We own a few acres of scrubby
land on a small lake in northern Wisconsin, which includes a cabin and a bit of
sandy beach. I love the cool summer nights and frosty winter days of the
northern woods. We are miles from the nearest grocery store, but very close to
loons, eagles, ducks, and osprey. Sometimes we are too close to bears, but
unlike humans, they are more interested in garbage than in killing. This fall,
we sat on our beach at sunset and heard only forest and lake noises. There was
nothing to buy and nothing to want.
But a lake beach is not
forever. Forces of nature and civilization are not kind to expanses of sand at
water’s edge. The road gradually crumbles, and pieces of asphalt and stone wash
down onto the beach with the rain, often helped by road maintenance crews.
Weeds growing up every year in the water and on the shore threaten to overwhelm
the empty sandy space. Summer storms drag sand downwards into the lake, some of
which is pushed up again by winter ice. Our beach is a constant project, but
every sunset makes it worth the labor.
Sitting on the beach this
fall was a good escape from our awful electoral politics. But politics also
affects our little beach in ways which demonstrate how American politics really
works.
The Wisconsin budget bill
this year included a provision altering statewide zoning for lakefront
properties. As the state of Wisconsin explains the new law: “counties
that currently have shoreland zoning ordinance standards that regulate in a
more restrictive manner than the standards established in s. 59.692 and NR 115,
can no longer enforce those standards”.
The zoning changes were put
into the larger budget bill by Republican leaders without giving Democratic
legislators more than an hour’s notice. Wisconsin residents had no opportunity
to offer input.
Wisconsin has 15,000 lakes
scattered across the state, from gigantic Lake Superior to tiny lakes like
ours. The circumstances in every county are different, depending on the number
and size of lakes, development of shore land, presence of native trout breeding
areas and significance of fishing. Many counties, especially those in the north
which have more lakes, had adopted more restrictive protective standards than the state, on minimum size of lakefront
properties and minimum distance of new buildings from the water. These will now
be swept away.
A County Board Supervisor in
Washburn County, where our property is located, said, “I’m just madder than
hell.” He said the “ugly truth”
was that a “major contributor to Gov. Walker” was not allowed to mow his lawn
right down to water’s edge, so he complained. The next day the new shoreland
zoning rules were put into the state budget. This was not a partisan complaint:
Trump
won every town, village and city in Washburn County.
Local officials across the
state complained. The Wisconsin Counties Association, Wisconsin Land and Water
Conservation Association, Wisconsin County Code Administrators and Wisconsin
County Planning and Zoning Administrators collaborated on a memo requesting that
the zoning changes be removed from the budget bill. They argued that the
changes would lead to “a decline in environmental quality in our shoreland
areas, and consequently, result in lower property values and a decline in
overall economic conditions.” To no avail.
Considered alone, this change
to lake shore zoning may seem like a minor issue, concerning only the minority
who own lake front property. But it exemplifies the state of politics in
America. Rich political donors get preferential treatment for their private
interests. Local control is a popular slogan, but in important issues central
governments take control. Protection of the environment for the future gives
way to current convenience. Those undemocratic practices are shared by both
parties.
But Republican politics leans
even more toward the interests of the powerful. This lake zoning change is one
of hundreds of seemingly minor acts in Wisconsin, since Republicans won control
of the state legislature and the governor’s mansion in 2010, which add up to
the model Republican political program about protection of the consumer, the safety net for
the poorest Americans, environmental protection, and the rights of immigrants
and the disabled.
The Republicans have allowed
more lead in paint and exempted paint manufacturers from lawsuits about lead;
reduced employers’ financial liabilities for their discrimination in
employment; reduced regulations about false advertising by the payday loan
industry; shielded politicians who violate ethics and elections laws; limited
the ability for women to sue about unequal pay; and in hundreds of actions
prohibited local governments from passing their own ordinances about the
environment, land use, transportation, and construction. In every case, the our
common public rights are subordinated to the private rights of the big and
powerful.
Everyone appears to be
worried that soon-to-be President Trump will make some gigantic blunder,
putting us all at risk. More likely is that the Republican Congress and the
Republican President will pass hundreds of less notable acts which together
will make the rich richer, the powerful more powerful, and the rest of us less
able to control our lives.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, December 6, 2016
