I'm Kirk Bangstad, running against Rob "pro-life-only-until-a global-pandemic-hits" Swearingen for Wisconsin's 34th assembly district

Hi everyone,

I'm Kirk Bangstad, running against Rob "pro-life-only-until-a global-pandemic-hits" Swearingen for Wisconsin's 34th assembly district.

As promised, today I'm going to talk about the the nuances of opening up various regions of Wisconsin earlier than others.

Don't worry, keep reading, it’s not as boring as it sounds:)

The Northwoods has less cases than Madison or Milwaukee, so there is an argument to be made that we should be able to open up sooner. It's a tough call because if you open one part of the state and not another, people will inevitably travel to the open part to go to bars/restaurants, etc. Governor Evers chose to reopen as a state, not region by region, and it makes the best sense for safety. He also had a reopening plan that was based on meeting certain criteria and said certain businesses could reopen earlier than others based on the nature of how dangerous they were with regard to contagion: Meaning the local flower shop can re-open because you can quickly buy flowers while fully masked and barely be exposed to the virus, versus doing shots, unmasked, and trying to drunkenly smooch that girl from Covid-rich Chicago who just arrived in town that you don't know sitting next to you at the bar.

I've listed the sources below, but in short, here's the gist:

1. Wisconsin needed to have a downward trajectory of covid-19 cases over a 14-day period.

2. There needed to be a system for testing, tracking, and tracing those who came into contact with someone infected in order to quarantine the people the infected person came into contact with.

The essentials of this basic plan have been proven to work around the world. Read: It’s not kooky, it’s not pseudo-science, it works. Ask New Zealand, ask S. Korea (both "free" democracies), who are currently kicking this virus' proverbial ass.

But guess what, NONE of the proven criteria needed to reopen our economy had been met in Wisconsin when we got the Supreme Court decision, and thus we weren't ready to reopen. We aren't seeing a downward trend in cases, and we don't have the testing/tracing capacity yet. Also, since BARS are by definition one of the most dangerous types of businesses to spread the virus, they were slated to open in later phases, even AFTER restaurants. Had we waited a LITTLE LONGER for these criteria to be met, we would have been able to re-open MUCH MORE SAFELY, and guess what, it would have been better for the economy in the longer term, because there’s a pretty good chance we’re gonna have to fully shut down again because of rampant bar smooching.

Instead, we have a guy like Rob Swearingen, who calls the Tavern League and Rob Vos to ask permission to go to the bathroom, who is more concerned about losing corrupt campaign dollars and his cushy job burying in committee anything that resembles good health care policy, than he is about our neighbors contracting a deadly disease. This dude has blood on his hands and needs to be voted out of office.

Please share if you agree, and by the way, here's a link to throw a few shekels my way to pay for a campaign.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bangstad-for-wisconsin-assembly-34-1

Sources: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02653.pdf
https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p02653a.pdf

Written by Kirk Bangstad on 05/15/20