The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics

A deep blue state has turned choleric red with far-reaching consequences, according to this incisive study of Wisconsin state politics. Journalist Kaufman examines the collapse of Wisconsin’s left-liberal heritage—in the 20th century the state pioneered welfare policy, labor rights, and environmental regulation, and Milwaukee had a socialist mayor for decades—after the 2010 election brought Republican governor Scott Walker to power. The state became a laboratory for right-wing nostrums, Kaufman contends, as Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature stripped public-sector unions of collective bargaining rights, gutted environmental protections, cut taxes, and slashed education funding. Kaufman interviews labor organizers, Democratic candidates, Republican operatives, academics, Native environmental activists, and others. He spotlights both the long-term Republican strategy of taking power in states, aided by right-wing think tanks and deep-pocket donors like the Koch brothers, and the mistakes of Democrats who alienated their working-class base with Republican-lite policies; he focuses cogently on the decline—and suppression—of unions as the key to Wisconsin’s rightward lurch. Kaufman’s leftist leanings sometimes make his analysis seem one-sided, and the book’s invocations of Native American spirituality when discussing environmental policy feel awkward. Still, the author’s vivid reportage and trenchant insights illuminate America’s changing political landscape. (July)