Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, encourages local Democrats to speak up and get involved in the political process Wednesday at a meeting of the Shawano County Democratic Party at the Shawano Civic Center.
The executive director of a Wisconsin-based progressive advocacy group brought his voice to the Shawano County Democratic Party’s monthly meeting Wednesday to encourage local Democrats to use theirs.
“We think it’s important that people use their voices as much as they possibly can, to discuss issues facing the state, facing the county, facing the nation,” said Scot Ross of Madison-based One Wisconsin Now.
“Wisconsin faces a lot of challenges,” he said.
Ross offered tips to help reduce what he said might be the anxiety of speaking out, and offered outlets for making views known, ranging from volunteering for local political organizations or advocacy groups to calling in to radio shows or writing letters to the editor.
Ross said Republicans have been allowed to divide Wisconsin voters into those with urban versus rural interests, even though many of those interests are the same.
“The important thing is not to be divided, but to unify. Our biggest strength is our diversity,” Ross said.
“We’re divided enough,” he said. “We need somebody to bring us together. A lot of the things we care about are under threat.”
Ross focused more on Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda than President Donald Trump’s, calling Walker’s governorship “the most corrupt, power-hungry administration in the history of Wisconsin.”
Ross said that priority issues include health care, restrictions on voting rights under the guise of fighting non-existent voter fraud, and the student debt crisis.
He criticized Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in his failed bid Tuesday for the Sixth District Congressional seat in Georgia for not making student debt an issue, but that sparked some debate, with some local Democrats maintaining that education was not a priority issue for Georgia voters.
There seemed to be a consensus, however, that Democrats have to put forward a message that is more than just being anti-Trump.
“Going after Trump wasn’t enough,” Ross said. “You have to show a better course. The biggest lesson (from Tuesday’s election in Georgia) is you can’t just go negative.”