APPLETON: Michael Hovde has a lot he dislikes about Donald Trump‘s agenda. But when he votes in November in the electorally crucial state of Wisconsin, he believes the stakes are far higher than mere policy issues.
“Trump, I think, is an existential threat to democracy,” the 36-year-old said as he strolled through the bustling downtown of Appleton, one of the most politically diverse areas of one of the most closely divided US states.
He pointed to the “terrifying” people around the Republican mogul and to Project 2025, the governing blueprint written for, but publicly disavowed by, Trump that would ram through his hard-right policies.
“They aim to truly just bypass and circumvent checks and balances, and really neuter the efficacy of our political system,” Hovde said.
Not far away, past the verdant lawns and elegant Victorian homes in this comfortably middle-class city, Casey Stern, 58, sees the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris quite differently.
Above his neatly tended garden of corn and zucchini flies an imposing “Trump 2024” flag. Another banner calls for Biden’s impeachment and says, “We the People Are Pissed.”
If the message is in-your-face, so are the reactions. Stern recounts passers-by shouting profanities, while some critics jot down his address and send him letters.
He acknowledged that Trump’s “mean tweets in the middle of the night” can bother people but believes the country needs a “strong-willed” leader to address inflation, immigration and crime.
“Every time you go to the grocery store, you can’t even afford a steak,” Stern said.
He scoffed at Democrats’ charges that Trump puts democracy at risk, accusing President Joe Biden of stifling public debate over the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Biden has done more to harm democracy,” he said.
– State of tumult –
If there is one state where the Democrats’ message on Trump’s threat to democracy may mobilize voters, it is Wisconsin.
Once known for clean, polite, left-tilting politics, Wisconsin has become an epicenter of partisanship — an ultimate swing state that could tip the national .
Trump stunned complacent Democrats by winning narrowly in 2016. Biden then took back Wisconsin by another razor-thin margin in 2020.
A turning point had come in 2010 when Scott Walker, a young Republican who many presumed would respect Wisconsin’s mild-mannered political style, was elected governor and unleashed sweeping changes.
He stripped power from Wisconsin’s once-formidable labor unions, and his Republicans drastically redrew election maps, virtually guaranteeing party control of the state legislature.
Democrats hope Republicans will have their comeuppance in the November 5 election, fought on less partisan maps after a ruling by the state Supreme Court’s new liberal majority.
Kristin Alfheim, a Democrat who is seeking a state Senate seat, said competitive maps benefit democracy.
“It brings the opportunity for accountability from both sides, knowing they’re going to need to work together,” she said.
– ‘Democracy’ cuts both ways –
Biden and Harris have hammered away on the threat to democracy from Trump, who refused to accept defeat in 2020 and fired up the supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Arnold Shober, a government professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, said the democracy theme carried “special resonance” in Wisconsin after its experience with Walker, who was voted out in 2018.
But Shober said it cut both ways, with some Republicans still smarting over the boisterous, albeit nonviolent, protests that disrupted the state’s capitol when Walker pushed through his anti-union measure, known as Act 10.
“When you talk about January 6 in Wisconsin, folks on the right will instantly say, well, what about those Democrats with Act 10?” Shober said.
“They see it almost as an equity issue. You did it — we can do it, too.”
– Countering vitriol –
The historic home to giant paper mills and now the base for major white-collar employers, Outagamie County, of which Appleton is the seat, was dominated by Republicans and produced the notorious anti-communist witch-hunter Joe McCarthy.
But in a microcosm of the country, an urban-rural split has deepened, with Democrats gaining in an increasingly cosmopolitan Appleton.
Outagamie County Chief Executive Tom Nelson, a Democrat sympathetic to socialist Bernie Sanders, has kept winning since 2011 even as he has seen coarseness in politics rising with Trump.
“He has animated that vitriol, that contempt, that hatred,” he said.
Nelson said he has successfully reached across the divide on a more basic message.
Fundamentally, he said, people want “to be able to live in a community that is safe, that is healthy, that has a strong and vibrant economy.”

We all have memories of our senior yearbook superlatives, where awards were bestowed upon us/classmates (fairly or unfairly) for our high school body of work. “Most Likely to Succeed” was the golden goose, but others such as “Most Likely to be a Game Show Host” or “Class Clown” were also in the mix.

With this in mind, I crafted my list of Wisconsin Badgers football superlatives for the 2024 team and explored this with the incomparable Ryan Harings of Locked on Badgers.

Here are some categories that Ryan and I came up with and a few others that I awarded on my own.

I’d love to hear your picks in the comments.

Most Likely to Succeed: Tawee Walker and Will Pauling

Most Improved: Nyzier Fourqurean, Bryson Green, Jack Nelson, Jake Chaney

Most Like to Be a Comedian: Will Pauling, RJ Delancy

Best True Freshman: Xavier Lucas, Dillon Johnson, Kevin Heywood

Most Likely to be a Football Coach: Braedyn Locke, Jake Chaney

Most Likely to Run Camp Randall Steps When Nobody’s Looking: Hunter Wohler, Max Lofy, Jake Chaney

Most Likely to be President: Will Pauling, RJ Delancy, Cole LaCrue

Most Likely to Succeed in the NFL: Ricardo Hallman, Hunter Wohler, Kevin Heywood

Most Likely Really Good Team to Lose to The Badgers in 2024: Penn State

Newcomers of the Year: Jaheim Thomas, John Pius, Alex Van Dyke, Tawee Walker, AJ Blazek, EJ Whitlow

Most Likely to Put up a Big Game vs Alabama: Jaheim Thomas, Hunter Wohler

HEAT ADVISORY ISSUED FOR MONDAY (1PM-8PM) FOR DODGE, FOND DU LAC, JEFFERSON, WALWORTH, WASHINGTON AND WAUKESHA COUNTIES. 

Dangerous heat is on the way to SE Wisconsin in the days ahead. The warmth and humidity is already building and will peak both Monday & Tuesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service has issued a Heat Advisory effective 1pm-8pm Monday for Fond du Lac, Washington, Dodge, Jefferson, Waukesha and Walworth counties.

Meantime, the warmth and humidity are getting an early start on Sunday. Overnight lows have only fallen into the 60s. Highs top out in the mid/upper 80s. Heat index values could reach into the lower and mid-90s.

The worst of the heat arrives Monday and Tuesday. Highs top out in the lower and mid 90s – with hotter conditions farther away from Lake Michigan.
Heat index values could reach 100-105° away from the lake. Given the hot, humid and unstable environment, there is a low chance for storms across SE Wisconsin both Monday and Tuesday. Storms will be limited by hot air aloft (a cap). If storms are able to break through the cap, they could quickly become severe – bringing downpours, damaging winds and hail. There is a Marginal (Level 1) risk of severe weather late Monday into early Tuesday.

A Slight (Level 2) risk of severe weather is in place for Tuesday. As a cold front approaches from the West, storms may fire in the vicinity of the front. If they are unable to form (which is also possible), heat index values could reach or exceed 105° in some spots on Tuesday afternoon. The NWS has indicated they may expand heat headlines towards Milwaukee on Tuesday.

After the cold front passes, temperatures moderate later in the week. Another frontal boundary brings showers/storms by late Thursday into Friday.

SUNDAY: Hot & Humid; Partly CloudyHigh: 86 Lake, 91 Inland, Heat Index 90-95°
Wind: SE 5-10 mph

TONIGHT: A Few Clouds; Still Warm
Low: 72
Wind: SE 5 mph

MONDAY: Hot/Humid; Partly Cloudy; Slight Chance Storm
High: 91 Lake, 96 Inland, Heat Index 95-105°

TUESDAY: Hot/Humid; Partly Cloudy Chance PM Storms
High: 92 Lake, 96 Inland, Heat Index 95-108°

WEDNESDAY: Mostly Sunny & Cooler
High: 82

THURSDAY: Partly Cloudy; Slight Chance PM Showers/Storm
High: 81

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