Ben Wikler Wants to Hear What You Love About Wisconsin

I'm Ben Wickler.

This is Pumpkin Wickler.

And this is the first video for a series called This Is Wisconsin, which is about why we love the state so much and about how we can make it better.

If it wasn't the handful of far-right billionaires writing the rules for the country, it instead was more, you know, like a democracy where people get to decide what's going on.

And I think what we love about Wisconsin can be the basis for making things better for everyone, including...

for pumpkin.

You know, pumpkin knows that if you want to take a walk, you have to have some sense of where you're going.

But also, you need to enjoy yourself along the way.

So in this show, we're going to travel all over the state in partnership with Civic Media, and we're going to talk to people about what's happening in their lives, what's working, what could be better, what they love about this state, and about how we can make it even better for everybody.

Sometimes it's OK to sniff things a little bit.

Pumpkin.

What are you sniffing here?

Is there any sniffing?

Pumpkin.

Hello and welcome to Civic Media.

My name is Jamie Martinson.

What is on the minds of people across Wisconsin right now?

That's the question behind This Is Wisconsin.

It's a new collaboration between Ben Wickler and Civic Media.

This new project is going to travel the state.

We're going to listen to people in communities large and small to better understand what matters most to Wisconsinites.

Of course, you might know Ben as the former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party where he helped lead campaigns in one of the nation's most closely

watched Battleground States.

We tend to be a swing state around here, but he's also the author of a forthcoming book called This Is The Plan.

Joining us today is Ben Wickler to talk about why now is the right time for This Is Wisconsin and this effort and what he hopes to learn along the way.

So hello, Ben.

Thank you for joining us.

Jamie, thanks so much for having me, and I'm so excited to join the Civic Media family here.

All right, so we're going to talk about this collaboration in just a few minutes.

But let's start with you, because you have spent years helping shape political campaigns.

You have helped build a juggernaut of politics here in Wisconsin.

So why did you decide that now was the time to stop talking at voters and basically starting to listen to them a little bit more outside of the politics of it all?

Well long before I was the Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair I was a Wisconsinite This is the state that raised me that the state that created me and I've always loved the state so profoundly and love

people across the state, what you find when you go around Wisconsin, and this is not true of every place, is people who don't take themselves so seriously, but take their values and their communities seriously.

You find people from all walks of life, across the political spectrum, you know, across ethnicity and race, rural areas and small towns and big cities, who have things they love about the state and pour themselves into making the state work for everyone.

and I worked for so many years in politics and saw firsthand people rolling up their sleeves, not just in the big elections for president and governor, but also people running for nonpartisan offices, for school board seats and city council and common council and village board seats, who just wanted to make things better for people.

When you look at political news, you never see that.

What you see in political news is partisan battles you see, you know,

billionaires trying to break off pieces of the federal government for their own benefit.

You see, you know, endless kind of debates in gridlock.

And what you don't see is regular people who are just trying to put in a hard day's work and make a life for their families and their communities that everyone can be proud of.

So that's the motivation for this.

It's to cover how politics affects our regular lives, but most importantly, how each of us

contributes to making the state great and this is Wisconsin is about what we love about our state and about ways that if we join together we can make it better outside of you know this or that bill or this or that line on the ballot but really in all parts of our lives what people power can do to make Wisconsin wonderful for everyone.

This is Wisconsin.com is where you can check out all of this great material that Ben's gonna be producing and finding and talking to people over the next few months.

Obviously we know, and you know better than all of us, that Wisconsin is one of the most closely watched states in the country when it comes to the politics.

So what made you decide that right now is the right time to end the political bubble and spend time with people across the state of Wisconsin?

I think there's a shared sense from people across the political spectrum and from people who are fed up with all the politics that the system or national economy or national political system isn't really working well for people.

I also

Know from experience that people have a ton of ideas about how it can work better And I think this is the time to listen sometimes when people are yelling That's the best time to take a step back and ask people in the tone of voice where people have conversations in real life What do they think should happen?

You know, what's how are things affecting them?

There's every day a different headline about whether there's a treaty to

and a deal to end this war in Iran, you don't see headlines about how gas prices affect people that are trying to drive to work or maybe have to drive two hours to a hospital, how it affects their ability to get health care.

And of course, the war far away and what's happening with gas prices and grocery prices here in Wisconsin are deeply linked, but you only ever hear about one side of the story.

So I think this is a moment where

it feels like there's so much noise and there's so much despair.

We're having some hope and some humor and some optimism and some kind of homegrown wisdom from across our state might actually help to change the conversation and help people who might watch different news channels or might never ever want to turn on political news find that we all have more in common than the kind of national media pun that's my think.

Yes, I'm so glad you said that because that's always been one of my beliefs working with rural communities is that at the end of the day, people do want the same things, right?

They want to be able to take care of their families.

They want good education systems.

They want hospitals.

They want to know that if something happens to their families, there's a place to go.

And I think in all of the rhetoric, we lose that.

We lose those pieces of commonality.

And so when you're hitting the road over the next few months, who are you hoping to talk to?

Where are you gonna be going?

And I know you've already been out and there's been a few places already, but what are the people that you're hoping to reach with

this?

meet just about everyone.

But I really want to talk to folks who have something they love about the state or have something that they're trying to work to make better about the state.

So, you know, I started in my one of my favorite places on planet Earth, Mickey's Dairy Bar, which is the

diner that

I've been going through since I was a kid.

And my sister worked there when I was growing up and made milkshakes.

I take my kids there now and right around my neighborhood.

But I'm going to be going

I'll be going to Milwaukee coming friday and then going next door with a great I'm going to be traveling up

trying to figure out how to make sure their kids are taken care of and go to a summer camp.

I want to talk to people who are affected by hospital closures and who want to make sure we have a health care system where everyone can actually get the care that they need.

There are folks that are fed up about the cost of ammunition because

So many things have driven up the cost of ammunition.

If you're planning to do deer hunting this fall, you have a personal stake in making sure those prices come down.

This winter, I want to be out on the lake with people who are going ice fishing.

Anyplace cheese curds are sold.

I'd like to be there and eat some cheese curds and maybe get that on tape as well.

There's so much that we all love about this state across all our communities.

And I want to bring that to the world.

This is going to be on social media.

It'll be on the radio.

I want to make sure that the camera can catch how great our brats really are.

And from Milwaukee to Minakwa, wherever you might be in Wisconsin, there's so much to love.

And I want to capture that, the positivity that draws us to this state.

Like you said,

I think most Wisconsinites want this to be a state where their kids and grandkids can aspire to grow up and have a wonderful life in Wisconsin just like they did.

And so often it can feel like the basics that people want are out of reach, but there are problems with our political system that make those things happen, that create these challenges.

And I really think that what unites us can overcome all the things that divide us and that get in the way of building the Wisconsinite, Wisconsin that we all dream of.

So if you're somebody

listening or watching right now who feels like they have a burning idea of something that that could be better in the state.

I want to hear from you and let's let's talk about it.

I want to share your story with the rest of the state.

Don't you think that people on I mean I feel like people on both sides of the political aisle are tired of it.

I think people are tired of the division because at the end of the day it really doesn't accomplish.

anything for anybody.

And you would know that better than anyone being the former chairperson of the Wisconsin Democrats.

Is that something you heard from people over over your career?

What I find over and over is that what people don't like is political games.

What they want is things to actually get done.

And so

let's say healthcare prices, if you can't afford to fill your prescription or if the nearest hospital or clinic is three hours away and you can't get there if you have an emergency, there's a problem in your life and you don't want to hear whose fault it is or the back and forth over this bill versus that bill, you just want the problem to get solved.

If the nursing home in your county is being sold to some out-of-state financial private equity company, you want to make sure that people have a place they can retire with dignity in your community.

So much of the news is written from a kind of billionaire's eye point of view.

So many news outlets are owned by billionaires.

And it's kind of, you know, which multi-billion dollar company is going to get to buy this local community institution is the only story instead of how it affects the people who actually go to sleep there every night.

And I want to bring the perspective of people from the ground in the state to bear, because I do think

people who might disagree with each other about who to vote, they actually can find, they agree on 80% of what it is that we need to do.

And I think when we discover that we share these basic values.

That can help us to knit our communities back together, even when there's big social media companies that profit from people spending time on their phones instead of with each other.

That's the change I want to make.

Civic media's goal is to rebuild the civic community in our state so we can be active participants in our democracy.

And I think the first step to being able to do that is to actually have conversations where we listen to each other with respect.

And I think that's what we have a chance to do with this is Wisconsin.

When you think about Wisconsin,

There are so many people that automatically think of Madison and Milwaukee, right?

And you've talked to people across the country.

You've talked to people in your own state.

But Wisconsin is so much more than Madison and Milwaukee.

So what do you sometimes hear that people misunderstand about Wisconsin and the people and the politics here?

Wisconsin is a big state.

It's about as big as England.

And England is a country with all different kinds of communities.

And Wisconsin is the same way.

If you look at Madison and Milwaukee and the kind of suburbs surrounding them, only one in three Wisconsinites live in those two places.

And there are wonderful places.

And I love them.

And we'll spend time in Madison and Milwaukee too.

But two out of three Wisconsinites live everywhere else.

There's the north woods.

There's the driftless area.

There's northeast Wisconsin.

There's the central Wisconsin where I love.

I've spent so much time in Portage County and Stevens Point and all the all the environs around it.

You know, most major world cities have a town or a hamlet or a village in Wisconsin that has the same name.

And so, you know, I want to visit the Paris of Wisconsin, not just the Paris of France.

I think

I think people across the country don't quite realize that most Wisconsinites live in communities of 15,000 people or less.

And I know that because I once downloaded the size of every city and spent a while crunching the numbers.

Most Wisconsinites live in communities that in the rest of the country would be called a small town.

But in Wisconsin, it's just called a town or even a city.

The experience of most Wisconsinites is that they know their neighbors.

They know people and walking distance of where they live.

They don't live in big apartment buildings.

They go to the businesses that are owned by people who they know from growing up.

And that's just part of community life here.

I think there's a richness to community life in Wisconsin.

There are main streets.

you know, so many bars across the state that are local gathering places where people have wonderful memories where they may be fall in love and met the person that they now they now live with and have kids with.

All of that is is part of what makes us love this state, but it's something that you so rarely see in anything like the national news.

And I want to I want to bring that to to small screens across the state and that the

conversations

we're having.

Well, we're very excited for that.

As we start to wrap up here today, what are you most excited about doing when you're out on the road?

Is there like one thing that you've never been able to do that you're like, ooh, that is one thing that we are going to do when I'm out on the road meeting people?

Well, I have, I have a dog that I love very much named

Pumpkin.

Yes.

A big Bernie's Mountain dog and she's happiest when it's called this.

So this is the perfect state for her.

But I'm excited to both spend time with Pumpkin, but also with other dogs around the state.

I would love to go to the Berkefeiner and see if I can talk to someone during a dog sledding situation.

I'd love to get out, especially, you know, it's summer's so beautiful here and we'll be visiting lakes, we'll be visiting the Great Lakes, but I'm also really excited when the snow falls to get out.

on frozen lakes and talk to folks who are ice fishing about what's working and what's not working and bring Wisconsin's winter wonderland to life for folks that might be watching at home on their phones or wherever their favorite videos are served.

And Ben, you mentioned a little earlier when we were chatting, if people have ideas or places that they'd like you to stop, they can contact you.

What's the best way to do that?

Go to thisiswisconsin.com.

We're going to have a bunch of different ways people can send in their ideas and we'd love to hear your voices.

All right, we love that.

Thank you so much.

Ben Wickler is our guest as we get ready for this collaboration.

This is Wisconsin.

We would love for you to follow.

This is Wisconsin.com and follow Ben's travels around the state.

This is Wisconsin.com.

Check out that website.

And remember, if you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to like, share, and also subscribe.

You can also follow Civic Media on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube for more interviews and stories from around Wisconsin.

Thank you so much for joining us at Civic Media.

I'm Jamie Martin.

We'll see you next time.

Our national economy, our national political system isn't really working well for people.

The end of the day, people do want the same things, right?

They want to be able to take care of their families.

They want good education systems.

They want hospitals.

They want to know that if something happens to their families, there's a place to go.

And I think in all of the rhetoric, we lose that.

We lose those pieces of commonality.

This is a moment where...

it feels like there's so much noise and there's so much despair where having some hope and some humor and some optimism and some kind of homegrown wisdom from across our state might actually help to change the conversation and help people who might watch different news channels or might never ever want to turn on political news find that we all have more in common than the kind of national media pun that's my think.