On Thursday, September 27 at noon Eastern, the Economic Policy Institute will host author Dan Kaufman for a discussion on his new book, The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics.
For more than a century, Wisconsin has been known nationwide for its progressive ideas and government. But following a Republican sweep of the state’s government in 2010, Wisconsin’s political heritage was overturned, and the state went Republican for the first time in three decades in the 2016 presidential election, elevating Donald J. Trump to the presidency. The Fall of Wisconsin is a deeply reported, searing account of how the state’s progressive tradition was undone and turned into a model for national conservatives bent on remaking the country.
Kaufman, a Wisconsin native, traces the history of progressivism that made Wisconsin so widely admired, from the work of celebrated politicians like Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette and Gaylord Nelson, to local traditions like Milwaukee’s “sewer socialism,” to the conservationist ideas of Aldo Leopold and the state’s Native American tribes. Kaufman reveals how the “divide-and-conquer” strategy of Governor Scott Walker and his allies pitted Wisconsin’s citizens against one another so powerful corporations and wealthy donors could effectively take control of state government. As a result, laws protecting voting rights, labor unions, the environment, and public education were rapidly dismantled.
This event is free and open to the public, and lunch will be provided. Your RSVP will help us prepare.
This event will be livestreamed.
When: Thursday, September 27
12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m. Eastern
Who: Daniel Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics
David Cooper, EPI Senior Economic Analyst
Brendan Fischer, Director, Federal Reform, Campaign Legal Center
Moderated by EPI’s Kayla Blado
Where: The Economic Policy Institute
1225 I Street NW, Sixth floor
Washington, DC 20005
Members of the media please RSVP to news@epi.org.