Referendums on war in Tuesday's Wisconsin spring election

This story appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper out of Madison (www.madison.com) Sunday. It shows some of the debates going on concerning several town referendums on the war in Iraq across the state. One of the main sponsors of these referendums is the Green Party. Once again the Greens shows that they "get it" when it comes to effective non-major party politics by sponsoring such local referndums that, if they go overwhelmingly against the war (or even for the war for that matter)and be a big news story and will influence the debate, far more than running someone for President.

The Greens are following in the tradition of our cousins across the Atlantic in merry olde England. During the Revolutionary War, which was an unpopular war in the mother country, many citizens could not vote but found ways of expressing their local sentiments against the conflict through the petition process i.e. petitions that were gathered and signed and eventually presented to the king or to members of parliment. Such petitions and popular meetings against the war eventually weighed -in on policy makers by 1782 and the final defeat at Yorktown. The war was unpopular, catastrophic defeat took place and there was no sense of continuing on. Likewise, if a good number of Wisconsin towns vote against the war, the Powers that Be may very well look harder for ways to end an unpopular war.

----Sean Scallon

Fighting the war at home
By GEORGE HESSELBERG

In December in the town of Perry, population 754, the Town Board agreed to raise the wages of the recycling attendant, increase the dog license fees to $6.50 per neutered dog, and look into bringing the troops home from Iraq right away.

"Every time I watched the news or read the paper, more of our soldiers were getting killed, it made me sick," explained Roger Kittleson, a farmer, carpenter and the Town Board member who first suggested an anti- war referendum might be a good idea.

"We decided to urge the people to vote and to vote what their hearts felt," he said.

"The other thing we decided was to send the results of our referendum to all our elected officials, right up to the president, yes or no, just so they know how we feel."

Board chairman Pat Downing joined Kittleson, voting 2-1 to put the referendum on the Tuesday town ballot, joining 31 other Wisconsin municipalities doing the same.

The no vote came from Larry Price, who said he doesn't think "a national issue is an appropriate question for a town ballot."

From Exeland to Mount Horeb, from La Crosse to Madison, voters Tuesday will ponder the wisdom or the danger of withdrawal from the war in Iraq.

Thirty-two towns, villages and cities, with a total of about 325,000 of Wisconsin's 5.3 million residents, are weighing in on the war with referendums that vary only slightly in wording.

Though the general description of the referendums has been "anti-war" because in all but one municipality the genesis for the effort has come from people against the war, the issue is presented as a choice.

And that means, said UW-Madison political science professor Kathy Cramer Walsh, the supporters are also taking a chance.

"When people put something like this on the ballot, they are acknowledging that this may be defeated. They are acknowledging that they may be activating their opponents as much as activating their own point of view," Cramer Walsh said.


'A gut check'

What the anti-war referendum supporters, organized loosely under the banner of "Bring the Troops Home Now," activated were opponents such as William Richardson, of Madison.

"When I saw what the Madison referendum said, it was a gut check for me," said Richardson, whose military service came as a musician in the U.S. Marine band from 1966 to 1970. Father of three sons, he taught and played trombone at UW-Madison for 30 years.

Richardson doesn't think the referendum question is worth debating, the question to him is so clear cut: "They say bring the troops home now; we say vote no to cut and run, bring them home when the job is done.

"In business it is called attitude, in the military it is called morale. You can have the best- trained, educated, led and equipped soldiers in the world, but if they don't want to fight, you have nothing."

The referendums on the war have a "corrosive" effect on that morale, he said, and "they help the morale of the enemy, boosts the morale of the terrorists."

Richardson sees the anti-war referendum organizers as shadowy manipulators of an attempt to start an "impeach the president" movement.

He worries the Wisconsin referendum campaign will be exported to other states.


In Green Party

That's a great idea, said Steve Burns, coordinator of the Bring Our Troops Home Now group based in Madison. Burns works part time for the group, on "loan" from the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, an important financial and organizational backer of the referendum effort and active in the state's peace movement since 1991.

Burns is also part of the Wisconsin Green Party, which contributed volunteers and structure to anti-war referendum organizing efforts in many areas, an effort Burns said began in June 2005.

That explains some of the attraction of the effort in rural areas, where the Green Party appeals to a traditional independent streak among residents.

"They want to be left alone," he said, but "they don't like to be told to sit down and shut up."

The national Green Party has made no secret of its desire to promote and organize such referendums nationwide, and its call to impeach the president. The Greens are watching Wisconsin results closely, as are the national media.

In Wisconsin, along the way to getting the question on to more than 30 ballots, the organizers learned some lessons, Burns said. In Watertown, for example, a tricky interpretation of the law was eventually decided in the organizers' favor in court.

"That was important because it set a legal precedent," Burns said.

"The debate is important to show people that the war is a local issue," said Burns, seated in the group's crowded State Street office, shared with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

The effort in Wisconsin was "inspired" by a similar effort in Vermont, said Burns, and made possible by a unique but little- used Wisconsin law that allows such questions to be presented to the voters.

Responding to Richardson's criticism that the Wisconsin effort has been orchestrated from afar, Burns noted that "it has been the local people deciding to put this on the ballots, the local people chose the language, and it is the right of the citizen to set limits on government.

"This is fundamentally a conservative thing to do, insist that we have a say in the government that is taking money out of our paychecks, people out of our communities."


Wisconsin in war

Hovering over every argument for and against the referendum, but seldom specifically mentioned, is the very real, flesh and blood, connection Wisconsin residents have with the Iraq War.

The most recent statistics show 51 U.S. service members, with official residence in Wisconsin, among Iraq War fatalities. That does not include three Wisconsin dead in Afghanistan, according to Lt. Col. Tim Donovan of the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs.

The Department of Defense numbers as of Jan. 31 showed 9,053 active duty troops from Wisconsin who have served or are serving in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. To that, Donovan said, add "more than 9,000" Wisconsin troops from seven military reserve components.

There are currently just more than 4,000 Wisconsin troops serving in those areas, Donovan said.

Each soldier has a family, a hometown, a high school, a web of connections back to communities in the state.

It is not a given in this election that those connections translate into opposition to the referendums.

In Madison, for example, the family of Army Sgt. Mark Maida, who was killed in the Iraq War in May, has been active in support of the referendums.

But last week in Evansville, which has competing referendums to consider in support and against the war, Iraq War veteran Sgt. Kevin Lewis expressed frustration at the anti- war question. In an emotional, impromptu discussion following a panel presentation, Lewis said the anti-war effort has a negative effect on troops.


Effect on policy?

Whether referendums have any effect on government policy has emerged as a key supplemental question in debates.

Richardson said no, and his group even refuses to publicly debate the referendum: "There are all kinds of more effective venues for people to voice their opinions. You can call, or e- mail, it's not a big secret of how to get hold of your congressman.

"This is just a technique of the far left, which they will now use on every issue," he said.

Cramer Walsh, the political scientist, said the effect of using this tool, however, is more far- reaching and, she said, inspirational in a democratic society.

"I don't think the referendums resolve whether we should be in Iraq or not," she said. "But they matter because they are very visible symbols of public opinion. It is much different than a poll. This is a demonstration of opinion among the most active segments of the public.

"Whether or not it has an effect on policy, it is an important use of a tool that is not all that common in Wisconsin."

From a more distant view, even the results may not be the most important part of the effort, she said.

"A lot of people will look at it and say what a waste of time, but it gets a lot of attention and that is something in and of itself. And it gets people talking. And politicians take notice when citizens get mobilized and do something collectively."

A referendum is not, she said, a practical way to decide all policy.

"We have representatives for a reason. If we decided all policy this way, it would be ridiculous. But the folks who wrote the Declaration of Independence were very patriotic people, and what they said very clearly was that you have a right and a duty to get involved when you think the government is not acting in the people's interest. It is not unpatriotic to disagree with policy, it is unpatriotic to do nothing."


Rhetoric on the Web

That patriotism question comes up in discussions, too, but the past months' of campaigning have been - aside from rhetoric on Web sites and radio talk shows - mostly absent of public name-calling.

In one extreme example in Whitefish Bay, according to newspaper reports, a village board trustee, Jim Brennan, was severely criticized after he wrote a letter to the North Shore Herald weekly accusing the 1,000 people who signed a petition that got the anti-war referendum on the ballot as being guilty of treason.

"They are just as guilty as those who are killing and injuring our soldiers and our airmen," he wrote.

Chuck Himsel is the fire chief in Mount Horeb, where a referendum is on the ballot. His is the rare home in the village with a "Vote No To Cut and Run" sign, but unlike some, he is not questioning the patriotism of the referendum backers.

"It is not my intention to be a flaming patriot, and I can't stand up and applaud slaughter. But cut-and-run is a signal that says to the terrorists, come and get us again. I am not preaching or condemning those who disagree with me. Somebody jumped me and said he didn't appreciate my yard sign. I said it's my yard, my house, my sign and God bless America."

Kittleson, the town of Perry farmer, points out the inconsistencies in many of the debate points. The Green Party, for example, had nothing to do with getting the referendum on that town's ballot.

"I guess I wasn't really for starting the war when Bush decided to do it. If there were weapons of mass destruction, well, yes they should be taken care of. But we have been there three years. We have captured Saddam. They are still killing our soldiers. They supposedly have a new leader. It's time for the people of that country to run it themselves. I understand war is war, but I don't think we are going to change the Iraqis way of thinking. I'm not liberal or conservative, I guess I am a little bit of both."

Fran Zell, a member of a group in Evansville that helped organize the successful anti- war referendum petition drive, said the turnout for a panel discussion last week was a positive sign for both sides.

Before the referendum issue arose in Evansville, "no one would talk about the war. This is bringing the discussion out into the open."

The discussion will not end Tuesday. Voting residents of the city of Milwaukee and Ozaukee County will face the anti-war referendums on ballots in November.

Burns said the referendum effort will continue and it is "very likely" more communities will be added to the November list