By Andrew Zuelke

As the 2020 Census results have come out https://www. census.gov/programs-surveys/ decennial-census/ decade/2020/2020-censusresults.html and https://www. census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/populationchanges-nations-diversity.html, I began thinking about the ways Democrats and Republicans managed to stay in power…and why voters need more choices.

1# Fear and name recognition – The Democrat and Republican Parties (D’s & R’s) have been around for well over a century. Unless someone has been living in a cave, they have heard of the D’s & R’s. Name recognition (individuals or parties) is huge. I know that there are people who vote for the individual and not just the party, but I wonder how many vote counts would change if all voters had to rely on was candidates’ positions on issues and parties weren’t listed on ballots?

Secondly, both parties use fear to stay in power. The D’s & R’s will say, “If that other party’s candidate wins the White House, America won’t survive.” or “If the other party retakes the Congress, within a few years, all our rights will be gone.” Sound familiar? Friends, if America is so weak that just one wrong man as president could bring our nation down, America has been living on borrowed time for decades. Friends, it’s NOT your fault the D’s & R’s can’t give you better candidates to choose from.

If the D’s & R’s say that We the People should have only two parties in power, who is to say which two parties it must be? Why couldn’t it be the Constitution Party and some other party? Here is a better question: why would we want to continue keeping in power two parties who 1) between them have racked up $30 trillion dollars of debt, 2) have both passed laws that violate our Constitutional rights (civil forfeiture laws, wetlands/endangered species laws, Obamacare, etc.) 3) have transferred more and powers away from the states and to the federal government?

Competition is a good thing…unless you are an elected member from one of two majority parties, apparently.

2# US Census Redistricting – After the 2020 US Census results came out in 2021, the WI Republican majority put out their maps for proposed changes to our Assembly, State Senate and US House of Representative seats. There are various articles online but this one has an interactive map (give the map a minute to load on your computer). The laws creating the maps are AB624 and SB621. The Article can be found in the Wisconsin State Journal. It is titled "Interactive: See both redistricting proposals down to the neighborhood level" and is dated Nov. 4, 2021. https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/ interactive-see-both-redistricting-proposals-downto-the-neighborhood-level/article_923c80861bad-543f-bf32-9b740f6d2d2d.html. Once there, above the map, you can check on "Current", "GOP proposal" and "Evers's proposal", then check on the district you want to see. I'll leave it to your judgment whether there is GOP gerrymandering going on here.

Now, hold for a shock here – Democrats almost immediately went to the courts to appeal the GOP maps, just like the GOP would if the Democrats were in the legislative majority. Each party draws the districts (legislative and Congressional) to get as many people who support their parties into their districts to retain them or to wrest them away from the other party. So, when the WI Democrats start ranting and raving about “gerrymandering” https://www.bing.com/ search?q=madison.com+gerrymandering&PC=U 316&FORM=CHROM, know that the Democrat minority (again, just like a Republican minority would) would protest any redistricting layout and call it gerrymandering. Both major parties will legally challenge any redrawn legislative or Congressional district which threatens their ability to hold on to or win political seats.

3# Consolidating power and empowering unelected appointees and bureaucrats –

Remember in 2020 when Governor Evers gave power to the unelected bureaucrat Andrea Palm of the WI Department of Health Services to send out Emergency Order #31, ordering “non-essential” businesses to shut down and for people to shelter in place https://content.govdelivery.com/ attachments/WIGOV/2020/04/20/file_ attachments/1431309/EMO31BadgerBounceBack.pdf? The Order read, in part – WHEREAS, on March 24, 2020, I, Andrea Palm, Secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, issued Emergency Order #12, Safer at Home Order (hereinafter "Safer at Home Order"), requiring that everyone in Wisconsin stay at their home or place of residence except in limited circumstances…

A bureaucrat “requiring” you and I to do anything is outrageous enough. What’s worse is that the GOP-controlled state legislature went to the state Supreme Court with a lawsuit rather than exercising their legislative oversight authority, ordering the governor to obey state law and rescind his order https://www.maciverinstitute. com/2020/04/legislature-asks-state-supremecourt-to-rein-in-sec-designee-andrea-palm/. Here was my question at the time for the GOP, “What if their lawsuit had failed?” Would that mean Evers would have been able to continue the shutdown as long as he wanted to? We the People don't get to vote for bureaucrats and if those whom we do get to vote for are counting on lawsuits to stop the unelected bureaucrats from imposing orders on us, and we only have two party choices, where do We the People go for relief?

Here’s another way both parties empower themselves, by turning elected offices into appointed ones, taking more choices off our ballots.

Remember the statewide referendum in 2020 to eliminate the elected State Treasurer position after years of many elected Republicans (and probably some Democrats) deliberately gutting the office? The Constitution Party of Wisconsin opposes that https://www. constitutionpartyofwisconsin.com/full-platform/

Elimination of Elective Offices.

The CPoW opposes any proposal to change any state-wide (e.g., Secretary of State or State Treasurer) or local offices (e.g., County Clerk or Mayor) currently filled through popular election to appointed positions. Such changes will reduce the officeholder’s accountability to the electorate and instead make the office essentially a political patronage position.

So that accountable representation can be preserved, we also object to electing at-large city aldermen.

I was on the statewide ballot as the Constitutionalist candidate for State Treasurer in 2014 and 2018 on a platform of retaining and strengthening this office, giving it more powers and duties, making it a watchdog, believing voters should have more choices on their ballots, not less. You can still find the links below online – https:// lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/andrewzuelke-treasurer-an-office-worth-keeping/ article_34b16336-9962-529f-80ab66205be08ebc.html

https://www.htrnews.com/story/opinion/ readers/2014/10/21/zuelke-offers-voters-widerchoice-state-treasurer/17678051/

https://www.postcrescent.com/story/opinion/ readers/2014/11/01/letters-choose-zuelke-statetreasurer/18291653/

Now some of our WI elected legislators are at it again. Having failed to eliminate the office from our constitution, they want to consolidate power by turning this and other statewide offices into appointed positions. https://www.msn.com/en-us/ news/politics/wisconsin-gop-lawmakers-wantsuperintendent-treasurer-and-secretary-of-stateappointed-not-elected/ar-AAOXVQg. Making these offices appointed ones empowers the D’s & R’s, not you.

The article above quotes Assemblyman Shae Sortwell as saying about these offices, “We’re not eliminating anything. We’re putting them under the governor so we can give them more responsibility and more accountability." I almost fell out of my chair when I read that. They stripped duties from these elected offices but they want to keep the offices around so they can add duties back to the offices as appointed positions? If you can figure out that line of reasoning, you are smarter than I am. Sortwell proves my point; the D’s & R’s want to consolidate power into unelected positions to retain control of the legislative and executive branches. I invite and encourage you to read the article for yourselves and draw your own conclusions from Sortwell’s own words.

Andrew Zuelke is the State Chairman of the totally pro-life, moral order, rule of law Constitution Party of Wisconsin.