Elon and the far-right are watching 2025's biggest election; you should too.

Resistance to Trump 2.0 begins with protecting state government, and must be a cross-country effort (6 minute read)

In the meantime # 2: my features take months to write sometimes, so in between projects, I’ll send short newsletters, telling y’all about some stuff I think y’all should know about.

Main story:

Any mainstream outlet whose focus on “resistance" during Trump 2.0 consists entirely of telling the Democratic Party what they should do is an unserious outlet. The goal should be to empower people and not parties. But media would rather keep up with the same "horse race" coverage mentality, telling people to do nothing else, other than to put their faith in the hands of a national party who seems in utter disarray.

While the media is talking about politics as if it is team sports or fantasy football, grassroots organizations are hitting the ground running, like in Chicago, where they've laid down resistance against Trump's mass deportation plan. Their resistance has been so meaningful that Trump's Border Flunky went on CNN to complain about how the activists have kept them from detaining as many people as they hoped for. One of their tactics was simply letting the immigrant community know their rights. Or, as Border Flunky said on CNN, as reported by Payday Report, “They call it ‘Know Your Rights,’… I call it ‘how to escape from ICE’.”

If the mainstream media had any interest in guiding the populace through this time, they would be showing people that all meaningful resistance will have to take place at the state and local levels. Because while Trump is hard at work upending the federal government, the right-wing apparatus has its eyes towards the states, working on the next big power-grab:

Flipping the Wisconsin State Supreme Court to a 4-3 right wing majority. Even if you don’t live in Wisconsin, you should care about this race.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race will be April 1st, and is between Susan Crawford (endorsed by the Wisconsin Democratic Party), and Brad Schimel (backed by the GOP and anti-abortion groups). Right now, the court has a liberal majority. But with a current liberal Justice retiring, a seat is up for grabs.

Taken from Wisconsin Public Radio

The last Wisconsin Supreme Court race was the most expensive in American judicial election history, with dark money flowing in from all over the country, for a grand total of roughly $50 million spent. Even with money coming in from little known billionaire megadonor couple Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein, the far-right candidate lost. The 2023 race shifted the court's ideological tilt to liberal for the first time in 15 years, which led to a court ruling that expanded voting access in the crucial swing state… something Elon Musk is mad about.

Elon Musk has weighed into the race, and is supporting the right-wing candidate, Brad Schimel. Schimel supports a restrictive abortion law from 1849, and while Attorneys General of the state, allowed a large backlog of rape kits to pileup. Musk tweeted (or "X'ed"), "very important to vote Republican for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to prevent voting fraud." Musk’s post was a quote retweet, responding to a post from Scott Presler, who also decried the fact that voting rights were expanded under a liberal majority. Musk amplified Presler’s post, and it has since been seen by 15 million users. Scott Presler is a far-right activist and influencer who has been talking about this race for months now, urging his many Twitter (X) followers to show up and vote.

A good rule of thumb: if the far-right is talking about a race, then we should too.

Why this race is important:

State supreme courts function similarly to the United States Supreme Court. However, they rule over issues that can impact you more readily, as they preside over cases in your state. In fact, 98% of all filed court cases go through state courts. Sometimes those cases include issues like abortion rights and voting rights. In recent years, state supreme courts have become a thorn in the side of rouge state legislatures and far-right activists alike:

• The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against anti-abortion activists who tried to implement local level abortion restrictions, creating “sanctuary cities for the unborn.”

• The Montana Supreme Court has been giving their state government headaches, with the most recent ruling blocking a bill that would have made the climate crisis worse.

• The Wyoming Supreme Court blocked a total abortion ban in their state.

• The Minnesota Supreme Court blocked a GOP power grab attempt within the state legislature.

But state supreme courts can also be weaponized against the people, like in North Carolina.

• The North Carolina Supreme Court may very well help overturn a free and fair election, on the behalf of a GOP Supreme Court candidate who lost the 2024 election.

And that's why the GOP wants the Wisconsin Supreme Court: they want to weaponize it against the public.

The job of judges and justices is to call balls and strikes. They are legal umpires. The GOP wants to be able to rig the game in their favor, so that when they pass atrocious bills, we can’t run to the umpire and say “they can’t do that!”

Which leads into my next points:

This race is tacitly about abortion rights.

Abortion rights in Wisconsin are restricted, which includes a 20-week ban and mandatory waiting period. Brad Schimel, in unearthed audio, has foreshadowed that he would be willing to rule against women's right to autonomy. The state Wisconsin Supreme Court is weighing whether or not to uphold a lower court's opinion that blocked an 1849 statue that banned all abortions. A leader of the Wisconsin GOP has stated that if the liberal-led Wisconsin Supreme Court were to uphold their block, the GOP would introduce a 14-week abortion ban. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority will likely uphold the lower court's decision, then as promised, the Wisconsin GOP will pass a 14-week ban. In this scenario, if Brad Schimel were to win, and a pro-reproductive rights group were to sue to stop the state law, and it gets kicked to the state Supreme Court, the GOP will already have their guy Schimel as a vote counted on their side.

There are national implications, too.

State supreme courts, as previously stated, weigh-in on fair voting maps and voting rights. Wisconsin is a purple state, and as mentioned previously, had ruled to expand voting access by adding more ballot drop boxes in time for the 2024 election. The GOP is not capable of winning free and fair elections where it’s easy for all eligible voters to vote, so those drop boxes can be a problem for them. In addition, whoever controls the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be able to preside over cases that seek to overturn both congressional and state legislative maps drawn by the GOP-led legislature. This could lead to a reality where one day, the currently purple Wisconsin, can have their maps skewed so far in the GOP's favor that they never lose the state again in a Presidential race.

Conclusion:

We should all care about this race. As GOP-led states continue to ramp up attacks on civil liberties, the marginalized and impacted within those states will need somewhere to go, if the environment in their states become untenable. This is the reality we are in right now, where states controlled by Democrats have had to become safe havens for queer people and those seeking abortions. (The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently presiding over a case that will determine if conversion therapy is banned in the state or not. This lawsuit was brought by Democratic Governor Tony Evers, as a way to rein in the GOP-led legislature's anti-queer agenda.)

In addition, the far-right's strategy is to work across the country on the state and local levels to remake the country from the inside out. They often test out strategies on the local level first to roll out statewide, then nationally. This includes talking points and propaganda. Don’t forget: the manufactured anti-trans hysteria all started in municipalities before it spread through state legislatures across the country.

How Big Money and Big Religion are Attacking Trans Youth in Louisiana

According to a report by True North Research, the same dark money forces that helped reshape the United States Supreme Court are planning to throw money at the state court system to continue their attempts to have control over all of our lives.

So, in conclusion, I think it’s necessary that all of us who care about our fellow man and living in a society absent of Christo-fascism to pitch in across the nation, to keep the few remaining safe places in this country safe for all. Musk and others are going to descend into every state with a major election coming up and will try to swing things in their favors like the tyrants they are. It is up to us, the people, to band together across the nation and help where we can, and support candidates that will be under siege by the far-right. For my part, I’m reaching out to the Crawford campaign to ask how I can help write and mail post cards, reminding Wisconsinites to go out and vote for Crawford. It is up to us to spread the word about this major election, because the mainstream media and the Democrats ain’t bringing enough attention to it.

Let’s help make this race a signal to Musk and Peter Thiel and Trump and all of the other powerful ghouls that want to run this country that they will not control our lives or strip autonomy from citizens. Donate, spread the word, phonebank, whatever you can.

Don’t let the media make you think that Trumpism is inevitable. On the state level, ballot initiatives meant to help the public were approved by voters, even in Red States. Just recently, a MAGA state senate candidate in Iowa lost a special election, with the Democratic candidate flipping a seat in a district Trump won by 21 points.

When the people put up a fight and make our voices heard, we win. We just need to start doing that in our (figurative) backyards immediately, instead of waiting for the national Democratic Party to get their shit together. Because so far, they don’t seem close to doing that.

Learn more about your state supreme court here.

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