Election Night Lit The Badger State Red for the First Time Since 1984

Don’t call it a comeback…

The 2016 presidential election managed to muscle a few impressive feats of strength this year; it produced a reminder that exit polls aren’t a reliable forecast of end results, delivered an almost laughable example of how blatantly biased the media is and solidified the fact that people will only take so much for so long before they stand up for themselves and push back.

Such was the case in the State of Wisconsin.

The Badger State has been a contentious battleground of political class warfare for decades. The state struggles to reconcile the extreme liberal politics in the southern cities of Milwaukee and Madison with the conservative idealism thriving across the rest of the state. For years, the liberal bullies have gone unchecked, shoving quiet conservatives up against the wall, as the liberal elite of the south turn a blind eye to heinous assaults like the John Doe raids and the conservatives do nothing but shake their heads in disgust.

Backs against the wall and energized by the united call to action from republican leaders like Governor Scott Walker and former Governor Tommy Thompson, conservatives turned out to local polling stations on Tuesday, uniting their voices and ballots to the state red for the first time in 32 years.

“It is the most incredible election I’ve ever been involved in,” Governor Thompson said. “The results are so overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and the Republicans that it is a smashing, smashing victory that is utterly incredible.”

While GOP strategist Brandon Scholz called this year’s election a “seismic” victory for Republicans, he also admitted the results had left him dumbfounded.

“I am not sure why or how Donald Trump won,” said Scholz. “I’ve been scratching my head the whole time going, ‘What did we miss? What didn’t we see? Where did it come from?’”

House Majority Leader Jim Steineke, who won his re-election bid on election night, said the answer everyone is looking for is in plain sight.

“It amazes me that Democrats across the country are scratching their heads over the results of this election. As someone who spent the better part of the year campaigning in my district and around the state, it’s clear to me that the modern Democrat party lost track of their roots, catering more to the Hollywood and political elite and leaving the blue collar workers that helped build their party in the mud.”

From top to bottom, pro-gun conservative candidates like Paul Ryan, Ron Johnson, Sean Duffy, Mike Gallagher and Steineke built their victories from the support of the conservative base and voters committed to defend gun rights with their ballot.

“The one issue they (democrats) lost blue collar voters on more than any other issue is on gun control and their lack of commitment to uphold the Second Amendment,” Steineke said. “Americans in general, and blue collar Americans especially, respect that the Second Amendment was designed to protect our right to bear arms and guarantees the ability to protect our families from harm. Until the Democrats realize they are out of step on this issue and more, Tuesday’s election results will be commonplace.”

Gallagher, a former Marine with a doctorate in international relations and Second Amendment supporter, told The Associated Press that his “common-sense, conservative message” resonated with voters throughout the 8th District.

“Being part of the fastest growing group of firearm owners, women are realizing they need to stop outsourcing their personal protection,” said Rita Boucher, a Well Armed Woman Co-Leader and NRA Certified Pistol Instructor in the Green Bay area. “Hearing about onerous gun control legislation that states like California were proposing, and passed, was definitely one of the reasons voter turnout was high in rural areas and helped turn Wisconsin red.”

Boucher said in her experience, voters are still unaware of current gun laws already on the books. “Education is key to making people aware. I have family members who still don’t know that comprehensive background checks are already mandatory or that straw purchases are illegal. People may be content to accept what the media spoon-feeds them, but that’s where responsible gun owners continue to make headway in the state by respectfully engaging friends, family and members of the community.”

Preliminary results of an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks showed that in Wisconsin, voters polled said the economy was their top concern, with almost six in 10 saying the economic situation was poor or “not good.”

The election was also the first presidential election requiring voters to show identification, giving liberals another opportunity to label the Voter ID law, signed by Governor Walker in 2011, “a failure” – claiming the law only serves to “disenfranchise black voters”.

But while critics tout DMV records and personal stories as proof, they ignore the fact that voters who are unable to obtain qualifying forms of identification still have the ability to vote without one.

In July, Federal judge Lynn Adelman issued a preliminary injunction against the law, permitting Wisconsin voters who do not have the required forms of identification to vote in the 2016 general election by signing affidavits swearing to their identity. In his opinion, Adelman wrote, “Although most voters in Wisconsin either possess qualifying ID or can easily obtain one, a safety net is needed for those voters who can’t obtain qualifying ID with reasonable effort. The … affidavit option is a sensible approach that will both prevent the disenfranchisement of some voters during the pendency of this litigation and preserve Wisconsin’s interests in protecting the integrity of its elections.”

The Nation’s Ari Berman, an outspoken opponent of the law, frequently tries to turn tales of voters’ own failure to ensure proper documentation into the obligatory

We’ll likely never know how many people were kept from the polls by restrictions like voter-ID laws, cuts to early voting, and barriers to voter registration. For example, 27,000 votes currently separate Trump and Clinton in Wisconsin, where 300,000 registered voters, according to a federal court, lacked strict forms of voter ID. Voter turnout in Wisconsin was at its lowest levels in 20 years and decreased 13 percent in Milwaukee, where 70 percent of the state’s African-American population lives, according to Daniel Nichanian of the University of Chicago.

When Margie Mueller, an 85-year-old woman from Plymouth, Wisconsin, wasn’t allowed to vote with her expired driver’s license, her husband, Alvin, decided not to vote either. They were both Democrats. “The damn Republicans,” he said, “don’t want Latinos and old people to vote.”

I may be a white, Republican woman living in Wisconsin, but I received a letter from the DMV at the end of October reminding me that my Drivers License would be expiring on my birthday, November 25th.

When I went to the DMV to get a new license, which took me less than 15 minutes to do by the way, I saw signs like these hanging everywhere: