Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (Source).

As of this writing, we are still waiting for the results from the Wisconsin primaries, however, based on pre-election polls, it looks like Biden is going to bag another victory.

Regardless of who ends up winning, though, we should accept the simple fact that the Wisconsin primary election was a sham that should not have even occurred.

Since much of the government began to take the coronavirus seriously last month, many states made the rational decision to delay their primaries, deciding to postpone voting for a few months as residents were urged to stay at home whenever possible.

Wisconsin, however, did not take this approach.

The Democratic governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, long resisted calls from progressives and public health experts to delay the primaries, but he only attempted to call a special session of the Wisconsin legislature late last week to delay the primaries. Republicans, who are adamantly anti-science, rejected the governor’s proposal. Yesterday morning, Evers signed an executive order that took matters into his own hands, delaying the primary election until it would likely be safer for residents to cast their ballots. Unfortunately, though, the state’s conservative Supreme Court swiftly blocked the executive order, declaring that the governor lacks the authority to delay primaries. The United States Supreme Court, meanwhile, blocked the state’s efforts to extend absentee balloting after Wisconsin saw a surge in ballot applications in the midst of the coronavirus.

The decisions by conservatives and Republicans in the Wisconsin legislative and judicial branches were beyond irresponsible. People will, quite literally, die because of their decision to green light the primaries, especially now that a large sum of the state’s polling stations have closed due to volunteers expressing their intent to stay home (as they should). Republicans, for reasons beyond comprehension, believe that it is totally acceptable for voters, many of whom already have compromised immune systems, to show-up to tightly-packed stations, waiting in long lines, being in close proximity to each other, and touching surfaces which may put them at risk for COVID-19 exposure.

Of course, Republicans are not all to blame here; while Donald Trump and Republicans throughout government have been promulgating conspiracy theories about the virus, downplaying the impact that it will have on public health, or even suggesting that the elderly should sacrifice their lives for the good of the economy, the Democratic Party establishment, especially their preferred candidate, Joe Biden, have been encouraging Wisconsin to stay the course and telling voters that it is safe to head to the polls. This is while Bernie Sanders has been strongly urging the state to delay their primaries. Bernie even refused to engage in get out the vote (GOTV) efforts on the eve of the election.

A long line of Milwaukee voters waiting to cast their ballot (source).

We already know that Bernie Sanders has been the definitive leader on fighting the coronavirus pandemic while Joe Biden has been asleep at the wheel; as the last few weeks have clearly demonstrated, Sanders is using his stature as a United States Senator and influence as the only progressive left in the primaries to push for aid to those financially impacted by the virus, raise money for relief organizations, and conduct tele-town halls and virtual panels on the pandemic. Meanwhile, Biden only recently began taking the virus seriously, making embarrassing television appearances and promoting milquetoast measures to combat COVID-19 while Sanders has been advocating for real aid to the American people.

Given how both candidates have dealt with the coronavirus, it isn’t, at all, surprising that Biden has not called on Wisconsin to delay their primaries, instead telling his audience that it will be safe to attend polling stations, and because his supporters are disproportionately being told to risk their own lives, and the lives of their loved ones, by casting ballots in person, whereas Sanders has been the only candidate pushing Wisconsin to delay the primaries, we will likely see results that will be disproportionately lopsided in-favor of Biden.

How was this primary legitimate? When health experts are telling people to stay home, and when people are justifiably scared to go out and vote when they are being told to stay home whenever possible, how are the results representative of the population at all? And how is it fair that Joe Biden’s irresponsible message about the safety of voting will likely translate into a disproportionate share of the votes?

Human lives are at stake. We’ve already seen Florida poll workers get sick as a result of the coronavirus, and if anyone dies after contracting the virus from a polling station today, blood will be on the hands of the Republican and Democratic establishments for not heeding the warnings of health experts and delaying the primary elections.

In any case, the Wisconsin primaries were a sham, and it will only contribute to the ever-growing alienation that progressives feel about the political process, especially revolving around the Democratic Party. Many progressives have already indicated that they will not simply “fall in line” and “vote blue no matter who”, declaring their intentions to either stay at home, write-in Bernie Sanders’ name, or vote for the Green Party candidate if Biden gets the Democratic nomination. The Party’s likely willingness to officially accept the results of such a sham primary will only further fuel the animosity that progressives, such as myself, feel towards the Democratic Party, an entity that, at best, pays lip service to progressive causes and yet fails to act on them.

Going forward, the Democratic Party should lobby elected officials to declare the results from today null and void, even if Bernie happens to win, while simultaneously setting a new day for constituents to vote for their preferred candidate. Anything short of this bold action would send the unnerving message that they are a party that continuously settles for mediocrity, a prospect which will further alienate progressives and make Trump’s re-election all the more likely.