“The Fall of Wisconsin”: How GOP Transformed Once-Progressive State into Union-Busting “Laboratory”

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, holds significance for today’s Republican Party, not only as the site of the 2024 Republican National Convention, but also as a bellwether for American conservatism, argues Dan Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics. Kaufman shares Wisconsin’s history of progressive state politics, and how that progressivism was overtaken and eroded by Republican governance, particularly under former Governor Scott Walker, who dismantled organized labor’s power in the state. “Walker himself boasted that, ‘If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere,’” explains Kaufman. “So, in terms of becoming a national laboratory, [Wisconsin] became an important symbol for the transformation of Republican politics.”