Unite & Rise 8.5 Landing Page - League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County

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What is Unite & Rise 8.5?

It’s the League’s call to fulfill the second half of our motto, “Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.” due to the Constitutional Crisis brought on by the administration’s many attacks against the Constitution.

How is the Constitution and Democracy being undermined?

The administration has ignored the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, the press, religion, and peaceful assembly; Fifth Amendment right to due process; Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel; Fourteenth Amendment birthright citizenship; the powers of the Legislative and Judicial branches; the right to fair representation via unbiased voting district maps; and prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment.

What does 8.5 mean?

This is where the words “We the People” in the preamble to the Constitution are critically important. According to historians who have studied over 100 years of how democracies become autocracies, if 3.5% of the population actively and nonviolently resist their government there is a 50% chance of stopping autocracy. 3.5% of the US population eligible to vote is 8.5 million.

What happens if “We the People” do nothing or the protest is violent?

If we do nothing there’s a 7% chance we won’t descend into autocracy. If resistance becomes violent there’s only a 25% chance of stopping autocracy.

Why is nonviolent resistance so much more successful than violent resistance?

Many more people are able to and are willing to engage in nonviolent resistance than in violent resistance. Numbers engaged in resistance matter to governments and to their supporters.

How can I become part of resisting our country's slide into autocracy?

1. Peacefully Protest - Visible resistance is essential so the government and its supporters see the number of citizens who don’t agree with their actions. Nonviolent visible protest activity encourages those sitting on the sidelines to join in. Protests are listed every week in the Weekly Update and on our website. Contact Bridgit Hansen, Protest Committee Chair, b.hansen@lwvmilwaukee.org, for more information.

2. Speak Up - Visit, call, email or write letters to your representatives telling them what you want them to do. Suggested actions are published in the Weekly Update and on our website. Contact Carol Wolcott, Political and Civic Affairs Chair, c.wolcott@lwvmilwaukee.org, for more information.

3. Economic Disruption - Business is one of the pillars that can either support or push back against the government. And as consumers we have leverage with businesses. We will be publishing information about businesses to consider patronizing based on their support of the community in the Weekly Update. Contact Business Relations Committee Co-chairs Rebecca Ellenbecker, r.ellenbecker@lwvmilwaukee.org, and Amy L. Ziolkowski, a.ziolkowski@lwvmilwaukee.org, for more information.

4. Religious Leadership - Religious leaders have significant moral authority to either support and push back against the government. During the Philippines revolution in the 1980s the Catholic Church was crucial to maintaining non-violence. Encourage your religious leader to publicly support the rights accorded us by the Constitution. Contact Lorna Grade, Religious Leadership Committee Chair, l.grade@lwvmilwaukee.org, for more information.

5. Support Government Transparency - Promoting open, transparent and accountable government is essential to ensure that citizens are aware of the decisions that impact their lives. Join the Observer Corps and help identify areas where action or improvement is needed. Contact Robyn Furger, Observer Corps Chair, r.furger@lwvmilwaukee.org, for more information.

6. Collaborate to Right Wrongs - Too often, people learn about problems but find them too overwhelming to do anything. Through the Medicaid/FoodShare Task Force, like-minded individuals are tackling the difficult problem of new obstacles to Medicaid and FoodShare coverage included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The object is to mitigate harm to affected Wisconsinites. Contact Co-Chairs Deb Bursinger, d.bursinger@lwvmilwaukee.org, and Linda Laarman, l.laarman@lwvmilwaukee.org, to learn more.

For more general information about Unite & Rise, contact Donna Spars, d.spars@lwvmilwaukee.org, Unite & Rise 8.5 Milwaukee Program Chair.

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Types of Governments

Types of Governments

We are challenged by seeing the changes occurring in our representative democracy to consider what type of government some of these changes represent. The following are definitions of types of governments offered to help us understand the similarities and differences…and to continue pushing back against them.

Representative Democracy

A form of government in which the people elect representatives to

make decisions, policies, laws, etc. according to law

Merriam Webster Dictionary

Totalitarianism

Form of government that subordinates all aspects of its citizens’ lives to the authority of the state, with a single charismatic leader as

the ultimate authority. It is distinguished from dictatorship and authoritarianism by its supplanting of all political institutions and all old legal

and social traditions with new ones to meet the state’s needs, which are

usually highly focused. Large-scale, organized violence may be legitimized.

The police operate without the constraint of laws and regulations. Where

pursuit of the state’s goal is the only ideological foundation for such a

government, achievement of the goal can never be acknowledged.

Cambridge Dictionary

Nazism

Totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of the Nazi Party in Germany. In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and dictatorial rule, Nazism shared many elements with Italian fascism. However, Nazism was far more extreme both in its ideas and in its practice. In almost every respect it was an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement, emphasizing the will of the charismatic dictator as the sole source of inspiration of a people and a nation, as well as a vision of annihilation of all enemies of the Aryan Volk as the one and only goal of Nazi policy.

Cambridge Dictionary

Dictatorship

Form of government in which one person or a small group

possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations. Dictators usually resort to force or fraud to gain despotic political power, which they maintain through the use of intimidation, terror, and the suppression of basic civil liberties. They may also employ techniques of mass propaganda in order to sustain their public support.

Cambridge Dictionary

Fascism

A populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

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14 Facts About Fascism

Further Information about Fascism

1. The fascist state is a state of exception corresponding to a political crisis.

(Fascismo y Dictadura by Nicos Poulantzas, page 366)

2. In a state of exception, the rule of law is discarded and arbitrariness reigns. That is to say, there are no rules, but the will (or whim) of the “leader”. (Fascismo y Dictadura, page 380)

3. There are no legally established limits. It is all under intervention by the state. (Fascismo y Dictadura page 381)

4. In the absence of the rule of law and the face of hegemonic instability the fascist state intervenes, particularly in the role of increased repression of the popular masses (Fascismo… p. 382)

5. This exceptional resource, (the fascist state) becomes necessary when the ideology accompanying it can not be maintained under the institutional framework, that is, in times of crisis of the dominant ideology. (Fascismo… p. 373)

6. The first periods of fascism in power are characterized by ambiguity and instability because of the ambiguous character of its popular base, while adopting some measure of compromise to maintain the illusions. (Fascismo… p. 67/68)

7. In its period of stabilization, it drops all ambiguity and compromises, which is manifested in the massive and bloody purge within its own ranks. (Fascismo… p. 70)

8. He brutally rids himself of a part of the class burden that weighs upon him, which inaugurates its period of stabilization, there is a reorganization of the bloc in power and a new fraction becomes the hegemonic. All that is because of the contradictions between the dominant fractions. (Fascismo… p.70/71)

9. Fascism corresponds to the deepening and acute exacerbation of the contradictions between the social classes. (Fascismo... p.71)

10. It goes from the form of liberal state and competitive capitalism to the form of interventionist state of monopoly capitalism. The social system itself is untouched. (Fascismo… p.76)

11. The fascist man is not an individual but part of a nation which suppresses his vital instincts, sacrificing his own interests, including death itself, for the country. (Estado corporativo fascista, Ruben Salazar Mallen, p. 21)

12. Fascism in power is least of all the rule of the middle class, on the contrary, it is the most ruthless dictatorship of monopoly capital. (What is National Socialism, an article, Leon Trotsky)

13. Fascist task is the compulsory concentration of all forces and resources of the people in the interests of Imperialism. The true historic mission of the fascist dictatorship means preparation for war. (What is National Socialism)

14. The more impotent the police regime is in the field of national economy, the more it is forced to transfer its efforts to the field of foreign policy. (What is National Socialism)