>> The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original
production. 2024 Election Coverage.
>> There have been a lot of threats to democracy. I don't
believe he's one of those. >> Trump 2.0. Would I think, be
substantially more dangerous than Trump 1.0.
>> Wisconsin weighs in on the big question is democracy
hanging in the balance? And Kamala Harris plans yet another
visit to the swing state, this time joined by her vice
presidential pick. I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now"
Wisconsin weighs in on whether democracy really is at stake in
the presidential election. A court ruling removes barriers
for people with disabilities voting in November, and two
constitutional amendment questions will be on the ballot
in the August primary. We explain what they mean. Finally,
what the trend of for profit nursing homes means for future
quality of care. It's "Here& Now" for August 2nd.
>> Funding for Here and Now is provided by the Focus Fund for
Journalism and Friends of PBS. Wisconsin.
news, by now, most people have heard of project 2025, a
conservative blueprint to federal government. The plan is
especially came into focus in recent weeks as Democrats ramped
up attacks against Donald Trump, even though the head of project
2025 stepped down this week amid intense criticism, conservative
leaders say that work isn't yet done "Here& Now". Reporter
Nathan Denzin describes the conservative action plan and why
opponents are warning a second Trump term could be a threat to
democracy. >> Opponents messaging against
Donald Trump has been clear he's a threat to democracy.
>> Ours is a fight for the future. And it is a fight for
freedom. substantially more dangerous
than Trump 1.0. >> He's told us that he wants to
be a dictator on day one, but Republicans disagree.
>> I don't believe he's a threat to democracy.
statement that was made by the Democrats.
>> Kamala Harris, now the presumptive nominee as the
Democratic candidate for president, talked about the
perceived threat in her visit to Milwaukee.
country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of
chaos, fear and hate? >> Fears like Donald Trump
becoming a dictator? >> You would never abuse power
as retribution against anybody except for day one. Yeah, except
for he's going crazy. Except for day one. Meaning I want to close
the border and I want to drill. That's not a drill. That's not.
>> It's just not. It's just not language that you kind of
ideally want somebody to use. >> Julia Azari is a professor of
political science at Marquette University, but he's sort of
saying is, even for a day, we're going to eliminate the kind of
guardrails and other takes and perspectives.
dumb? I mean, how can you be that gullible and believe what
the media and pundits are making up?
from Florida who visited Milwaukee for the Republican
National Convention for one day. >> I want him to be like every
other, like just like Biden was on the first day. All the
executive orders that he put in place to ruin this country.
>> Walters, like many Republicans say, Democrats are
blowing Trump's comments out of proportion or taking him out of
context. that people say. The Bible says
a foolish man believes everything he hears. I would be
curious to have that conversation with him in terms
of what he meant. What's the context of those comments?
>> Pastor Lorenzo is a Republican from Detroit who came
to Milwaukee to speak at the RNC.
God on this man's life. You can't deny that God protected
him. There have been a lot of threats to democracy. I don't
believe he's one of those. >> Our evaluation of the
evidence and our evaluation of how this has played out in other
contexts has led us to be pretty, pretty alarmed, Azari
pointed out. >> Trump's rhetoric has already
led to violence in the past on January 6th, and we fight.
>> We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell,
you're not going to have a country anymore.
>> He has encouraged and continues to encourage political
violence. Not only does he encourage it, he supports it. He
endorses it. He condones it. >> It's up to us, the people, to
make sure that he doesn't get that chance.
>> Harry Dunn and Daniel Patrick Hodges were police officers in
the US Capitol during the insurrection on January 6th.
They came to Madison in May to campaign for President Biden.
Both say they were attacked by the angry mob.
>> I'd call January 6th a dry run. Except it wasn't. It was a
real attempt. told us they were there because
Donald Trump sent them. That's not my opinion. Those are their
words. As they were attacking officers.
>> 13 Wisconsinites have been indicted for their role in the
insurrection. While federal through cases, especially when
it comes to giving up power and leaving office.
a real sticking point. >> Those fears have been
inflamed by project 2025, the sweeping proposal by ultra
conservative allies to Trump would radically change the
federal government. Project 2025 includes proposals to restrict
abortion nationwide, allow for discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation, use the FBI to go after political enemies,
suspend immigrants due process, and proceed with mass
deportations. Eliminate the Department of Education and all
environmental protections. And >> On day one, I was signed a
new executive order to cut federal funding of any school,
pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other
inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto the lives
of our children. >> It just takes it in a much
more radical and ideological direction and consolidates that
presidential power. himself from Project 2025 in
recent weeks, saying on social media, quote, I know nothing
about project 2025. I have no idea who's behind it. But over
200 people affiliated with his campaign were also involved in
the creation of project 2025. >> I think Donald Trump
manifestly poses a threat to the American political system, and I
don't think that's theoretical any longer.
>> Charlie Sykes is an author and former host of a popular
Milwaukee conservative talk >> He tried to overturn a fair
and free election. He incited a mob to attack the Capitol.
>> Sykes said that he voted with Republicans for more than 20
years, but broke with the party in 2016 after Trump secured the
nomination. his next presidency would be a
presidency of retribution. He's openly talked about using the
power of the federal government to go after and punish his
opponents. that. He's had this sort of
impact on the tone of politics. >> It's very unlikely that the
Republican Party, in either the House or the Senate would serve
as any sort of a bulwark against those kinds of extreme measures.
>> Republicans at the RNC had a different response to the
project 2025 proposals. >> Republicans, we want to have
the American dream. We want everybody to live that American
dream. >> Terrence Wall was a
Republican delegate at the RNC from Wisconsin's second
congressional district. >> They project their own
storyline onto others. So they they are the threat to
democracy. of Trump's time as a real estate
developer, he's participated in democracy more than just about
anybody else. >> He sponsored the democratic
process to get projects approved, you know, dealing with
neighborhood associations, plan commissions, hundreds of
commissions and committees and cities, you know, councils.
>> More recently, a jury convicted Trump of 34 felonies
for falsifying business records in May.
>> I don't think that there's any question after January 6th
what he is capable of doing. >> Trump has shown us who he is.
He's shown us what he stands for, and he's shown us that he
wants to be president for life, regardless of what the people
voted for and regardless of who the president is, if they
consolidate power in a certain way, that's still
anti-democratic, hopefully we to preserve our democracy and
our Constitution for "Here& Now".
Milwaukee late this week, a Dane County judge refused to put on
hold his ruling that allows disabled people in Wisconsin to
be emailed absentee ballots at home for November's presidential
election. to not enforce his ruling, while
their appeal of a lawsuit brought on behalf of voters with
disabilities is pending. But the Dane County decision now allows
clerks to email ballots to voters who self-certify that
they can't read or mark a paper ballot without help. Disability
Rights Wisconsin was among those who brought the lawsuit. Kit
Kerschensteiner is director of legal and advocacy services, and
she joins us now. Thanks very much for being here.
>> Thank you for inviting me. >> So what is your reaction to
the judge now granting voters with disabilities the ability to
cast ballots electronically? >> It's a good first step. It's
not the total solution because this was a temporary injunction.
We didn't ask for all the relief. We don't have the time
to fix what needs to be fixed between now and November. So the
suit will continue past Novembe. We're hoping to get a way for
people with print disabilities, which can be either due to
vision issues or, physical disabilities. I that need help
casting a ballot. We're hoping that they can get a way to get
an absentee ballot electronically sent to them.
They can mark it with their devices, and it can be
electronically returned. >> That's the piece that's
missing. day. When we go through to the
final trial, which will be sometime off in the future,
certainly far past November. >> So why was the suit brought
in the first place? >> Because it's fair. It's a
fair playing field for people of the state, no matter if they
have a disability or not, to be able to cast a private ballot
and the state we've we at DEA and others as well have been
asking for this for a long time, and we haven't made any
progress. So it was time to bring the Americans with
Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the state
Constitution, and the federal Constitution, all of which lead
to this result. could this affect,
>> no one really tracks that exactly. But, there's people
with disabilities generally in the in the nation or 15 or 20,
25% of the population. Now that's all types of
disabilities. So it narrows down when you're talking about people
with print disabilities, but it's tens of thousands.
>> And what concerns are there that the Wisconsin Elections
Commission will actually be able to get this up? And going so
that voters can access this? >> Well, with this first step
that only requires them to email the ballot to the individual,
that should not be that difficult because they already
do it for excuse me, for individuals who are in the
military or living abroad, we're expanding. As a matter of fact,
excuse me. Up until recently, in the last ten, 12 years,
everybody could ask for a ballot to be emailed.
>> And so do voters. Know that they can do this now? Or how is
that kind of messaging going to go out?
>> Because we are a local system. All the individual
clerks have to be involved in are going to be in charge of
this week is only going to be able to provide them the
guidance and the support, but it's the clerks that have to do
this. >> So we spoke about the fact
that the another prong of what you're looking for is the
ability for voters who need this kind of access to be able to
email it back to the clerk. >> Well, return it there.
Different states are already doing it in different ways. Some
require you to email it back, some have a portal and you can
actually cast your ballot online through a secure portal. And
it's there. So what that's remedy will look like in the end
is still something we need to explore. What what will work in
Wisconsin. status quo now until potentially
an appeal gets in the way, is that the voters will have to
have it hand-delivered to the clerk well, or put in the mail,
or put in a drop box, >> they will they will have to
print it out, but they will be able to market, privately if
they have some sort of readily available software that's out
there for folks who need screen readers or all sorts of
different things that you can use nowadays to take the printed
word and, and be able to manipulate it so you can deal
with it. All right. >> Well, we will be watching
this as it moves forward. Kit Kerschensteiner, thanks very
much. Thank you. You will see two questions on the fall
primary ballot that you may not know how to answer. A yes vote
on them would amend the state constitution "Here& Now".
Reporter Steven Potter explains. >> Hi there. Hello.
>> I'll take that. Usually only about 20% of voters cast a
ballot in primary elections, like the one coming up in
mid-August. Voters in that election will not only choose
candidates, but they'll also see two questions that will require
a yes or no answer. These two questions are about amending the
state constitution, and need to be approved by more than 50% of
voters. Constitutional amendments approved by voters
become state law, but they differ from regular bills passed
by the state legislature because the governor cannot veto them.
The two constitutional ballot specifically address how
federal money given to the state of Wisconsin is spent. More
specifically, it's about who decides how federal money is
spent by the state. The most prominent example of this is the
billions of dollars the federal government gave to Wisconsin
related to Covid 19 relief. Currently it's the governor who
decides how such federal money is spent. But Republicans want
to change that. Like other proposed constitutional
amendments, the language voters will see on the ballot is about
as clear as mud. The first question asks delegation of
appropriation power shall section 35, one of article four
of the Constitution, be created to provide that the legislature
may not delegate its sole power to determine how monies shall be
appropriated? The first question would ensure that the state
legislature has power over appropriating money. The second
question asks allocation of federal monies. Shall section 35
two of article four of the Constitution be created to
prohibit the governor from allocating any federal monies?
The governor accepts on behalf of the state, without the
approval of the legislature by joint resolution or as provided
by legislative rule. That second and separate question
establishes the process of legislative approval before
federal money can be spent. Given the ambiguity and
complexity of these amendments, legal experts say it's possible
they may be taken up in court for clarification. Republicans
want a yes vote on both questions, and Democrats are
urging voters to vote no on both questions.
Constitution, the way that we need it, it has to be worded
that way. >> Republican Representative Bob
Wittke is one of the lead authors of these two
constitutional amendments. He says that the Republican
controlled state legislature saw the need for this change during
the beginning of the pandemic. >> $5 billion was transferred
where the governor has sole discretion over how to spend it.
We don't believe that that's good governance. We always
consider the legislative branch, whether it be the Assembly or
Senate, to be closest to the people.
Evers and other Democrats in the state legislature oppose the
amendments. >> For Republicans in the
legislature want to take more power for themselves, for the
consequences of this power grab are even worse than that. If
these amendments pass, me and any other future governor will
be left without the tools they need to make during, especially
during times of crisis. >> Wisconsin was able to act
swiftly during the early days of the pandemic because there
weren't political disagreements delaying the allocation of these
federal funds. >> It will cause more problems
with fighting between legislators and governors than
we have right now, and there's plenty of it now.
>> Representative Wittke disagrees and says that the
legislature can work with the governor to get federal funds
out the door fast. He also acknowledges that taking it
directly to voters as a constitutional amendment,
instead of a regular piece of legislation, is to avoid a veto
by Governor Evers. >> I think it just shows that
the hyper partizan nature that it's in, you're looking at
different tools that you can use to try to make what we would
think are reforms that benefit all of Wisconsin residents.
>> Reporting from the state capitol for "Here& Now", I'm
Steven Potter. >> Turning to health news, the
SSM Health System recently announced plans to sell three of
their nonprofit nursing homes in Wisconsin to a for profit
company based in new Jersey, an employee at one of those
facilities shared with here and Now. A letter from the staff to
management saying they did not lead this process with integrity
or transparency, and the residents, families and staff
suffered the brunt of the consequences as a result. Now,
the sale may be part of a larger nationwide trend of nonprofit
nursing homes being sold to for profit entities. The uptick is
concerning for health workers and patients as the centers for
Medicare and Medicaid. Say for profit facilities on average,
have lower staffing and worse quality of care. Joining us to
discuss this is Barbara Bowers, founding director of the
UW-Madison School of Nursing's center for Aging Research and
Education. And thanks very much for being here. So what do you
think about the trend of for profit entities buying not for
profit facilities? >> Yeah, there's a lot involved
in that. There have always been a majority of for profit
facilities. But as you've said, the trend is increasing. There's
more and more for profit and fewer and fewer not for profit.
So one of the issues I mean, part of the question is why the
not for profits are getting out of the business and there is a,
an issue, I think, with general reimbursement from state and
federal agencies. And that would be mostly Medicare and Medicaid.
put into the system to provide the kind of care, both quality
of care and quality of life for people. That's part of it. So if
you want to take an organization that doesn't have enough money
to begin with in terms of the reimbursement level and make a
profit, you've got to get it from somewhere. And what we've
seen is that where it comes from is largely labor, and as you've
said, the staffing is lower in for profit organizations. And I
think for the staffing level is vital, not just for the quality
of care, the outcomes that we measure on a regular basis, but
also quality of life. Do you have people who answer a call
light, and how long does it take them? Are there people to talk
to? Can you are there activities that are interesting and
engaging to you? Or is it sort of the bingo for everybody?
Every night, >> so staffing shortages have
been described by people, including yourself, as a crisis,
how bad is it and what are the effects even over quality of
life? >> Yeah.
contribute to this. >> I always say to people
recruitment, which is what tends to be the focus. We need more
staff. We need to find more staff. There's not enough people
available. All of that is true. But if we retained staff at a
higher rate, we wouldn't have to worry so much about recruiting
national averages for turnover rates for the direct care
workers, the CNAS is about 70%. For nurses, it's about 40%.
Directors of nursing come and go very quickly as well, any
business and people who are out there who who run businesses
know that if you have a turnover rate of 70%, your organization
is in trouble. So it causes huge disruptions. It's also really
important issue for the residents because they get to
know people. They get to know the staff. These become their
surrogate families. And when it's constantly turning over,
they're losing these connections. These important
relationships, so I think we need to really focus a lot more
on retention. What does it take to keep staff there? And there's
actually been a fair amount of research on that. And I don't
think it's very widely used. >> So just late this week,
Governor Tony Evers announced the state will invest nearly
$260 million of Covid relief money to fund wage increases to
direct care workers in places like this and for nursing homes.
>> I think there is a huge and I have to say that home care
workers tend to get less pay even than nursing home workers,
and their benefits are less, which is also another
distinction between, in general, for profit and not for profit
homes. Is, the for profit have generally lower levels of
benefits. So, I that's wonderful that he's putting money into
that, if you look at the research on staff turnover, it's
not exclusively or even primarily money. I mean, people
know what money they're getting when they go into it. It's not
great. They could get more money, probably at a fast food
restaurant. These are people who are really committed to what
they're doing. They believe in what they're doing. They love
what they're doing, and so the money is not the most important
thing. I'm certainly not saying they shouldn't get an increase.
They certainly need a wage increase. On the other hand,
there are a lot of other things that drive people out. Part of
it is supervisors, people who supervise them, who don't have
supervisor training. And that doesn't sound like a big deal,
but it is. I mean, I know in, the research has been done on
turnover in every industry shows that the direct supervisor is
the most important factor for whether or not people stay in
their job. So that that I think we need more more of better
quality. And also training of the staff. Staff are not always
well, well enough trained to take care of the people. They're
taking care of, people leave because of the low staffing
level. I've had so many CNAs tell me that the reason they
left is at the end of the day. When they went home, they felt
really bad about I left. I mean, I remember one woman who said, I
put Edith on the toilet, and I said, I'll be back in five
minutes. And I never went back. I got so busy, distracted, I
never. And she woke up in the middle of the night horrified,
not knowing what had happened to this person, those are the sorts
of things that drive people out. >> What is your advice to
families needing long term care in this current landscape?
>> I would look at turnover rates in the nursing home, if
the retention rate, the turnover rates are low, the retention
rates are high. That says something about the quality of
the entire environment. >> Good advice. Barbara Bowers.
Thank you so much. Okay A Wisconsin icon of many firsts
has made history again. The Vel Philipps statue was unveiled at
the state Capitol in recent days. The first black woman to
be so memorialized, Philipps was the first woman and black person
elected to the Milwaukee Common Council. The first black woman
elected as a judge and as the Wisconsin Secretary of State. A
civil rights pioneer and powerhouse, Philipps advocated
for fair housing, education, and women's equality. Philipps died
in 2018. For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin,
visit our website at PBS Wisconsin. Org and then click on
the news tab to see all of our election coverage. Visit
Wisconsin Vote.org. That's our program for tonight I'm
Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.
>> Funding for "Here& Now" is provided by the Focus Fund for
Journalism and Friends of PBS.