I used to work in Saudi Arabia and am shocked to recognize its ruling habits right here in Wisconsin
Robin Vos, the GOP boss in Wisconsin, is importing from the Kingdom the notion that legitimacy comes from power. He's about to learn a lesson in American history.
Let me start today by saying a few words about a country where I worked for many years. Saudi Arabia is much misunderstood here in the US. The accomplishments of the al Saud family and the people on the Arabian Peninsula are truly astonishing. In just a few generations, a collection of feuding medieval tribes living in the harshest desert conditions, along with a few costal trading cities ended up united and able to protect their newfound natural wealth all while building an important position in the world. The Saudi people I worked with are smart, and funny, and deeply aware challenges their society faces as it continues to transition to modernity.
The remarkable transition underway in Saudi Arabia
That transition is itself sweeping. Just since I started going the Kingdom, Saudis have experienced increased rights for women, the opening of public gathering spaces like theaters and concert venues, a change in policy to allow foreigners in as tourists, vast spending to send young Saudis to study abroad, and the standing down the mutawa- that’s the religious police. Now, by no means is Saudi society anything like as open and egalitarian as ours, but change is always hard, and they’ve had a lot of it.
What has not changed, however, is the absolute authority of the monarch. In the late 1970s after the fall of the Shah in Iran and the failed effort of a religious fanatic to take over and hold the holy mosque in Mecca, the al Saud’s saw social change as a danger to continued rule. They moved to the right and bought off the clerics by funding madrassas around the world. Today, the ruling family sees domestic fundamentalism as a threat, and has moved to liberalize. But only to a point. Human Rights Watch reported this week that a Saudi teacher was sentenced to death for a handful of tweets. This follows a statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights describing an alarming increase in the rate of executions in the Kingdom.
Clearly, the goal of the current limited liberalization, just like the goal of the satisfying the power of the Imam’s in the 1970s is to maintain the family dynasty. Neither then nor now is law an instrument of human freedom. In both eras, law is a coercive tool.
People can live good lives in autocratic countries. In China, in Russia, in Saudi Arabia, people can thrive. That is, so long as they do not ever threaten the party in power.
I tell you this, not to pass judgement on nations with very different histories and traditions than our own, but because we need to talk about Robin Vos and the Republicans in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Republicans latest authoritarian plot
Mr. Vos is the powerful leader of the Wisconsin State Assembly. This week he is threatening to nullify an election by impeaching a newly elected Supreme Court judge before she ever rules on a case.
This is not the first time the Vos and the Wisconsin GOP used their power to cheat voters. Back in 2019, Democrat Tony Evers defeated the incumbent Governor, Republican Scott Walker. After the election, while Walker was still in office as a lame duck, the GOP passed, and Walker signed legislation stripping powers from the incoming governor. This time, Vos wants to go even further.
Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a landslide victory this summer, a victory that tipped the balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. At issue are things like an abortion ban from the 1800s and the most egregious gerrymander in the country. Many legal scholars believe that an independent court, taking into consideration the facts and the law, and acting in a jurisprudential manner, might be inclined no longer to protect patently illegal legislative maps. Many also believe the ancient law banning abortions is vulnerable.
PHOTO CREDIT: Judge Janet Protasiewicz delivers her victory speech after winning a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Both the gerrymander and the abortion law were widely discussed during the election that ultimately put Judge Protasiewicz on the court. The voters heard it all and decided. It is, just as the Presidential decision we all made in 2020, a thing Republicans like Vos will not accept. (And as a reminder, Vos is the guy who funded the clown car of an investigation into that election until the guy he appointed to lead it, endorsed his opponent)
Today, just as in 2019, Speaker Vos is telling the people of Wisconsin that they can have elections as long as his guys win. If not, well he has other plans. It is a use of authority for no purpose other than to keep his dynasty in power. It reflects more of a Saudi mindset than an American one.
In this country, we aim to make law by consensus of the governed and apply it equally to all. For sure, that application can be maddeningly slow, uneven, and imperfect. But we strive for it. That is why in our country we see a former President charged with multiple felonies. That is why the leaders of the military wing of the MAGA movement have been tried, convicted, and jailed.
What is going on in Wisconsin right now runs counter to our history, to our democratic values, and to principled rule of law.
Fighting to save democracy
But there’s something else going on in Wisconsin. Something quintessentially and beautifully American. In rural and urban areas, people are coming together and saying no to being pushed around by politicians like Vos.
The more people see the abuses, the louder they declare that liberty and justice are for all, not just for the rich and well connected. The more tightly Vos clings to power, the more determined become folks in Wisconsin that government should work for the people, not the other way around. That growing determination, that great coming together to do something about it, is one of the reasons Judge Protasiewicz won her election earlier this summer.
Like so much else from today’s GOP, Speaker Vos’ threat to annul an election he does not like has no place in our democracy. And yet a great democracy we remain. So expect the good people of Wisconsin to do something that has no place in monarchies like Saudi Arabia. Expect the people, peacefully and by the power of the ballot, to kick his ass at their earliest opportunity.