LA CROSSE, Wis. — Allyse Barba, a 34-year-old in the insurance industry, watched excitedly upstairs at Thrunie’s Classic Cocktails as Mandela Barnes, the youthful Democrat running for the Senate, tore through his stump speech just 19 days before the election.
Then Ms. Barba reflected on the politics of her state: the divide between the blue dot of downtown La Crosse and the surrounding red reaches of western Wisconsin, where she said she could not have a civil conversation; the Republican favored to win the seat in her congressional district, who was at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021; and a Legislature so gerrymandered that her Democratic Party does not stand a chance.
“It is disheartening to live in a state where nothing happens,” she said glumly. “Voting isn’t making a difference right now.”
[DS–I too, worry about the direction our country is going, and the fact that Leftists keep agitating for direct action instead of respecting the legitimate process. I agree with the people polled by the NYT that the MSM is the greatest threat to democracy right now]
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