What is up everybody?
Welcome to the show.
You're in the right spot.
You got the rational revolution.
I am Mark Becker.
And it is always an honor to be here with you.
And joining us this week is our returning friend, one of our BFFs here on the show.
Representative from Green Bay, Rip Amad, Rivera Wagner.
What's up, brother?
How are you?
Oh, I'm fabulous.
How are you doing?
Good.
I can't complain.
You know, life is life is good.
Well, it's election season, so life is rough.
Well, yeah, that's true.
Yes, it is election season.
Election day is on April 7.
Remind your listeners that there is important races up and down the ballot.
Have
you been following the election?
I don't know if I have a choice but to follow the election.
I think
they're really important.
You know, we have locally, we have elections here too.
And I think one of the things that's interesting is like, there are some groups out there that are some people that are so
aghast and frustrated that, you know, the local political parties are getting involved in the races.
And that, to me, I think that's a bad take because it's like, you know, you want political parties to stay out of politics, you know, regardless of, you know, it's a nonpartisan race.
Okay, well, this is, this is what the political parties do.
So, you know, it's going to happen.
What about the state Supreme Court race?
How, what's your take on that?
Well, you know, I'm a big
fan of Chris Taylor.
And the reason why is that we watched the Supreme Court by one vote, potentially overturned the 2020 election.
People forget this, that all absentee ballots in blue cities were potentially going to be thrown out by, at the time, a Republican-led Supreme Court.
And one, Judge Hackerdern, who is a Republican,
who is an old school Republican, who believes in democracy, was the deciding vote on whether or not the election results were thrown out in 2020.
And so I'm really one passionate about ensuring our Supreme Court is just reflective of our community, that it doesn't have to be right or left, but it does have to be focused on ensuring that we follow facts, that we deal with logic, and that we actually ensure that
the system works for people and so Chris Taylor is someone who has done that her work her whole life but in particular her opponent actually was one of the judges that went forward with some of the 2020 election conspiracy theories and allowed them to pass her court and that to me tells you a lot about someone if you are willing to bend the law break it completely just to do the bidding of
the President Trump at the time, I don't think that you are fit to serve in a position that serves everybody.
And so I think our Supreme Court is deeply important in Wisconsin.
We need good people who are smart and talented, who actually care about the rule of law.
And it's so funny to me that as an open Democrat, that I'm now the party of respecting the law, respecting the Constitution, using it logic.
In fact, there was a time where that didn't feel as
Partisan but it feels like now it's deeply important that we have people who get that fundamental rights or actually fundamental rights And so I want a supreme court justice that's going to make democracy work and that is Chris Taylor And so I look forward to more people like judge Hagrid on who is a Republican who I think did the absolute Incredible thing by championing Democracy when it was really really really really hard and I think that there are
more Republicans like that, they're just not running for office yet.
And so
my deep wish is that the Republican Party also puts up candidates that are deeply reflective of the communities they serve and not just political hacks for President Trump.
I just think that that is, we deserve better, we all deserve better.
Yeah.
And I think people really have to remember how close we were.
to some really, really bad things happening at the time.
You were the chief of staff for Mayor Genric.
And so you had a front row seat to a lot of that.
Yeah.
And you know, I've told this story before to your audience, but as a quick general reminder, you know, they called me an undocumented African immigrant who
made up having a husband that I was planted by the DNC to steal the election using two internets and little people in the machines.
And a sitting elected official now who's on our comic council, yes, January 6 protest that called for the Proud Boys to come get me, the mayor and Celestine Jeffries to physically attack us and potentially kill us.
And that happened for two to three years, where keyboard warriors were making up
facts and figures.
There were media that were willing to carry the weight for people despite not having any evidence.
And what I love about that story is that there is a happy ending, which is that this community rejected those lies, that approach and elected the first openly gay person of color to represent Green Bay.
But more importantly, someone who gets that we need a government.
that reflects Green Bay, which is that we take care of each other.
We lift each other up.
We support one another.
But I know what that's like.
And so to me, this is really personal, the Supreme Court raise, because we need people who are not going to add fuel to the fire of chaos and conspiracy theories.
We need people who really do care about the Constitution and the common good.
And I think Chris said, is that person to do that?
But this is deeply personal for me because I see how bad it can get when those things are not when those things go unchecked.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, there's
It's frustrating to hear Republicans like, oh, it's just just move on.
You keep asking, did Donald Trump win the election?
You got to move on.
You know, and there was, yes, it was a happy ending for you.
I think it's going to be another happy ending when that particular representative is defeated.
And I hope, you know, for freaking the love of God that she can be defeated one of these times because that's like that matters.
You know, especially, you know, what you say matters.
But, you know, when it comes to something that serious, golly.
They
keep telling us to forget it.
But just recently, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has tried to issue executive order to nationalize our elections that he's instructing his Justice Department, potentially ICE, to go to polling locations to protect the polls from undocumented immigrants.
That's not the word that they use.
So despite all of this allegedly being in the past, here we are in 2026.
still
have
a conversation about whether or not this person should be our president Trump does not believe he lost the 2020 election and is using the force of the federal government to cast doubt on our elections again.
And bipartisan support is coming out of the woodwork saying we've got to stop this, that we have to get the train back on the rails.
But as much as it feels like it's the past, the reason why we all of us keep bringing it up is it doesn't feel like it's over.
It doesn't seem like it's over for them.
And it doesn't feel like it's over for us.
The truth is, the American people, Wisconsinites, Cream Bay folks would love nothing more than to walk away from the chaos and conspiracy.
But instead, they keep bringing.
I mean, there's a there's a common council candidate running right now who brought up that she still believes that I stole the 2020 election.
Really?
Yes, just a month ago.
Oh, sweet.
Right.
So when we talk and literally said that the Internet is forever.
And I was
like,
Just because it's a lie doesn't mean that it does, you know, we love it for it to go
away.
The lie is going to continue, right?
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
And so this is a common council candidate
that
is talking about how the elections are still stolen for the election on April 7th.
But I would be really proud to see Bendele defeat her.
Her name's Leigh Ann Kramer.
And I would, I look forward to Bendele beating her not only for that reason, because Bendele is a great champion for the community, but more so we have to stop election conspiracy theorists from getting in the
Levers of government because they will cause problems,
right?
I mean, you know, it's like deeply unserious people, you know thinking very Serious things, you know that that that that can harm a lot of people, right?
You know, is there something that the state government can do?
So let's say that you know, the president's directs ice to to go to the polls Can anything be done about that?
So there's a bunch of
folks working on what what can we can and cannot do
One of the things that we have to understand is that all elections are local elections.
This is like for the Constitution.
We've done this for a long time.
So your election, the way that it shows up, what time is it at, is actually dictated locally.
ICE operates federally.
So really one of the interventions that we have is obviously collaborating with our local law enforcement, our local district attorneys, and our statewide AGs about ensuring that
just because someone is in ICE does not mean that your human rights go out the window.
And that's something that we fundamentally misunderstand or the federal government misunderstands.
Everyone actually gets constitutional protections, whether or not ICE shows up in your community or not, whether they believe that they have both the officers have rights, but so do the people in the community have just as many fundamental rights.
And so I think ensuring that we're going to protect those rights and what's really nice about Green Bay is our law enforcement has been
deeply committed to ensuring that everyone's rights are respected, because of who's attempting to intervene.
And I think that is a positive thing for our community.
Yeah, we got, we're talking with Representative Modervar Wagner.
I saw you last week at the No Kings protest.
Yes, that was awesome to see and catch up and shoot the BS.
What's next though?
How do we make sure that that's not like where it stops?
Well, to me, you know, I mean, you brought this up at the top of the show.
I think that things are inherently political in this moment, meaning that no Kings is a pathway to us.
in my opinion, getting people involved, either running for office or voting for people who ultimately are going to make a difference up and down the ballot.
So from midterm elections for Congress, to state elections for state Senate and state rep, to common council races, to DAs and judges, that my hope is that these rallies inspire people.
Because one of the things that we saw in the 2024 election is the opting out, that people felt like politics do not
reflect
that.
that politics don't hear them.
And we saw all kinds of things.
Some people voting because they want to see someone burn it all down.
Some people opting out completely.
So my hope is that this era is an era of making politics much more representative for the regular people and delivers that we show up and show up with both in protest but also in policy.
right, that even when you're in a minority party, there are things that you can do to actually move things along.
And I know that's what we're going to talk
about later
today.
That is really what I see for no Kings is it is an on ramp for people to be able to get involved politically, whether that is protesting and elections, whether that's running for office, whether that's emailing and calling your elected representatives, ensuring that we pull
our politics to be more responsive to everyday people is the reason why I got involved in politics.
And the reason why I show up at these No Kings rallies and protests is because any means necessary to make sure our government is more reflective and responsive to the people it serves, whether Democrats or Republicans, we need to ensure that people believe in their government, can trust their government, and that their government delivers.
And I'm excited because it seems like that energy is coming back.
And I really look forward to
Leveraging that energy and supporting that energy in our government
and we got a minute left in this segment But talk about if you could coming together and you know, we don't want we need people to come together This only works if we are all united in November
as we mentioned Earlier one of the most powerful things about the election conspiracy theories is when they came to Green Bay
What we did is we came together, Republicans and Democrats.
We recruited more poll workers than we've ever had.
We actually got more people involved in our local elections.
And what we saw is a historic turnout after people put mistrust in our elections because people came together across both parties, across
the city across political beliefs to say that our democracy is really important.
And to me, that is the inspiration, that we can come together and get things done when the goal is the people and not the politics.
So I'm very hopeful and optimistic.
And that's why I ran and got elected in 2024 when we had a Trump wave.
Green Bay actually got bluer because people want us to be like our community, taking care of each other, taking care of our neighbors.
And I know that we can do that here in Green Bay.
You know, and it's interesting when I was the chairman of the Republican Party.
There was a lot of, you know, at the time, it was like a time of the Tea Party and all these different factions that were, you know, going around with litmus tests and all of that stuff.
And all you're not conservative enough and all you believe in, right to life, but only with these, except all this stuff.
And they spent so much time fighting with each other.
that they, they, they couldn't coalesce and be effective.
And I'm obviously I'm glad that they didn't, but, but, but on the flip side, that is what we have to do.
We're going to talk about that.
We're going to talk about a legislative session update.
We got our BFF Ahmad Rivera Wagner state rep on the show and we will be right back.
Welcome back to the show.
You got the rational evolution.
I'm Mark Becker.
We've got state rep of Mod River Wagner.
Ham Bondi got fired.
That's funny.
She sucked.
But the dot was over 50,000 at one point.
So I guess there was that.
But it's funny when we joke, but I think it's good to see.
some of the wheels come off of this thing.
Let's be very clear.
While we are laughing about it, Pam Bondi has orchestrated some of the cruelest and chaotic levels of public policy or this public approach that have really caused people their lives and their trust of their political lives or everyday lives that have been completely disrupted by the chaos of this administration.
So while I'm
Frankly, happy she's gone.
The truth is I'm not sure that we're going to do any better.
But I do think that this is one form of accountability.
And so I'm thankful that, you know, who said this, and I actually fully support it, former congressman Reed Ribble talked about having an AG that actually respects the Constitution and not the political machinations of the president.
And I couldn't agree more with Congress, with former Congresswoman Reed Ribble, that that's what we need in an attorney general is someone who actually respects the Constitution.
And again, it's so strange to be a hardcore Democrat and proud to be a Democrat, to be the person talking about constitutional muster and constitutional protections.
But I think that's really, really, really important.
And I think that's something that Republicans should be pushing for as well, is we need someone who just respects the Constitution and the rule of law.
At Republican events, we would always have these groups handing out pocket constitutions.
I should see if they have their number and maybe they want to come to the Dems convention or something.
Or at
least hand them out again.
Republicans
are like, what is this?
Doesn't say
Trump on it.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the legislative session is done.
How did that go?
Well, it was a press session first term.
I want to make sure we set what it looks like.
The reason why the legislative session is done is that at the beginning of the year, the majority party, which in this case is Republicans, decided on a schedule that was one of the shortest schedules in Wisconsin history for doing legislative work.
That's passing bills.
That is going to hearings.
That's engaging our communities.
And I voted against that saying people sent me here to do work.
It's Green Bay.
Most people not only have one job, they have multiple jobs.
So they expect their legislators to do exactly what they are.
But that that schedule passed.
Despite that schedule being one of the shortest on record in Wisconsin history, the majority party also then decided to end 10 months early.
10 months early.
So we're talking about the end of a legislative session, despite the fact that I have nine more months or eight more months approximately of
my term, and we will not be passing any more bills.
We will have no more hearings.
Even introduction of bills gets a stamp essentially saying that you've introduced a bill that cannot get a hearing and will not be heard or will be voted on.
So just to really right size the ship, we are at a 10 months hiatus and we have ended our legislative session early because the majority party has decided to do so.
So while that is deeply disappointing,
despite the short amount of time that we've had and being a minority party member as Democrats.
I am so excited that this will next week we will be signing two bills that I help author and work together that are two bipartisan bills on housing and immigration all focused on opportunity and affordability.
And so even as a freshman member I was told I cannot pass any bills that I should not expect to have any bills passed in my first term.
And two, that most bills that you can't do big things in Wisconsin.
Here's the thing.
People doubt Green Bay all the time.
They doubted our team.
They doubt our city.
And we always show up.
We always do better when we punch above our weight.
And not only do we have these two bills, but I've had one of the most prolific
for sessions.
And I'm just so proud because every one of the bills that I've worked on, including the bills that will be signed by the governor, our ideas that came from the residents and people of Green Bay and that got turned into public policy and that policy won.
And it's not because they are liberal or conservative, they're just good policy that helps everyday people.
And I want people to believe in our government again.
So despite all of the barriers, I am so proud that I have two bills.
As a freshman Democrat that are going to become law.
Yeah, and I think that people need to understand like how big of a thing that is, you know, like it's it's It's very difficult to to get something past this but you know in your in your first term.
It's it's typically is not done And to do that when the you know in the face of the headwinds of the GOP You know we're talking with a mod reviewer Wagner, dude, I'm proud of you man.
You didn't you really that that's seriously like that is freaking cool
and that speaks to your ability to do the right thing and get people on board, you know, with a very diverse coalition of
Republican
and Democrats.
I think it's something done.
And frankly, folks that could be unlikely allies.
Here's what I have learned at Green Bay.
When you actually focus on the issues, you can build an incredible coalition.
And
I don't make promises not to disagree with people.
There are people who I worked with on predatory lending legislation.
Well, it did not get passed.
It was one of the few bipartisan bills introduced.
It was with Senator Jacques and Rep Allen, some of the most conservative people in the state legislature.
And we all agreed that predatory lending should be curbed or ended in the state of Wisconsin.
And so like there are ways where we can agree on ending predator lending and fight about
pro-choice, pro-life, that we can agree on housing and have a debate on LGBTQ issues.
What I love about doing it around the issues and progress over politics is that it's not about me changing at all.
I don't change in any room I'm in, but what I will do is focus on the things that we can work on together and then fight on the things that we have to fight about and that that disagreement doesn't have to be dangerous, that we can
deeply disagree and focus on this issue.
And then we can go back to deeply disagreeing.
And so I, I really feel like it's almost a harking back to a different time, a different era.
When you focus on the problems, not on politics, right?
And so I'm just deeply proud.
Yeah, it's kind of, it's, it's what I say all the time on the show.
It's not about left versus right.
It's about right versus wrong.
And that's kind of what, uh, what you've been about and, and, uh, you know, this whole, well, your whole life, but we're going to continue the discussion here with, uh, Representative Madra Verwagner.
on the Russian Revolution right after this.
I'm Mark Becker.
Stick around.
Welcome back to the show here.
Listen to the rational revolution.
If you liked this discussion, because of course you would.
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Check it out.
We got all sorts of good stuff.
But that's why you're going to want to listen to this one a few times, because who wouldn't want to listen to a representative of Monterey Wagner from Green Bay?
Thanks for taking time for us today, as you know, all that good stuff.
What did you learn about the baddest in your first session down there?
Here's what I will generally say.
I can see, I truly get why people are frustrated.
Right that there is the agenda that everyday people have for its government for its people and then there is the agenda of the state legislature and Just imagine for example that we ended 10 months early and we just didn't fund our public schools Right that there is a that until the last day of the legislature things like postpartum Medicaid expansion which has wild
almost didn't get passed, right?
Gail's law that made mammograms free and accessible for folks almost didn't get passed and had not been passed for years prior.
And so there is something about acknowledging this trism that sometimes those state legislatures were good ideas go to die.
And that would that kiss be
with the way that our government should work and so and to me that's not even just purely partisan I want to be very clear about this you know the state legislature has ebbed and flowed for a long time not for 20 years because of gerrymandered maps but before that I used to go back and forth and there is a way in which I can see why Madison is intoxicating because it feels so far away and removed from everyday people's concerns and it becomes about
whose names are on bills or who's in charge or who's not in charge or did you get the right title or not the right title or are you liked by this person or not.
I deeply get that in a way that I have never understood before in my life and so in some ways it taught me a deep lesson that we do need to elect more people who really care more about the people they serve.
pleasing the people in positions of power.
And I think that that's, but that's a really good lesson.
I mean, I think I always believed that I know what that felt like, but maybe I went in a little bit more optimistic or, oh, this is going to be a little harder than I thought.
But I think that, but the truth is you can't, good ideas and hard work can't be defeated.
It may take some time.
It may be really hard.
But if you really, really do the work and you step up and you find different ways to be innovative and you push where you can be, there are ways to have successes.
Even when the things are stacked against you, I often tell people, I know how hard it is to outwork a broken system.
My goal is to make the system better instead of making everyone have to keep outworking it.
I've been out working broken systems my entire life and I'm not going to let them stop me now.
But the goal is actually fix the system so that we don't have to out work a broken system.
And these bills and this work is all about that.
How do we fix the system?
Not make people keep working out working a broken one.
And that's why I'm really proud of them is because they're not just simple bills.
I didn't name a post office.
I didn't.
This isn't some small technocratic shift.
These are powerful impact.
policies that are gonna actually difference in people's lives.
And I think that's the why I'm so proud is that we were not able to get something done in a bipartisan way, but we're also able to do high impact when most things can't even get done in the state legislature.
So one, it was a sober reality, but on top of that, it was also a major challenge, but it was something I was deeply proud of.
So I have, as we all know, Robin Voss,
Left he's retiring.
Thank God, you know, and it's interesting.
It's like rats off a sinking ship, you know what but like There is a pretty deep legacy that he leaves and it's not always really a good one What do you think about that?
Here's what I will say I'm What I'm frustrated by and I think everyday people are frustrated by is that in our state legislature?
We essentially allowed one person to
to decide the entire political agenda and policy agenda for the state of Wisconsin.
He wasn't elected to do that.
He is not the governor.
He is one of 99 other assembly individuals who are all duly elected to represent their communities, elected on partisan lines to represent the body.
No one person should be able to dictate and decide in a legislative body what bills and policies get.
moved, that we should let good ideas and good debate decide what gets passed and doesn't get passed.
It shouldn't be the ebbs and flows of a single person's personality or preferences.
And so I am just thankful that this era is over.
And my hope, my deep hope regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans take the assembly this fall is that we don't replicate the broken system, that we create a world
a legislative world where good ideas can rise up and they can be debated on the merits of their policy and voted up or down based on whether it aligns with other people, not whether you are the right kind of Democrat or the right kind of Republican, whether you have the right kind of lobbyist money or you don't have the right kind of lobbyist money, that our legislature should be the most deeply reflective of its people.
And unfortunately under Robin Vossa's leadership, that was never the case, that the assembly is the most grounded.
in everyday people, it's the most diverse body.
And yet we did not get the most pieces of diverse legislation from that.
So my hope is the era of that is finally over.
And then a new era of government being more responsive and reflective of the people they serve comes to being.
How can that change?
What are the top things that need to really change to make that possible?
I
mean,
Robin Ross was the king.
You know, we talked about no kings.
That was him in the state of Wisconsin.
Absolutely.
Here's some simple things, right?
Have a legislative schedule that's longer than a year.
For example, we have two year terms.
Us trying to squeeze everything into almost less than a year is unacceptable.
Making sure that bills don't have a requirement to get these bills passed, whether I was the primary author or not.
And I'm okay with this.
I believe credit's free.
Only bills that had a Republican lead, whether they wrote the bill or not.
or the only way bills will get passed.
I hate that rule, it's so dumb.
That was a rule that was just created.
That is not in the Constitution, but if it didn't have a Republican lead author, it would not even get a hearing, let alone a floor vote.
That hearing should be something that anyone can get, right?
That those should be decided by the chairs of those committees, that we should be empowering
the chairs of committees to be able to take up bills and then whether they get out of committee should decide whether they get to the floor or not.
There are bills that passed the committees, both the Senate and the Assembly that got bipartisan support, for example, including among leaders as part of veteran benefits who served honorably in the Vietnam War and live in Wisconsin, that did not get a vote in the Assembly.
Bipartisan Bill.
Conscious support and it was decided that it wouldn't make it there, right?
We need to remove that rule, right?
If these are popular bills I'm not saying that should be the rule that only popular bills get supported but imagine being a bipartisan bill and that still isn't good enough because it's not the right person the right personality It's not the right political stakes.
We just need to remove that all of those rules were arbitrary completely created by an individual who got to decide
the rules of our policymaking, not by law, but by practice, and that just needs to go away.
So those are like three, I could give you probably 10 more, but those are just the top three.
Like let bills get heard, make sure whoever is the lead author, if they can get enough supporters and get it heard by a committee, that should be heard by a committee.
If it passes out favorably out of a committee, then it should get a floor vote.
Those three things, and expanding the legislative window to more than a year, that would be game changing.
for Wisconsin.
Game changer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, I think this, this particular election season in November, we have a really big opportunity to do something.
I, we had Senator Dasser Alfheim on and I talked about this too, because, you know, Democrats, if they take the majority, they're going to have to go against their, their better angels to not treat the Republicans the way that they've been treated for the last 15 years.
Right.
17.
Is
it really 17?
I think it's 17.
Yeah, one because I think one flipped earlier than one.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's right.
And I do think that people should be held accountable.
And there's a difference between accountability and punishment, right?
Yeah.
People who are bad actors who did bad things.
I mean, there are representatives who don't even live in their districts still casting vote for folks, right?
There is accountability, but I do think that we need to write the ship that there needs to be
better rules of engagement that all of us can benefit from.
For example, if you are a Democrat, you couldn't get the same amount of staff as a Republican.
Yeah.
Right.
Something as simple as that.
Right.
We don't have to do that again.
There's no, there's no reason for the cruelty.
Right.
But we do need to hold people accountable.
And I do think that sometimes those two things get intertwined that I think are quite separate accountability and like whether someone should get staff or not is not the same thing.
Right.
We often use petty politics in and in lieu of accountability.
I think we should hold people accountable if they've weaponized government for the worst.
Yeah.
We should hold them that Republicans use millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to sue cities for electric and security theories.
People should be held accountable.
Michael Gableman was hired by the state legislature to conduct a four nearly four million dollar investigation, including all the time that led in his own
loss of license.
But that was just barred.
Right.
That was a leadership has the authority to do that without any votes.
Right.
Yeah.
Those are things that people should be held accountable for.
We should never replicate that.
Democrats shouldn't get into power and say, you know what we should do?
Hire lawyers and punish red cities.
We should never do that.
But the people who did do it should be held accountable.
Right.
You know, and that's it's interesting.
That's one of the things I saw JB Pritzker said that he wants to have a project 2029.
that includes holding people accountable because the damage that's been done, which is insane how much those things trickle down from the federal government.
You see it in the states and in the cities and communities.
Yeah, it's terrible.
It sucks.
Yeah.
And listen, we need to be holding people for corruption accountable.
And I tell this, accountability isn't partisan.
There is no monopoly on racism.
Homophobia on corruption on bias.
No one has a pure monopoly It may be asymmetrical at this moment and I fully believe that it's asymmetrical But we should be holding all the corruption Accountable.
Yeah,
right.
We should be holding all chaos Accountable and so I look forward to that day and so and that I completely agree that we should have a project focused on how do we prevent this kind of abuses of power in the future Not how do we just punish through petty politics?
Republicans.
I think that just is an outfall.
Everybody accountable, right?
Hold everybody accountable.
Right.
In the last part of it, how do people get to know who they should be voting for on Tuesday?
What do they got to do?
Talk about
that.
person who cares deeply about all politics obviously I'm a Democrat so the Democratic Party has a Local one at the Brown County has a recommended or preferred list, you know I'm gonna be supporting almost all those people on that preferred list if not all of them The Republican Party of Brown County also has a preferred list and I would point out that this version of the GOP locally has bartered in
Homophobia and open racism including putting some breros on my head and and calling me an undocumented immigrant I'd be embarrassed
to be on that list.
Wouldn't you
I would be embarrassed to be on that list and I think anyone that's being supported by this version of the GOP People should be concerned about and that is my strong opinion.
It does not mean that every Republican is bad.
I don't believe that But I do believe that this version of the local GOP has trafficked and conspiracy theories and chaos and
And they are supporting candidates that will feed that agenda.
And we need to have a, we need a new politics that really is about people first.
And I look forward to seeing that.
You know, it's bad when everyone's starting to run to say they're independent.
Just a year ago, they were proud Magna Republicans.
And now they're all of a sudden they're independent when it comes to elections.
Right.
And
moderate Wagner.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate you, brother.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll be right back on the rest of revolution.
Welcome back.
We threw an audible here on the rational revolution cause we do that and we can.
So, uh, you know, I normally blab for a six minutes or so, six, seven as the kids say.
And, uh, but, but I'm, we, I forgot to, we, cause we, we, I really wanted to talk about the bills that, uh, that our body, a representative of moderate Wagner authored.
So my, my bad talk about them.
Yes.
I know.
And the, I love my favorite one is the, the one, uh, dealing with housing.
But I mean, talk, talk, talk.
So 84 54 is a bill that I'm the co-author of and will be signed into law.
And it creates basically creates a new program that is model author habitat for humanity.
For those that don't know my story, me and I was raised by a single mom who had me at 16.
We were homeless for the most of my life.
And the program that changed my life was a
a public-private partnership called Habitat for Humanity.
The local city gave the land and perfect strangers helped build the house that my mom still lives in to this day.
And so this bill is built off of this program.
Both of these bills are about making the system work where everyone's already doing everything right.
So the problem right now is that for too many families, even qualifying for a mortgage may not be enough to actually get into your first home.
That you can qualify for a certain amount.
This
bill basically creates an extra zero interest mortgage structure to potentially be forgivable or at zero interest completely.
And this would allow to cover the cost of construction, closing costs.
This would allow for down payment gaps, etc.
And this would make the actual mortgage cheaper than you would on your own.
And this will go all the way up to the middle class.
So this isn't just about the most struggling community.
This is literally up to what we call the area median income.
So from the
from the poorest people to the middle class will be able to benefit from this program.
And we've also made a streamline so it shouldn't be bogged down by paperwork.
This is a game-changing piece of policy that had broad bipartisan support, was celebrated by housing advocates, both in Green Bay and everywhere.
And this was inspired by programs like Habitat Humanities Build the Block, where they build a whole section of the neighborhood to make it more affordable for families to have access to home ownership.
I know the power that homeownership has in changing people's lives.
When you get into a home, you are more stable.
You're more likely to go to two or four year college.
You're more likely to live in a safe neighborhood.
Your kids are more likely to graduate high school.
You're more likely to have a strong job.
Home housing is the cornerstone of building strong communities like in Green Bay.
And so this bill was inspired by the people of Green Bay and it became bipartisan.
and it's going to be signed by the governor.
And I couldn't be any more proud of turning Green Bay values and my personal experience into a bipartisan win that's game changing for the housing market.
And I'm just, I've probably seen me beaming just deeply proud of, yes, it was hard, but it was worth it.
And that you can outwork a broken system, but the goal is to fix the actual system.
And this bill goes a long way in fixing our broken system.
And just to give you one factoid for your audience, for the first time in history,
the average age of someone buying a home now is 40.
This is the oldest it's ever been.
So, home ownership is becoming so out of reach for everyday families and these are people who have careers, right?
Exactly.
So, this bill is trying to curb that trend and it won't solve every problem but this is what government needs to be doing around housing.
So, I'm really proud that solution-oriented bill got bipartisan support and will be signed by the governor.
You should be proud.
We're proud of you too.
You know seriously, that's that's that's awesome And you know and you have do you have two of them?
Yeah,
and the second one is AB 759 Essentially, this is a DACA bill DACA is a term for people called dreamers This is a term for families who had moved here and their children have basically lived here their entire lives There's a civic designation, but in Wisconsin there's about 200 jobs that require a state license Because of the way the law was written originally long time ago
If you were a dreamer, you could not get a job as a teacher's aide, as an electrician, as a plumber.
These are the jobs that we need in places like Green Bay, where we have a lot of folks who've come from different places and now work incredibly hard, like in our meatpacking industries.
And so all of this bill did was remove the barrier.
Sometimes government is the problem.
Right?
It's not always the people with the problem.
Sometimes government's a problem.
And government had an arbitrary rule that said that these dreamers could not get this license, even though they've lived in our communities, they've gotten all the qualifications, they've paid to go to two or four year school or licensure.
They still could not serve these jobs.
Now they can.
So we have bipartisan support in a time where people are demonizing immigrants that are racial profiling people, assuming their immigration status.
This bill says
the people in our communities, our neighbors are going to be able to work the jobs that we need them to work that they've been trained for and have the qualifications for.
And the only thing staying in their way was a law that no longer needed to exist.
So this bill unlocks the earning potential of our neighbors, ensuring they can work on the jobs that we need here in Green Bay.
And so.
Both of these bills are about fixing a broken system.
And one is about making sure you have access to the jobs that are going to make your lives better.
And one is making sure that housing is available to working families.
And together, they really are an example of what's possible when you're really focused on getting things done for the city and for our community.
Yeah, that's that's not naming a post office, man.
Those are some big big deals.
Yeah.
And I'm just.
This could not be possible without the people of Green Bay doing this alongside me.
Local groups were involved in the decision-making process and the bill writing.
We were working with people all over the state.
This really is reflective of the people of this community and the passion folks have across the aisle to actually get solutions done.
They just need more people focused on solutions and not petty politics
in my opinion.
No, I think it, yeah, you're totally right.
And it's cool to see that you did that.
How did the 30 seconds, how did the inspiration for the DACA bill come from?
And we know your story with housing, was it someone that came to your office or rose?
Yeah, so we have a bunch of DACA recipients in Green Bay, and they talked about one, the fear that their families have.
about not being able to continue the work that they're doing, and to the barriers they had to get to the work and the jobs they wanted, like being a teacher's aide.
There are people who've trained their entire lives, who've gone to our public schools, who cheered on our packers, who gotten two and four year degrees to be teacher's aide, and couldn't become a teacher's aide in the schools that they love that invested in them because of the barriers of their DACA status.
And so this bill is about them, allowing people to go to their dream jobs.
these wonderful, incredible jobs that we need here in the city of Green Bay.
And they were proud to be a part of the solution.
So
it
really was inspired by people saying, how can I give back to the community that gave to me and the jobs that they've trained me for without the law getting in the way?
Well, I appreciate all of your work.
And thanks for being a friend of the show for so long.
So brother, have a great one, my friend.
We'll talk soon.
Thank you so much.
You're listening to National Revolution on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll see you next week.
Thank you.
