It may take decades, even centuries, for the state of Wisconsin to recover from the damage done to it in the 21st by its homegrown Republican Party, and that damage was not contained in the state capitol by any means. Wisconsin's voters also managed to send a few of the dimmer bulbs to the congressional chandelier as well.

For example, the Democratic Party has decided to hold its convention in Milwaukee next year. This is a big deal and, if it's done right, it will mean a lot to the citizens of that city, which needs a break since the Republicans in Madison seem bound and determined to saw it off and let it float out to the middle of Lake Michigan. Of course, members of the state's congressional delegation decided to make some funnies about it. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil of Janesville and Sean Duffy of Hayward recently discussed Democrats' decision to come to Milwaukee for next year's convention during an episode of Duffy's "Plaidcast" podcast. Their comments about the 2020 DNC came shortly after they criticized the Green New Deal, a broad plan for addressing climate change championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

"In Wisconsin — it's shocking — they want to get rid of our cows," said Duffy, the 7th District congressman from Wausau. "Because cows have too much gas." "I think we've got to talk about this when they bring the national convention to Wisconsin," replied Steil, who succeeded Paul Ryan as the 1st District congressman from Janesville. "Do you find any irony there? They bring the national convention to Wisconsin — the same group that wants to get rid of cows."

Duffy is the former Real World contestant whose career in the Congress has been marked largely by success that is not his own; his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, occasionally pops up on The View to talk pullulation and politics. Steil is the guy who sat himself down in Paul Ryan's old seat. Both of them, of course, are lying about the Green New Deal's propensity for bovine genocide.

Rep. Steil takes a break from his podcast to soft-smile in a congressional hearing. Tom Williams Getty Images

But what makes them true dipwads in the modern conservative sense is that they have spent their careers in Congress stanning for an incompetent meathead in the White House whose policies are on the way to guaranteeing that there won't be any cows in America's Dairyland pretty soon anyway. Also from the J-S:

Wisconsin lost 500 dairy farms in 2017, and about 150 have quit milking cows so far this year, putting the total number of milk-cow herds at around 7,600 — down 20 percent from five years ago. With collapsed prices of milk, grain and other commodities, farmers are losing money no matter how many 16-hour days they put in milking cows, caring for livestock and planting and harvesting crops. Small dairy farms have been disappearing from the rural landscape for decades, but the problem has been compounded by a sharp decline in farm-milk prices that's now in its third year and has spread across the country.

Farm cooperatives have urged members to think twice about adding more cows to their operations when the marketplace is awash in milk. Some have even offered incentives for members to quit farming altogether. Federal court data shows the Western District of Wisconsin had the highest number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in the nation in 2017, and that's only a glimpse into the problem since Chapter 12 is a relatively rare tool used in bankruptcies. Farmers say the downturn is worse than one they experienced in 2009 because it has lasted longer and their costs are higher now. Many dairy operations are drowning in debt; in some cases, they have a half-million dollars in unpaid bills. Hardin says many dairy farms don’t have much financial staying power left after more than three years of depressed prices. He’s also hearing that rural banks and towns are being hurt by farmers struggling to pay their bills and buy things.

Duffy's response was to propose a bill that would give El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago increased power to raise tariffs, something that even Senator Chuck Grassley thought was a terrible idea.

A Wisconsin dairy farm, which it turns out is an increasingly endangered species. Darren Hauck Getty Images

Rural America has been getting clobbered ever since we learned how easy trade wars were to win. (Jane Fleming Kleeb, the formidable Nebraska state Democratic chair, has a book on the politics of that very thing coming out next year.) Whether that ever will translate into an actual political threat is still hard to determine. But the threat to Wisconsin's farmers is very real, and it reaches everywhere in their lives. From the Wisconsin State Journal:

But calls to the Wisconsin Farm Center, which helps distressed farmers, were up last year, including a 33 percent increase in November and December compared to the same two months the previous year.“We definitely have seen an increase in folks who are closer to being that desperate,” said Angie Sullivan, supervisor of the farm center, part of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. “There’s a major increase in their stress level.”

Financial struggles led Leon Statz to sell his 50 dairy cows, causing the third-generation farmer to become depressed. Then land next to his 200-acre farm near Loganville went up for sale — land his late father had said he should buy. Statz, who didn’t have the money, became hopeless. On Oct. 8, the day the adjacent property hit the market, Statz killed himself on his farm. He was 57. “He said, ‘How am I going to afford this?’” said Brenda Statz, his wife of 34 years. “He would panic about everything when it got to finances.” Wisconsin, which had a record 915 suicides in 2017, may be seeing a surge in suicides and suicidal thoughts among farmers, who are facing some of the worst economic challenges in years, experts say.

Yuck it up, boys.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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