaka Khan in the 1970s had an absolutely Aretha Franklinesque ability to give a spiritual vibe to every song she performed. The classic on "Rags to Rufus" was the Stevie Wonder penned "Tell Me Something Good."
#46. Neil Young: On the Beach. One of Neil's most underrated albums and least commercially successful at that time, in part because of its overall bleak tone. I personally prefer Neil when he is at his bleakest, so this record struck a chord with me immediately. The title song "On The Beach" is for all of us melancholy types, with expressions of hopelessness ("The world is turnin,' I hope it don't turn away") and despair ("Though my problems are meaningless, that don't make them go away").
#45. Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark. Speaking of Neil Young, in 1974 one of his best friends was making a transition from folk-rock to a more jazz inspired sound. That friend was Joni Mitchell, and the transition album was "Court and Spark," which had a number of radio hits but also some introspective tunes that solidified her reputation as a "deep" artist. Taylor Swift claims to be heavily influenced by Joni Mitchell, and listening to "Court and Spark" makes it clear why.
#44. Bob Dylan and the Band: Before the Flood. This is a live album, featuring energetic versions of classic Dylan songs backed by Robbie Robertson and the Band, and a few tunes by the Band without Dylan. Ironically, my favorite song on the album is Dylan's solo performance of "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." I recall that being one of the first songs I ever heard that seemed to be a full-on critique of everything the USA stood for, which was a very appealing message to me at the time.
#43. The Electric Light Orchestra: Eldorado. Probably the breakthrough album for ELO, featuring the great Jeff Lynne. By 1974 lots of former Beatles' fans were in serious withdrawal, starving for the kind of progressive pop the Fab Four produced from 1966-1970. ELO filled that niche for a while in the 1970s.
#42. Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Animal. Lou Reed was the founder of the influential progressive band The Velvet Underground in the 1960s. Rock and Roll Animal features metal versions of some of the classic Velvet songs, performed with high intensity and energy. Guitar players Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter (who later formed the nucleus of Alice Cooper's band) have never really been recognized as some of the greatest of all time. For me, Rock and Roll Animal by itself should place them in that category.
#41. Rush: Rush. Speaking of metal, in 1974 Canada's greatest heavy metal band released their first album. The first album was the only one they released without drummer and song writer Neil Peart, so the song writing quality is not what it would become after Peart joined. Still, the first album features guitarist Alex Lifeson and bass player/vocalist Geddy Lee at their most raw, and at its best this album kind of out-Zeps Led Zeppelin.
#40. Sweet: Desolation Boulevard. Sweet were a kind of pop-metal band who laid down the foundation for later, more popular bands like Motley Crue and Poison. I find albums like "Desolation Boulevard" fascinating because bands like Sweet were kind of like the real life version of the loveable burnouts that Rob Reiner parodied so well in "This is Spinal Tap."
#39. Kiss: Kiss. The first album by the masked wonders, and in my opinion it still ranks as maybe their best. Just about all the songs remain in their live concert set list TO THIS DAY, which is an amazing achievement. Say what you want about Kiss, but they have always been one of the hardest working bands in show business, and their ability not only to maintain the loyalty of their original audience, but attract new audiences over the decades is almost unprecedented in the history of popular music.
#38. The Doobie Brothers: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. Even if this album sucked, I would love it just for the title. Thankfully it does not suck, and I will always insist that Tom Johnston is one of the greatest singer/songwriters in the history of popular music. This particular album has blues, soul, jazz, folk, and rock elements thrown together in a kind of musical gumbo that few bands pulled off as effectively as the Doobies.
#37. Supertramp: Crime of the Century. The breakthrough album for the British progressive rock band Supertramp. Another example of a band and album that only got heard because of the quality of FM radio at the time. Not sure how a band like Supertramp could make it in the streaming era without seriously compromising the artistic integrity of their work.
#36. John Lennon: Walls and Bridges. "Walls and Bridges" was somewhat of a comeback album for John, as he had been through much personal turmoil, and the previously released "Mind Games" album was widely perceived as his poorest post-Beatles effort. "Walls and Bridges" is not my personal favorite Lennon album, but it does have a number of moments that rank with his best work,
#35. Todd Rundgren's Utopia: Utopia. One of the classics of the progressive rock era, and another example of a record only possible because of FM radio at the time. All the songs on this album require patience to get through, which is not exactly the dominant value for the majority of listeners in 2024.
#34: Labelle: Nightbirds. An important album in the history of popular music, Nightbirds featured a mix of soul, funk, and rock elements that inspired the disco movement that was still a year or so away. Rolling Stone Magazine has several times placed this album in its list of the 500 greatest of all time. And of course the hit song "Lad Marmalade" is by itself worth the price of admission.
#33. Stanley Clarke: Stanley Clarke. An amazing, jazz fusion instrumental album by one of the greatest bass players in history. Jan Hammer's keyboards and Tony Williams' drums complement Clarke's bass playing in a way that is almost intoxicating.
#32. Weather Report: Mysterious Traveler. More jazz fusion! I actually did not become aware of this album until around 1990 when one of my favorite albums of THAT year ("Hell With the Lid Off" by MC 900 Foot Jesus) had a song called "Truth is Out of Style" that samples "Cucumber Slumber" from Mysterious Traveler. Turns out the entire album is high quality, and I speak as someone who is not the biggest fan of jazz fusion.
#31. Parliament: Up For the Down Stroke. Maybe the best funk band of all time, Parliament had a breakthrough with "Up For The Down Stroke." This album features vocalist George Clinton, bassist Bootsy Collins, and guitarist Eddie Hazel. Those three together were generally not capable of producing anything less than iconic.
#30. Ohio Players: Fire. Let's go with another funk classic. Like LaBelle, the Ohio Players set the stage for the burgeoning disco movement. The song "Fire" remains as an early funk/disco classic
#29. Joe Walsh: So What. Any list of the greatest rock guitar players of all time that does not include Joe Walsh in the top ten is probably not worth a low E string. "So What" was one of Walsh's solo albums released in between his stints with the James Gang and the Eagles (where he had his greatest success). The album rocks from beginning to end. Songs like "Turn to Stone" and "County Fair" were in heavy rotation on FM rock radio for years.
#28. The Eagles: On the Border. Speaking of the Eagles, in 1974 they started to move toward a more rock oriented sound with "On the Border," a sound that would become more refined when Walsh joined the band a few years later. "On the Border" had a number of radio hits, including the rockers "Already Gone" and "James Dean" and the ballad "The Best of My Love."
#27. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping. I'm not a big fan of Skynyrd's signature song from this album, "Sweet Home Alabama," but it is a foundational record in the "Southern Rock" genre and should be appreciated as such. Thankfully, that song is not representative of the entire album. That is, the rest of the album is not some kind of half-baked "defense" of "southern pride" that sweeps the racism under the rug. The album in its entirety has a great mix of fast and slow rock songs, with Ronnie Van Zant's vocals at their high point and Gary Rossington establishing himself as one of the best rock guitar players of the era.
#26. Stevie Wonder: Fulfillingess' First Finale. Released during Stevie's classic period in the 1970s, this album features a mix of many different genres. "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" is Stevie in his best preacher persona, while "Boogie on Reggae Woman" is a kind of Motown, funk, soul, rock hybrid that was actually popular on rock radio stations.
Exactly 10 years ago (March 1, 2014), I released a Media Rant alerting readers to what was at that time the early stages of climate scientist Michael Mann's defamation lawsuit against climate change denialist trolls whose "critique" of him consisted of character assassination and allegations of research fraud. Thanks to our ridiculously slow legal system, it took literally more than a decade for Mann's suit to go before a judge and jury. In the end, after a contentious four-week trial, the six-member jury unanimously sided with Dr. Mann, awarding him over $1 million in damages. To prevail, Mann had to meet the actual malice standard for public figures charging others with defamation, a high bar that required showing the defendants knew they were making false statements or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
H.L. Mencken was an intrepid reporter and pundit for the Baltimore Sun and other sources. Though some of his writings can legitimately be accused of elitism and intolerance, his aggressive confrontations with the demagogic trolls of his time inspired a generation of journalists.
Climate change activists hoped Mann's lawsuit would put climate science itself on trial. After the verdict, Dr. Mann did argue that the trial results were a "victory for scientists and science." Maybe that is true in a technical sense, but the fact that the mainstream media ignored and/or minimized the courtroom proceedings while they were going on meant that few people knew that the courtroom struggle between climate change science and climate change denialism was even going on. Think of it this way: imagine that the date of the Super Bowl wasn't announced in advance, and when the game finally got played it wasn't televised. Kansas City might still have "won," but who would care?
The United States is a global outlier in terms of the number of people who deny climate change is occurring or--even if they do accept the science--do not see it as urgent. The Mann trial featured defendants who typify the trolling style of discourse against climate science that, especially for large segments of the population caught in right-wing echo chambers and algorithms, is typically unquestioned and taken as fact. During the trial, the defendants did not hold back from launching attacks on climate science. Thanks to the limited media coverage, so far there's little evidence that the trial did anything to deter denialism from continuing; perhaps in the future the trolls might not be dumb enough to compare people they disagree with to pedophiles, or accuse scientists of fraud with scant evidence to back it up. Denialism does not require character assassination or accusations of research fraud to be effective; all it requires is unchallenged repetition of falsehoods.
The tragedy of the Mann trial is that, because of media negligence, it ultimately was not an event that allowed the public to hear and see a thorough debunking of climate denialist nonsense. For the trial to be THAT kind of event would have required major news outfits to report from the courtroom every day, like they did with Depp v. Heard, the Alex Murdaugh murder trial, or numerous other celeb and/or sensationalist courtroom clashes.
What the Mann trial needed was an H.L. Mencken, an intrepid reporter with an ear for bullshit and the kind of acerbic style needed to go toe-to-toe with modern internet trolls.
I mention Mencken purposely in reference to the Michael Mann trial. In the 1920s science was under attack by Christian fundamentalists who pressed state legislatures and school districts to make it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Very much like the modern online trolls, the critics of evolutionary theory resorted to absurd arguments to make their case, often preying on the fears and prejudices of religious folk convinced that science and spirituality could not coexist. (Very much like modern critics of climate science prey on the fears of working class people worried about potential job losses that could accompany the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.).
The conflict between fundamentalist Christian creationist dogma vs. evolutionary theory came to a head in the famous 1925 State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial, called the "Scopes Monkey Trial" by Mencken. Covering the trial for the Baltimore Sun, Mencken in his trademark style employed bitter sarcasm, ridicule, and mockery to call out the attempt to discredit secular knowledge not with reasoned evidence, but with superstition. He was especially bitter toward William Jennings Bryan, the four-time presidential candidate, former Secretary of State, and fundamentalist preacher who led the prosecution's argument against John Scopes. Mr. Scopes' "crime" was teaching the theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee's Butler Act which prohibited such teaching.
Scopes, represented by the legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow, actually lost the trial. But Darrow masterfully turned the proceedings into a public referendum on what a democratic society should expect from its public schools. Should schools be spaces for expanding minds through rational exploration and discovery? Or should they be indoctrination centers for fundamentalist dogma? The fact that the trial was covered nationally, and passionately by people like Mencken, allowed the mass media audience of that time (primarily print newspapers and radio) to gain access to a vital debate that still plays out in public school districts across the land--today more typically targeting LGBTQA+ tolerance or Critical Race Theory instead of evolution.
Michael Mann's lawyers took on the climate denialist trolls in a manner very similar to the way Darrow handled the fundamentalists in 1925. Darrow was condemned at the time by "liberal" media outlets like the New York World for being too mean to the fundamentalists. Mencken's response reads like a blueprint for how to handle modern trolls:
"What the World's contention amounts to, at bottom, is simply the doctrine that a man engaged in combat with superstition should be very polite to superstition. This, I fear, is nonsense. The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame."
In short, Michael Mann and his attorneys did their part. They clashed with the trolls, defended climate science with real evidence, and put denialists on notice that there could be consequences for continuing to choose reckless disregard for the truth and character assassination as debate strategies.
Mann did his part, but the establishment mass media did not do theirs. A recent study exploring the consequences of climate denialism concluded that, "As a form of knowledge vulnerability, climate denialism renders communities unprepared to take steps to increase resilience." The Mann trial gave mass media the opportunity to broadcast the facts of climate science to a national audience, expose the nonsensical attacks against it, and thus make us all a little less vulnerable against the "knowledge" spewed by bad faith actors who place fossil fuel and other corporate interests above human needs.
When former Wisconsin Democratic Senator Herb Kohl passed away in late December, the majority of politicians praised him for his philanthropy, work ethic, and support for good causes. Quotes from leading Democrats (current Senator Tammy Baldwin called him "my role model") made it sound as if Kohl was part of Wisconsin's progressive tradition. Spoiler alert: he wasn't.
No one should minimize the impact of Herb Kohl's philanthropic work. The millions of dollars he dedicated to education and other initiatives made--and continue to make--lasting impacts on the citizenry. The US Senate is dominated by millionaires, but few of them invest it in positive public initiatives as well as Kohl did.
Former Senator Herb Kohl
Unfortunately, the Wisconsin media seems unwilling to assess Herb Kohl's US Senate legacy in a rigorous manner, and tend to conflate his philanthropy and senate work. The Madison Cap Times editorial tribute to Kohl is the best example, in which the writers include as part of his legacy that "marks him as one of the most significant elected leaders in Wisconsin history" the fact that he kept the Bucks in Milwaukee, funded the Kohl Center, funded the Kohl foundation, and gave out generous scholarships. None of the philanthropic work Herb Kohl engaged in required him to be a United States Senator. None.
Judging Herb Kohl's legacy as an elected official means taking an honest look at his impact on politics and policy. Journalists, historians, and pundits should not allow Kohl's affable personality and generous gift giving to prevent them from offering candid assessments of his Senate record. Kohl did many good things in his four terms, which have been duly noted in press coverage, but he was also on the wrong side of some of the most critical issues of his time--issues that had enormous impact on the lives of Americans.
Let's starts with Kohl's political legacy. In the early 2000s I attended a speech at UW Oshkosh delivered by then Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug LaFollette. During the question and answer period, a student asked Secretary LaFollette to talk about the role of money in politics. He answered by sharing an anecdote about his run for the United States Senate in the 1988 Democratic Party primaries. Running a grassroots campaign, LaFollette traveled thousands of miles across the state in a used car, knocking on doors and meeting voters in cities, towns, and villages. When he got way up to the northernmost county, he knocked on a door and an elderly woman answered. As I recall from LaFollette's remarks, here is how his conversation with that woman went:
LaFollette: "Hi I'm Secretary of State Doug LaFollette and I'm running to be your United States Senator."
Woman: "That's what Herb Kohl is running for, right?"
The woman knew about Kohl not because he had visited her home, but because he had saturated the state with millions of dollars of TV ads telling Wisconsinites he would be "Nobody's senator but your own." Kohl won the primary that year with a plurality of 47 percent of the vote, prevailing over former governor Tony Earl, progressive activist Ed Garvey, and LaFollette. Kohl defeated 36-year-old Republican Susan Engeleiter in the general election, and when all was said and done had spent around $7 million of his own money.
Kohl won three more terms (in 1994, 2000, 2006), each time defeating his Republican challenger by wider margins. He was certainly not the first multimillionaire to win a United States Senate seat, but he was one of the first to establish that flooding media markets with millions of dollars of television and other ad spots immediately transforms the flooder into a candidate the press will take seriously. That leads to the perverse situation--we saw it in 2016 with the Trump presidential campaign--where the richest candidate in the race also ends up getting the most FREE advertising from media corporations.
Throughout Senator Kohl's long tenure in office I was always frustrated by how the corporate media and the establishment Democratic party enabled the "nobody's senator but yours" schtick, as if we would somehow be better off as a state and a nation if every candidate for every office was self-funded. Obviously the dysfunction of contemporary politics cannot be blamed on Herb Kohl, but his success at using his personal fortune to insulate himself from serious electoral competition became the norm across the country. For higher office on both the Democratic and Republican sides, candidate recruitment involves the search for the "benevolent millionaire" who is somehow in touch with the grassroots.
Herb Kohl became one of the best examples of what campaign finance reform advocates feared would happen after the Supreme Court's horrendous 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, which held as unconstitutional the limitation on expenditures by candidates from their own personal resources, as well as limitations on total campaign expenditures. The Buckley decision gave us the nefarious "money = speech" principle, which campaign reform advocate Derek Cressman aptly referred to as "court ordered corruption." Justice Thurgood Marshall offered up a powerful dissent:
One of the points on which all Members of the Court agree is that money is essential for effective communication in a political campaign. It would appear to follow that the candidate with a substantial personal fortune at his disposal is off to a significant "headstart." Of course, the less wealthy candidate can potentially overcome the disparity in resources through contributions from others. But ability to generate contributions may itself depend upon a showing of a financial base for the campaign or some demonstration of preexisting support, which, in turn, is facilitated by expenditures of substantial personal sums. Thus, the wealthy candidate's immediate access to a substantial personal fortune may give him an initial advantage that his less wealthy opponent can never overcome. And even if the advantage can be overcome, the perception that personal wealth wins elections may not only discourage potential candidates without significant personal wealth from entering the political arena, but also undermine public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.
When the Supreme Court opened up the floodgates for big money in Buckley v. Valeo, Justice Thurgood Marshall in his dissent anticipated the corruption that would follow.
The argument that millionaire self-financed candidates make is that, in not having to rely on Political Action Committee donations or contributions from individuals, they are truly independent. All these rich candidates campaign on some variation of Kohl's "nobody's senator but yours" theme. A truly independent politician in Washington, I think we would all agree, is one able to resist all the beltway lobbying, put principle over politics, stand with marginalized groups, refuse to support ill-conceived military operations, and take unpopular positions. I'm not sure Herb Kohl's record reflects that kind of independence. "Nobody's senator but yours" supported
The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. A truly independent senator would have stood up for the LGBTQ community.
The 1996 "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act." This bill was a cornerstone of the 1994 Republican "Contract With America," and was a result of years scapegoating of "welfare queens" and other attacks on the poor. With the Republicans taking over Congress in the 1994 midterms and fearing his own reelection chances, President Clinton signed the legislation and declared "the era of big government is over." A truly independent senator would have called out how the war on poverty was being transformed into a war on the poor.
The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts. George W. Bush entered office with a budget surplus. His tax cuts of 2001, which Kohl supported, disproportionately benefited the wealthy and set the stage for the massive deficits we see today. A truly independent senator would only support truly progressive tax policies.
The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. Passed only six weeks after the September 11 attacks with virtually no deliberation and with senators openly admitting not having read its provisions, the PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the government's authority to spy on its own citizens. Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was the only member of the body to vote against it. "Nobody's senator but ours" voted for it.
The Authorization For Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. This resolution passed the Senate 77-23, with 29 Democrats including Kohl voting Yes. If ever there was a time when the nation needed truly independent senators, it was for this vote.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. This was the infamous Wall St. bailout. Legislation that, as Matt Taibbi correctly pointed out, committed American taxpayers to "permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it." Before the vote, polls showed that citizens were opposed to the bailout. A truly independent senator would have stood with them and demanded that the legislation do much more to hold elite financiers accountable and protect taxpayers before voting yes.
Each one of these pieces of legislation had enormous impact on society, with mostly negative and in some cases tragic consequences. The Cap Times swept all this under the rug in three sentences: "That did not mean that Kohl got every issue right. We disagreed with his support for the war in Iraq and for the USA Patriot Act. He voted for tax cuts that didn’t sit well with us."
The purpose of this rant was not to trash the late Senator Kohl. He was a decent man with good intentions. It is no disrespect to Kohl to point out that he benefited from an extremely corrupt campaign finance system, and that his votes did not always reflect the independence he claimed his wealth gave him. As with all millionaire candidates, his wealth became a firewall which protected his incumbency from serious challenges within the Democratic party and from the Republicans. It ought to be possible for Wisconsin journalists to praise Kohl's philanthropy while taking a more rigorous look at his overall record in the Senate.
