By: Paris Procopis
While watching what’s been going on and being said regarding our governor’s race this year, I am absolutely haunted by what may likely happen here in Wisconsin this November; Governor Evers staying in the governor’s mansion for another four years.
While the left has been busy trying to out ‘woke’ each other on every front, many Wisconsin conservatives have had their own identity crisis in the battle of proving who’s a more ‘principled and perfect conservative.’
We have watched this struggle between the faithful party elites and the mainstream grassroots ever since President Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower.
The various factions of Wisconsin conservatives have been engaged in an almost constant struggle to determine who’s a more ‘perfect conservative’ and what they are willing to give up to prove a point and say they are standing on ‘principle.’
The fall election race is shaping up to be a very contentious battle between the Republican political aristocracy in Madison, and the grassroots throughout the rest of the state. New governor candidates seem to be popping up almost daily, so this is not going to get any clearer anytime soon.
The silver lining in all of this is that it shows how big of a political bench the Republicans actually have. Each candidate has his/her own unique qualifications. Just look how deep the Democrats had to dig to get Tony Evers, but that’s a whole different story.
Unfortunately, each candidate also brings a certain amount of political baggage. Rebecca Kleefisch has quickly become the Madison and Republican party faithful favorite, while Kevin Nicholson seems to be winning over the statewide anti-Madison establishment grassroots.
While they are certainly the frontrunners, neither has yet to seal the deal, leaving room for several others to enter the race. Timothy Ramthun has stirred the pot by capitalizing on election integrity concerns and getting under Speaker Robin Vos’s skin. Then you have the rumors of late entries by Eric Hovde, Tim Michels, and Van Mobley.
Now the various faithful are loudly going to battle with each other over why their candidate is best. This emotional rhetoric has made tensions extremely high, and it is only March. What scares me is that supporters of each candidate are openly saying that if their candidate loses, they will NOT support anyone else.
Yes, we have now entered NEVER NEVER Land; Never Kleefisch, Never Nicholson, Never Ramthun, etc.
Basically, they are willing to concede the election to Evers in order to be right. While at the same time giving no consideration to how much insurmountable damage another four years of Tony Evers would cause.
The exact same mentality that almost gave the country President Hillary and did give us President Biden.
Why? ‘Principles!’
Basically, acting like spoiled children who don’t get their way and pout. In other words, ACTING LIKE DEMOCRATS!
I’m not writing this to demean the supporters of any of the candidates; clearly, you are entitled to your opinions, I am writing this to try to convince some of you that it’s necessary to suck it up and get over it. Many will lose and one will win. Supporting the ultimate winner is not misplaced and does not diminish your ‘principles.’
Is any one of these candidates perfect or ideal? Probably not. Just because I’ll end up supporting one over the other does not mean I agree with absolutely everything he/she says or does. Heck, I don’t even agree with myself all the time.
We need to be pragmatic; Wisconsin cannot survive another four years of the current train wreck.
Will any of the Republican candidates give us everything we are fighting for? Of course not. Just remember, the fight for principles, must be tempered with common sense. And not supporting the winner does NOT make any sense. What good are those principles if you accomplish nothing, isn’t it better to get some of what you want than nothing at all?
Of course, some of the Madison elites will be calling me out because of my recent article calling Speaker Robin Vos to task about his lack of leadership on many issues while we had full power. But, also in that article, I was perfectly clear that I WILL still vote for Republicans because we did get some things.
During the last three years of Tony Evers, we have seen him fan the flames of racial divides and see him embrace the literal (mostly peaceful, NOT) mobs of rioters causing untold damage to people and property in Kenosha, Madison and Milwaukee.
We have seen him literally use the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to destroy our economy, destroy election integrity, and take away our rights so they could get the ‘evil orange man’ out of office. We cannot condone, nor want to reward such tactics.
In a nutshell, I will always employ the Buckley Rule of supporting the most conservative candidate who can win. Why? Because accomplishing something is always much better than accomplishing nothing. And this time around, what we will accomplish will be literally saving our state, and perhaps, even the country.
Sure, those of you who will remain steadfast that you will not support the winner after all of this, will say you remain ‘principled’, but you’ll surely be ‘principled’ while standing in a soup line.
Allowing Tony Evers to win only shows how not ‘principled’ you really are. In other words, what do you have to lose? EVERYTHING!
About Paris Procopis
Paris is a contributing author to the Wisconsin Conservative Digest, blogger and host of the webcast, The Paris Procopis Show.
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