Author: gbump

Quoted: Their understanding of who counts, and who ought to count, is tied to an urban and rural divide that encompasses divisions along race, economic class, education, and ideology. In The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness and the Rise of Scott Walker, Katherine Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, shows how the state’s politics have been shaped by a rural sense of “distributive injustice—a sense that rural folks don’t get their fair share.”

Quoted: Howard Schweber, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Republicans “seem to be under the impression that separation of powers refers to parties rather than branches of government.”

Quoted: These actions are also unfolding quickly. In Wisconsin, less than a week elapsed between the rough outlines of that state’s legislation becoming public and lawmakers sending the bill to the governor’s desk, said Barry C. Burden, a professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: “Isn’t it interesting that there are some few states — places where redistricting is the hot topic — and the stakes around voting rules are higher,” Barry Burden, a political scientist with the University of Wisconsin Madison, said. “Wisconsin is going to be ground central for the next presidential election.”

Quoted: Wisconsinites have been bitterly at odds ever since. Katherine Cramer, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the elections in November confirmed that “stark division” especially as urban liberals in places like Madison and Milwaukee lined up against rural, conservative Republicans.

Quoted: Barry C. Burden, a professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin -Madison says that the session was so unprecedented that political scientists are still examining the details of what was passed, but some of the threatened measures that would have certainly spurred legal challenges were removed before passage.

“He entered office with protesters of Act 10, and he’s leaving office with protesters of these last minute actions,” said Michael Wagner, a political science and journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, referring to 2011 legislation intended to curtail public employee union powers.

Quoted: “We know that humans are social animals and they need close contact and support,” said Felix Elwert, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “To go from decades of not being alone ? from being with someone who actually loves them to solitude ? it’s very difficult for people to manage.”