I see a lot of posts on Mastodon from people happily focusing on the win by Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal state supreme court justice. A LOT.

And, yes, that’s a great thing. Positive national implications.

And exactly one post about the ballot measures, which were also passed. Which inspired me to do a little googling.

https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_2023_ballot_measures

Wow, this seems pretty poisonous. Enshrining cash bail in the state constitution and making it harsher than before, if I understand correctly. Why is that necessary? How will it not disproportionately harm Black people in application? Was that just to drive conservative turnout up? Why did they pass?

https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/fast-facts-the-questions-on-wisconsins-spring-2023-ballot/

This just seems like Racism Without Racists, which is the title of a book by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (which I won’t link because three links is too many).