The only thing Tony Evers seems to care about is his brand as a folksy bipartisan compromiser, but under his aw shucks facade, this governor is making morally depraved choices with dire consequences in people’s lives.

Kroger has not even stated that shoplifting is the primary purpose for the closure of this store. They have gone as far as to deny it in some places. This idea was just something that the community came to, possibly because we are so primed to allow corporations to blame the consumer rather than accept culpability. Our society constantly frames social issues around crime, and its relationship to policing in our communities.

The benefits of a city or state owned grocery store are that they are not for profit, and could be priced based on cost, and operating expenses, which would pass on savings to the consumer. This system has the staggering ability to combat price gouging at privately owned grocery stores that some have dubbed “greedflation.”

Some will argue it could have been worse, that the Democratic senators who voted yes only did so after getting something from their Republican colleagues. But it also could have been so much better, and 11 Democratic senators voted no because they knew that was the case, and recognized that their constituents deserved better.

 If anything can be learned from this process, the City still has to listen to us. With an organized, concentrated resistance, we can stop bad plans from passing.  We still need to be vigilant in supervising the City and holding them accountable. They will cut corners and even so-called leftist or progressives on the Council might get lazy and just be rubber stamps.

If we lived in a time of effective antifascism, genocide denial would earn you a knuckle sandwich. A swastika-sporting holocaust denier trying to erase resolutions at the Democratic Convention would be lucky to leave the room with all their teeth. The same logic would apply to genocide denier Dustin Klein, but we don’t live in a time of effective antifascism.

If you are a politician, gay or otherwise, who gives pride speeches and makes a point to celebrate queerness but you do not stand up for people being bombed in Palestine, or care for the thousands brutalized by our racist policing apparatus, then I retain every right to doubt your sincerity on any human rights issue.

If Senate Democrats use the leverage they have to pursue our four demands and deny Governor Evers the opportunity to sign another trash budget, the harm Vos wants to do (and that Evers is willing to accept in the name of bipartisanship) will be significantly reduced.