Political Processes & Rhetoric – Page 33 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Petri and Obey Urge More Involvement — and More Problem-Solving — in Politics

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:October 28, 2015
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

One is spicy and one is mild, but two formerly-influential members of the United States Congress were united in serving the same flavor messages Wednesday at Marquette Law School:

Young people should step up to get involved in politics and the political system needs to function in ways that serve the broad needs of the country.

David Obey is a Democrat who represented northern Wisconsin for 42 years and Thomas Petri is a Republican who represented central Wisconsin for 35 years before each retired. Each held major committee chairmanships that put them at the center of momentous decisions.

The two have joined in making appearances around Wisconsin in what they call “a civic dialogue tour” encouraging engagement in politics, and that brought them to an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall.

Kleefisch Advocates for Walker’s Positions During “On the Issues” Session

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:October 22, 2015
Post category:Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

The only formal duty of a lieutenant governor stated in Wisconsin’s constitution is to become governor if a vacancy occurs in that office.

“My constitutional duty is succession. I know my job and I understand my constitutional duty,” Rebecca Kleefisch, Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor, said during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Marquette Law School on Wednesday.

The question asked by Gousha, the Law School’s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, was whether Kleefisch wanted to be governor at some point in the future. Her answer dodged that question – and that points to the informal main duties of a lieutenant governor: Don’t make trouble for the governor, don’t get out on a limb, and always speak up for the things the governor is doing.

A Different Perspective on Sir Thomas More

Post author:David R. Papke
Post published:October 21, 2015
Post category:Legal History Political Processes & Rhetoric Public

Obelisque_alexander Next year is the quincentennial of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia, and celebrations of the book and its author have already begun. More, of course, is a darling of Western culture and politics. He was canonized and is considered the patron saint of politicians and statesmen. Essayist C.K. Chesterton said that More may be “the greatest historical character in English history.”

It therefore comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that More also has a following on the political left. None other than Marx and Engels praised More’s thinking, and Lenin honored him by listing his name on a monument erected in Moscow’s Aleksandrovsky Gardens.

More’s description of an ideal society in Utopia is what leads to the leftist lionizing. His society has no private property, state ownership of the means of production, and extensive welfare programs for the poor and elderly. Because of these public policies, More seems to some to be a “proto-Communist.”

None of these policies are even remotely possible in the contemporary U.S., and the collapse of actual Communist regimes of the late-twentieth century is well-documented. However, More deserves credit for reflecting on what type of socioeconomic structure might produce what type of consciousness. More thought that the population of his utopian society would avoid alienation and adopt a genuinely social worldview rather than a greedy, self-interested individualism.

More was a dreamer. Yet his variety of dialectical materialism remains appealing 500 years after he teased it out – in Latin no less!