Tony drives a cab in Superior, has for years and years.
"Sometimes," he says as winter turns toward spring and Wisconsin's roads develop almost as many holes as Charlie Sheen's cerebrum, "it's just like an obstacle course out there." On older streets, he says, there are potholes "all over the place."
It's a problem, some say, of historic proportion -- both in Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota where, earlier this winter, a woman driving on an interstate south of Duluth was hit in the windshield with an 11-pound chunk of concrete dislodged from a pothole by a vehicle in front of her.
Much, of course, has been dislodged in Madison as well. The partisan politicians there are at odds, mired in conflict over pension contributions and health care costs and collective bargaining, trading insults and names. Much is driven by ideology and politics. People on both sides are playing to their base, at least when they're not playing to the cameras. But that can't last forever, not in a state that's neither deep red nor bright blue.
It was Tip O'Neill, the Speaker of the House from Massachusetts, who said all politics is local, meaning lasting politicians ultimately consider local concerns and needs as much as big ideas and ideologies. At the local level, we are mostly a state of pragmatists and realists.
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Here's the reality: Even with concessions from unions, many places like Superior are going to have less money to spend and more holes to fill -- and lots of questions to ponder. What level of services can we really afford? What's more irritating: a big pothole or a small purse? Do the Democrats who don't control the Legislature win anything in the long run if public employees end up being laid off and services suffer? Is a Republican victory that doesn't last because of small-town discontent, on the other hand, really a victory at all?
There's an election for mayor coming up in Superior. Bruce Hagen, a former Tommy Thompson Administration official, is facing off in the general election against Kevin Peterson, a self-described "taxpayer advocate." It's a cordial race that the luckier one will lose. Both acknowledge this is not going to be a pleasant time to be in local politics -- and not just in Superior.
People, after all, are going to have to make choices in this state, and we're not used to that. We love to talk about sacrifices so long as we don't have to make any personally. But something, somewhere, has gotta give.
"Some of these roads are old," said Tony, the cabbie in Superior. "Some have to be replaced. Nothing lasts forever." But, of course, he acknowledges "it gets down to finances." Most Wisconsinites are deeply concerned about finances.
Tip O'Neill was right about politics being local. Long after CNN and FOX and the national figures have gone home for good, the rest of us will still be here largely unnoticed in Wisconsin's smaller towns and cities far from Madison.
Most of the battles over where to patch and where not to will play out in places that newspapers can no longer afford to cover the way they once did; where ideology doesn't matter so much as the length of the grass in the park and the time it takes for the local cop to respond to a traffic accident -- and, yes, the size of the tax bill come April, too.
Partisan politics can only last for so long in a state like this before the politics of potholes and purses takes over and people look for leaders -- not to mention cabbies -- who can find a way to get us past the obstacles.
Right now, it seems a lot easier to find a cabbie.
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Mike Nichols is a syndicated columnist who spent 18 years writing about Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is now a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. This column represents only his personal opinion. Contact him at MRNichols@wi.rr.com .
