
Transcript
Why Is WI Defunding Hospitals And Schools? (Hour 1)
The Todd Allbaugh Show · Wed Jul 23, 2025
This is the Todd all ball show from Tomahawk to two rivers to Tomah and all the way to Tokyo by the Civic Media Radio app.
This is the Todd all ball show.
I am not Todd all ball.
I am your regular Wednesday guest Trigby Olson principle at Viking strategies
co-founder of the Lincoln Project.
I am joined today on the board, as always, by Mr. Aaron Zomers.
Hump
It's a great day to be in Wisconsin every day is a great day to be in Wisconsin But it's a particularly great day to be in Wisconsin when the Green Bay Packers training camp is opening up Todd is off today at a civic media conclave or I don't know what they're doing exactly I just know that he and Pat have abandoned me and they asked that I host the show so I hope everybody will bear with me.
I usually am better as the
John Madden to Todd's Pat Somerall, but Zomers and I are going to do our best.
We've got a great show coming up.
We have State Senator Calderoy's going to be on the show.
We're gonna talk a little bit about the University of Wisconsin system budget why she voted no We're gonna talk a little bit about things that make Wisconsin great And I want to talk to her a little bit about the state of politics in general in the state of Wisconsin I want to take lots of callers from across the state of Wisconsin.
We can talk about a lot of topics I want to talk a little bit about how they see Jeffrey Epstein and what's playing out Congress has decided to go on a giant hiatus
Um, can you believe they're taking all of August off summers?
Wouldn't you like to have August off?
I'd like to have August.
Now, I'm sure Derek Van Odd one will say that he's doing important things, traveling the state and ignoring his constituents by not holding town halls.
And I don't know what Tom Tiffany will be doing.
Who knows?
It is interesting to me, though.
I saw recently somebody posted it on my Facebook feed.
Well, not on my feed, but it was on my feed.
Tom Tiffany is bragging about how he got several million dollars for shipping in superior.
And I thought, well, that's all fine and dandy that he got that.
But the question that I have is what falls into things we should be doing and shouldn't be doing, right?
For me personally, I'm all about supporting the shipping industry in superior.
I really am.
But at the same time,
like if we're going to be laying off 1300 diplomats which would be like laying off fighter pilots at a time of rising global escalating tensions these are the people these aren't these aren't the career people this would be like getting the packers getting rid of their offensive linemen um and you know just not replacing them um why would you do that
So it seems antithetical to what what he's about.
So we may talk about that a little bit.
We're going to talk some about music, one of my favorite topics.
I'm hoping that people can call in, you know, Ozzy Osbourne passed away.
If you're a child of the 80s, like me, the Oz was something that I'm glad I got to see him live when he was still young.
I didn't get to see him in the Black Sabbath days.
We're going to talk a little bit about that.
And.
Of course, we would be remiss not to talk about the Green Bay Packers.
And when Reed comes on, we're going to talk a lot of politics, too.
So that's what we're going to do with the show today.
I want to kick things off, actually, by talking a little bit about why I think Wisconsin is such a unique place.
And for those of you who don't know my background,
I grew up in River Falls.
I spent my college years at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, which zammers no offense to Madison, but I still think Eau Claire from 86 to 1991.
I hate to admit it was on the five year plan.
It was the greatest place on the earth.
It had to have been this phenomenal.
I then worked in Wisconsin politics for a while and then I had the opportunity to go travel around the world.
I've had the chance to work in over 40 countries on five continents.
I've been to about 70 different countries around the world and I get asked periodically what is my favorite place that I have ever been and I continue to say my favorite place in the world is the bridge over the St.
Croix River.
because I am in the best place on planet earth when I cross it no matter where I go.
Wisconsin is an amazing place and people in Wisconsin I think recognize that to a degree but it's also important and one of the things we talk about on this show quite a bit and I hope to get into with State Senator Rice is there are things that have been the traditional elements that have made Wisconsin such a special place that are falling apart.
because we're spending too much time identifying and wearing red or blue hats and not nearly enough wearing green and gold.
So I hope that as people are calling in, one of the things that we can talk about is what is it that makes Wisconsin great and how those things are not what they used to be and why that is.
Because I think that is incredibly, incredibly important.
I also was looking at headlines today for those of you who haven't seen the headlines and Mr. Zomers is on the phone because I was going to give him a little bit of a bad time about this.
Wisconsin has two states, there are two cities that are on the list of the healthiest in the United States, both of which have fallen.
One is Madison, Wisconsin, and the other is Milwaukee.
And Milwaukee fell in eight, 10 places, Madison fell a few too.
I think that's kind of interesting to me that in a couple of ways, one, having lived in a lot of places, I will tell you, people in Wisconsin, one of the great parts about people in Wisconsin is they're not particularly self-absorbed.
That doesn't mean that you don't run into some people, but...
You know, most of the places I live in Arlington, Virginia now, part of the time, which is the number one rated healthy community in the in the country.
And there's a lot of self obsessed people.
So I don't know what that says other than I'm just kind of thinking that people might find that little insight interesting.
Summers, do you have any insights into why Wisconsin's falling on the healthy ratings?
I mean, I'm probably not helping.
I'm certain.
Although I'm healthier than I was.
So maybe I am.
I don't know.
But I think you are.
You lost some weight.
I did.
I did.
I think I don't know if it has to do with insurance issues and rural hospitals closing.
And yes, that's in rural areas of Wisconsin.
But maybe that's causing people to move more into cities who are less healthy.
I'm not I'm not sure.
But those are some of my guesses, at least.
You know, I think one of the issues that is going to be a bigger issue not just in Wisconsin, but particularly in Wisconsin and in fact I say this to I've been saying this to people out here in DC The big beautiful bill is not big and beautiful for rural health care
And I mentioned Eau Claire earlier in my time there, you know You've already had two major hospitals closed there And I think one of the things that people in places like Eau Claire or even more importantly in the rural areas around places like Eau Claire are gonna see is that there's gonna be decreasing access to health care Or they're gonna have to drive further to get it and I can tell you having grown up in a place like River Falls and watch that transition
and then gone through the aging process with my mother.
You know, there's a lot of things in a place like River Falls now where you have to go to the Twin Cities to get that kind of healthcare.
In part because a lot of the doctors, you know, in River Falls, they're owned by a big Twin Cities firm.
A lot of the doctors come from out there and so if you're gonna go see a specialist, you have to.
You have to either wait till the day that they're there or if you need to see them right away, you have to travel to them.
That's going to be happening all across Wisconsin.
People, you know, you're going to see this consolidation.
And I think that has a lot of negative consequences, don't you?
I mean, here's the thing.
You know, it used to be you're probably too young for this.
It used to be that everybody knew the doctor in their town and the doctor knew you.
That isn't the way that it is anymore.
And it's only going to get worse with what's happened in the big, beautiful bill.
I mean, I've even noticed that growing up, it wasn't everybody knows the doctor, but there were a few doctors that everybody knew when I was a kid.
And it'd be like, oh, you see this person?
Yeah.
Even the pediatricians and the adult doctors, but now they turn over staff so quickly that you don't really have that.
And, you know, like out here where I am, I'll tell you, in Arlington, Virginia, it's hard to find a GP.
I feel lucky.
In fact, my GP, I was a little hesitant because I'm a Gen X guy.
When I lost my doctor, he was leaving.
He was retiring to go to work with vets in the Department of Veterans Affairs at a Veterans Hospital.
That's what he wanted to do in his retirement.
But he recommended this woman to me.
She was 30 years old, and I'm like, I'm going to have a 30-year-old.
Lady is my doctor.
I wasn't really sure about it.
It turned out to be great.
She's fantastic.
And you know what?
She's an American success story.
She immigrated from Afghanistan when she was in sixth grade.
Wow.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
And both she and her twin sister, they didn't really speak much language.
They grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC.
Dad did whatever he could to get by.
They ended up going, both she and her sister.
You know, so there is a piece of me that I'm always like, she's what makes America great.
But at the same time, people across Wisconsin are going to are going to start running into that.
I mean, if you live in Madison, Wisconsin, that may not be as big a deal.
But if you live, Eau Claire is a pretty big city.
Eau Claire's got and Chippewa Falls Hospital closed too, right?
So you've got two major hospitals that closed.
What's going to happen with the smaller rural hospitals?
That's going to be a real issue.
And if you live in Osio or you live in.
you know, places that used to have hospitals, basketball, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to travel to get that.
I wonder how much people understood the consequences of that when they, you know, those who have been, oh, well, Trump sports its big, beautiful bill, if they really get that.
And what the trade-off was.
I don't know, Zomers, what do you think?
I mean, you're getting calls every day.
I only get calls on Wednesdays when I'm on the show, but I just think, I'd be interested what listeners think.
Yeah.
And if you want to call into the show, you can call in at 855-752-4842.
That is 855-752-4842 if you want to share your thoughts on it.
I think a lot of the people who do call into the show were aware that this would happen, but I definitely had several of the callers say that a lot of the people they know didn't think it would.
And they're like, oh, you're overreacting.
Or did they really say that?
And then now that it's starting to happen, they're like, uh, we probably should have.
looked into that a little bit deeper.
Yeah, I just think, you know, and then again, and then you have Congress going on vacation for a month, right?
Not going to work the month of August.
I just think it's going to be the kind of thing that people are going to see.
We're just about up against a break.
One of the regular listeners, one of the things you're going to discover here is when Zomers and I get to get to choose the boards, our intro music is going to be awesome today, I think.
Well, maybe if you're a Gen X hair metalhead, it will be awesome.
Todd isn't going to be able to listen to the show.
Is he?
Because he's probably going to wonder what we're doing with his music.
or I can't think of another place that starts with an S that's somewhere around the world.
But wherever you are in the world, you can listen to the Todd Abo Show and a lot of other great shows on the Civic Media Radio app.
This is the Todd Abo Show.
We're pursuing truth wherever it may lead.
And for those of you who know Todd's voice, which is probably known anywhere you know, I am not Todd Auble, but I am pretending to be him today.
Todd is off at a civic media conclave, making important decisions about the future of, I don't know what, actually, I have no idea what they're meeting about.
I just know that Todd and Pat said that Zomers and I were in charge today.
Hence, we got a little blondie.
You won't hear that any other times.
Do you ever play Blondie's numbers?
I like Blondie.
I think Blondie, we can talk about this with Terry Barr, our musical expert.
But I kind of think Blondie is underrated.
I would agree.
I would agree.
We're going to come at you with something.
This is one of the things that I kind of like.
There's a lot of things I don't like about the newer artists, you know?
Like, I'm okay on Taylor Swift because...
Those of you who listen regularly know I have two daughters, 13 and 16, and actually went to a Taylor Swift concert.
I also went to a Katy Perry concert.
Anyway, but what I will say this kind of nice about those kind of artists of your generation summers is they pay tribute to a lot of these other artists.
And we're
How are
Pretty good.
A nice hot summer day, but it's summer and there's supposed to be hot, so that's the way it is.
I'm with you there.
Anyway, I just want to make a comment.
I live in actually in rural Storton about two or three miles outside of the city itself.
I've been involved with town government, my wife's involved with town government, but I can tell you that one of the other aspects of healthcare is ambulance service and luckily Storton has a hospital and we have excellent ambulance coverage.
But if you're 40, 50 or more miles away from a hospital, if you do have a need,
it is going to be touch and go, in my opinion, whether one, an ambulance would be available, and two, can they make a timely trip when time is of the essence?
I think that's a part that people don't think about when they think about rural health care.
It's just, do I eat right?
Do I, you know, do I go see my doctor when I should?
You know, if something happens, whether it's an accident or a heart attack or, you know, whatever, that's, you know, you're going to probably be on your own to get there.
And that is the kind of services that end up going first, right?
It's going to be those kinds of things.
It's going to be hospitals, but what it's also going to be, you know, up where I'm from, up in St.
Croix County, my mom was on the county board for a long time and they have a facility for aging adults.
Those kinds of facilities for people who have less, they aren't going to be available either.
or people are going to have to drive a lot further.
It's sad.
Well, yeah, in shock County, our friends, they're still within shock County, and they just went through a controversy of selling the county.
Senior citizen facility into for a part to a private vendor, I believe that way back on 76 years old, but my mother worked for what was called a county farm back in the day.
You know, and that was so disabled and then to be disabled and just how many people had no place to go.
And I mean, that's long, but the reason that the replacements are still still accounting function in a lot of cases.
think.
And I here's the thing that I think, you know, and I say this as somebody who spent all these years working in politics.
But, you know,
What people don't understand is it's easy to say, I'm against waste, fraud, and abuse.
Everybody's against waste, fraud, and abuse.
But when the devil is in the detail, one person's waste, fraud, and abuse may very well be somebody's grandma's ambulance not showing up when they've fallen down the stairs and they need an ambulance, right?
or it's one of the things with Doge.
Doge identified as redundant and waste, fraud, and abuse, a hotline that helped veterans who had PTSD.
Well, it's not really waste, fraud, and abuse if your husband is an Iraq veteran who needs help and he has no one picking up the phone because somebody has said it's waste, fraud, and abuse.
It's sad.
It's really, really sad.
Well, thanks for calling in, Kenneth.
I really appreciate it.
We're going to take Mark and Prairie to SAC quickly.
Mark, we've got two minutes, so a little less than two minutes.
What's your question?
And if we have to, I'll answer it on the other side.
Yeah, I think that the, well, the closing down the CHS grain terminal in Superior, where it's a minimal number of people that are getting laid off there, but I mean, it's the largest one in Superior.
Growing up there in Superior, I saw all the salties coming in there and getting loaded up with grain.
And for the whole hospital thing, that when I was born up in Superior back in the 1958, there was several hospitals in Superior itself, one including the Catholic Church had a hospital up there.
I mean, there was the County Hospital, I think there was another hospital there.
And all these hospitals are just combined together.
And there's a big one in Superior, but there's a hospital on the highway there at Rice Lake.
But a lot of our smaller communities used to have hospitals in those communities, and those are gone.
So now you have to go much, much further to get any kind of care at all.
And Waste Front, you were talking about hotlines.
Well, what about the hotline for kids, LGBTQ kids that cut that service out for those kids?
Because they don't
here uncomfortable about those kids.
For God's sake, those kids need services too.
Mark, great points.
This is a Todd Albaugh show.
I'm your guest host, Trig Vielsen.
We'll be right back after the break.
Across Wisconsin from River Falls to Racine, all the way to Richland Center.
This is the Todd Allbaugh Show and all his homies in RC.
No, I am not Todd Allbaugh.
I am your guest host and regular Wednesday guest, Trig Vilsen.
Todd and Pat have abandoned me, but Zomers is on the board, so we are taken care of on that, and we have a very special guest, State Senator Calderois, who is here.
We were talking during the break for those who get to see behind the scenes, and I probably...
expose something that people would not have known about me that I am a huge Broadway show fan.
So we were talking a little bit about that.
But States Center, it's great to have you on.
I want to talk about the University of Wisconsin system.
But before that, how are you doing?
You have a different backdrop.
You're not in the
I am I have a 13 year old daughter and a 16 year old daughter And then my oldest which I've been writing about on my sub stack page My oldest was still born at 37 weeks VILTA whose name means hope But I've been writing about that because there isn't a lot about stillbirth and fathers when we went through that and I will have to say even in this
World of crazy partisanship.
I've been posting links to them on both X and and blue sky The the responses made me actually kind of happy about humanity because I've gotten even you know from both sides people who have gone through it dads who've gone through it and
And it's a reminder every day, as I said in one of those, I'm not sure that I would have my 13 year old.
I don't know why God didn't want me to have VILTA, but I do know that I need Kaia in my life every day.
And so yeah, but we're looking at colleges.
In fact, I'm super excited about this and maybe I can have my daughter meet you while we're there.
We could get together.
She's gonna look at the University of Wisconsin.
And we are going to go out for a badger game because I'm thinking if I can sell her on jumping around, like maybe maybe that will be the choice.
So
Well, she's already been to the ice cream place at the union.
So she'll be all about that.
So let's talk a little bit about the university.
I saw that, you know, the last time you were on and it was on a Wednesday, at least that I was on, we talked about the UW.
You voted no on the budget, but they did add money back into the budget.
Talk a little bit about that.
And what's the thinking?
Yeah, I mean, I think the broader context here is the tremendous defunding of public higher education in Wisconsin over the last 40 years.
Basically, over my lifetime, we went from
having you know really being the public education state both k-12 and higher ed to being 47th in the nation in our investment in our public university and what that's doing is just shutting the doors of opportunity for the next generation of wisconsin kids and that's unacceptable to me so the budget request this year from the universities of wisconsin was to try to restore some of the funding that's been cut over the last 15 years of of cut and
You know, the money that came through while appreciated is a far cry from what is needed.
And it comes with some really devastating strings attached.
That's, you know, I was going to potentially hamstring the university's ability to continue to be leaders in research.
Yeah, I think one of the things that people people miss in that debate is you look at at Epic, right?
Huge driver of the economy and I've been in the process with some people and working on an on a tech related business startup You know and they all know about epic because epic is is an American success story It's not just a Wisconsin success story.
It is a Wisconsin success story that it that it only exists because of the University of Wisconsin and and the talent and With that tech company that that I've been working on I needed to find a
a kid to do tech.
I was interviewing kids from MIT.
I ended up finding a kid from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, who not only is super smart about tech, which all the MIT kids were pretty smart about tech, but is super personal and like has both an EQ and an IQ, not knocking the MIT kids.
They were super smart, but they and and I just think, why are they not understanding?
that the University of Wisconsin system is the hub that makes Wisconsin great.
Like it is the axle that drives the wheel and they don't get
No.
It's it's so true and I will tell you I mean I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, right?
and You know, I've been lucky in my life to get to I never would have imagined if you'd approached me when I was at Eau Claire and said this is how your life is gonna turn out to my life turn out that way, but I mean I've dealt with people who've gone to You know Ivy League schools and all these different places and I have never felt like Eau Claire didn't
prepare me incredibly well to be in those rooms whether they were with people like Angela Merkel or Lech Wilensa or people who are global leaders or The the biggest advantage was but I could go into a bar and talk to normal people too right like it because
Because of what I learned and and yeah, I want to I want to ask you about something else You know, there's been some people in in the Republican Party I know that my old buddy from badger boys state Scott Walker who is running for governor when we were all there in 85 or president whatever he was running for The rest of us were trying to meet the girls from Carroll College.
She worked in the in the lunch room, but
He, you know, he had this thing where he was saying we should only do science and technology, not liberal arts.
I don't, I don't understand that.
I mean, and I want to be like perfectly clear.
You should not need a college degree to be able to have a good life, right?
Everybody deserves to have a job that they can.
you know, be happy doing that allows them to sustain themselves and build a family and the life that they want.
And we need to expand access to our technical colleges, to apprenticeships, to military service, other forms of public service, along with public higher education.
But you know, the idea that we've got work for shortages everywhere.
But you don't need communication skills if you're going to be working on technology.
I don't know if you've looked at the technology companies, we're living in like a dystopian health scheme.
We could really use some people who actually care about making the world a better place in those technology companies.
Same thing with healthcare, same thing with engineering, right?
How are you going to solve problems if you can't communicate with people about what their challenges are?
Well, I mean that's the whole thing like I kind of fell into this AI tech thing that we're working on and and I really think at the end of the day I mean I do have days where I'm like I'm a 57 year old guy like working on technology like AI like what but then there's the piece of me that's like you know a Bunch of tech people making tech for tech sake that doesn't get us anywhere in fact one of the things that we're gonna try and do with what we're
what we're building is is to have an entire sort of advisory board that's made up of a whole cross section that looks like America.
And to your point, one of the things that that I've, you know, so in River Falls, where I when I was growing up or in Eau Claire, it wasn't just the universities, it was Western Wisconsin area technical colleges.
I
And the cost of education just keeps going up and up and up.
And we've talked a lot because the cuts to the university system have been so just enormous.
But the technical college system has also not been getting the investments that it needs and deserves.
And so they've got long waiting lists.
Here we've got a shortage in health care, in education, in caregiving, in public service, firefighting, police.
And yet, and we've got kids and young people who want to do these careers, and they can't get into the technical colleges because the state is not providing the funding.
So we've got.
bottlenecks that we need to address all throughout education.
So one of, you know, the other backbone of the small towns across Wisconsin is public education.
It's the high school football game.
It's the high school band.
It's the feeder system to our economies, right?
Whether people decide to go to a tech school or get a job right away or go to college, it's the feeder.
But it's also the hub and the heartbeat of the community.
We're in a place like Madison, where you're from, right?
They were a big rival in hockey when I was in high school.
People bleed Madison Memorial versus Madison West.
Anybody who goes to college in Wisconsin finds that out pretty fast because there'll be kids from both there, right?
But those... There'll be kids from East too.
Yeah, well, oh, yeah, that is true.
I forgot about Madison East.
Some of my buddy Mitch Gerathonis is going to be pinging me on Facebook.
I guarantee it.
Exactly.
But here's the thing is that is that like, so the funding issue and I was, I'll admit this, I was working in sort of Tommy Thompson world when we tried to set up the three legs to the stool.
That stool now only has one leg.
There was no intention that it wasn't going to be updated for 40 years.
There's part of me and maybe this is just trying to me like make up for my own guilt trying to say well That's law of unintended consequences, but what's fascinating is with with what they're doing to the UW system to me This is intentional
Yeah, and I think you know, you didn't have to scratch the surface very hard during Walker's governorship to understand what he was doing and why and it pushing the politics of resentment that just try to
pit people against each other and you know make our communities less connected and less united versus what if we had leaders that actually wanted to solve problems that actually wanted to help expand opportunities for all kids you know not divide us into these small subgroups and say you're special and you're picked and you're going to be punished and I think that's you know we've we see where that politics has taken us and now we're living this this horrific situation
under the Trump regime, the Republican regime in Washington.
If we want to beat that, we have to say do it with inclusive politics that bring people together and provide meaningful, tangible opportunities for their kids.
Because people by age and younger do not have the sense that our kids and us have the same opportunities to succeed that our parents did.
100% and and that's the kind of message and I know you're out and about around the state Which is something I completely respect because you know There's a lot of people we used to go out north of highway eight for our fun up to a buddy's cabin Which I still love going north of highway eight Democrats haven't done so well there because they demagogue people from Madison
But people up there are going to resonate.
That message is going to resonate more and more that you're outspreading, and it becomes a lot harder for them to just demagogue you as, oh, she's from Madison, right?
Senator,
This is the Todd Allbaugh Show on the Civic Media Radio Network.
By the way, if you are in Belarus, I won't be joining you, even when I'm in Lithuania in a couple of weeks, because I'm banned from Belarus.
And I don't know why you'd want to be there.
But if you're listening in Belarus, we're happy to have you.
This is Todd Allbaugh Show.
I'm Trig Vilsen.
the typical Wednesday guest.
I am now driving the bus for the day.
I'm lucky to have State Senator Kelderoy's here joining me to help me carry me through.
We've got Mr. Zomers on the board who is wonderful with his choices of music.
We've got a great show coming up.
Senator and I were just talking about the role of education, but we also got into, and I think we're offline at the time, but we should talk a little bit about what, you know, and
I'm going to get the same caveat I gave.
For those of you who are Democrats or on the left who are listening to this, take whatever I say with the grain of salt that I used to help run Mitch McConnell's political world.
But I'm all about democracy first.
So currently, my party left me not the other way around.
But the senator and I were talking a little bit about what kind of message Democrats and what Democrats can do to build a sustainable, longer term.
coalition that includes people that aren't currently part of it.
And I've always believed that a big part of that is getting out around the state.
And I know you're doing that, which I respect tremendously.
Talk a little bit about what you're hearing when you're out and about in basketball or bare boot.
Or Bayfield.
I, for many years, I've traveled around the state and obviously it's only accelerated being in the Senate the last five years and serving under my finance.
It's strikingly similar.
You know, we've spent so much time talking about the things that separate us and what divides us and where people disagree, because that's obviously, you know, that's sexy, that sells papers, that generates clicks.
But I don't think that really is the story here in Wisconsin.
Overwhelmingly, people want good schools for their kids.
They believe their kids deserve quality public education.
They want the schools in general, in their communities.
to be better.
And that's that's true whether you've got kids in school or not.
People want a government that works for you and not isn't corrupt.
You know, they don't like the chaos and the corruption that we're seeing out of Washington.
And people want to make sure that their kids and grandkids have the opportunity to build a better life and to do it here in Wisconsin.
And these are not, you know, crazy left wing ideas, right?
This is this is just what I hear from people across the state.
They want to have opportunity and they want to have the freedom to build a great life here.
Well, you know, one of the things is somebody who's worked in national politics, but who's from Wisconsin still considers Wisconsin home that I think people sometimes don't understand about the state is.
I believe there's only, if you take out the independents who are like independent socialists, there's only two states in the country right now that have senators of different parties, Wisconsin being one of them.
And knowing both Tammy and Ron, they're very different people.
They're both, you know, they're very different people.
But that says something about what Wisconsin is looking for.
And the center of Wisconsin,
is less for most people.
Yes, you have the partisan extremes on both sides that try and demagogue.
But for most people in Wisconsin, what they want is good schools to send their kids to.
They want to have access to good jobs.
They want to have access to health care.
They want to be able to go out and hunt and not feel like they want to protect conservation as something that actually matters on both sides.
They're very reasonable
And they want to be left alone, you know, for the things where government should have not have its nose in your business.
Like to me, that is so obvious and very reasonable.
But we want safe neighborhoods and communities.
We want good schools for our kids and economic opportunities.
You know, and other than that, like just let us just let us live our lives.
But it's so easy to demagogue.
I mean, to be honest, and I I do.
on this show admittedly, like as I said before, I've known Scott Walker since Badger Boys State.
And I've known him since high school.
And in fact, I've known Robin and Robin and I have known each other forever too.
And we were both involved in college politics together.
And I think, but when I think about Scott in particular,
What what irritates me about it and I would say this and I say this again I know Scott has people listening to this show when I'm on because Occasionally I get a call from them and they'll be like you've crossed the line Scott could come on anytime he wants and have a very civil discussion I would but what what irritates me is he broke something that wasn't his to break
because of personal political ambition that he has harbored since he was at Badger Boys State.
It was about getting on Fox News.
It wasn't about what's best for the state.
And he broke things that people like Pat Lucy and Warren Knowles and Tommy Thompson and Jim Doyle and a whole lot of people worked really hard to build.
that there were some things in Wisconsin that were beyond, that we didn't do it the way that everybody else did to get you on Fox News.
And it just infuriates me that he broke that.
But that's what he did for self-ambition.
And I think most people in Wisconsin, and I've said this to somebody who's a potential Republican candidate if the governor doesn't run, I've said it to somebody who's a potential Democrat, I would say this to you, I would walk to Wisconsin.
to campaign for somebody, regardless of what their politics are, if I knew they were going to be a cheerleader for his state and bringing back those things that make Wisconsin special.
I mean, and we are still that state, right?
We don't need to be exploited for political gain by politicians who put themselves and their own interests before the rest of us.
You know, this is not something we have to accept.
And I certainly don't.
I mean I love this state and I never doubted that even when I disagree with like Tommy Thompson or Governor Doyle or Governor Evers that they love this state and they are dedicated
Well senator, I don't know what the governor is gonna do, but you're one of the people you wouldn't want me for a Democratic primary But if you decide to run at some point, you're one of the people that I would think about walking all the way back to Wisconsin This is a Todd all-boss show.
I'm Trig Wilson will be right back
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